Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Week of 5/30 Events

Mon 5/30 - "The New Virtual World" presented by Ahmed Ben Nejma (4PM)

Tues 5/31 - Guest Speaker: Farah Pandith, US Special Representative to Muslim Communities (4PM)


Farah Pandith is a senior US State Department official who was appointed by Hillary Clinton to represent the US to Muslim communities around the world. Farah is herself a Muslim-American, originally from Kashmir.

She her profile here: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/125492.htm

Farah will speak about some of her recent initiatives and about America's relations with the Muslim world. She will also answer comments and questions that Tunisian AC members may have.

This is a great way to make your voice heard to a senior State Department official. Don't miss this opportunity. Come and make your voice heard about the issues that are most important to you!

Wed 6/1 - Public Speaking Competition (4PM)

Thurs 6/2 - Star Academy AMIDEAST Karaoke Event Season 4 (3PM in AMIDEAST Main Building Basement)

Fri 6/3 - Meet with Muslim-American Hip-Hop Group REMARKABLE CURRENT (10AM at AC)


Remarkable Current, a Muslim-American rap group, is on tour in Tunisia, and YOU have a chance to meet them in person live! Come to the AC at 10AM on Friday June 3 to join in a round table discussion and Q&A with this talented group of hip-hop artists. Later the same day, you can attend one of their concerts free.

Learn about the group: http://www.remarkablecurrent.com/Remarkable_Current/home.html

Fri 6/3 - Film: "The Graveman" by Tunisian Filmmaker Ghanem Gawar (3PM at AC)


This is a short film. After the film, Tunisian filmmaker Ghanem Gawar will facilitate a discussion about this movie.

Fri 6/3 - FREE Remarkable Current Concert (7PM at Centre Culturel Menzah 6, Tunis)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Week of 5/23 Events

Mon 5/23 - Conversation Hour: An Eye-for-an-Eye as a Policy of Punishments (discussing the acid attack in Iran) (4PM)

Tues 5/24 - Presentation on Iran (4PM)

Wed 5/25 - Public Speaking Workshop (recommended fo Public Speaking Competition participants but open to all) (4PM)

Thurs 5/26 - English Game (4PM)

Fri 5/27 - Guest Speaker: Wei Wei Hsing from the Acumen Fun
d

More Info
The Acumen Fund is an American social enterprise that funds small businesses in developing countries, especially in Africa (not Tunisia though yet). If you are interested in NGOs, social entrepreneurship, and economic development issues, you should attend this session. Wei Wei will discuss the story of how Acumen Fund started and the type of work that it does.

To learn more about Acumen Fund, check this out: http://www.acumenfund.org/

To see Wei Wei's bio, see here: http://www.acumenfund.org/about-us/our-team/wei-wei-hsing.html

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Announcing the AC Public Speaking Competition

Are you the next Martin Luther King? The next Gamal Abd al-Nasser? The next Malcolm X? Can you inspire and move people with your words? If you answered YES, then read on.

The AC will be hosting a public speaking competition on Wednesday June 1 at 4PM. Anyone can participate. Participants must present a speech of no more than 5 minutes on the theme of: "The Future of the Tunisian Revolution". Speeches will be judged on 1) content, 2) style, and 3) how inspirational they were.

1 participant will be selected as the winner of the contest, and will receive a prize of 50TD and a certificate for 1st place in the competition.

If you want to enter this contest, please sign up by e-mailing your interest to rkaneriya@amideast.org.

American Corner Business Entrepreneurship Month

Below is the outline of the programs that are slated for AC Business Entrepreneurship Month. The 4 weeks of June will each contain programs around the following 4 themes: Marketing, Finance, Management, and Product Development. Each week consists of trainings, workshops, or information sessions on the weekly theme. The final event of each week is a team-oriented competition that will allow teams to put the theoretic knowledge of the previous sessions to practice. I am looking into the possibility of providing financial prizes to the winning team of each week’s challenges.

Bulleted explanations of activities and programs are provided where explanation is necessary.

People who attend at least 6 of the 8 activities below that are marked by an asterisk (*) plus at least 4 of the 11 programs without an asterisk will receive an official certificate endorsed by Injaz, the American Corner, Shell, Citigroup, and other participating companies and organizations that signifies their successful completion of a rigorous month of business training programming.

Most sessions will be held in English. Participation in these programs is open to anyone and is FREE.
• Where: American Corner at AMIDEAST, 22 Rue al-Amine al-Abbassi, Cite Jardins, 1002 Tunis Belvedere (near Place Pasteur and the British Council)
• When: See times next to events below.

