I have been invited to speak at the upcoming North American Vietnamese Student Associations / Vietnamese Interacting as One Conference in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend. I will be speaking on “Media Editing” and will give a workshop on how to edit video and create effective trailers and slideshows for PR purposes. This is a great conference for Vietnamese youths across the country and just last year, I was very involved in starting this conference. Besides unimportant people like me, there will also be Three Seasons director Tony Bui, Project Vietnam director BS Quynh Kieu, presenters from VNHelp and many more. My friend and colleague Tammy Tran will also present on VietACT, a fairly new, but promising organization that combats human trafficking of Vietnamese women and children.
Note only do we hope to have Vietnamese youths across the United States come together and network to build the strong national youth community similar to that that exists over in Australia, but we also want to come up with a concrete philanthropic project that will benefit a Vietnamese non-profit organization.
Today's the last day to pre-register. The $100 early-bird registration fee covers all the housing costs at DePaul University, meals for the entire weekend and the entire conference activities and materials.
Please help spread the word!
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Thirty years after the first Vietnamese refugees resettled in the United States, the second generation of Vietnamese Americans is now becoming tomorrow's leaders. The NAVSA / VIA-1 Conference 2005 will provide these maturing youth with opportunities to learn how to effectively mobilize their communities, to improve their communication and media skills, and to explore unconventional advocacy, media, public relations and persuasive communication techniques, thereby allowing attendees to build on their existing talents. In addition, through panel discussions with successful Vietnamese Americans from a wide range of occupational backgrounds (including entertainment, athletics, and business), the conference will highlight a few exciting, promising career options that many youths may not have previously considered.
But more significantly, the NAVSA / VIA-1 Conference 2005 will break new ground. It will challenge the leaders of tomorrow to bring to life the conference theme, "Acting in Unity: Making Hope a Reality." The conference will unite VSA chapters from across the continent behind a collective philanthropic project to be chosen by attendees at the conference. Among the potential charitable organizations to be chosen are: Project Vietnam, VietACT, VietHope and VNHELP. During the conference, attendees will brainstorm and plan how to best contribute to this project, and during the months immediately following the conference, attendees and their respective youth groups will execute upon the plan.
NAVSA / VIA-1 intend that this initiative will set a precedent for an annual collective philanthropy project. Each year going forward, the NAVSA / VIA-1 philanthropy project will serve as a way for conference attendees to use their refined skills and give back to the community in North America and Vietnam.
The first annual NAVSA conference was held last year in Boston, MA, while VIA-1 has held past conference in Cincinnati, OH and Ann Arbor, MI. Given the similar goals of both organizations, the conferences have been combined, and this year's gathering will be held in Chicago, IL, co-hosted by the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California (UVSA) and the Illinois Vietnamese Students Union (IVSU).
If you are interested in this conference, please register NOW! The $100 registration fee covers all housing costs @ DePaul University, meals for entire weekend, conference activities and materials. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!!