CIMA to celebrate 55 years of excellence with virtual career festival ‘Hundred & 10%’

CIMA Sri Lanka Country Manager Zahara Ansary, CIMA Vice President Melanie Janine Kanaka and CIMA Panelist Imran Furkan at the press conference – Pic by Upul Abayasekara 

By Safna Malik

CIMA, one of the largest professional accountancy body and a brand that is globally known, has joined some of the prominent financial professionals in the country to organise the first-ever virtual event ‘Hundred & 10%,’ which will be open and accessible to everyone from 13 to 19 September.

Giving us a glimpse of this virtual event, CIMA Country Manager for Sri Lanka Zahara Ansary said celebrating CIMA’s 55 years of existence in Sri Lanka this year CIMA officials would be planning this career festival to showcase the diversity of CIMA as a qualification.

Virtual events are nothing new in this pandemic where most of the event organisers pivot from in-person to digital.  CIMA through this event present a new opportunity for Lankans to overstep the hurdles of social distancing and engage with an audience of business experts from around the world.

“The environment has dramatically changed since COVID-19 hit the world and has forced many companies to speed up their digital innovation and transformation. Therefore, especially during times like this, the youth and professionals of today need to build relevant skills that will help them assure their employability. ‘Hundred & 10%’ is the first-ever virtual career festival organised by CIMA, and through this weeklong festival, we want to inspire the next generation of Sri Lankan professionals to go above and beyond in their careers. This festival will fully utilise the power of the digital landscape, whilst providing a platform where industry leaders, both local and global, and individuals across the island can come together for an enriching learning experience,” said Ansary.

She added that this festival was an event that would unite people from across the globe from various sectors and bring a diverse list of experts together to share insights of the five key skills of the CGMA Competency Framework, namely Technical Skills, Leadership Skills, People Skills, Business Skills and Digital Skills.

This weeklong festival will feature a series of exciting events including Hackathon as well as an Elevator Pitch segment where a selected number of entrepreneurs can pitch their product or business idea to well-known business leaders.

Association of International Certified Professional Accountants Regional Vice President – Asia Pacific Venkkat Ramanan also shared his views on this event, as ‘Hundred & 10%’ will be the very first online festival which will feature a diverse list of speakers across different industries, disciplines and borders coming together for a one-of-a-kind career festival.

“Seven days of event full of exciting segments will not only create an impact but also a good impression among our members, our society, and also the future generation of leaders to come.”

He also mentioned CIMA Sri Lanka’s vision for the event was to inspire the next generation of Sri Lankan professionals to go above and beyond in their careers.

“The world of business today is getting smaller and weaker, you won’t see airlines flying across the country or border of the ocean in this pandemic situation. However, we do have digitalisation,” which can reach any edge of the business world. That is one reason to step into digitalisation,” said CIMA Vice President Melanie Kanaka.

She added: “We truly believe every single professional has the desire to succeed, they have inhabited the desire to succeed. We are here to show you this entire week the diversity of our members and the plethora of skills they have in different areas in terms of business and organisations. It’s not an event to be missed, it allows potential students, members and anyone who is in a business environment to develop skills and expertise to be wholesome in today’s uncertain society.”

Since it is open for anyone, including non-members of CIMA, all will have the opportunity to have that intellectual link with financial experts and other business professionals.

Tresync CEO Imran Furkhan said the pandemic and the financial crisis revealed a few things. “There is an opportunity for financial centres in South Asia especially serving this region that we should seize and I believe career options for finance professions are getting wider for Sri Lanka.”

Being a moderator for Hackathon in the virtual festival, he explained the outcomes of this segment and how the event has been scheduled for seven days.

He said the Hackathon would be a 24-hour competition calling out all individuals to register with teams of up to five members and take part in a competition where judges would explain an unfinished business question and the teams would have to pitch their ideas and plans on how to solve it.

“This whole event is also pushing young generation and financial professionals to require skills to work with the older generation of finance professionals so there’s a right match,” he said.

Furkhan pointed out that this event was open to anyone willing to participate and it’s not just for CIMA members and he also mentioned that he expected participants to take risks, to fail, and to question so that they learn new areas of skills.

Concluding the launch of ‘Hundred & 10%,’ Ansary said: “CIMA focuses on providing a well-rounded education to its students across diverse careers, preparing them for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities. Using the CGMA Competency Framework as part of our syllabus, we enable students and professionals to get resilient and ready with the insights and skills needed to flourish in a dynamic and rapidly evolving business landscape. Here at CIMA, we work towards supporting the concept of lifelong professional learning and experience.”

The panel of experts includes CIMA Country Manager for Sri Lanka Zahara Ansary; CIMA Vice President and World Bank Head of Finance and Administration, Sri Lanka and Maldives Melanie Kanaka, FCMA, CGMA; Bluestone Capital Ltd. Founder and CEO Ajit Gunewardene; Jetwing Travels Ltd. Managing Director Shiromal Cooray; Association of International Certified Professional Accountants Regional Vice President – Asia Pacific Venkkat Ramanan, FCMA, CGMA; Tresync CEO Imran Furkhan, FCMA, CGMA; and John Keells Holdings Head of Learning and Development Imani Perera.

For the full program including the agenda, see the dedicated website https://bit.ly/34LWHp4.

Ansary urged all working professionals to explore this virtual event to discover exciting opportunities for career development.