Friday Workshops

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Asian Employee Resource Group Best Practice

The Asian employee base is becoming increasingly important in today’s corporate America. Many companies formed an Asian Employee Resource Group (ERG) or are transforming Asian Affinity Groups towards the ERG model. We are including an opportunity for members to learn what’s happening in Corporate America and for ERG leaders to share experiences, share “best practices” and move beyond learning to put skills and toolkits into practice to become leaders.

Moderator: Jie Jay Zheng
Panelists: Kimberly Wong Oleson, Patricia T Summers, Liz Kinniburgh

 

Goal Setting: What's Your Winning Game Plan?

This session will help you identify different areas of life you need to set goals for; personal, career, financial, spiritual, recreational etc. Concept of slight edge and how it can be applied to reach your goals; Concept of setting 90 day goals; Reward yourself for reaching key milestones. Get yourself an accountability coach; Use coach to help you stay on course and reach your goals; Visualizing your goals; Repeatedly remind yourself of your goals; Develop positive expectation and positive attitude; Use the power of sub-conscious mind to help you achieve your goals. Stay focused and organized using a trusted system. Wheel of life exercise – if your life is a wheel with spokes representing different areas such as career, personal life, financial, marriage etc would your wheel run smoothly or will it have a bumpy ride? Power of association: Surround yourself with people who are in life where you want to be. This workshop also helps participants to think about how to develop a winning game plan to meet their goals. 

Speaker: Shubha Ramaswamy

 

The Language of Innovation

Join us to gain insight on how to make ìinnovationî more than just a buzz word. Leaders from different technology sectors including telecommunications, national security/defense, and social media will share their insight and experiences in how they exercised innovation to stay ahead in an ever-changing environment. Gain perspectives on the importance of innovation and creativity in organizational culture.  Learn how these leaders manage and leverage in all aspects to drive creativity, change management, customer service, and organic growth in todayís competitive marketplace.

Moderator: Johnnie Giles
Panelists: Clem Cheng, Nora D., Gil Gido, Crystal Jaing

 

Asian American Generations at Work

For the first time in history, four generations are working side by side for and with each other.  Numerous studies have documented the different expectations each generation has regarding “work" and the "workplace."  This interactive panel discussion takes an in-depth look at the experiences of successful Asian Americans in corporate America at various career stages. Panelists representing a wide variety of perspectives from new college hires to senior level executives will share generational perspectives on career, work, and the workplace.  Additionally, this session will explore the intersection of immigration and age generation and the workplace expectations of 1st generation immigrant employees to 2nd and 3rd generation US born employees. Small group discussions will allow audience members to share their own experiences with one another.

Moderator: Linda Akutagawa
Panelists: Brad Furukawa, Nora Lin, Melissa Sandlin, Leon Lee, HueiShuan Liu

 

21st Century Leadership of Global Project Teams

Global commerce and technology have rapidly bridged the gaps of distance and time. Which have resulted in the blurring of who the customers and suppliers really are. As our economies have branched out beyond geographical borders, so have our interdependencies on developing and growing relationships on a global level. Traditionally the management of people, processes, and technology has been applied with a limited 18th century industrial model that was very hierarchical, tops down and localized. Comparisons and contrasts will be made on management philosophies focusing on where we have historically been, are currently at and how to prepare for the future in leading world class project teams with a 21st Century model. The topics to be discussed include the application of non-violent communications, embracing diversity, collaborative inquiry, widening communities of involvement and, making desired change in gaining mutual purpose through collaborative relationships based on influence, and distinguishing world class companies. The contrast to being a leader as opposed to being a manager is in the philosophy and approach on making transformational change by including those that will be directly affected throughout the process rather than just simply being told what to do. There needs to be a delicate dynamic equilibrium that is maintained between management on the transactional level to keep the day-to-day operations running, with the leadership influence on the strategic longer term vision. We must equip the emerging project leaders with the tools and executive support to succeed on a local level within their immediate sphere of influence and then broaden the community involvement to include the global stakeholders.

