This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
Canada: 
Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
From Kollywood movie stars to Fortune 500 business leaders, the 26th annual FeTNA convention is expected to draw thousands of people passionate about celebrating Tamil culture.
The Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) convention takes place in Toronto July 5 to 7 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. It is the first time the annual gathering of thousands of North American Tamils will take place outside of the United States. Toronto is home to more than 100,000 Tamils, one of the largest Tamil diasporas outside of South Asia.
The weekend, hosted by the Canadian Tamil Congress, will celebrate Tamil language, culture and heritage. It intends to draw stars from the second largest film industry in South Asia after Bollywood and provide an opportunity for Fortune 500 companies from Tamil Nadu, India to explore trade and investment opportunities in Ontario.
What’s happening at FeTNA 2013 convention:
· Kollywood guests, including notables such as ace director P. Samuthirakani. Kollywood is the second largest film industry in South Asia after Bollywood, inspiring Toronto film critic Review Raja to promote Tamil cinema and influencing internationally recognized Tamil Canadian filmmaker Lenin M. Sivam and actress Lisa Ray.
· The Business Forum on July 5 (9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. @ Hotel Novotel), supported by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment and Invest Toronto, will allow Fortune 500 economies from Tamil Nadu to explore trade and investment opportunities in Ontario. The forum will focus on various sectors, including Automotive/Advance manufacturing, Telecom/Digital Media, Environmental/Clean Technology and Life Sciences. India is expected to overtake Japan as the world’s third largest economy by 2015 and North American Tamils are ambassadors for trade in many sectors in India and globally.
Confirmed speakers include (advance interviews available):
· Steve Rodgers, former VP business development of Magna International and president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturer’s Association. He was instrumental in introducing Magna to India.
· White House Champion of Change, Sivalingam Sivananthan, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, founder of Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. and a leader of an effort to develop next-generation solar power.
· http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/blog
· Jay Vijayan, VP Business & IT, TESLA Motors
· Vijay Setlur, Marketing lecturer with Schulich School of Business
· Famed Indian dance instructor Madurai R. Muralidharan whose dance programs are internationally renowned brings together more than 120 Toronto classical dancers to perform the dance adaptation of a 1944 Tamil historical novel. Sivagamiyin Sabatham, widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written in Tamil, sparked widespread interest in Tamil history when it was first published. Meanwhile, Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance, has spread in popularity in Canada with many renowned dance instructors such as Lata Pada and Menaka Thakkar establishing leading dance companies in the city.
FeTNA, a U.S. based charitable, non-profit organization, seeks to preserve, promote and develop the advancement of knowledge in Tamil language, literature and culture, and foster understanding between Tamils and other cultures. The Tamil language, a national language in Sri Lanka and an official language of Singapore and Mauritius, is one of the longest surviving languages in the world and its literature has existed for more than 2,000 years.
Be the first to comment