Gursimrat Bawa

Good morning everyone and welcome to YSPN's Elevate 2019, before we begin the proceedings, I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I would also like to pay my respects to the elders past, present and future. I am Gursimrat and I am part of YSPN’s external affairs team. On behalf of the entire YSPN team, I would like to thank all of you for being here today. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the speakers who have taken time out of their busy schedules and attendees who have flown in from across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Finally, I would like to thank Sikh Youth Australia, a parent organization for always supporting us and helping us in putting this event together.

Over the years I've been asked what, what is YSPN? I have seen YSPN flourish as a participant just like you all and now as a team member. The level of dedication and amazement and the passion this team shows like always amazes me they are so driven and passionate towards what they do, it just makes me so proud to be a part of this organization. A true story, I actually landed my current role at Deloitte because of my direct YSPN network, so make sure you network, make sure you meet people here. So back to big, what is YSPN? YSPN or Young Sikh Professionals Network was envisioned by a group of young driven professionals six years ago at SYA’s Future Leaders program, their mission was to, to help the young Australian Sikhs come together and create conditions for them to succeed and amplify their influence. So, how do we deliver this mission? It's a three-fold strategy which begins with elevating our members capabilities, by delivering experiences that helps develop skills they need to succeed in their careers, we do this by holding marquee events, skill-based workshops and administering a mentoring program. The theme for this year's events is shaping the future. Technology is really important these days, it is the, there's an acute need today for the organization's to digitally transform themselves and YSPN has done that so, and in order to take a look next level we intend to take our mentoring program towards, make it more accessible globally wire technology.

Next up is by active, actively showcasing how Sikh shapes the national debate. We are well underway to develop our first content piece titled ‘Economic and Potential Impact of Sikh in Australia’. Did you know there are a hundred and twenty five thousand or so Velux Sikhs in Australia? 59% of them are between the age of 20 and 40 and 25% under the age of 20, that's 84% young Sikhs and that's what YSPN caters to, And this is the perfect time to be aware and act, act together you will hear more about this report and how Sikh contribution adds to 8.1 billion dollars towards the Australian GDP at the Gala dinner and what we intend to do with it and why the nation needs to know about it.

And finally, the third step in strategy is building advocacy in the global Sikh and Australian professional community. We continuously look to establish partnerships with other organizations that enable us to engage Sikh and non-Sikh leaders at the top of the game, you can see that in this room we have participants from all our geographies: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and it doesn't stop there, we have participants from Adelaide, we have participants from Dublin, from Tasmania, different parts of Queensland, and Australia's big, it is massive and it doesn't just stop there, we have attendees and speakers were flown in specially from New Zealand and Singapore, but if that testifies that we are definitely on track to become a

global organization. So, what have we done so far since inception? We have executed over 75 events and engage over 3500 individual participants across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Oakland and launched a mentoring program and we continue to do so. Today YSPN is the largest professional network dedicated to target young Sikh professionals across the globe.

So, what have you all gathered here today? This goes back to, to last year when we met Adam at the YSPN’s Annual Summit at Sydney, and there was there was a uniform thought of making globe, making YSPN global or expanding on a global base of making it big and the only instructions that we were given as a, as participants was to think bold, think big, think something that would make impact, that would matter and thus incepted was the idea of elevate. Elevate 2019 is a full-day inspirational conference attracting the most eminent Sikh leaders from eclectic professions and equipping them with a platform to inspire a broad base of young professionals just like you all. So before we get things in motion I'll start some housekeeping rules, there are two exit doors on your back in order to exit you take a left after the doors and take a right down the corridors to the elevators down. The toilets are on the right as we exit the doors, and the tea, coffee and the lunch would be served as you exit towards the left. In case of an emergency, please follow the exit signs and proceed in a calm manner. I would also like to request you to put your phones on silent to avoid any disruption. For any additional information please get in touch with any YSPN volunteers, there are Wi-Fi details on the slide in case you need to connect to the internet. Let's talk about the structure, the entire day is split into two sessions; a day session which is a conference style event with panel discussions and second half or the night event is a gala dinner. You can follow the entire program through the booklet given to you at the registration desk. We start with a minister's opening and then dive straight into the panel discussions, we have four panel discussions across distinct themes of Migration, Business Entrepreneurship and Politics, each theme flows into the next to stitch a narrative around how the evolution of Sikh community in Australia came about. The panel structure comprises of a 30-minute moderated discussion and a 30-minute Q&A from the audience, there will be tea break and lunch between the sessions, these will be served outside of the hall just near the registration desk. Alongside panel we have a fireside chat with [00:07:17 Inaudible] the executives from the country and a special guest from Singapore. Towards the end of the day we have another tea and networking session where you get an opportunity to engage with the speakers and your fellow attendees before the doors reopen for gala dinner. Throughout the day we have stall set up outside which you would have noticed on the way in, these are amazing partner organizations and I encourage you to have a chat and engage with them, these include Sikh Youth Australia or SYA and culture care. SYA has been active for two decades and brings together a number of initiatives in the areas of charity and silver. Culture-care and SYA initiative, is a social health care project developed by senior SYA youth, the pop-up clinics are a fun way for the whole family to get involved in health of our respected elders.

Next up we have Harmon Foundation which offers cost free support, guidance and reassurance to all multicultural community members. We have some fans of swing; a family golf day organized by SYA to raise funds and build awareness of the charity work. Next up we have Montagio Clothing, a clothing boutique outside Sydney, out of Sydney sorry, which helps style men with a custom tailoring options across suits, shirts and coats, they have been a dedicated wiseman sponsor since day one and we thank you for their support.

Super Sikhs is a not for profit sports club and is inspired by a passion for sport with the key focus on youth development across the local community. lastly, we have Australian Sikh Heritage Association which focuses on promoting a creative awareness of rich shared heritage of Australian Sikhs. All of these are amazing initiatives and  as said, I definitely encourage you to go out and engage with them, we also have a YSPN stall where you can learn about all the amazing work we do, how you can get involved and about a future events. We are also offering an opportunity for you to grab an all annual access pass that can be redeemed for subsidized tickets throughout the year at our events, please visit the stall to know more or just have a chat with any YSPN executive around the room. Additionally in order to elevate our organization and deliver what a community needs we are collecting some charity today, so feel free to donate, every donation is tax deductible and you can make that at the YSPN stall. Before I head off you can and I should encourage you to please join the conversation across all digital channels using the hashtag elevate 2019. As we go through the day every panel has a unique hashtag, I would encourage you to please include that and tag YSPN in all your posts. Once again I would like to thank you all for being here today and helping translate an idea from the summit into a reality today.

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