“It’s always darkest before dawn” — What a beautiful and motivating quote to start this journey of the once in a lifetime opportunity of attending “The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations 2021 Conference”.
This year’s theme revolved around the motto “Embracing the change”. In a nation where we are still evolving from the pandemic that tried to shatter our plans, desires and forcing a part of our family to depart for the heavenly abode, we see a ray of hope in this crisis as well. While some may argue that COVID 19 has affected us worse but I feel that there is goodness to be found in every dark era.
The year started with me checking my LinkedIn feed filled with posts of getting accepted to HPAIR’21, congratulations bro, meet you soon at the conference, and the list goes on. Getting a bit curious, I wished maybe I could be a part of this grand event.
Honestly, I just applied with very little hope of selection but bravo! I received an email that my candidature is approved and I shall be attending this year’s HPAIR’21.
Finally 15th January 2021, I started my journey with the 2200 delegates representing 62 countries across the globe. This year HPAIR saw the largest pool of applicants as well as delegates, not to mention the inspiring world leaders as our keynote speakers.
As most of you must be aware, I love making notes -> I was ready with my special diary and colorful pens to embark on this journey of attaining knowledge and experience from the sessions.
A statement I believe in is “Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied”.
So here I am sharing my takeaways from this 4-day event.
The conference started with opening remarks by Dr.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of WHO. In his address to young delegates, he emphasized the importance of unity and care despite societal/cultural differences. Together we could stand and fight against the pandemic.
The first keynote speaker was Mr. Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company. Welcoming the delegates with the co-president Zeel Patel, he shared his experience and views on core skills like leadership, diversity, and how consultancy companies can offer help to the current Covid19 pandemic.
While emphasizing the importance of leadership, Mr. Sneader brought to light a vital ingredient we usually miss while in power — showing love and care. From my own experience, when you bestow love and care to your teammates, understanding their circumstances, and helping them in any way possible, that team is sure to shine amongst the crowds. He focused on weaving the social fabric. As a world leader and key contributor in taking decisions for the firm, Mr.Kevin discussed the necessity of diverse teams — gender-equal and culturally diverse, stating that such teams perform better, as viewpoints from a variety of groups are taken into account and not a majority loving decision is imposed. Mr. Kevin also talked about the death of distance — an increase in online connectivity. HPAIR’21 is the best example of this phenomenon.
Lastly, he drew comparisons between 1968 & 2020- both years of extreme darkness for the world and then 1969 — the year of innovation and left us with this thought “What are you doing to make 2021 better like 1969?”
At the panel with André Hoffmann, the Vice-Chairman of Roche Holding Ltd., perfectly moderated by Martin Roll, I particularly like how Mr. Hoffmann addressed that ”We should not consider pharmaceutical companies as merely drug producers, but as partners of our health systems.” He focussed on the importance of innovation in the healthcare industry with the motto “Do today what patients want tomorrow”. Something I admired in his session was the statement he made addressing the younger generation, “Allow failing”. From my own experience, no matter what outcome you get, knowledge is never wasted.
We learn more from our failures than successes since we value the importance of the journey we follow, learning from the mistakes at each step while striving towards our goal.
“Sometimes, 5% of the narrative occupies 95% of the oxygen in the room,” said Amit Pradhan, the Co-Founder of the Silicon Valley Blockchain Society, and I am like boom! What a deep statement!
In my opinion, this session was the best in the Science & Technology track considering the pros-cons of the emerging field of Artificial Intelligence often portrayed in Hollywood/Sci-fi movies as destructive and uncontrollable.
Professor Milind Tambe from Harvard University provided his opinion on the proliferation of AI by emphasizing how it can be used for social good. I resonated very well with his statement “You don’t find the problem, the problem finds you!” Prof. emphasized the importance of finding the root cause of the problem and doing fieldwork itself to better understand the depth of the problem. Both speakers pointed out that AI has huge potential to augment the way our world lives now. Mr. Amit also made a statement stating that our generation is aware and activist. What he asked us as the future torchbearers to work along to make this world a better place to live.
