CHICAGO: The Naperville Marriott was packed with a confluence of women leaders from corporations, community development organizations, small and medium women owned enterprises and students on Sunday March 13 to celebrate the progress and success of women in leadership roles at the Annual South Asian Woman’s Conference.
The event was hosted by the Indo American Community Services (IACS), a not-for-profit organization supporting the South Asian American community through various initiatives such as Diversity Career Expos, women empowerment forums, professional leadership and entrepreneurial conferences.
Gowri Natarajan, a member of the organizing committee, welcomed the audience. Sanjana Srinivasan, a student of Neuroscience at UIC and a finalist of the IACS Internship Program, introduced IACS and talked about the Internship Program, through which selected students have the opportunity to work as interns at the Capitol Hill and the White House. She also introduced the panel of speakers.
The panelists included three accomplished women leaders from diverse fields – corporate, small business and the media. Katie Lawler, Senior Vice-President and Chief Human Resources Officer, ITW, Andrea Sreshta, Co-Founder of LuminAID and Anupy Singla, famous cookbook author and Founder of Indian as Apple Pie; shared their personal experiences and offered practical advice on many challenges faced by professional women.
Lawler reminisced that she started her career working for a US Senator for a few years, went back to school to earn a degree in law and ended up as a HR professional at ITW. She commented that she “found her voice” during this journey by analyzing, learning and articulating what she wanted in her career. She advised all the participants to “find their voice” and “own their career” by continuously building skills and capabilities, accepting tough and varied assignments and building and nurturing networks and relationships within and outside work.
She also advised participants to find a good mentor who can provide direction and guidance on a range of issues such as career growth and work-life-balance.
Andrea Sreshta talked about the origins of LuminAID. While she was studying at Columbia University, a major earthquake hit Haiti, devastating and displacing many people. Andrea along with fellow classmate and LuminAID co-founder Anna Stork turned their class project into a humanitarian mission. Their invention is a compact solar-powered light that helps people in emergencies.
Based on research, they identified that their invention could help people living in the “tent-cities” of earthquake-affected areas where there is no electricity. The product became very successful and is backed by Mark Cuban of “Shark Tank” fame and is also racking up sales among campers and other outdoor adventurers.
Andrea advised participants to build productive networks and relationships by keeping in touch and acknowledging support and help. She commented that “A simple “thank you” card will go a long way in maintaining relationships.” She also stated that entrepreneurship is all about “aptitude and attitude”, mentioning how important it is to face the challenges at hand with full vigor.
Cookbook author and journalist Anupy Singla was the third panelist for the evening. Anupy is the author of three books. Her latest, ‘Indian for Everyone’, which was released in October 2014, is a compilation of the most popular Indian recipes outside of India.
Born in India and raised outside of Philadelphia, she grew up visiting her grandfather’s childhood village in Punjab, where she learned to cook and loved it. It was this love and passion that compelled her to leave daily reporting to teach her young girls how to appreciate good Indian food and blog about it on indianasapplepie.com – now also the name of her company.
Her first two books, ‘The Indian Slow Cooker’ and ‘Vegan Indian Cooking’ remain the top-selling Indian cookbooks in North America. Anupy’s food-related work has appeared in many publications across North America.
She is also a regular commentator on NPR, and teaches classes at various major grocery outlets. Anupy also had some interesting advice for attendees based on her multifaceted field experience. She advised attendees to own up mistakes and learn from them as they can only help them progress in their careers.
She also encouraged the audience never to take shortcuts and to take on tasks that they feel are worth it and learning when to say no when priorities don’t align. She also discussed the importance of having a trusted network or team to confide in.
The presentations were followed by a Q&A session in which panelists addressed questions from participants.
IACS also highlighted some local women entrepreneurs. Mansi Hans, founder of A Colorful Affair and Soumitraa Ganguly, founder of Ankita Collections were the two entrepreneurs whose products were showcased at the conference. A Colorful Affair conducts art workshops and offers participants a custom art experience at various events such as birthday parties, picnics and corporate events.
Ankita Collections sells paintings based on contemporary art from South Asia. Indian folk and tribal art forms are taught to students of different ages through extensive curriculums and training.
Lakshmi Nagamohan, a member of the organizing team said that the conference was a huge success as it provided a unique platform for participants to network and learn about leadership strategies, and professional development and issues important to women in today’s competitive workforce.
Sreenivas Katragadda, president of IACS thanked all the speakers, participants, volunteers and the corporate sponsors Dover Corporation, Grainger, ITW and L&T Infotech and Access Technologies Solutions, Trinuc LLC.
Sreenivas Katragadda
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