It was great and reassuring to see other people who were just like me - coming to terms with their cultural upbringing and how that affects their work.  To know there are other people going through this makes this makes me realise I don't have to try and work this out alone - there's now a whole community here to support, and work things out with me!

It's an invigorating feeling to be surrounded by people who stand for the same thing: to grow leadership ourselves and our communities. I realised that even though our communities may be different - in gender, in affiliation or ethnicity - the goal itself did not change, and DAWN allowed us to share past experiences, and tease out future project ideas together...generally over good food and wine.

I attended the second and fifth Conversations last year and found it fascinating to hear the experiences of accomplished Asian-Australians from a diverse range of professional fields. It was both inspiring to hear how they had overcome their culture-and gender-related challenges, and reassuring to learn that they too had experienced such challenges! The Conversations also provided an opportunity to network with other like-minded people: networking which for me, unlike any other event I had ever attended, came very naturally and made me feel very much at ease. It was a welcoming and supportive environment, with an implicit connection among us due to our similar cultural heritage.