Marketing Week (Week of June 5)

Mon June 6 (4PM) – Marketing Workshop by Injaz

Tues June 7 (4PM) – Guest Speaker on Careers in Marketing by Injaz

*Wed June 8 (4PM) – Brainstorming and Designing a Tourism Marketing Campaign for Tunisia
• Teams of students will put together a marketing campaign to promote tourism in Tunisia. They will create a logo to market Tunisia and put together a concept presentation for an advertisement to encourage tourism in Tunisia

*Thurs June 9 (4PM) – Preparation for Sandwich Selling Contest
• Students will be given around 15TD to buy ingredients to make sandwiches. They must decide what types of sandwiches they will make, how to promote their sandwich brand with posters and advertising, and how to price and sell their sandwiches. They will make their plans, and on Friday or Saturday, they will go to a public location (currently slated for Menzah 6 in front on Monoprix) and try to sell their sandwiches to regular citizens.

*Fri or Sat June 10 or 11 (1PM-4PM) – Sandwich Selling Contest in Public location
• Sandwich selling teams will have 3 hours to sell sandwiches in Menzah 6. The team with the highest profit wins.

Finance Week (Week of June 12)

Mon June 13 (4PM) – Finance Fundamentals by Ravi
• Workshop on financial statements and basic ratios for financial analysis

Tues June 14 (4PM) – Guest Speaker on Technical and Financial Analysis from Injaz
• Speaker will explain tools for making stock investment decisions

Wed June 15 (4PM) – Banking Simulation or Banking Professional Talking about Career in Banking Industry by Injaz

*Thurs June 16 (4PM) – Kick-Off Stock Market Investing Competition
• I will introduce teams to the website we will use for investing in stocks (not for real just for pretend), and explain the rules of the game. Teams can research stocks and determine which picks to buy. The objective is to maximize return on their investments.

Management Week (Week of June 19)

Mon June 20 (4PM) – Employee Engagement Presentation by Ravi
• I’ll present about employee management and motivation.

Tues June 21 (4PM) – Presentation of Good to Great by Ravi
• I will present management best practices from the business book Good to Great.

Wed June 22 (4PM) – Guest Speaker on Management by Injaz

Thurs June 23 (4PM) – Short 1-2 hour simulation on HR or Information Session on Careers in HR

*Fri June 24 (4PM) – Short Business Case Activity (full time shouldn’t be more than 2 hours) or if that isn’t possible, then shortened Management Dilemmas and Scenarios Challenge judged by someone from Injaz
• Injaz is looking into a business case problem that could be completed (reading and discussion and all) in 2 hours maximum. If such a case cannot be found, the proposal is for Injaz to select a facilitator who can pose 1-2 paragraph management scenarios or ethical dilemmas in management that teams would have to react to. The Injaz-selected facilitator of the event would select the team at the end who he thinks has offered the best management solutions to the problems posed. That team would be judged the winning of this contest.

Product Development Week (Week of June 26)

Mon June 27 (4PM) – Strategies for Innovative Thinking by Ravi
• I’ll present some techniques and tools that can be used to practice innovative thinking and a creative mindset

Tues June 28 (4PM) – Guest Speaker on Product Development or R&D/Intro to Careers in R&D by Injaz

*Wed June 29 (4PM) – Workshop on Redesigning a Table
• Teams will be given a boring everyday object like a table. They must brainstorm creative ideas on how to redesign a table by giving it additional features, capabilities, and/or a new look. Teams will organize their ideas into a presentation

* Thurs June 30 (4PM) – Team Presentations of Table Resign Concepts to Judge Provided by Injaz
• Teams from Wednesday will present their table redesign ideas to a judge selected by Injaz who will choose the winning team

*Fri July 1 (4PM) – Results of Stock Market Investing Competition from Finance Week Announced

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Week of 5/16 Events

Mon 5/16 - Presentation on Tunisian Jewish Heritage by Ahmed (4PM)

Tues 5/17 - Presentation on Irish History by Mourad (4PM)

Wed 5/18 - Guest Speaker: Ian, an American Middle East Peace Activist (3PM)

Wed 5/18 - Conversation Hour: "Will there be a Third Intifadah in Palestine?" facilitated by Rania (4PM)

Thurs 5/19 - Fun English Game (4PM)

Fri 5/20 - Documentary + Discussion: "Beyond Belief" (4PM)

This documentary is about 2 American women whose husbands were killed in 9/11. But instead of hating Muslims, they decided to honor their husbands' memories by going to Afghanistan to help women there who had also lost their husbands in war. After this film, there will be a discussion.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Week of 5/9 Events

Mon 5/9 - Conversation Hour: The Death of Osama Bin Laden (4PM)

Tues 5/10 - Debate Club: Targeted Assassinations (4PM)

Wed 5/11 - Conversation Hour: Royalty and Monarchies (4PM)

Thurs 5/12 - Conversation Hour: Police Brutality (4PM)

Fri 5/13 - Film: "Yes Man"