On November 18, a ceremony to honor students who initiated the first international conference “The Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations” (HPAIR 2019 Asia Conference) was held. At the event, Kadisha Dairova, the Vice President for Student Affairs and International Cooperation, and Anar Uteshova, Managing Director of the Nazarbayev University Social Development Fund, thanked students for organizing such a massive event as HPAIR.
“Thanks to this conference, our students gained real skills in project management, financial planning, logistics, and marketing. They brilliantly coped with the tasks. But it was certainly pleasant for us to learn something new and look at our work from the perspective of advanced youth,” Anar Uteshova noted.
More than 500 people from 44 countries attended the conference. Working committees were fully formed from Nazarbayev University and Harvard University students, who were fully responsible for holding the event – from writing a program and inviting world-famous speakers to ensuring the logistics of routes and meals for participants. Potential delegates from all over the world passed a competitive selection on participating in the conference.
This year’s theme was “Passion for Change”, which revealed six tracks:Global markets and the economy; Art, media, and culture; Social policy and social justice; Energy and environmental sustainability; Public administration and geopolitics; Science and technology.
Conference speakers were world-famous businessmen, former ministers, ambassadors of various countries, heads of international companies, opinion leaders representing organizations such as World Bank Group, BCG, UNICEF, and UNHCR McKinsey, International Monetary Fund, EBRD, EU, Forest Wolf, and a lot of others.
The program of the event also provided for the cultural diversity of the participants. The delegates demonstrated their unique musical, theater, and dance performances.
The Impact Challenge competition allowed the conference participants to plunge into the ecosystem of international companies and organizations such as Kazzinc, ERG, BCG, Deloitte Consulting USA, UNHCR, AIFC. It provided young people with solutions and real cases from various fields, starting from social policy and industry to business and international relations.
The HPAIR 2019 conference allowed young people to gain theoretical knowledge and put it into practice, establish valuable contacts with potential employers and like-minded students from around the world.
The following sponsors supported the conference – Nazarbayev University Social Development Fund, Kazzinc LLP, ERG Kumek Charitable Foundation, Chevron and Microsoft, Deloitte Consulting USA, CCI Kazakhstan, BCG, UNHCR, P4ML and Schwarzman Scholars, AIFC, Akimat of Nur Sultan, Astana Convention Bureau.
