Ninos Youkhana

*This is the message I sent to my Assyrian friends and connections on LinkedIn.

I am reaching out with two goals in mind:

I had a great time at the Assyrian Convention in Arizona last month. That inspired me with the question of “Why not create an Assyrian Conference of Professionals?” that could meet once a year at a certain city such as Chicago, San Jose, or even Las Vegas.

Let’s face it…many of us are not in our dream jobs, feel stasis, or not living a life full of meaning and purpose. In some area of our life, we are stuck.

Just imagine a conference room with 1000 Assyrians: authors, consultants, designers, doctors, developers, engineers, founders, lawyers, pharmacists, project managers, recruiters, and many other professionals, all gathering in one place. Picture a version of TEDtalks or South by the Southwest Conference (SXSW). It gives me an empyreal feeling – It’s inspirational!

I predict many benefits to such a conference. It would allow us to develop a supportive community and build a variegated network of resources. It may even inspire us with ideas for new companies, or the motivation needed for a career change. While, at the same time, it might put us face to face with the very people who could make that possible.

For example, living in Chicago, I never thought of government jobs, but after working four years at the U.S. Embassy, I definitely encourage our young graduate Assyrians to seek employment with the State Department. Embassy jobs are amazing. I met friends who spend two to three years in different countries at the government’s expense. One of my friends is going to France; and another to Denmark. The pieces of the puzzle that a person would need to make that happen – the details – are something I can bring to the table. So I asked myself “If there are a thousand of us, what else will be added to the mix?”

To put it succinctly, it will be a place where we share our experiences, adventures, lessons, achievements, and meet like-minded Assyrians. As I believe that any new start-up/company with two or three founders stands a better chance of success because it has multiple skill sets built into its foundation, the initial conference could be exploratory, and would offer the environment for potential founders to emerge. And it would offer us an easier reach to the pioneers of Silicon Valley and corporate America. This could be an exponential career growth to many of us.

There are many questions such as: how does this differ from LinkedIn? What does it offer that the current Convention does not? Why start another, separate organization? Why not do all this within the AANF?  (And many others).

I don’t have all the answers. But to start, I found out that many of our people do not attend the Assyrian Convention for a variety of reasons. This could run separate from the influence of any of our religious or political establishments. It could focus on professional development of the Assyrian workforce. The expanded social network and the new friendships that are bound to develop out of it, would just be an added benefit.

My second goal is to improve as many relationships as possible. I value our connection! I found the “weakest” links in my friendship network are not weak at all and have improved my life. I believe there is more mutual value than we realize in our limited, online connection. 

Here are a few extra things about me, I am 40 years old, traveled to 24 countries, write my own blog and am on a quest to read 10,000 books in my life time. It has been quite a journey thus far and most unlikely without the help or encouragement of my professional network.

I am open for discussion and building professional relationships; and even a few more close friendships.  Life and business should be experienced with those who truly value each other. I am willing to build the bridge between the real online world and real real world whenever feasible.

I might be on the fringes, but it’s a propitious time. I rhapsodize about achieving this success. Please let me know if you believe the concept of Assyrian Conference of Professionals worthy of merit and you would like to be part of such gathering.

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