Ascend 2012

I mentioned the at the very start of this blog that I was in Chicago for a conference.  Ascend is a professional assocation of Pan-Asians.  I was fortunate enough to attend their National Convention this year!

I've been a (not very active) member of Ascend for a few years now.  Living in Nashville, the community of Asian professionals is pretty small, and the drive to Atlanta to attend a one hour meeting, speaker, or session is hard to justify.  As such, I hadn't gotten a ton out of Ascend yet - until now!

The convention had a ton of people from all over the country - mostly the cities that have large Asian populations like New York, San Francisco, Houston, etc.  People were at various stages in their careers, from students all the way through C-suite executives.  There were also people of all types of backgrounds - not just Asians.

The days in Chicago were filled mostly with keynote speakers, sessions on things like the power of non-verbal communications, and tons of networking.  It was a great way to get used to seeing all Asian people, all the time (hahaha), but perhaps the best way Ascend prepared me for my move to Singapore was by getting a chance to talk to all the people that I met who had worked internationally.  Hearing the stories of so many colleagues that had spent time working abroad really helped calm my nerves and make me feel at ease.  After all, if a guy from Buffalo, New York could go on secondment in Moscow for SIX years, I certainly felt like I would be fine in Singapore :)

Getting to meet and connect with so many people from other offices was also really great.  One thing that I do miss from my childhood is the strong bonds we had with other Taiwanese families in Tampa.  Like I mentioned, I didn't really know any other Asians in Nashville, so it was nice to just spend some time with people who may have had a similar cultural background as me.  

I ended a great weekend and my last few hours in the US with a nice run in Chicago with some new friends. It was perfect!