Zayd Enam dazzles the regional ICT sector!

He came, he presented, he conquered. I am referring of course to 17 year old Zayd Enam. He dazzled us at the P@SHA Tech Crunch Gong Award. He won the hearts of the judges and attendees at the P@SHA ICT Awards. And then we brought him with us to the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) in Melbourne Australia to present his project in the Secondary School Student category. And he has done it again! In the words of one of the judges on the judging panel in his category “He is Pakistan’s future Bill Gates – he was the clear winner from the start – way ahead of anyone else who presented in the category. There was no doubt that he was the winner”. Can you imagine how great it felt to hear that? I did however clear him up on the fact that Zayd had already been tagged in Pakistan as a young Steve Jobs ;), so Bill Gates would have to wait in line.

As I write this post, no-one in the Pakistani delegation – not even Zayd or judges Zafar and Sultan – are aware of the fact that young Zayd has won the APICTA Award in the Secondary School Student category. In the Head Judges’ Briefing and the EXCO endorsement meeting, Zayd was specifically mentioned as being a unique young man who had shown himself to be different from any young person his age who had ever presented at APICTA.

Zayd’s journey to this APICTA win is worth mentioning. When he won the P@SHA Tech Crunch Gong Award & the P@SHA ICT Award, he was thrilled but not complacent. P@SHA had never brought a Secondary School Student to APICTA but Chairman Yusuf Jan, CEC members Imran Zia, Jawwad Farid, Zafar Khan, Sultan Hamdani and I all agreed that it would be a great idea to start introducing younger participants at these regional events especially if they were as talented as Zayd.

Once we had informed Zayd of this decision, Jawwad Ahmed Farid took over the task of mentoring him and preparing him for his participation & presentation at APICTA. And Zayd obviously listened intently and followed the advice offered to him. Once he arrived in Melbourne, Zafar Khan and Sultan Hamdani took him under their wing and continued the mentoring. I helped a wee bit too.

But it was Zayd’s own commitment that has got him to this stage. I saw him work painstakingly on his presentation until the very last moment. He presented to as many of us as would listen, as many times as we would listen. Pictures and videos were added, it was rehearsed, it was fine-tuned again and again. I was very impressed to see the amount of work this young man put into the exercise. He took the task extremely seriously.

And it wasn’t just the presentation he was concerned about. Many of us business people can learn  how to ‘work’ an event from this young man. He networked with many individuals, was curious about the product displays and had discussions with as many attendees as he was able to. It was a delight to see him network. One of the Malaysian health sector companies who heard about him, actually approached him and offered him an internship 🙂 but Zayd doesn’t like the concept of internships. And why does he even need it? He is already an entrepreneur working on a startup in the social sector.

We have had APICTA wins in the past and we have been very proud of our companies’ achievements but there is something special about this win and definitely something very special about this young man. We will continue to support him in any way we can. There is no doubt in our minds that Zayd Enam will continue to make Pakistan proud and he is certainly someone we should all continue to watch. Well done Zayd! Way to go! We are extremely proud of you.