Conference
1st International Conference
Call Center India
Indian By Day - American By Night
Sat 23 September 2006
Museum für Kommunikation, Schaumainkai 53, Frankfurt
12.00 h Indian Brunch - Foyer
13.30 h Entry for Conference
14.00 h Introduction
14.05 h Lecture Ashim Ahluwalia, Indien + discussion
14.50 h Lecture Vinod Shetty, India + discussion
15.35 h Indian Tea break
16.00 h Manfred Stockmann, Call Center Forum Deutschland e. V + discussion
17.00 h Panel Ashim Ahluwalia, Vinod Shetty, Manfred Stockmann:Resumée
Sat 23 Sept. Call Center Lounge and Party, 9 pm
Lala Mamoona, Zeil 1a, Frankfurt, No Entrance Fee
Fri, 22 and Sat, 23 September, 9.15 pm
"John & Jane" by Ashim Ahluwalia, 83 Min, English with German subtitles
22 Sept. with introduction by Ashim Ahluwalia
Kino Orfeos Erben, Hamburger Allee 45, Frankfurt
As this bookfair will present "Today's India" we thought of a suitable strong subject matter and decided to organise a conference on Call Centers in India.
Due to globalisation and India's economy aperture to internationalisation significant changes in parts of Indian’s economy emerged. As Western companies found well educated and English speaking professionals they offshored part of their IT-work to India. Since a couple of years the Call Center companies in the US and Great Britain also started to transfer part of their call centers to India, where they found well English speaking people and very low labour costs.
Indian Call Center agents mostly spend the working life during the night in the USA and wake up in Mumbai at bright daylight. They receive a so-called accent modification, adopt English names and are trained in the specifics of American culture.
Many questions arise from this special work patterns, including changes in family and social life, cultural implications, working conditions and the future. As changes in economy and in work life occur in India as well as in Germany, we would like to promote a vivid dialogue involving people from both origins. We also would like to emphasize the Indian perspective by inviting two representatives from India to present their views
As an atmospheric entrée for the conference associations and members of the Frankfurt Indian community will offer an Indian Brunch at the foyer of the "Museum für Kommunikation".
Ashim Ahluwalia, director, Mumbai/India
Ashim Ahluwalia was born in Bombay, India in 1972. He studied film at Bard College in New York. In 1999, Ahluwalia set up Film Republic, dedicated to producing Indian independent cinema outside the traditional .Bollywood. system. A year later, Ahluwalia completed THIN AIR, a documentary that followed the lives of three magicians against the backdrop of contemporary Bombay. The film won the Best Film Award at Film South Asia. Its radical treatment of the documentary form prompted The Times of India to write:"Films like THIN AIR are redefining the sub-continental documentary."
FILMOGRAPHY
John & Jane, 2005
Thin Air, 2000 (Best Film Award/ Film South Asia)
Vinod Shetty,
Secretary of Young Professional Collective, Mumbai/India
Vinod Shetty, 44, is a Human Rights/ Labour Lawyer, practising in the Industrial Courts and High Court of Mumbai. He is one of the founder members of YPC and also involved with textile workers union. He furthermore represents the Greenpeace and the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal in Mumbai. He has been actively involved in the Civil Liberties Movement in Mumbai for the last 20 years.
Manfred Stockmann, Munich, President of Call Center Forum Deutschland e.V,
will speak about offshoring in the European Call Center Business, stressing the European perspective.Manfred Stockmann, yob. 1961, is involved in Call Center Forum Deutschland e.V. since 1998, from 2000 on in the board as well and since autumn 2003 as its president. Within the European branch association ECCCO he is involved as vice-president. He is author of numerous articles in specialist publications as well as in demand speaker and moderator at seminars and specialist congresses. The Call Center Forum Deutschland e.V. (CCF) was founded in 1996 and has currently 280 members, among them leading service sector and industrials companies as well as banks, insurances and trading companies. It is the biggest platform of the German Call Center branch. One of the CCF’s main tasks is the exchange of know how on a regional, national and international level. Currently 380.000 people are working in 5.600 Call Centers in Germany.
Manfred Stockmann is dealing with building and further development of personal and organisational processes within companies for about 20 years, since 10 years with a focus on contact centre organisations and customer communication as well. After his studies of business economics and an additional qualification as a computer science in economics he started his career in the IT-branch. After several years he changed into strategic business. In the year 2002 he founded C.M.B.S. Managementberatung (="consulting)" for personal- und organisational development, in special consideration of service quality and customer orientation.
We thank the Museum für Kommunikation/Frankfurt, Amt für Wissenschaft und Kunst/Frankfurt, Amt für Multikulturelle Angelegenheiten/Frankfurt, Naspa-Stiftung/Wiesbaden, Kino Orfeos Erben/Frankfurt and BHF-BANK-Stiftung for their support. The conference is realised in cooperation with Heinrich Boell-Stiftung Hessen. Mediapartner is Frankfurter Rundschau
