| The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO)—which represents millions of people of Indian origin from various parts of the globe—has spread its wings into Queensland, Australia. The GOPIO Queensland Chapter was officially inaugurated on September 7, 2008 during the inaugural GOPIO Asia Pacific conference.
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MEETING OF MINDS:
The GOPIO meet at Brisbane was all about successful speed networking. The delegates were mostly from Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Fiji, South Africa and Mauritius
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The two-day conference was hosted in Ipswich with the support of Ipswich City Council and Ipswich mayor Paul
Pisasale. The Queensland chapter is headed by Umesh Chandra as president, Maha Sinathamby as patron, Vinita Khusal as secretary, Yousuf Alikhan as treasurer, Shyam Das and Rakesh Sharma as vice-presidents, other founding members are Baldev Singh
Nijjar, Usha Chandra, Satpal Singh, Satnam Singh
Roopra, Rajesh Malik, Sunil Gurram and professor Prasad
Yarlagadda.
The inauguration ceremony was conducted by GOPIO International chairman Mahyendrah Utchanah from Mauritius and GOPIO International president P.P. Devaraj from Sri Lanka. Mayor Paul Pisasale was admitted as life member of GOPIO
Queensland. The inaugural gala dinner function was held at the Jimboom room of Ipswich Turf Club.
| The function was attended by many leading community leaders. The delegates had a special Aussie BBQ lunch experience in an especially erected marquee |
Mahyendrah Utchanah
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By all accounts the first GOPIO Asia Pacific conference was highly successful. The conference was held at the University of Southern Queensland Auditorium in Springfield.
The programme began with meetings at various hotels, followed by a conducted coach tour of Ipswich. The delegates had a special Australian BBQ lunch experience in an especially erected marquee.
Official country reports were presented by the delegates from Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India though other countries including Fiji and South Africa were present. After the country reports, a very successful speed networking session was conducted.
Mayor Paul Pisasale was surprised by a birthday cake for him to mark his birthday. Guests were entertained by the lively music by the Brisbane Babas Band. The function was attended by many leading business people, politicians and community leaders who were all impressed by the quality of the conference as a whole. |
