South Asia’s largest HR conference to draw top local and international speakers
View(s):National HR Conference 2014 (NHRC 2014), South Asia’s largest HR event organised by IPM Sri Lanka will take place on June 18-19 at the BMICH, Colombo, drawing top speakers and analysts and over a 1000 delegates. Details of the meeting were presented at a recent news briefing by IPMSL which was attended by its President Samitha Perera; Vice President and Chairman NHRC 2014 – Rohitha Amarapala; CEO, IPMSL – Dyan Seneviratne among others.
NHRC 2014 is the flagship event organised by IPMSL and is regarded as the most inclusive learning forum for the HR community, attracting delegates from across a multitude of organisations; public and private sector companies, universities, government departments, NGOs and other entities from Sri Lanka and the South Asian region.
Picture shows IPM officials and other key partners during a recent media briefing to launch the event.
“This year’s conference is built around the theme – ‘Redefining HR for boosting performance’, an apt and timely topic that has triggered much enthusiasm amongst the country’s HR practitioners and the corporate community. In keeping with its reputation as the apex professional body that represents the HR community, IPMSL intends creating a useful symposium for the country’s top entrepreneurs, academia and fellow HR professionals including business managers across different disciplines and cultures to share new insights and global best practices during this two day conference by bringing in highly rated speakers from Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh who will share the stage with respected Sri Lankan professionals, thus promising a truly interactive and enriching learning experience,” a media release from the organisation said.
Presentations at this year’s conference include: “The evolving role of HR: Aligning HR with a changing business landscape” by Dr. Paul Davidson – Associate Professor of Management, QUT Business School, Brisbane, Australia; “Nurturing leaders through coaching and mentoring” by Dr. Michael Heah – ICF – Professional Certified Coach, Malaysia; “A new HR Paradigm for architecting winning organisations” by Dr. Asoka Jinadasa – Consultant and Master Trainer in Human Potential Development; and “Leveraging the power of culture to transfer challenges into opportunities” by Justin Grice – HR Director Culture, Lloyds Banking Group, UK.
Panel discussions will be as follows: “Beyond the role of HR”, moderated by Janaka Kumarasinghe – HR Services Director, Kent Ridge (Pvt) Ltd with panellists: Dinesh Weerakkody – Chairman, Commercial Bank of Ceylon; Sunil Dissanayake – Director/General Manager, The Kingsbury, Colombo; Shri R. Mohan Das – President, NIPM, India and Musharrof Hossain – President, BSHRM, Bangladesh; “Redefining HR: Promises and Pitfalls”, moderated by Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri – Senior Faculty Member/Management Consultant, PIM, with panellists: Samitha Perera – President, IPMSL and Chief Executive Officer, CBL Foods International Ltd; Dusty Alahakoon – Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific Brewery (Lanka) Ltd; Arjuna Herath – President, CA Sri Lanka and Partner, Ernst and Young and Sanjeev Jayaratnam – Lecturer, Learning Facilitator, Coach, Choral Conductor, Singer and Actor
IPMSL officials said this year’s HR conference will explore new concepts for boosting business performance through the workforce. It addresses the need for realigning people strategies with fast changing business needs. It offers valuable insights into maximising business performance by empowering and engaging employees to exploit opportunities and mitigate risks in the fast-changing business world.
The media release said Prof. Paul Davidson, former President of the Australian Human Resource Institute for five years and CEO of a large company from Australia, will discuss the need to align people management with a changing business landscape and presents new ways to elevate business performance. He, and his numerous publications include two textbooks on management.
Dr Michael Heah from Malaysia will talk about how coaching and mentoring can nurture new-age leadership skills and suggests developing a company-wide coaching and mentoring culture for multiplying individual and team performances.
“Dr Asoka Jinadasa’a new paradigm for architecting winning organisations boosts business performance by empowering the entire workforce. It unleashes the vast potential lying mostly dormant within every employee, into an everyday, company-wide, business innovation ideology,” the release said.
Justin Grice from the UK who led the cultural transformation of the Lloyds Banking Group, will explain how businesses can leverage their workforce culture to sharpen their competitive edge and sustain success by transforming challenges into opportunities. He also plans to describe how operating margins can be dramatically increased through sustainable employee engagement.