Their last words summed it up all — “We’re called to be the architect of the future, not its victims.” — R. Buckminster
Keynote Speaker — Brian Wong
This session with Brian Wong was the first session of the day. Woke up early just to be a part of this enriching and motivating talk. Mr.Brian is Advisor at Alibaba Group Global Initiatives, Founder & chairman at Radii China, and the session was moderated by Mark Wu, Vice Dean Harvard Law. Throughout his career at Alibaba, he headed various projects and focused more on youth development. Mr. Wong emphasized the importance of finding one’s passion and working in a direction that impacts a huge population in beneficial ways. Mr. Wong left us with this statement “Love Quotient is as important as Emotional Quotient”. A great start to the day!
Networking Event
Keynote Speaker — Hari Nair
India is a land of culture and values. No matter whichever country you may live in, never forget your roots. A perfect example of this statement is Mr.Hari Nair, VP of Corporate R&D at Procter & Gamble.
I was personally very much excited for Mr. Nair’s talk :)
As expected, sir delivered an inspiring yet truly resonating talk. He had even prepared visualizations for us in the form of PowerPoint presentations. Mr. Nair talked about the “5 main principles to lead without border” as discussed below:
- Listen to more talk less:
If you want to be understood, you need to understand the other person first. Thus, you need to listen more and then formulate what you should reply to. Talking endlessly and without a proper plan is worthless both for the speaker and the listener.
2. Find Common ground:
This is a principle I resonate very well with. For good communication skills, you do require to find common grounds with your listener. This has dual benefits — first, you can strike a good conversation and keep your listener interested in the talk, and second, you will have a better understanding of your counterpart.
3. Focus on the job to be done to spot opportunities:
When entitled to a responsibility, try your best to accomplish it. Since one opportunity may lead to another and delivering your best would pave paths to your bright future.
4. Deliver wins:
Count your progress as a win. Strive towards delivering more wins.
5. Always focus on the mindset:
“The mind is everything. What you think, you become”: as simple as that. With a flexible mindset, we can achieve greater goals than being concentrated on a fixed one. I feel it’s true. When we have a fixed mindset, we restrict our thought process and this, in turn, limits our potential.
He emphasized that in a world where innovation disruption is occurring rapidly, global leaders are needed to be borderless. We should focus on what unites us and not what divides us.
Truly agree, sometimes it’s just a “spark” that we require to realize our worth and then strive towards our goal.
Promoting International Collaboration in Clinical Research
Dr. Todd Golub emphasized the importance of making better life decisions. Resonating with his medical life and being asked this question if the medical field is a long journey, his answer was interesting- yes/no. Both!
Early schooling is long but once you know your path and enjoy it fully, it’s not long. Something that resonated well with me was his statement “Better to do something that interests you than doing something for 50 years which you don’t like and then regretting it”.
Dr.Golub talked about the importance of safety, he also advised the young delegates to learn from COVID-19.
Truly, embrace the change.
And here comes the most awaited event — Trivia Night.
I remember staying awake till 3 am just to enjoy every moment offered by this wonderful HPAIR’21.
And our moderator Raymond was such a lively and cute soul :)
This year’s trivia covered questions from every track. It was fun!
I scored 70th place out of 330 folks, lol.
A phenomenal session by Bandana Tewari, former Editor at Vogue India & #SustainableFashion Warrior. She is the best example of a bundle full of energy and enthusiasm. This session concentrated more on the concept of sustainable fashion. Bandana shared her experience working at Vogue, meeting artists from across the world, and brought to light that fashion is a form of self-expression. She raised a question, “Where do you think vintage looks came from?”, not from big brands but guess what from the streets. She also talked about the proper definition of “Trend” → not following the flow but trying to find your own identity, better individuality. Ms. Tewari also asked us to dive better behind the “brands” and find out if they contribute to the upliftment of the very own workers they employ.
How is this even possible that we are talking about sustainable fashion and Mahatma Gandhi — the epitome of simplicity are not admired. Giving reference to Gandhi Ji’s teachings of adapting khadi, she shared how beautiful this cloth material is — simple and sustainable.