Professional development units (PDUs) offered here, courtesy of PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter! Detailed information on how to redeem them with your attendance will be shared during the session.

Speaker: Ray Ju

 

Leadership & Parenting: Preparing Your Kids for Success in America

Based on John Maxwell's Leadership Model, David will share insights of how you can prepare your kids for professional and career success in America by being a different kind of leader at home.  This model will also help to understand how you can improve your own leadership skills at work at the same time.  There are many challenges for all parents raising kids in America.  Life doesn't have to be that stressful and you can have a happier and healthier relationship with your children if you know how to lead yourself and them.  The session will conclude with a highly impactful presentation that you are sure to remember.  This presentation had been given to Asian professionals in Chicago and in the Research Triangle Park area with very strong accolades from Asian parents.  If you have kids, or plan to in the future, come to listen and learn about one of the most critical issues that face our society today.  This seminar will make you a more effective parent and leader.  If you want to improve your leadership skills for your career, come and listen to the lessons that this seminar will teach you about leadership.  This seminar on leadership is targeted towards Asian/Asian-American professionals who have kids, though adults with no kids will most certainly benefit as well. 

Speaker: David Lum

 

Innovations and Trends

As the pace of Innovation and Technology developments accelerate and impact our society in a broad global manner, we all need to know what industries will flourish and which innovations will impact us the most. Attend our panel workshop of industry experts to discuss major industry innovations and changes that will usher in new business, career and opportunities. Learn how technology is being translated and applied within our society and how that can translate into opportunities for yourself.

Our esteemed panelists include industry experts:

Puon Penn, Senior Vice President Wells Fargo Bank, head of Clean Technology and Emerging Technologies will discuss how Clean and Alternative Energies and emerging technologies are being financed and introduced on a global basis

Marilyn Chow, Senior Vice President Kaiser Permanente who is also responsible for the Garfield Center for Innovation will discuss how the healthcare industry is deploying innovative technologies to improve Healthcare solutions and introduce new opportunities

Yukari Kane, Reporter for the Wall Street Journal who handles the Technology industry and covers breaking news will discuss how technologies are impacting our society and creating new business and networking opportunities

 

Moving Asian Americans into the Corner Office

Statistics show that Asian Americans are “least unhappy” as employees. Our retention rate is the highest, and yet, we don’t seem to be making major advancement in the executive ranks. NAAAP is leading the way by bringing Asian American professionals together. Our cultures might have differences but our values are the same. Just as African-American and Hispanic communities have done, it is time for the Asian-American community to subsume regional and geographical differences to find strength in commonality. Let’s not lose our individual cultures but join together to speak about Asian American issues with one voice. There is power in numbers. Let’s leverage our power! My remarks focus on how we leverage both our technical and leadership skills to go in a new direction: The Corner Office. If just one of my suggestions today helps just one of you get there, I have achieved Nirvana! 

Speaker: S K Gupta

 

Top Secret! Perspectives on Leadership from the CIA

What can you learn about leadership from panelists without last names? Accept this seminar mission and find out!  Central Intelligence Agency employees from different generations, backgrounds, and experience levels share individual and personal perspectives on leadership. Learn opinions about what leadership means and how young professionals can develop it. Hear stories from a war zone, views from a counter-terrorism expert, opinions from the Chair of CIA's Asian-American affinity group, and remarks from a senior computer engineer. You'll gain an understanding of the variety of ways leadership can be defined and learn which one best defines you.

Moderator: Candace C.
Panelists: Candace C.; Matthew C.; Nora D.; Juliana E.; Ken S. 

 

Career Planning Dashboard

Take this opportunity to learn how to maximize your professional career development efforts from the former president of one of the leading corporate university organization’s in the world. Hear how to build your career using the “Career Planning Dashboard” approach. You'll learn how and why this approach can help you develop a program to improve both your technical and leadership skills. You'll learn how to fill out your own “Career Planning Dashboard”. Learn how to build your success profile, Select individuals to help you improve, determine your development needs, build your plan, and monitor your progress.

