Preet Toki

On behalf of YSPN in Melbourne, I would like to invite all our international national and local guests to the event today. I’m gonna go a bit dynamic in this session and what I mean by that is the last five months, that is when we started five months ago, we started planning this and my wife said to me. You've got a wife, a working wife, and two young kids, she goes why are you in YSPN, she's like I work five days, you work five days we've got two kids in full-time child care we've got no family around us why are we stretching ourselves, and I said to her I said I live in Sydney with my parents for most of my life and I moved to Melbourne about eight years ago and about seven years ago a group of us met in the multicultural hub and we had our first meeting to launch YSPN in Melbourne.

In that meeting I knew straight away I’d met an extended family. I’d stepped out of my comfort zone and overnight I had an extended family and that was a powerful experience because it made me realize that this is what YSPN can do, by networking and connecting we can create the foundations for Sikhs to succeed, and then as we got along we got married and we had kids and obviously, the question comes up again when you're having some sleepless nights, you know changing nappies etcetera, it's like why am I in YSPN it's like, isn't that just young kids doing it why am I involved now, I’m all old. Could I be going to all the young kids going are you getting married, when are you getting married and I thought to myself, and I went now I step back, I go not only has YSPN given me a family away from my family and never made me feel lonely, I have the opportunity to lay the foundations for my children to succeed.

I have the opportunity to help them build networks, networks that I didn't have when I was going into a university of going what should I study, or when I had a couple of job offers and I said what do I do, and that is what I think about when I look back on my career journey and what keeps me in YSPN and I said when I was 18I had the choice of working at three different companies and my thought process was to go with the company which was in Sydney CBD because I know to meet my mates for after-work drinks and that was my thought process and that was a big mistake and I reflect on it all the time and it's one of those things that keeps me passionate because I go, I don't want my kids to have the same thought process and I can make that change.

So that's a little bit about me and I’m explaining a bit about YSPN, so like I said earlier I have been there since inception in YSPN Melbourne. I haven't led the team the whole time as you know, when you're you know settling down, getting married having kids you're just like you don't want this sort of person leading your team, but we've had some amazing leaders and both of them are here today so Ratan and Simer who have carried the baton and gracefully passed it on to me. So, a little bit about YSPN Melbourne for some of our interstate guests and even our local guests who are attending their first YSPN event, YSPN Melbourne in addition to the work that we've done nationally around mentorship. We committed seven years ago in that multicultural hub that we will host minimum four events a year and we will do it as a not-for-profit volunteer group and not put ourselves in financial distress and as YSPN Melbourne the team seven years on has committed to that through highs and lows which is now over 20 events we've hosted in YSPN Melbourne. we focused on motivational, development, and networking which has created the conditions for over a thousand individuals in Melbourne to amplify their influence in the wider community.

So, what makes Elevate so special, Elevate is a big experiment for YSPN because it's our marquee event of the year, a lot of energy behind the scene, so those people who love social media and see the iceberg theory, bang elevates a really good example of it. It's crazy underwater but we got there and it's the second marquee event for us. So, we did have ‘Elevate 2019’, it's an opportunity to bring Sikh professionals together where we dedicate, and you all have dedicated your Saturday, that's amazing you've all dedicated your Saturday today to share knowledge, develop conditions and create the foundations to succeed collectively so you should all be proud of yourselves for doing that commitment 05:29 [Applause], last year Elevate was first of its kind for the Oz New Zealand community, it challenged a traditional notion of Sewa as only a language saver and boarding the context in the 21st century, what it means to do Sewa outside of just the language sewa and what is Sangat of the Future.

