Winners of IEC Awards to be announced on November 9; John Howard to speak on Australia, India and the future
The winners of the third annual Indian Executive Club (IEC) Awards for Australian Indian SME businesses will be announced at Melbourne Town Hall on 9 November with former Prime Minister John Howard speaking on the future of the Australia-India relationship.
As keynote speaker, Mr Howard said he is looking forward to the event, one of the largest and most prestigious awards for Indians in Australia.
“I am looking forward to attending the third IEC Awards night. It is a wonderful event recognising business and community alike and the keynote I will deliver will be focused on my thoughts around Australia, India and the future,” said Mr Howard, an advocate of closer Australia-India ties.
His speech comes just months after Tony Abbott was voted in as Australia’s new prime minister, putting the Coalition in charge of Australia’s relationship with India, which makes the IEC night a must-see event for Australia-India watchers.
The awards ceremony will see top community and business leaders from Australia’s growing and influential Indian community come together, with around 500 entrepreneurs and media representatives gathered in one room.
IEC president Vinay Sharma said the aim of this year’s awards was to reach out to as many SME business leaders and executives from the Australian Indian community as possible and encourage them to tell their story.
“We also wanted the Indian Diaspora communities’ achievements to be recognised in mainstream Australia,” Mr Sharma said.
“The opportunities for Australia in the Asian century have been well documented and I feel in order to fulfil the next level of opportunities that exists in the Australia-India markets, we need to recognise in Australia that the Indian Diaspora will need to play a crucial conduit in fulfilling the opportunities.”
There were a total 105 nominations for this year’s awards, which consist of Community Awards, People’s Choice Awards, and Business & Executive Awards.
The Executive Awards category received a total of 39 nominations, with 14 for Executive of the Year – Female and Male, and 25 for Young Executive of the Year – Male and Female.
The People’s Choice category attracted 37 nominations covering the Café & Restaurant, Travel & Tourism and Entertainment sub-categories.
The Business Awards category attained a total 29 nominations for its three sub-categories: Micro Business, Small Business and Medium Business.
The IEC awards was launched in 2011 by The Indian Sun, the biggest Indian publisher in Australia, which publish such titles as The Indian Sun, Hello Bollywood, Indian Executive and AuZone.
The winners are selected by a panel of experts and business leaders including Stephen Manallack, India Business Consultant and Cross-Cultural Advisor; Simon Pho, President of the Hong Kong Australia Business Association in Victoria; Vijaya Vaidyanath, Chief Executive Officer of the Yarra City Council; Lyndon Thomas Joss, Executive Director of McMillan Richardson Pty Ltd and Chair of Audit and Risk Management Committee of the Chisholm Institute of TAFE; Gaurika Kohli, National Marketing Manager at Lycamobile; and Karen Carvalho, Senior Manager at Central Equity.
The evening will kick off at 6.30pm with the keynote speech at 7.30pm, awards presentation at 8.30pm, entertainment at 9.30pm and carriages at 11pm.
The awards are sponsored by 2013 Platinum partner Pitcher Partners, Silver partner ANZ Bank and Associate partner Naturalizer. Other partners include Pattu, Angad Australian Institute of Technology Pty Ltd, Aangan and Incredible India.
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