Indus Women Leaders (IWL) held their 2nd Annual Conference. Leadership Summit 2004: Unleashing Our Potential at the Doubletree Hotel in Boston, MA on October 23, 2004. More than 175 South Asian Women from all over the country attended the conference. Puja Sehgal (MBA student at HBS) and Nausheen Omar (Sun Microsystems) were the Co-Chairs. Other members of the team included Afsana Akhtar, Aparna Chennapragada, Ganguly, Anvitha Ramineni, Arpita Pathak, Deepika Nimmagadda, Devjani Ray, Neeta Verma, Rebecca Karamehmedovic, Reshma Patil, Saila Bassavaraju, Sangita Joshi and Shikha Mangalick.

The opening keynote talk was given by Rena Golden, Head of CNN International, who talked about her passion for writing against her parents’ wish of her becoming a doctor.  This was followed by a session on The Power of Influence. Tejal Desai, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, talked about her experiences and the hope and role of women engineers in the future. Chander Kapasi, MD, MPH, talked about how her mother has served as a role model for her during her life.

The second session dealt with The Balancing Act. According to Alka Gupta, VP of Corporate Strategy and Development, balancing means different things to different people at different points in their life and depends on you and your situation. “Enjoying what your are doing, being comfortable, making sure that the shareholders in your life are happy and being true to yourself is what balancing means to me,” said Alka. According to Roopa Unnikrishnan, Management Consultant, it is fulfilling your potential. There are going to be tough choices ahead and one needs to be planful. Pick a field and be good at it so you can use it as a bargaining tool, when the need arises. Halida Akhtar, Managing Director, said “It is doing things that give you personal pleasure.” Zareen Araoz, President Managing Across Cultures, feels it is important to figure out what is the most important thing in your life, give it your best, make sure you contribute and enable others to act and do their best. Mangala Srinivasan, Senior Fellow at Harvard University, who was also awarded the IWL Lifetime Achievement Award at the Conference, believed in the word ‘Lego’, which is play well and have fun.

Lokvani had a chance to talk to Nausheen Omar at the meeting.

Lokvani: What is the focus of IWL?
Nausheen: To bring together South Asian women in all professions and fields (art, music, politics, non-profit, sports, medicine, law, engineering, business, etc) that are married or single, to come together to help one another achieve their life goals through networking, mentorship, goal setting tools, advocacy and education.

Lokvani: What got the 2^nd IWL conference going?
Nausheen: It was a result of the momentum garnered from the inaugural conference. The 1st conference was in the Bay area last year. Women who attended that conference saw a unique opportunity for women from different backgrounds and geographic locations within the South Asian community to connect with each other. There were some highly interactive and educational panels and workshops to share, teach and learn South Asian women leaders’ challenges & successes and provided great networking opportunities. Membership since the 2003 conference has grown from 100 to 800.

Lokvani: How motivated you personally to get involved as a Co-Chair?
Nausheen: I met Radha Jalan at the inaugural meeting in January 2004 and she was an inspiration to all of us.

Lokvani: Where do you want to see IWL in five years?
Nausheen: I see it growing exponentially to a point where every South Asian woman can instantly connect with the letters I-W-L, an organization that empowers South Asian women to become great leaders by unleashing their potential. In five years, I know the women who have engaged with IWL will be scaling heights with a renewed sense of hope, inspiration and courage. They will drive movements needed to create profound changes here and perhaps even back home, as our needs undoubtedly grow greater.

Overall, it was an extremely well organized meeting.

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