On October 9, 2014, the AGBU Young Professionals of Buenos Aires (YP Buenos Aires) hosted an inaugural conference at the local AGBU Center, aiming to promote the professional development of Armenians ages 16 to 45 and foster the growth of the Argentinean-Armenian community. It was held in association with the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Argentina, Cámara Argentina-Armenia and PLAS [Profesionales Latinoamericanos Armenios en Salud] and sponsored by Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, Dental Medrano, Edelflex, Naku Construcciones SRL and Ritex.

Attended by over 100 participants, 70 percent of whom were new to YP Buenos Aires, the event began with welcoming remarks by Ana Sagrian, YP Buenos Aires treasurer and co-founder of the hospitality consulting group MAD About Hotels. Sagrian commented on the work of YP Buenos Aires, presented the objectives of the conference and introduced the first speaker, Juan Carlos Balassanian, the vice president of distribution sales for the Latin American division of the Turner Broadcasting System. In his presentation, Balassanian discussed various components of strategic negotiation, including models, stages and tools for practical application in both personal and professional realms.

After a brief break, during which attendees were invited to network with their peers, the conference resumed with two breakout sessions led by Adrián Gabriele and YP Buenos Aires committee member Juan Pablo Artinian. Gabriele, director of the sales and marketing firm HLT Network, delivered a presentation on leadership and cultural change within companies. He provided information on developing efficient teams and managing employees to achieve desired results. Artinian, a professor of history at the University of Buenos Aires, focused his talk on academic development and encouraged the members of the audience to consider opportunities to continue their education at the graduate level in Argentina and abroad. He also emphasized the importance of creating ties in academic and non-academic environments with professors, researchers and mentors.

The entire group came together once again for the final speaker, Matías Gainza Eurnekian, the president of Unitec Blue, the first microchip company in Latin America. Eurnekian discussed planning and management within organizations, the development and administration of companies with diverse business models and his experiences with business in Armenia.

The evening closed with a cocktail reception where the participants and speakers had a chance to create a network of professional contacts. For Julia Malumian, a real estate agent in Buenos Aires, the conference was the perfect opportunity to meet professionals in fields other than her own: “In today’s world, we rarely get to share experience or talk to one another, sometimes even when we’re working in the same office!” The conference also proved rewarding for students preparing for their careers: “The three presentations that I heard were captivating, because they were on topics that had to do with issues that could arise in daily life and questions that we have had at one time or another,” said Meliné Dicranian, a senior at the AGBU Marie Manoogian Institute who plans to study industrial engineering at the University of Buenos Aires next year. Alexis Mouradian, a student majoring in business administration at the University of Buenos Aires, echoed Dicranian’s sentiments, saying: “This experience was extremely enriching. The presentations allowed me to analyze businesses from the behavior of individuals and not only see them as ordinary transactions. The speakers knew how to captivate the audience and express their ideas very clearly. This YP event showed me that great things can come out of AGBU and it is a motivation to continue working for our community.”