People Summit
SLASSCOM to host People Summit 2021 as Global Virtual Conference next week
Resilience has been mutually agreed upon by individuals, teams, and organizations as perhaps the more critical success factor in the new norm. With the objective of building strength, agility, and a sense
of readiness to face the unprecedented challenges of today, the HR forum of Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) is organizing its flagship annual event People Summit 2021 under the theme ‘Building Resilience in your workforce in the new norm.’
“The pandemic has left behind a trail of change – lockdowns, working from home and changing careers and building resilience is crucial to thriving in the new norm where uncertainty is the only constant,” says SLASSCOM Chairman Channa Manoharan. “SLASSCOM is proud to be a conversation starter in this arena and this year’s people summit will help individuals, teams, and organizations build resilience in the face of adversity,” he added.
With working from home and the challenges that come with it set to be the norm for the foreseeable future, achieving work success and work-life balance is key. “Even if people are starting to achieve success work-wise, many struggles with psychological wellness, balancing work and family, and managing stress,” highlighted SLASSCOM HR Forum Lead and hSenid Business Solutions CEO/Director Sampath Jayasundara. “And we want to touch on all these aspects to build essential soft skills in people.”
“This year’s summit goes beyond the IT sector and even beyond organizations,” commented SLASSCOM Director, HR Forum Board Representative, and 99x COO Shehani Seneviratne. “We are reaching out to anyone working in the new norm who is undergoing difficulties and challenges, be it a corporate employee, gig worker, or entrepreneur, to offer insights, tools, and tips to build resilience.”
World Economic Forum’s latest ‘Future of Jobs 2025’ report highlights that newly emerging skills in the self-management area during 2020/21 are resilience, active learning, stress tolerance, and flexibility. In this context, the people summit 2021 covers a critical theme which would help participants to kick start 2021 with great tips and insights to grow beyond pandemic.
Building on Charles Darwin’s famous words – “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change” – the summit is ideal for anyone who wants to become more resilient in the workplace or personal life.
Masters Corporate Education Conference Chair and Lead Nuwan Dishan note: “We have identified three angles of resilience-building which is critical for any organization to succeed beyond pandemic – individual, team and organization and the summit will cover elements such as psychological well-being, mental endurance, culture alignment, physical fitness, team dynamics, and stress management among many other topics.”
The summit has a line-up of 20 reputed international speakers set to share global insights, case studies, and tips, in the likes of Havana Abid – Chief Transformation and Risk Officer at Pearson, Antonia Hock – Global Head The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, Ryan Wolf –Physical Well-being Lead at Gallup and Andrew Tarvin – World’s First Humour Engineer Dr. Sven Hansen, Founder of Resilience Institute, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal, a leading authority on Resilience Leadership, Lasse Wrennmark –
Partner Oxford Leadership and Caterina Kostula – Founder, Leaderpath Executive Coach at INSEAD to name some. An esteemed local panel will also share insights from the Sri Lankan context.
“This summit has always upheld knowledge enhancement and insightful conversations and we pride ourselves in enriching participants with a toolkit of tangible inputs to take back and practice,” shares Nuwan.
Considered to be the biggest event of the HR forum, if not of SLASSCOM, the annual People Summit will take place virtually this year, from 19-21 January from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and will be attended by over 500 participants locally and globally. This year’s event will cover 600+ minutes of content, where participants from anywhere both locally and globally can join since it’s a fully virtual event.
SLASSCOM is joined by Corporate Sponsor Dialog Enterprise, Main Sponsor Pearson, Silver Sponsors Exetel and 99x, Bronze Sponsor hSenid Biz, Education Partner Informatics Institute of Technology, Media Partner Daily FT, and Event Partners AT Link and ACCA in the organizing of the summit.
Further information can be obtained by logging on to
https://slasscom.glueup.com/event/people-summit-2021-building-resilience-in-your-workforce-in-the-new-norm-30425/
SLASSCOM’s People Summit 2021 to showcase how organizations can build a resilient workforce
The annual flagship event of the HR forum of Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) – People Summit – is set to take the stage on 19-21 January from 3 to 6 p.m.
With a bigger, virtual and more global platform under the theme ‘Building Resilience in your workforce in the new norm’, the event will be attended by over 500 participants both locally and globally.
The summit will include several keynote speeches from globally renowned gurus namely, Building A Resilient Organisation: A Leader’s Role by Dr. Sven Hansen – Founder of Resilience Institute, Strategic Agility: Aligning culture with the strategy to build more resilient organisations by Dawn Metcalfe – Workplace Culture Advisor and Author, New Rules of Resilience by Dr. Taryn Marie – Chief Resilience Officer at Resilience Leadership, How Purpose Helps You To Become More Resilient by Lasse Wrennmark Partner – Oxford Leadership, and Growth Mindset for a Complex and Fast-Changing World by Eduardo Briceño Global Keynote Speaker and Workshop Facilitator on Growth Mindset.
Several thought-provoking panel discussions will be held on the first and second day of the summit. These include ‘Leading with resilience in a volatile world’, moderated by Daily FT Editor in Chief Nisthar Cassim, with panel-lists SLASSCOM Chairman Channa Manoharan, IFS EVP and COO Ranil Rajapakse, Virtusa CIO Madhu Rathnayake and hSenid Group of Companies Chairman Dinesh Saparamadu.
The second day of the summit will showcase another panel discussion on the topic of ‘Resilience Learnings from Sri Lankan Companies’ moderated by SLASSCOM HR Forum Lead and hSenid Business Solutions CEO/Director Sampath Jayasundara, with panel-lists LOLC Group Chief Human Resources Officer Pradeep Uluwaduge, Dialog Chief Customer Officer Sandra De Soyza, NDB Vice President Group HR Lasantha Dasanayaka and Brandix Group Chief People Officer Ishan Danthanarayana.
People Summit 2021 has also lined up several out of the box topic areas to help individuals and business leaders think differently about resilience: The Cold and How Stress Can Become Your Secret Weapon In Living a More Resilient Life by Lieven Van Linden – Biohacker, Entrepreneur and Health and Performance coach for global leaders and a speech by Andrew Tarvin, the World’s First Humour Engineer, and a discussion on Strength Based Resilience with Ryan Wolf – Physical Wellbeing Lead at Gallup and Jana Dawson – Director of Academic and Training Development at The School of Positive Psychology.
Participants will also be guided through a real-time yoga session on the last day of the summit by RYT 500 teacher – Certified Yoga Alliance and Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) Movement Specialist Aaron Wickramasekara.
All participants will also have the opportunity to gain access to their own resilience test and to generate a report for themselves to evaluate their resilience, which will be provided to them by Dr. Sven Hansen.
Organized by the HR forum of SLASSCOM, the summit is hosted in tandem with Corporate Sponsor Dialog Enterprise, Main Sponsor Pearson, Silver Sponsors Exetel and 99x, Bronze Sponsor hSenid Biz, Education Partner Informatics Institute of Technology, Media Partner Daily FT and Event Partners AT Link and ACCA.
