The Young Professionals Society successfully held its Leaders Conference 2022 at Manchester’s Waterloo Centre on Saturday August 6.
The inaugural YPS Leaders Conference drew in many students, graduates, junior professionals and senior leaders from different fields to discuss the topic of ‘leadership in a volatile world for young professionals and aspiring leaders.’
During the event, several outstanding individuals were presented with awards, namely Young Leaders Awards (handed to Lady Zahra Niazi, Dr Yarjan Samad and Dr Tanveer Tabish) and a Young Entrepreneur Award (given to Rimi Thapar) for outstanding achievements and contributions to their fields of work and service.
The event was well attended with over 100 people joining from different parts of the UK, including Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds, Bradford, Blackburn, Bolton, and Manchester to name but a few.
Professor Waqar Ahmed (president of the YPS and esteemed academic at the University of Lincoln) welcomed the attendees and spoke about the Young Professionals Society, its aims, objectives, functions, activities, and memberships.
The occasion was used to launch YPS’s new book publication called “Success Secrets” authored by Professor Ahmed. The author highlighted the key ‘three secrets’ to success from the book, giving examples to explain the immense benefits of using each secret.
Dr Nasar Ali (founder and chair of the YPS) highlighted the importance of holding events such as the conference and the significance of YPS aims in helping and supporting young people with their personal and professional development. Such support comes through teaching key soft skills such as communication, leadership, innovation, time management, conflict resolution, and more.
The list of conference speakers was a truly international list, with orators coming from countries such as Poland, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the US, Sweden, Nigeria, Ireland, Italy, and Canada.
UK shadow justice minister, Afzal Khan MP, also spoke at the conference about leadership in a volatile world from his own experiences and perspective, having been working in the political sector for several years and having progressed from first being elected as a local councillor, then to Lord Mayor, to member of the European Parliament and finally working as an elected member of the Houses of Parliament with different designations.
Other speakers included barrister Khadim Al’Hassan (Leeds), general surgeon Ahmed El-Mallul (Poland), Dr Kabir Usman (Nigeria), dental surgeon Dr Talal Khalil, public speaker and storyteller Rona Barbour, and more.
Other professionals present at the conference included pharmacists, entrepreneurs, scientists, academics, medical doctors, politicians, researchers, journalists, educators and many more.
There were ample opportunities throughout the conference for networking and mentoring from other senior professionals and leaders. In particular, the youngsters benefitted immensely from these sessions, receiving valuable career mentoring.
Finally, the event provided speaking opportunities for young aspiring leaders to take centre stage and practice their public speaking skills by talking about their views on leadership and the types of leaders they want to be in the future. There were three young speakers: Edward Sebastian Edge (age 17), Jax Ho (age 13) and Ali Muhammad (age 13), who featured.
The Young Professionals Society will be holding the YPS Conference on an annual basis and work is already underway to organise the second YPS Leaders Conference, to be hosted in 2023.
Click here to view the YPS Leaders Conference 2022 Gallery.
Image provided by YPS
