Ascend Midwest Inspiring Across Generations
Conference 2023
Ascending Everywhere All At Once
Event Details
Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Time: 11:30 AM - 5:30 PM CT | 5:45 PM - 7:30 PM CT
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In-Person Session: Allstate Office - 8th Floor, Merchandise Mart, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654
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Virtual Session: Zoom
Admission:
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In Person: Professional Member: $100 | Student Member: $50 | Non-Members: $125
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Virtual: Member (Professional or Student): $50 | Non-Member: $75
​Attire: Business Casual
Description
The Ascend Midwest chapter proudly presents our 2023 flagship event: “Inspiring Across Generations,” back in person after four years!
The conference theme will be "Ascending Everywhere All at Once," as we inspire our members with stories of achievement from Asian entrepreneurs, creators, community and nonprofit leaders, and corporate executives. Bernice Chao, the co-founder of Asians in Advertising and the co-author of "The Visibility Mindset," will kick off our program with her session, "Solving for the Asian Dilemma".
Later in the day, we will be joined remotely by Professor Jackson Lu from the MIT Sloan School of Management, whose keynote will focus on "The Bamboo Ceiling in Corporate America."
In between these keynotes we will have four exceptional sessions, with speakers including creators Brian Xu (@bri_xu, LinkedIn data scientist and Instagram big head satirist) and Wei Tsay (founder of @VeryAsian.co), community leader Karen Chiu (co-founder and executive director of Project:Vision) as well as entrepreneurs Uzma Sharif (Chocolat Uzma) and Jenny Pidej (Pandan Market).
This event will provide attendees the opportunities to network in person and learn about how Asians can and do ascend in four key areas: as entrepreneurs | as digital creators | in their community | as corporate leaders
Agenda
11:00 - 12:00 PM
Check-in and registration
12:00 - 12:15 PM
Welcome – Ascend & Allstate
Vanessa Obrochta, Geetanjali Sathe
12:15 - 1.00 PM
Keynote #1/Interactive Workshop: "Solving for the Asian Dilemma"
Bernice Chao
1:00 - 1:45 PM
Panel #1: Pan-Asians Ascend as Entrepreneurs
Jenny Pidej, Uzma Sharif, Kathy Hardy Vega
Moderator: Sharmila Fowler
1:45 - 2:00 PM
Break
2:00 -2:45 PM
Panel #2: Pan-Asians Ascend as Creators
Wei Tsay, Brian Xu
Moderator: Aaron Fung
2:45 - 3.30 PM
Panel #3: Pan-Asians Ascend in Uplifting Communities
Eric Wu, Karen Chiu, Sandip Shah
Moderator: Vanessa Obrochta
3:30 - 3:45 PM
3:45 - 4:30 PM
Keynote #2: The Bamboo Ceiling in Corporate America
Jackson Lu
4.30 - 5.15 PM
Panel #4: Pan-Asians Ascend in Corporate
Sharon Garcia, Rajat Kapoor, Patricia Ratulangi
Moderator: Calvin Cheng
5.15 - 5.35 PM
Session Close
Aaron Fung
Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Bernice Chao
Creative Director (Zambezi),
Co-Founder of Asians in Advertising,
and Co-Author of “The Visibility Mindset”
Jackson G. Lu
Sloan School Career Development
Associate Professor, Organization Studies
​MIT Sloan School of Management
Panelists and Speakers
Karen Chiu
Executive Director and
Co-founder
Project: VISION (PV)
Kathy Vega Hardy
Founder
A Taste of the Philippines
Sharon Garcia
Vice President of Talent Acquisition
​Echo Global Logistics
Rajat Kapoor
Executive Director; Libor Transition and Liquidity Programs
JPMorgan Chase & Co
Jenny Pidej
Founder and Owner
Pandan Market
Patricia Ratulangi
VP, Global Communications
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Sandip Shah
Managing Director
Protiviti
Uzma Sharif
Founder
Chocolat Uzma
Wei Tsay
Founder & Editor
VeryAsian.co
Eric Wu
Leadership & Talent Development Specialist
Northwestern University
Brian Xu
Staff Data Scientist
Host Partner
Safety of our guests is paramount to Ascend. Attendees are responsible for monitoring their own condition and agree to comply with the safety, hygiene and CDC identified pandemic level communicable illnesses (including COVID-19) guidelines established by relevant health authorities. We request that attendees not attend an event should they test positive or if they experience COVID symptoms prior to the event.