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Elana Wong
Migration Advocate at Major Group for Children & Youth - Co-Founder of Colours of Edinburgh
Professional Background
Elana Wong is a distinguished professional with extensive experience in sociology, global change, and youth development. Her career is marked by a commitment to social justice and advocacy for children and youth. Currently, she serves as the Global Focal Point for Migration at the Major Group for Children and Youth, where she plays a vital role in representing the perspectives of young people on global migration issues. This important position highlights her dedication to elevating youth voices and promoting inclusive policies on migration.
Previously, Elana has held various influential roles that have shaped her expertise in research, communications, and project management. As the Co-Founder and People & Research Director (Non-Executive) at COLOURS of Edinburgh, she contributed significantly to the organization's mission of empowerment through art and culture. Her leadership and vision were pivotal during her tenure, where she focused on fostering community engagement and cultural exchange.
Elana's impressive array of internships across diverse fields showcases her versatility and adaptability in both the artistic and non-profit sectors. She has served as a Communications Intern at Aflatoun International, a role that honed her skills in communication strategies aimed at advancing education and entrepreneurship for children and youth worldwide. Through her experience as the Asia & Pacific Regional Focal Point for Migration at the Major Group for Children and Youth, she was instrumental in preparing young leaders for international dialogues on migration.
In addition to her advocacy work, Elana's background includes significant contributions in editorial and research capacities. Her role as a Research Manager at COLOURS of Edinburgh involved conducting in-depth research that informed various programs targeted at youth engagement in the arts. Her internship experiences as an Online Editorial Intern at Wallpaper* and as an Editorial Intern at Cosmetic Surgery & Beauty Magazine reflect her strong writing and communication skills, which are crucial in showcasing stories that matter to her audience.
Her diverse professional journey reinforces her capabilities across various sectors while underscoring her passion for promoting sustainable development, youth empowerment, and cultural narratives.
Education and Achievements
Elana Wong's educational journey is as impressive as her professional career, characterized by a strong foundation in sociology and the humanities. She earned a Master of Science (MSc) in Sociology and Global Change with Distinction (1st Class) from The University of Edinburgh, a notable institution renowned for its rigorous academic programs and innovative research. This degree has not only provided her with theoretical perspectives on societal changes but has also equipped her with the tools necessary to analyze complex global issues.
Before her master's studies, Elana completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts, majoring in English Literature with a minor in Development Geography, at King's College London, where she graduated with Upper Second Class (High Merit). This interdisciplinary education has given her a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between literature, culture, and geographical factors in shaping human experiences.
Elana's academic pursuits also include a Semester Abroad at University College Maastricht, where she further broadened her educational horizon by studying Liberal Arts and Sciences. Additionally, her strong international perspective was nurtured through her International Baccalaureate program at UWC South East Asia, which emphasizes intercultural communication and global citizenship.
Elana’s academic performance, distinguished by awards and commendations, reflects her dedication to her studies and her exceptional analytical abilities in dissecting complex social issues.
Achievements
Throughout her professional and academic career, Elana Wong has made significant contributions that have been recognized in various forums. Her role as a Global Focal Point for Migration puts her at the forefront of youth advocacy at the global level, making her a leading figure in the discourse on migration impacts and youth empowerment.
Elana’s work as Co-Founder and People & Research Director at COLOURS of Edinburgh serves as a testament to her entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to community engagement through the arts. Her leadership in implementing impactful programs has been vital in ensuring diverse representation and participation among young people in artistic pursuits and community building.
Her internships have not only provided invaluable learning experiences but also contributed to notable projects that address pressing societal issues, such as youth education and entrepreneurship. Her ability to communicate effectively and engage stakeholders has been consistently demonstrated across her various roles, making her
Highlights
After 3 crazy, challenging, and amazing years with MYCP, last month I completed my mandate as Global Focal Point / Co-director.
Joining without any prior experience in anything politics- related, just a desire to volunteer spare lockdown time to furthering rights & justice, I cannot be more honoured, humbled and grateful for all the amazing people who have offered me their guidance, time and trust.
