It’s amazing how expectations and perceptions can take a 180 degree twist when you probe just a little deeper from the surface. As in all b-schools, the group mail can either be Pandora’s Box or the lost treasure of Genghis Khan. I came across an email asking me to participate in the Harvard College Asian Business Forum (HCABF). My first impression – Eh? Harvard in India? I wondered if this was another one of the gimmicks by firangs trying to show to their Press back in the West that they have a presence here in the success story of the East.
I have to confess I hadn’t attended an international conference or seminar till that point of time (how many of us actually consider them to be useful?) but 10 days prior to the deadline, in the middle of my exams (funny isn’t it, we do all sorts of stuff we wouldn’t usually do… during exams days) I decided to fill in the application to HCABF. I have to tell you, the first impression was impressive, and yes it really is a Harvard event. And it has a 15 year legacy! When I read that this is the first time they are coming to India, my eyes widened and my ears pricked up. The list of speakers was just an icing on the cake. They offer six different groups – Entrepreneurship, Brand Building, Talent and Education, FDI, Outsourcing, Pharmaceuticals. Feel free to learn more about this at http://hcabf.org/.
The speaker list is an impressive one – Mr Anand G Mahindra is the Keynote speaker, and the panels have specific speakers who are self-made men, like Mr Avnish Bajaj (bazee.com) takes up Entrepreneurship and Mr Doraiswamy of Tata Consultancy Services takes up Outsourcing.
My expectations from this seminar rose considerably after the amazing experience I had at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Meeting Warren Buffet was scintillating. I learnt about business culture and the networking opportunities were superb. I am already in touch with those who are coming in from around the world, people from Shanghai, Greece and United States of America among others, and the HCABF forum deserves all the applause for facilitating this exchange. HCABF invites 300 students from leading universities who show potential of being visionaries.
Every year the HCABF elects an executive body from their graduate students who take on posts like CFO and work on a $500,000 budget (according to The Harvard Crimson). Over the past 15 years they have been to Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. They have emerged as the biggest student conference in Asia. To add to the big glitz, they will also be having a recruiting event on the final day. With companies like Deloitte, Mitsubishi and DaimlerChrysler sponsoring the event, the recruiting event shows great potential. Personally I’m very excited about it.
In continuation to my HCABF acceptance, I sent in an application to the Korean Advanced Institute of Science & Technology for their International Conference on Culture Technology. Getting accepted there was a dream come true for me. The facilitation of upcoming new technologies and its convergence into society is a very interesting topic. I haven’t decided if I’ll attend this, but I am on the lookout for financial aid. It is easy to get accepted to a conference, but the struggle starts when one looks for sponsorships.
Amandeep Singh is a 2nd year student of the Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur. He was part of the delegation that recently visited the University of Nebraska at Omaha for a seminar on International Marketing and Strategy. He was also part of the group that met the legendary Warren Buffet for a session on business, followed by lunch. He can be reached at: amandeep_webguru at-the-rate yahoo.co.in