The Kanara Entrepreneurs (KE) held its first meeting of 2022 on Friday, February 18 at The Grand Magrath Hotel here. It was attended by close to 100 members.

The meeting started at 6:45 PM with the KE prayer recited by Leena Lobo.

A minute of silence was observed in prayer for the soul of KE immediate past president, Charles Gomes’ mother Late Angeline Gomes who passed away on January 27 this year.

Wishes were extended to Jeethan Castelino who got married on February 16 and congratulations to Vivon and Shinie Pinto who were blessed with a daughter on January 16.

President Clarence Pereira welcomed the members. In his welcome address, he reminded the gathering that Valentine’s Day was an expression of love and friendship which only gets better, stronger with good communication. “In a similar manner, even in business, we will always need to stay connected and constantly communicate with our employees, vendors, customers, stakeholders, government and our community,” he said.

Clarence stressed on the need to some key points while communicating:
- Willingness to reciprocate
- Honest conversations not always with a motive of seeking benefits
- Treating others the way you want to be treated
- Welcoming feedbacks and respecting other’s ideas
“We listen half, we understand quarter, think zero and we react double,” he opined.

With this powerful message, Clarence opened an engaging, exciting and event filled evening.

Pramod D’Souza, director membership, congratulated all the members for the growing enrolments and stressed the importance of communicating and networking.

On the occasion, five new members were inducted with the oath taking ceremony and all their seniors present gave them a standing welcome. They are, Rohan Francis Fernandes, human resource business partner, Sanjay Isaiah, authorised immigration and business consultant to Australia, Praveen Peter, proprietor at Niduslink, also a budding politician, Jimcy Raphael, CEO, Avenue Consultancy Pvt Ltd (recruitment specialist) and Abraham Varghese, founder, Heliosys Technologies.

GenNow member Nishan got the gathering energized with his explanation on the importance of communication on the dance floor. He shared some great insights on the history of dance, the use of energy and communication through actions that play an important role while dancing with a partner. He got all the participants dancing to his tunes.

Later, three more members took the stage to showcase their business and spoke on how to make best use of their products and services.

Noel Fernandes of My Home Painting Solutions, a colour consultant who understands the 3600 shades of colors. He can help determine the colors that will go very well in the paints for a home. Leslie Quadros of Zebedee Ventures, a real estate consultant, shared the details of his new project Canterbury Hills. He spoke about how his organisation helped build homes and make it a rewarding experience. Martin D’Souza of Light house Entertainment, an entertainer, trainer, an award winning international clown entertained the gathering. Martin is one among the few people for whom laughter is a serious business.

To give an experience on networking, GenNow member Vilina Sequeira conducted a focused group discussion for all the members. It was an opportunity to connect, know and express how people could support each other.

Anoop Sequeira conducted an eye-opening session on the power of networking. On a real-time platform, he demonstrated how and where we should use the KE network. The collective experience of about 2000+ years in the room was an amazing platform to start networking. He shared how this power of networking, could help members scale up their businesses or knowledge per se.

The GenNow team led by Eugene Mathias shared their plans to review KE GenNow and welcomed more members to take advantage of the KE platform.

Neil Rodrigues, Vilina Sequeira and Nivedith Alva then shared their experiences with the KE. They expressed gratitude to KE for the multiple ways in which they benefited from the members.

The meeting concluded with the announcement of two members taking up the BoD roles, Sunil D’Sa, associate director – events and Anil Peter Monteiro, director – marketing.

Emcee Seleena Joshi conducted the meeting efficiently. Philip Pais, director of events made all arrangements under the safety protocols.

The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks followed by further discussions on networking and, cocktails and dinner.

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