A tech forum with a twist

Salma Jafri blogs about her experiences at the recently concluded Tech Forum Central Asia. 

You know a technology conference is successful when both participants and trainers come away from it as friends while applying the tech training they just learned! And so it was at the well-organised Tech Forum Central Asia (TFCA) conference held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on June 14-15 2014.

Salma speaking

The TFCA training workshops, organised by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Mission to Kazakhstan, were aimed at encouraging social entrepreneurship with a focus on women’s issues. Thus there was a heavy contingent of female tech trainers (of which I was a part of) from Pakistan, Kazakhstan, India, Indonesia, UK, USA, and more.

This was my first ever Tech Forum, and while I was expecting the focus to be on the training workshops itself, I was unprepared for and pleasantly surprised by the cultural immersion of the entire programme put together by Tristram Perry (Public Affairs Officer at the US Consulate General in Almaty), and his team.

Perry and his capable team had us learn choreographed dance steps to Russian/Kazkh songs, dine at ethnic restaurants, watch a Soviet ballet troupe’s stellar performance, meet Central Asian and US diplomats, and explore the city of Almaty. The overall experience was a sensory kaleidoscope of the best two-way learning programme possible.

A night at the opera

In fact, the various networking events prior to the training itself allowed the trainers and participants to meet in a casual atmosphere and truly get to know one another. It is because of this foresight by the organising team, that I was able to modify my pre-planned slide-deck keeping the specific audience in mind. And I’m so glad I did!

The trainers

The training sessions themselves focused on a variety of digital and new media challenges. There were technical sessions from App Development to Digital Security to Video Production. And there were marketing sessions from Campaign Marketing to Content Marketing to Digital Storytelling and Blogging. These were followed by sessions on Grant Writing and Project Funding to round off the 360-degree learning.

Perhaps one of the most successful results of this Tech Forum was to bring together sets of people who normally would never get a chance to know each other. It was the diversity of the programme and its participants that made it stand out as an event that no one who was a part of, would easily forget