25 prominent CEOs share their knowledge and business ideas to more than 100 movers and shakers of tomorrow
After five sessions spread out over 2 days at the premises of Kings College, CEO Unplugged 2017 ended today with a huge mass of aspiring youths thronging to the venue and requesting more of such events in the town. The annual business and entrepreneurship knowledge sharing extravaganza hosted plethora of dialogues with 25 prominent CEOs of the leading business enterprises of Nepal and 5 moderators from various media about the business and entrepreneurial ecosystem of Nepal.
The first session of among the series, held on Friday was Opportunities and Challenges of doing business in Nepal, in which Mr. Ashutosh Tiwari, CEO of Sherpa Adventure Gear; Mr.Bibhushan Bista of Young Innovations; Mr. Pradeep K Shrestha of Panchakanya Group; and Mr.Ranjit Acharya of Prizma Advertising shared the challenges they faced after they started their businesses, and took it to the present position. The session was moderated by journalist Mr.Binod Bhattarai.
This was followed by one of the most awaited sessions: Nepal in 2025, where Mr.Deependra Tandon, Director of Advantage Group of companies conversed with Mr.Rajan Shakya, CEO of KGH Group; Ms.Laxmi Shrestha of Laxmi Woodcraft Udyog, Mr. Shree Gurung of Octave, and Mr.Devi Raj Shrestha of Alfa Beta. In the session, the panelists put forth their powerful thoughts around where we will reach by the year 2025, and what we should do now to empower Nepal’s economy by that time.
The last session of the first day, titled “Embracing Change: Collaboration
between Corporate and Startup” was about how startup companies can collaborate with the corporates to accelerate their growth. The session was moderated by Ms.Alina Prajapati, General Manager of Glocal Pvt Ltd. In the session, Mr.Amun Thapa, CEO of Sasto Deal; Mr.Nama Raj Budhathoki of Kathmandu Living Labs, Mr.Paras Katuwal of Nepal Thopa Sinchai and Mr.Abdullah Miya, of Turkish Airlines shared their experiences and anecdotes. They talked how collaborating with other business entities have helped them in growing their businesses.
Meanwhile, the opening session on Saturday was a lively discussion on Linkage of Knowledge and Resources, where Mr.Upaul Majumdar, General Manager of Soaltee Crowne Plaza, JP Nair, Country Representative of Qatar Airways in Nepal, Mr.Kumar Karki of Landmark Education, Mr.Mithilesh Kumar Jha of CGIM, and Mr. Shailendra Raj Giri of Mero Job shared their entrepreneurial journey and how they came into the business they are leading. They also shared how they realized their real talents, and face the real business world. The session was moderated by RJ and media personality Bhupendra Khadka.
The following session for the day, and the last in the series was a jam-packed one, and was held on the topic Government Policy and Startup Ecosystem in which the panelists comprising of Mr. Sugat Ratna Kansakar, Managing Director of Nepal Airlines Corporation, Mr.Narottam Aryal, representative of Startup Committee at the Ministry of Industry; Willem Grimminck, initiator of Rockstart Impact; Mr.Abhaya Poudel of Biz Serve, and Ms.Santoshi Rana, Founder of Bihani Social Venture held a lively discussion on how the government policy hinders and favors the startup ecosystem in Nepal. Jay Nishant, a University professor and development professional moderated the session. The session concluded that government policy has nothing much to impact us on how we start and run startups, and it is ourselves who need to take an initiative to start our dream startups.
The event left a lasting impression to more than 100 aspiring CEOs and entrepreneurs who attended the event.
Enthused by the responses from the event attendees, Ms.Cajol Jha, the event coordinator said, We are glad to provide the youths with a platform to meet the movers and shakers of different arenas of the entrepreneurial world. It was a unique opportunity of its kind for the present business leaders to commute with future heroes and share their thoughts, she added.
CEO Unplugged Mobile App launched
The event also saw the formal launch of CEO Unplugged mobile app, an application guiding the event. Designed by Fawesome Apps, the app features the details about the two-day long sessions of the event. The registered users of the app could ask questions to the panelists of these five different sessions and connect with all the participants present in the programme.
