South Asia Community Volunteer Conference

The IET’s first South Asia Community Volunteer Conference (CVC) was held in Bangalore on August 4 and 5, attended by over 100 volunteers from India and Sri Lanka.

The event was themed ‘Inspire, Engage, Grow’ and celebrated the spirit of volunteering. It served as a platform to acknowledge volunteer efforts, empower volunteers, share IET updates and arm volunteers with new support tools and resources to help them grow and deliver activities within their region.

The CVC was chaired by Colin Arthur from the IET Communities Resourcing Committee, and co-chaired by Prakash Nayak, Vice Chair of the South Asia Communities Committee. Welcoming the volunteers to the conference, Colin said: “The South Asia region is strategically important to the IET and your work in developing the communities is vital.” He urged the volunteers to engage with the IET, lead IET communities and bring in more volunteers to the IET.

Day one

Day one of the conference was dedicated to bringing volunteers up to date with IET activities, sharing volunteer experiences and celebrating volunteer achievements.  

Shekhar Sanyal, Country Head, IET India, shared the IET's South Asia key messages with the audience. He took the volunteers through the Institution's South Asia plans for the upcoming year and new product launches, and reiterated that a strong volunteer base is vital to realise the goals for the region. Tushar Chaudhary, Business Development Manager, IET India, introduced the IET Advantage concept to the audience.

Subramaniam Devarajan shared the latest on the IET Strategy for the 21st Century.  M R Sitharaman and Prakash Nayak, Chair and Vice Chair of the South Asia Communities Committee (SACC), shared information on the vision and engagement goals of communities with the audience, along with the initiatives of the SACC on internships programmes, membership and professional registration growth, reward and recognition of volunteers and an expertise talent pool.

Richard Hollis, Head of Commercial and Business Development for the IET, gave the audience a snapshot of what was available in the 'knowledge house' of the IET. Mike Harding, IET Head of Business Performance and Planning, shared updates on business plans and finances with the audience and took them through the IET’s performance indicators. Ian Johnson from IET Connect introduced the volunteers to the Benevolent Fund and the services it provides should they be faced with testing circumstances in life.

The day also served as a platform for the IET India Marketing team to give the volunteers a sneak preview of the new IET India website that is slated to be launched in September this year.

The IET Pride Rewards and Recognition Awards were given away to volunteers in various categories:  

Pride Process Star: The IET Kolkata Local Network won the Pride Process Star award for best process compliance.

Pride Recruiter: Ajay Kulshreshth (Bangalore Local Network) and Joy Desai (Mumbai Local Network) shared the Pride Recruiter Award for inducting the highest number of regular members to the IET.

Pride Champ: Mr Kalyan Sagar bagged the Pride Champ award for the best student chapter coordinator.

After a long day of the conference proceedings, the evening was devoted to some lighter moments and laughter sessions by inspirational speaker Arun Bharadwaj, who also urged the audience to devote time to doing things that made them happy and to do what they loved best.

Day two

Day two of the conference was dedicated to equipping the volunteers with tools and resources for their volunteering quest. Fiona Dew and Chitra Robinson gave a detailed walk-through of MyCommunity. Azra Fathima introduced the group to the Communities Brand Guidelines and Anitha Kaveri and Suman Ramurthy conducted hands-on sessions to demonstrate the Marketing and Events toolkits.

Live webcast

The South Asia CVC was broadcast live on the IET website on both days. Day one recorded about 1,200 unique streams.

Attendee feedback

The South Asia CVC received excellent feedback from the attending volunteers for its mix of content, speakers, ambience and overall experience.

Kapil Khanna from the Bangalore Local Network said: “The event was a great success due to very good team work! Congratulations to all for the success. I would also add that good leadership and coordination was also one of the important reasons for the success of the event.”