Fulbright Talks, Emcees, Stand-up Comedy, and Masterclasses - the 15th Annual Fulbright Alumni Conference

15th Annual Fulbright Alumni Conference – Emerging Leaders

USEFP held its 15th annual Fulbright alumni conference at Serena Hotel from 30th November to 2nd December 2018 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The conference hosted 249 Fulbright alumni from cities across Pakistan including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Gilgit, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Sheikhupura and Quetta. The three-day conference featured live recorded talks, masterclass workshops, a stand-up comedy show, and a PUAN sponsored alumni dinner.

The Fulbright conference took a new direction this year adopting a live recorded talks format. To support this format, twenty-three alumni speakers participated in rehearsals for two months leading up to the conference. The talks, delivered to a live audience of Fulbright alumni and U.S. Embassy representatives, covered a diverse range of themes including cutting edge technology-based interventions in the fields of agriculture, economics, and data science; the impact of design thinking and human centered design; mental health interventions and mindfulness; compelling personal stories about battling drug addiction, poverty, and cultural practices; critiques on challenging social norms on issues including gender, disability inclusion, and accessibility to public spaces; and some powerful talks on the need for ethics and sensitivity in news reporting, and the need for long form storytelling through documentary film making.

The revamped conference was hosted by Fulbright alumni who volunteered as emcees to moderate the conference program; conducted masterclass workshops on Yoga, and Stress Management, and brought out a lot of laughs during a Friday night stand-up comedy show.

Filmed in 4K High Definition the recorded talks will be released under the brand, ‘Fulbright Talks’ nationwide through our new Fulbright Alumni Pakistan website and over social media in March 2019. The Fulbright Talks platform has been developed to share the academic knowledge and professional expertise of Fulbright alumni with audiences of all ages in Pakistan and the U.S.

Head over to the Memory Lane section to check out our image galleries from all three days of the conference!