WIM Top50 second annual conference: ‘Being a Corporate Athlete at Work’

The second WIM Top50 Conference titled ‘Being a Corporate Athlete at Work’ was held on 26 July at the Galle Face Hotel Colombo, attended by nearly 170 participants, comprising of women and men, across middle and senior management from many diverse organisations.

The conference provided the platform for four guest speakers and five panel discussions to dive into topics and areas not spoken and discussed in the open, and comprised of experienced senior professionals as well as the millennials. The conference began with ‘Swim with the sharks’ by guest speaker Ramya Weerakoon, who shared her personal story of failure and success and left a key message that we need to start listening before we start speaking.  

The session ‘Integrity your best ornament’ was well-received by the audience, as it was felt that it was an absolutely appropriate topic of discussion at this point in time in our country. The public and private sector mixed panel comprising of P.S.M. Charles, Lopa Rahman, Shikha Nag and Indira Malwatte was moderated by Panel Chair Nisthar Cassim.

All speakers endorsed the importance of integrity in the workplace and shared their stories and focused on the key message of walk the talk and the importance of ethics, values and honesty in the public and private sector. 

Dr. Rohantha Athukorala conducted a prelude to the next panel on the current economy, the tourism industry and the difference between a professional and corporate athlete and the challenges the corporate athletes face in their long sphere of work of 30-40 years.

Panellists for ‘Fighting the system’ consisted of Rohan Maskorala, Dawn Austin, Dr. Rohantha Athukorala and Shehara De Silva, while Gayani De Alwis was the Panel Chair. The panellists shared their views and experiences on the importance of the private and public sector working in harmony, and the role of the business community in the Be Positive movement, which was well-received. 

Summarising the panel discussion, the Panel Chair said, “To fight the system, one must conquer your mind first, while you constantly juggle around to achieve peak performance under challenging situations to achieve physical, emotional, mental and spiritual resilience.”  

Women at the Bar by Kalinga Indatissa, PC, provided an insightful journey on the history of the legal profession in Sri Lanka and the challenges faced by Women at the Bar and the role of the BASL in promoting and assisting up-and-coming women lawyers to face the challenges and overcome the obstacles. 

‘Creating what’s next – getting out of your limo’ by Varuni Amunugama, Linda Speldwinde, Lakmini Wijesundera, and Marise Deckker, led by Panel Chair, Heminda Jayaweera had a focused discussion on innovative approach to the business world and the success stories and the boundaries that the women on the panel had broken to achieve the current status of success.

Panel Chair Heminda said, “It was great to chair such a diverse and exemplary panel of very successful women entrepreneurs. The common message was the focus on innovation in their respective organisations and the continued focus on it for further growth.” 

Another interesting session on ‘How to get along with men at the workplace’ was discussed by panellists Tania Polonnowita, Anusha Gallage, Kishani Jayasinghe, and Minha Faiz, moderated by Panel Chair Asitha Pinnaduwa. The stories on glass ceilings and colour ceilings, and the #metoo movement were enlightening.

The Conference focused on giving millennials the opportunity to provide their perspective on work, life and in general how they see themselves in the future. The panellists comprised of Jerome Morritt, Tharindi Thalahity, Janani Pushpanathan, and Fazeen Rasheed, chaired by Panel Chair Archana Law, who gave the older audience a lot to think about and were very inspirational from individuals so young.

Dr. Sulochana Segera spoke on the topic ‘Be Original’ with the key message that showed the value of originality and to never imitate and be someone else.

The day ended on a high with keynote speaker Shika Nag, an internationally renowned TedX speaker and a Mrs India World 2016 on the subject of ‘Lose some Battles to win a War’. She shared her story of work-life balance, common problems that women face in both personal and professional life, and the need to change mind sets and social norms to overcome the issues of the Woman Corporate Athlete.

All in all, it was a day of deliberations, sharing of experiences and taking back the lessons learned for implementation.