With my amazing 2020- 2021 Asia-Pacific regional team Jerry Nguyen (Minh) and Aayesha F., later joined by Global Compact for Migration national youth consultation leaders, we facilitated APAC youth engagement from 8 countries in the Bali Process Meeting, Global Compact for Migration APAC Regional Review, the 3rd Migration Youth Forum and the 13th GFMD Summit chaired by the UAE.
Then, first with Marta Verani and then Alicja Lelwic-Ojeda, two strong women I'm grateful to call friends and mentors, we expanded MYCP's ability to elevate the voices of young people in global migration governance. From co-leading the Preparatory Roundtable 3 for the IMRF with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and World Health Organization, ensuring a young migrant-led delegation represented youth priorities at the first International Migration Review Forum, to co-creating the first UCLG Youth Caucus representing throughout the Town Hall processes and at the UCLG Daejeon World Congress 2022, working with France & the Secretariat to facilitate meaningful youth participation in the upcoming French Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), and co-founding the Youth on the Move Fellowship programme with UNICEF; we have volunteered our time to one-day seeing young people with sustainable, meaningful seats at the table, no matter their background.
I am so thankful for the opportunities myself and MYCP have been offered during my time, and even more grateful for the spaces we've had to fight for- and everyone who has worked tirelessly with me for them.
Particularly, for their support, guidance and faith, I want to thank the wonderful UNICEF team: Verena Knaus, Giulia A., Nour Bahaa Moussa, Daniela Knoppik, Melanie Teff; Neha Sinha from IOM - UN Migration; all the Civil Society Action Committee members & team; Sophie van Haasen & Clara Keller-Skupień - Mayors Mechanism; Stéphanie Winet & Mirela Stoia - Business Mechanism; Fátima Fernández Fernández, Prachi Metawala, Pablo Fernández Marmissolle Daguerre, Massimo S. Perrino, & the incredible force Emilia Saiz from UCLG. Most importantly, I want to thank all my amazing, driven MYCP team members.
🎉 I'm excited to share that I have now joined the incredible Action Committee / GFMD Civil Society Mechanism team with Colin Rajah, Stephane Jaquemet and Oumou Diallo. I'm so grateful and delighted to be able to continue working for the rights of migrants everywhere, and to leave MYCP in the extremely capable hands of our Alicja, and new executive leaders Florencio Venté, Milena F., and Aryan Sanghrajka!
An extremely belated post but, I’m incredibly incredibly honoured to have won the Community Spirits Award at the #WomenoftheFuture 2022 Awards last November!
Thank you so much to Women of the Future Programme for this incredible opportunity and such a lovely evening, I’m so grateful and still shocked to have won from such an amazing shortlist! And a huge huge thank you to my amazing team Migration Youth & Children Platform - everything we have achieved has been a team effort and I can’t imagine doing all this without you all.
I can’t possibly mention everyone, but shoutouts especially to Alicja Lelwic-Ojeda, Marta Verani, Elise Pundyk (she/her), Zihan Xuan, Srihari Govind, Lukmon Akintola, Florencio Venté, Yasmina Benslimane, Riza Franchesca REGALA, Léa Aleyna FOURNIER and Colin Rajah for their energy and being personal inspirations to me these past few months, and to all our amazing colleagues and partners who continue to believe in us, in meaningful youth representation, and believe that every part of society deserves to have a say in the decisions that shape all our lives.
It was particularly meaningful to be recognised as a Woman of the Future in the UK. Migrants, even those privileged like myself, are often treated as guests reluctantly allowed to be here temporarily- constantly reminded of the additional costs and requirements we must fulfil to be deemed ‘valuable’ enough to enter these borders and stay. To be on a visa and still be counted amongst a cohort of amazing women building the country means so much, and is an incredibly powerful recognition of all that migrant and diaspora communities do for their host societies- I can't thank the selection committee enough!
I’m excited to enter 2023 as part of this wonderful community of inspiring leaders from all industries and walks of life. Here’s to a year of connecting, mutual learning and growth!
(Bonus thanks to my girl, and impact leader in her own right, Claudia Radu for always making me laugh and being the best date!)
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.