Survive to Thrive: SLASSCOM People Summit encourages businesses to be brave during challenges

From left: Louka Parry, Christoffer Erichsen, Srimathi Shivashankar and Emmy-Lou Quirke

SLASSCOM HR Forum recently launched the theme for its flagship event People Summit 2023, that is much-awaited by the HR fraternity each year and is participated by industry professionals both locally and internationally. 

Themed ‘Survive to Thrive’, it acknowledges challenges the world has faced in the past few years and plans to showcase the renaissance of innovation that the business world has undergone, leading to the resurgence we are yet to see.

SLASSCOM Chairman Ashique M. Ali stated, “Talent and workplace dynamics are rapidly evolving around the world and here too in Sri Lanka, especially in the IT and BPM industry. The People Summit conference is one of the foremost and progressive platforms that shares global and local trends. The upcoming 11th edition focuses on diving deep into the transition from ‘survive to thrive’, covering how crisis and change has become a constant in every business due to geo-political dynamics, health crises, climate change, etc. and better yet, what can we do about it?”

SLASSCOM HR Forum Director Sampath Jayasundara along with HR Forum Head Nuwan Dishan spoke of the timely value that this year’s summit adds to the industry quoting, “Crises are becoming the norm everywhere in the world, but how you develop that thriving mindset and the skill set that you need to have as a team, a leader and as an organisation is what we are going to dive deep into during the summit.”

SLASSCOM People Summit is planned to be held on 19 and 20 January 2023 as a hybrid event, where Day 1 will be virtual and Day 2 in person at Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo. The event is due to feature an array of world-class professionals and thought leaders who will share transformational insights and practices, bringing their expertise from all over the globe. 

The speakers expected to take to the virtual stage on Day 1 include; Grant Bosnick – Author, Executive Coach and Chief Executive Thinker at YES Ltd., Ali Starr – Global Speaker and Founder of Tashi Deley, Abdulaziz Al-Roomi – Global Speaker and Entrepreneur, David Strainick – Chief People Officer, MadMobile USA, Sasha Lawrence – Partner, Deals Strategy and Operations – PwC Australia, and last but not least, Judy Hehr – Development Coach, Author and Podcast Host.

The speakers to follow on Day 2 include; Louka Parry – CEO/Founder of The Learning Future, also among the Australian Top 100 Innovators, Christoffer Erichsen – Founding Partner and CEO of Human Inc., Srimathi Shivashankar – Corporate Vice President and Business Head, HCL Technologies, Thierry Moschetti – Co-founder and Partner, The Resilience Institute (Europe), Vidusha Nathavitharana – Author, TEDx Speaker and Leadership Trainer, Emmy-Lou Quirke – Innovation Lead (Digital Transformation, Sustainability and ESG), South East Asia at PwC, along with Rui Savio Dass – Global Speaker and Head of Total Rewards – Asia Pacific at Netflix. 

Representing the previous summit’s Exclusive Strategic Sponsor – Sysco Labs, Kushani Kalpage, Director – Marketing stated that the People Summit 2022 provided a great learning platform for the HR fraternity and outlined that it is important as a community to come together to collectively work alongside each other on mitigating these challenges and Sysco Labs was privileged to partner and support the people management initiatives of Sri Lanka. 

99x Chief Marketing and Corporate Affairs Officer Crishan De Mel echoed similar sentiments and stated that they were proud to partner as Silver Sponsor for this event which they believed offered immense value to the industry annually. This year the organisers will add a touch of pizazz during Day 2 of the event concluding it with an exciting after party.