TamilCulture.com's series of 'Global Tamil Connections' events aim to bring together creators, professionals and entrepreneurs from the Tamil community to promote cross-border business opportunities. Whether you’re selling software, books, clothes, content, ideas and more, tapping into the Tamil diaspora can be a critical path to success, which TC aims to facilitate, both online and offline, around the world.
Past events: 'Global Tamil Connections' event hosted in Toronto
On Wed Oct. 30th, we hosted Global Tamil Connections {Singapore}: My Entrepreneurial Journey featuring Singaporean-Tamil author Vanitha Tonn, who spoke about her journey as the founder of Vaaranam Children's Books. Participants included members of the Singaporean Tamil community, who are actively involved in promoting and preserving the Tamil language through their various initiatives.
Highlights from Vanitha's talk:
- It's important to find engaging ways of educating children about the Tamil language to ensure its continuity amongst the younger generation, particularly in countries where Tamil is not a formal language
- To stay motivated, it's important to focus on the 'why' behind your entrepreneurial pursuit and have a passion for it. For Vanitha, it's the love for the Tamil language, which she adopted from a young age which keeps her going. Furthermore, the testimonials she receives from parents in faraway places like Norway, who reach out to thank her for providing an avenue to educate their children which also keep her motivated
- It's important to rely on each other and find collaborative opportunities in the community to form relevant business partnerships
- Focusing on building a reputable brand, even if it initially increases your costs, is critical to build a brand that consumers can trust and get behind
- As a community, we don't hesitate to spend hundreds of dollars on clothing, but hesitate to spend money on educational materials which have a positive, life-long impact - this is an area that we need to improve upon
- There will be challenges along the way (vendor issues, cost issues etc) but focusing on the 'why' behind your idea will push you to keep going
Attendees included:
Arun Mahizhnan is Special Research Adviser at the Institute of Policy Studies.
He undertakes selected special projects at the Institute. Currently, he is leading the effort to publish Singapore Chronicles, a 50-volume book series to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s Independence. He was previously Deputy Director and the head of the Arts, Culture and Media research cluster in IPS. His past research interests also included business issues such as the regionalisation of the Singapore economy and development of entrepreneurship.
Arun was also concurrently an Adjunct Professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information at the Nanyang Technological University till 2017.
Before joining IPS in 1991, he had worked in both the public and private sectors for 20 years, mostly in public communication fields. The appointments he has held include CEO, Hill & Knowlton; Public Affairs Manager, Mobil Oil Singapore; and Senior Producer, Radio Television Singapore.
Subha N.
Subha N. is the founder and director of Wordsmith Learning Hub, a leading Tamil Learning Centre in Singapore, providing quality Tamil coaching to primary and secondary Tamil students. Subha has also launched the Wordsmith Online Tamil Dictionary which contains more than 50,000 Tamil words in one place.
Deepa Asha Dewi
Deepa is the founder of Tamil With Love, an educational supply store which aims to promote a love for Tamil through games, merchandise and books.
Thani
Thani is the president of the NTU Tamil Literary Society, a young vibrant Society which was started back in 2010 with the main aim of celebrating the Tamil language and also to promote the literature part of the language in various ways through key events that are conducted every year.
Interested in hosting a Global Tamil Connections event in your city? Give us a shout at [email protected]!
Purchase your copy of Vanitha's Tamil children's books on TC Mrkt.
