February 23, 2014: American Telugu Association (ATA), held a Conference Organizing Committees Meeting today at the Hindu Temple of Delaware, Hockessin, DE. This is in preparation for its 13th Annual Conference & Youth Convention at Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA from Jul 3rd to 5th, 2014.
ATA Board members, all Conference Committee members, Advisory Committees’ members and Organizing Committee members attended the meeting along with various prominent personalities from the North East area.
A round the clock effort is on to make the 13th Annual conference a grand success. To that effect, 50 organizing committees, each responsible for a different activity, have been convened for the conference preparations 250 members of these committees met today to discuss their planning and implementation strategy. The individual committees’ activities for the next four months were the main agenda and each committee presented their strategy.
The meeting started with a prayer and welcome note by Parmesh Bheemreddy, Convener of the13th ATA conference. As part of his opening note, Parmesh informed that the conference registrations are now open and people have already started registering online. He also informed that the convention is expected to attract more than 10,000 attendees from all over USA. He presented details of planning completed so far and stressed on the importance of paying attention to the minutest details in planning & execution to ensure, guests feel comfortable during the 3 day convention
Bhuvanesh Boojala, Conference Coordinator, expressed confidence on making the 13th annual conference & youth convention a memorable event for all the attendees, and will remain as “one of its kind” in the history of Telugu community in the USA.
Conference Director, Balwanth Kommidi, said that the convention date fast approaching, committees have to speed up the work, ATA is known for hospitality and we can make it a big success by working together.
Presidents elect Sudhakar Perkari, also spoke and briefed on recently concluded “ATA Vedukalu” in India. He informed that the response was overwhelming and continued on to say that ATA will plan to conduct various events in coming four months to take the ATA convention details to every Telugu speaking individual in the United States. Various local chapters have already planned to organize “Americalo Aadapadachulu” program for Telugu women, as well as fundraising events.
Madhava Mosarla, Co-Convener and Krishna Dyapa, Local Coordinator also expressed their happiness for ATA organizing its convention in the city of Philadelphia and spoke about how wonderful local Telugu communities of Northeastern USA are
Fundraising committee Chairman Ram Mattapalli explained how the team is planning to raise funds for the mega event. He informed that Virginia fundraising event raised about $ 400,000, Raleigh event raised about $ 60,000. He said that several fundraising events in New Jersey, New York and other cities are planned and hoping to receive generous donations from Telugu community
Business Committee Chair Jayanth Challa introduced the team and stressed the importance of Telugu business community to participate in the 13th ATA convention, as prominent personalities in the business and well-being are invited to the event. This is going to be a very good learning experience for the new and experienced businessmen.
Women’s forum chair Saroja Sagaram introduced the team and presented the planned agenda for the women’s forum. Since there is an increased concern over domestic violence and human trafficking, forum is planning to discuss these issues along with Health & working women issues.
Food Committee Chairman Ramesh Maganti explained how important the food committee’s role is going to be and how elaborate plans are being made to serve authentic food for 3 days for more than 10,000 guests.
Cultural Committee Chair Indira Dixit introduced the committee members and detailed the plans to make cultural event a spectacular one.
Registration Committee Chair Ravi Patlola and team presented the newly developed online registration process. They explained the advantages of becoming a donor over the general registration. They also encouraged everyone to become ATA life members, as there is a registration fee discount for members.
Pratik Padooru, Youth Coordinator, is excited to be part of the ATA team to promote the American Telugu identity for the next generation. He hopes that the Philadelphia convention allows an opportunity to bring together Telugu youth to embrace our culture, learn new disciplines and make lasting connections.
Alumni Committee Chair Srinivas Dargula, Audio Visual Committee Chair Ravi Peddi, Banquet Committee Chair Rajesh Madireddy, Corporate Sponsorship Committee Chair Raj Chilumula, Children Programs Chair Mrudula, Venue Committee Chair Pradeep Suwarna, General Sports Committee Chair Madhu Vuradi, Golf Committee Chair Muralidhar Malyala, Hospitality Committee Co-Chairs Sravanth Poreddy and Venkat Tandra, Literary Committee Co-Chair Raj Seelam, NRI Committee Chair Manohar Enugu, Publicity Chair Vishnu Madhavaram, Regional Coordinator Uday Kommireddy, Safety & Security Committee Chair Lokesh Reddy, Senior Citizens Committee chair Madan Mohan Reddy Vanga, Souvenir Committee Co-Chair Srinivas Sagaram, Transportation Committee Chair Kiran Ala, Vendor Exhibit Committee Chair Venu Sankineni, Volunteer Committee Chair Madhusudan Kola, Web Committee Chair Suresh Reddy spoke at the event and presented their plans for the upcoming 13th Annual Conference.
A Photo Shoot was organized after the meeting, for each committee’s members and group photographs to be included in the website and also in souvenir. All committees actively participated in the Photo Shoot.
Later in the evening, ATA arranged a Happy Hour for all the attendees at Hockessin PAL Center from 4 PM to 7 PM.
ATA past President Rajender Jinna, local Conference advisors, Narsimha Reddy Koppula, Bal Kamireddy, Raj Chirra, Ravi Potluri, Ad-hoc members Vinod Koduru, Ram Mohan Konda, and ATA Board of Trustees Laxman Anugu, Suresh Jilla graced the occasion and wished the conference organizing committees a great success. Other prominent personalities like Hari Eppanapally from Lead India and Murali Chintalpani from Telangana Development Forum also attended the event
At conclusion, the ATA team extended their sincere thanks to Philadelphia team led by Parmesh Bheemreddy (Convener), Bhuvanesh Boojala (Coordinator), Madhav Mosarla (Co-Convener), and Krishna Dyapa (Local Coordinator) and the Regional Coordinator Govind Kondakindi, Venkat Madipadaga and volunteers Kiran Ala, Uday Kommireddy, Prashanth Guduguntla, and Srinivas Reddy for providing grand hospitality for all participants and for making the event grand success.
The authentic Indian lunch served at the meeting was sponsored by ATA, and the evening happy hour was hosted by Delaware ATA team. ATA team also thanked media partners E-TV, TV9, TV5, N-TV and all print & web media. ATA Conference team requested all the Telugu people across the USA to take this opportunity to attend fun-filled mega event by registering at www.ataconference.org
