"The caliber of business professionals who attended this year's IBPW conference on Careers for the 21st Century was impressive for the scope and depth of skills and experience, but more so for the openness and sharing of personal stories that spoke to pursuing dreams, overcoming obstacles, and accepting and owning our own success.
Conference key note speakers, panelists, moderators, and table facilitators came well-prepared with insightful, challenging questions for transforming business, careers and personal lives in this century."

Dolores "Dee" McCrorey, Chief Risk Guru
Risktaking for Success LLC
"Leveling the Innovation Playing Field"
Web: http://www.RisktakingforSuccess.com
Blog: http://www.TheCorporateEntrepreneur.com

==================================================================

Great working with all of you yesterday on the very successful IBPW workshop.
It was gratifying to see the faces of the woman who walked away from the workshop.
They were excited and had definitely learnt much and found kindred spirits. I look forward to being in
touch with all of you going forward.

Nithya A. Ruff (Planning committee member)
VP Marketing and Business Development
Cranite Systems
www.cranite.com

=====================================================================

The IBPW event was promising and the talent among the Asian Community was evident. With more such events and stronger ties between members, the community will likely see a continued trend of ideas and successes.

Kirti Kandade
Director, Customer Service
AT&T

==================================================================

Feedback from a teenager:

At the Mentoring Conference, as a teen, I gained a lot of valuable information and advice from many well-known speakers. The motivational speaker, Arlene Kaiser, really showed us how important our actions are to society and to others around us. We should believe in ourselves, be true to ourselves, and be helpful.
During the panel discussions, I heard the speakers' point of view and their opinions on several topics. Even though, the speakers had a lot to say, every word was valuable and helped us understand their thoughts and outlooks on the matter. What interested us even more what when they stayed back during lunch for a mentoring session. During this time, we got to talk to these speakers and learn even more about their specialities.
At the teen table we were joined by Saima Hasan, a junior as Stanford University, and Carrie Ellett (Director of Girls for a Change) who answered everyone's countless questions about college applications, college itself, extracurricular activities, and careers we wish to pursue. The burning questions like What S.A.T. score do I need to get into Stanford? and What do people look for on college applications? were answered in depth and detail. As high school students, our goal is to obtain and achieve high scores on our S.A.T.s and be overachievers, but stress clouds our main goal. We were relieved when the mentors talked about how college isn't as difficult as is seems. They advised by telling us that it's important to do what we want to do, but not necessarily do what we excel at.
During the mentoring session, many of my doubts were cleared up and I had a better idea of how the next few years of my life would fall into place. Everyone at our table contributed by asking critical and vital questions. I left this conference with a much better idea of life during high school, college, and even with our careers. By talking to many other speakers like Kalpana Peddibhotla and Judge Rise Jones Pichon, my vision to become a lawyer was looking brighter by the minute.

-Sanya Bhavivohra

===================================================================

Student from Hayward State University

I enjoyed the conference very much and thank you for inviting me. I think that maybe leaving time to ask questions would have been a good idea.
Guadalupe Avid

===================================================================

Comments from teen table, our first ever effort.

comments, compiled byTeen table facilatator Rita Sandhu

- mentoring at table was the best part
- having Saima Hasan there was great - they could relate to her
- the panels got boring for them - too long, couldn't relate
- liked the keynote speaker - Arlene Kaiser
- boys were a bit turned off when some speakers spoke only about women
- questions were on what they should be doing in high school to get prepped for college. what colleges look for, how to decide
on careers, how important is GPA, extracurricular activities
- were relieved to hear that one can change majors or careers