Theme: Rethinking Us

The event was aimed at giving the youth a chance to "rethink" their surroundings, options and most of all their actions.

Hladia Hall
Lahore
Pakistan

Jazib Zahir

Jazib has graduated from Stanford and LUMS and has worked with technology companies in Pakistan and the United States. He is presently Chief Operations Officer of Tintash, a Lahore based startup that develops games and applications for platforms like Facebook and the iPhone. He remains involved in teaching at LUMS and Lahore Grammar School and freelances for The News. A recent passion has been social entrepreneurship though involvement with the Association for Development of Pakistan, Bags for Bliss, EcoEnergy Finance and the International College of American Nursing in Sri Lanka.

Natasha Noorani

Natasha is a multi-talented individual with a diverse set of interests including music, debates and photography. She created a photography website called ‘Snapistan’ with the intent to better the image of Pakistan via images by working with photographers from all over Pakistan. During the flood crisis she spearheaded flood relief efforts for the NGO, READ (Rural Education and Area Development) as head volunteer, collecting over Rs. 1 million and visiting over 4 different flood affected areas to help with packet distribution and documentation.

Faisal Mahmood

Faisal Mahmood is a student of Electronics Engineering at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI). He is also the Vice Chair of IEEE – GIKI and member of ACM, IET, WAYS and numerous other IEEE sister societies. He is a young researcher and a great supporter of Research & Development trends in Pakistan. He already has several research publications and, an upcoming book and an international patent in line at the age of 23. He sees research trends from a very different angle and has been involved in a number of research projects during the past two years.

Sonya Rehman

After writing vociferously for six years, Sonya did a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Although she was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship, she was also awarded the Pulitzer Moore Fellowship at Columbia. Sonya had the privilege of being selected for an internship with CNN (New York) for the ‘Amanpour’ show during her last semester at Columbia. Sonya has focused extensively on bringing all things related to Pakistani arts, to print. She currently writes for mainstay publications in Pakistan (The Friday Times, Express Tribune, Newsline, etc). Along with her writing, Sonya taught Print, Radio and Television at the Lahore School of Economics as a Visiting Faculty member in the winter of 2010.

Younas Chowdry

Younas is currently majoring in General Management from Imperial College of Business Studies. He is the founder and director of LAAL Theatre; a community service organization that trains underprivileged children and adults to use theatre (mostly street theatre) as a medium for raising awareness about social issues. His interest in theatre is vast and other than directing plays he has also acted in several stage plays. Younas is also involved with the Curtain Call Society as it’s Project Manager and Board Member, helping produce entertainment related events such as plays, concerts, and fashion shows. He has written several articles on a freelance basis for magazines, newspapers and journals including Tehelka (Indian Magazine).

Mehreen Kasana

Mehreen Kasana is an American Pakistani Media student based in Lahore. She is currently pursuing her Bachelors Degree in Media and Political Science from Forman Christian College, Lahore. She enjoys writing humorously about society, politics, art and feminism. Her blog is replete with interesting doodles and amusing anecdotes of a life spent here and abroad. She blogs for Dawn and Express Tribune (as a satirist) whenever it’s possible. Mehreen has been an American Presidential Debater and, later on, British Parliamentary Debater. She judges debates on provincial and national levels.

Zubair Khan

Zubair Khan is CEO at Tranchulas. He has been researching mainly on cyber warfare and on various other facets of information security for the past seven years. He has conducted large enterprise security assessments and given information security consultancy to top organizations of Pakistan as well as security trainings at various forums in Pakistan and abroad. He has previously presented at renowned security conferences including Hack.lu Luxembourg, Hack In The Box Malaysia and Infosek Slovenia. Chairman of Pakistan Engineering Development Board and Chairman of Pakistan Engineering Council recognize his research and work. Zubair holds a bachelor’s degree in Business IT from Curtin University of Technology, Australia. He is CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor), CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) and also ISO27001 ISMS (Information Security Management System) Auditor.

Elaine Alam

Elaine is a senior at Kinnaird College for Women majoring in International Relations. She has enhanced her academic knowledge by attending various conferences including Active Citizenship Workshop for Young Pakistanis; organised by the British Council. Since 2008 she has been working for National Commission for Inter-Religious Dialogue and Ecumenism (NCIDE). Her experience includes writing proposals and ensuring regular communication with both local and international partners. She is also responsible for ‘P.I.A.;Building Bridges Over Religious and Cultural Divides in Pakistan, India & Afghanistan’. She has used this platform to make a contribution in the recent flood relief efforts. Apart from this Elaine has conducted a number of workshops and conferences including one in Peshawar at Sarhad University training 50 students in Intercultural and interfaith dialogue.