Finally her words “Love your first skin, clothes are the second dear”, sums it up :)
Dr. Eric Goosby, currently serving as the UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis, enlightened us about his journey to medical college. He shared how he worked for cancerous patients, then devoted a large portion of his career to finding a solution to AIDs.From his career experience, he raised a very important issue faced by the HIV positive patients-we all fear society, what it will think about me, my family, my spouse but not realizing that by hiding the truth about your infection you are causing more harm to your loved ones. It may take 10 years as the incubation period, and before you realize it, the damage has been caused already.
Dr. Goosby also serves as the advisory to Biden Coronavirus Task Force. Discussing the situation of COVID in the USA, he described that 80% of people in ICU are elder. Thus, their team’s first preference will be to vaccinate the elder folks so that the risk of bringing them to ICU is eradicated.
His final words “Take action with what you learn — is the true essence of gaining education” inspired me.
Who can miss the most inspiring and motivating talk by the 3 powerful women — Lan Yang, Forbes, “100 most powerful women” & Talk show host “Oprah of China”, Anla Cheng, CEO & Founder of SupChina, & Lesly Goh at Harvard University about the Gender Equality and Philanthropy. The speakers shared their life and career experiences/choices they made and the values instilled in them.
We need the courage to challenge the gender biases and stereotypes of women in various fields, especially in STEM. The technology education gender imbalance has been a constant presence in my life. I was 1 of 7 girls in a class of 60 engineering students. When I raised my hand to answer questions in class, almost always the male classmates were called on to participate by an all-male faculty. Some faculty members openly advised girls to focus on home science and leave engineering as it needed quantitative skills. But achievements of scientists like Marie Curie and Grace Hopper inspire me to continue pursuing knowledge against all odds.
Working women always have to deal with maintaining a balance between career and personal life. As advised by Ms.Cheng, “Life is a journey, follow your passion; don’t be too hard on yourself. Take good care physically and mentally.”
Such an inspiring talk!
At the fireside chat with Joseph Lubin, Founder of ConsenSys & Ethereum, he shared his insights into Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and the key to success is to “Pay attention to what you’re passionate about, and be an expert of it!”
Finally, we had Adam Cheyer, an Inventor and the Co-founder of Siri & Viv Labs.
Mr. Adam shared his journey of inventing great “products” as described by companies but “visions” according to him. He worked for companies, we, as engineers, aspire to be a part of — Apple, Samsung, Viv Labs, sharing his experience at every company. He brought to light that the marketing of a product contributes highly to its success. Comparing two virtual assistants, he argued that definitely one was better at functions though less popular in the market while the other was immensely popular because of marketing strategies and experience. (Guess the companies yourself :).
I could figure that Mr. Cheyer worked for a vision and not a particular company or brand.
He described “Life is like a book, it’s broken into chapters. When you come to chapter breaks, don’t be afraid — Focus on what you want & how you feel, turn it into an actionable mission, and reach out to people you need!”
With these enriching thoughts, HPAIR’21 sessions ended.
Wait wait wait!!!!
Our loving HPAIR team is ably guided by David Cao, Soy Choi, Eric Lin, Zeel Patel, Joaquin Cortacans Sosa, Yoel Hawa, Alexander Chen.
The closing ceremony was immensely emotional (first due to the heart touching music they were playing lol and definitely since the event was ending)
How can this grand event end without a Punjabi touch!!! And we had a sort of DJ night for 2 minutes where we danced to Tunak Tunak Tun by Daler Mehndi (Fav song of Zeel Patel xD).
Yes, finally I hope you got insights about this year’s theme and as one of the president’s stated that “there is no pride in selectivity” instead the learnings and experience that you take away from this conference means more than mere selection.
One of my fellow HPAIR delegates summarized the important takeaways in these 4 lines which I resonate very well with.
-Hold on to your values and causes.
-Change the world one mind at a time.
-You need to “care” to contribute to “change”.
-When you write history, start with “why”, when you write future, start with “Why Not”.
A great thanks to the HPAIR community for providing this cross-cultural opportunity.
