2-Day Industry-Academia Conference 2023: Discussed importance of inclusion and diversity for being future ready
New Delhi: A two-day Industry-Academia Conference 2023 (#IAC2023) was organised by PeopleLabs on Feb 16-17, 2023 at Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi. In its fifth edition, the theme for the fifth edition of the conference was “Creating Future-Ready Inclusive Organisations”.
Mr Alok Kumar Choudhary (Managing Director, SBI) delivered the Keynote Address and Mr Harish Bhat (Brand Custodian, Tata Sons) delivered the Valedictory Address at the proceedings. Mr Prashant Tripathi (MD & CEO, Max Life Insurance) delivered the Inaugural Address.
#IAC2023 aimed at bringing Corporate Leaders, Higher Education Leaders and Policy Makers on one platform to discuss the issue of “Creating Future Ready Organizations” and chart the way ahead for Indian Higher Education sector towards the endeavour of creating Inclusive organizations both in Academia and Corporate.
Commenting on the purpose for the conference, Dr Subrat Kumar (CEO & Founder, People Labs Pvt Ltd) said, “We do not have an issue of employment, the problem is of employability. Industry-Academia Conference in its endeavour strive to bring together the two important pillars – the academia and the industry together to discuss how best they can resolve this pertinent issue of finding the right talent.”
Two days at #IAC2023 enabled attendees to appreciate external perspectives on the contours of future-readiness and inclusion in the continuously evolving world of work and engage with colleagues from the corporate world as well as academia to strengthen networks and gain insights on cutting edge initiatives and next practices.
The speakers at the conference were unanimous in their belief that an organization cannot be future ready without a focus on diversity and being inclusive. While there can be different facets to being future ready, which includes focusing on a larger purpose and not just revenue figures, the participants discussed how the focus on continuously innovating and maintaining that WOW factor of one’s organization is imperative.
Mr K S Bakshi (Group Head, Human Resources, InterGlobe Enterprises), Mr Sandeep Girotra (Executive Director & CHRO, DCM Shriram Limited Enterprises), Ms Bhavna Batra (Executive Director, People and Global People Programs Leader, S&P Global), DR M P Jaiswal (Founding Director, IIM Sambalpur), Mr Kalyan Kumar (Executive Director, PNB), Mr Rajeev Dubey (Chairman, Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd), Ms Meenakshi Cornelius (CHRO, JLL India) and Ms Sohini Dutt (Director HR & CHRO South Asia Reckitt Benckiser) were among the other distinguished speakers at the conference.
About People Labs:
Working across different levels of a corporate function, People Labs is into training, research, consulting and events. Started in 2010 by group of friends passionate about working and winning together, People Labs has been able to influence, impact and inspire more than 30,000 lives. With its intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking training programs, People Labs help Corporate and Educational Institutes to achieve their highest potential with a motivated, agile and driven human resource. So far, the organisation has 40+ organisations onboard, conducted 350+ people development interventions over 900 days of training, and has touched over 35000 lives.
