Author: Xin Wang
DFW Chinese IT Association (DCIA) successfully hosted a virtual leadership seminar on Nov 8th in zoom. The seminar topic is Diversity and Conflict Management, intending to help our Chinese IT professionals understand diversity and thrive in a diverse working environment.
One hundred and four people attended this meeting. President Julia Liang first gave an opening speech to introduce our organization’s history, mission, and how it can help IT professionals grow their careers via networking, knowledge sharing, and various learning opportunities offered by our programs. Julia also first time talked about our organization culture: Diversity, Integrity, Trust, Respect, Collaboration, and Commitment, to guide our behaviors. DCIA Chair of Board Helen introduced the new board committee, and all VPs presented their departments. With a very strong BOD and Executive Committee, DCIA commits to serve our community more and better in the upcoming year.
Elaine Kung, a famous American Chinese leadership speaker, delivered a remarkable keynote speech titled “How to Thrive in a Diverse Environment.” In her address, she shared many examples of minority groups that thrive in their careers and live in the US. The key takeaways from Elaine’s speech are: try to overcome stereotypes; humbly and constructively disagreeing; renew courage to speak up; having integrity in a conflict; victor lifestyle with confidence; and exemplified in our attitude and actions. In the Q&A session, Elaine gave excellent suggestions about how to communicate encouragingly and keep integrity at the same time. Audience were actively engaged, motivated, and inspired.
After the keynote speech, the audience was split into small groups in the zoom breakout rooms and had interactive discussions on their key learnings. After that, the audience returned to the main room to summarize their learnings. Many audiences provided feedback that they learned a lot in today’s seminar, and the breakroom discussion was a new, effectively learning format for many of them.
At the end, our keynote speaker Elaine encouraged everyone to continue practicing the principles to embrace diversity and progress every day. President Julia and moderator Xin thanked Elaine for her exceptional speech and all the audience for their active participation. Together, we had a rich and robust learning experience.