So the Sangat of the Future is an extension on last year's theme, is an observer in a rapidly changing world. While last year's theme focused on the practical elements of Sewa and what it means in the modern generation. This year we raise the focus on the community and reflect on our identity, values, and beliefs and proactively shape ourselves to become better selves. What would I like to see? so well for me what does good look like, for me what I would like to see is everyone in this room not use the word but, I challenge each of you today when you're in your breakout sessions do not use the word but, let's support each other. We've created the conditions to support each other, if you don't agree to hear the person out, just say yes and let's not pull each other down we have an amazing opportunity to help each other progress and help our community progress, so that's one thing I would like to see.

Over the course of the day you're going to hear important issues facing our community that we've already touched on from people with experience such as migrants, professionals and business owners and I guess when we think about the thought process, when we started this five months ago I think back to seven years ago, seven years ago in Melbourne we said what are we going to do, how are we gonna have four events and the first thing we did is like, whom do you know, whom do you know, who do you know, who do you know but when we set this session up it made me think about the maturity of YSPN where we've come, we went and hand-picked people, we were like yes, we can get this person but they're not the right person for today. We want certain people with certain characteristics at these events and I’m proud of the people that we've secured today and I do personally thank them for their time because it is a massive commitment on a Saturday so we'll hear views on important issues.

We'll hear a keynote from Dhruv Saxena, we'll have panel conversations of what Sewa means today and how we can serve our communities as well as the migrant experience and for a lot of us here who have gone past that step, let's just take a moment to step back and go how can we engage people that are moving to Australia how can we help them connect. People helped us connect so let's think about how people helped us connect and how we can help people connect, because it is hard and it's getting harder for people to feel part of the community and embrace the amazing culture we have in Australia, so how can we help people connect and not feel isolated, but how can you contribute and as I touched on earlier you've already contributed by coming today because it is a really big commitment for someone who's standing here today you know wife's currently, you know in a class and doing her MBAs, you know got our in-laws flew in from Malaysia to help look after the kids so pre-can have a seamless experience today and not strangle each other I’m sure you've all gone through the same level of commitments that I’ve gone through today to be here but how can you contribute apart from saying yes and not using the word but, pledge your time, motivation and effort in supporting the initiatives that are brought up during the collaboration ideation sessions.

Commit put your hand up, say I’ll do this because a group of individuals seven years ago did that, five individuals they went, right we're not going to go out and go to a party on a Saturday night, we're going to do something for a community, we're not going to point fingers and go they're not doing it right, they're not doing it right, they said we're going to fix it. We see a gap, I’m going to fix the gap and that amazing ability has attracted over 70 to 80 volunteers over that journey who have not taken a dollar, who've paid for every ticket they've attended an event at, have contributed their time and it's incredible the professionalism of this group, is something that I go back to work and I say you guys are in office 365, in my not for profit this is what we do and they're just like all right okay all right so sort of thing so it's an amazing bunch of individuals that bought this but get involved be part of it and if you can't dedicate your time commit financially to assistant will be a crowdfunding campaign today and get involved in that. Spread the word because the word of mouth is the number one tool to help our community grow and help YSPN grow.

When you walk out that room today, for us it would be a failure if you walk out and said well that was a waste and if you do feel it's a waste please come out and reach us, tell us, tell us if we did something wrong because we're not professionals at hosting conferences. We're a group of professionals that are dedicating their time and effort to creating the conditions so if you feel like something's not right to help us become better at ours, better at presenting and delivering, but hopefully, there's a sense of camaraderie when you leave, a camaraderie that yes you will make a difference, yes we will make a difference and yes, I’ve got this amazing energy that we got out but most importantly pride feel proud at the success of our community and motivate yourselves and others to contribute to more than just [11:52 inaudible] ever and with that, I think we're ready to start hearing from some of our better keynote speakers.

Malika Singh Kanwar

Am I the better keynote speaker? just kidding you weren't meant to laugh at that one our next speaker, however, is an award-winning businessman Mr. Dhruv Deepak Saxena Managing Director of oilseed Australia as an Indian-born migrant who has successfully navigated Australia today I would ask you all for a round of applause while we welcome him on stage.

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