Speaker: Arnie Strebe

 

Using Acting tools to Transform your Everyday Roles in Leadership

Taking tools from Shelene’s Book Act From the Inside Out, she co-founded The VERTE Project, a movement dedicated to helping individual cultivate an inspired mindset and transform their everyday life roles using experiential techniques such as acting tools.

In the Workshop, Shelene will specifically discuss:
1) Breaking through self- limiting beliefs
2) Finding the leader within you through acting techniques such as improvisation, role playing and character analysis.  

About the technique:  through the use of improvisational scenarios, basic body language coaching, and recognizing emotional cues, participants walk away with a stronger sense of how your communication plays a role in their leadership style.  They will develop basic tools to increase their effectiveness as leaders. 

Speaker: Shelene Atanacio

 

Starting, Building, and Funding a High-Tech Enterprise

What Does Google, Microsoft and Apple have in common? All of these companies, along with hundreds of others, were conceived during the midst of an economic downturn. The recession presents unique opportunities for individuals to pursue their passions through entrepreneurship. Lets explore the lifestyle of an entrepreneur and best practices that allow you to find your own path in the entrepreneur world. We'll discuss how these techniques can be applied to different markets. It will take a broad, yet intimate look at the different methods on how to start up a business and what it takes to become successful. 

Speaker: Sonny Vu

 

Navy: Leadership Laboratory - Skills That May Help You

The Navy is one of the top "leadership laboratories" in the world.  Since day one, candidates are immersed in the fundamentals of leadership and during the course of their time in service, continue to hone their skills.  Leadership is an art.  Come learn how my experiences may help you. 

Speaker: Rear Admiral (Select) Colin G. Chinn

 

Risk Taking: Making Changes Happen

Though often feared, taking risks is essential to personal and professional development. Participants will define risk taking, explore why people do or do not take risks and discuss possible cultural influences on risk-taking. Through this practical, cultural-based workshop, Asian Pacific Americans will learn the strategies of how and when to use a risk-taking process model to think “out of the box” and go beyond their comfort zone for personal and professional success. 

Speaker: J.D. Hokoyama

 

How a Breakdown in Leadership Led to the Financial Crisis

The financial industry has created a culture of a herd mentality, in which performance is completely judged by league tables, or more specifically: Which institution has the most assets outstanding or the greatest market capitalization? Somehow, the importance on the quality of the assets or the level of credit analysis applied to transactions got lost. The problem is further permeated by unrealistic demands made by shareholders and directors, expecting 15%+ returns annually at all costs. Financial executives are under a lot of pressure to meet unrealistic targets, and usually this can only be achieved by seeking riskier assets like subprime mortgages.

If this crisis has taught us anything, it is that stronger leaders are required to properly run financial institutions. Stronger personalities need to be hired into risk management and compliance roles. Individuals who are strongly opposed to certain transactions must stick to their convictions and not be bullied into going with the crowd. “Everyone else is doing it” is not an acceptable reason to do a transaction. At times, great leaders must go against consensus and explain to their shareholders and directors why certain targets are unrealistic and expectations should be lowered. This new shift in paradigm must start from the top and make its way down the organization. Only after this fundamental change has taken place, can we honestly say that something positive has come out of this financial crisis. 

Speaker: Daryl Ching

 

How to Transition from Corporate to an Entrepreneurial Environment

Most Start-Ups see the glamour of owning your own firm, but most do not go into it for the right reasons. Here the panel can chime in on the realities (good and bad) of owning a business. Join us as we explore the following essential areas:

- The big leap from corporate to start-up: realities of owning a business
- Challenges and assessing risk including balancing family/personal life, dealing with time pressure, handling financing
(venture capital, angel investors, loans), staffing, inhering to compliance/insurance issues, forming a business structure (llc, s corp., c corp., dba, etc)
- Benefits of Entrepreneurship
- The importance of building your network and giving back to community
- Getting involved on boards and being generous

Moderator: Jamie Borromeo
Panelists: Albert Shen, Gary Wong, Mable Yee