This section is about International AIESEC seminar experiences.
The idea is to tell about the enthusiasm, great feelings and important learning points gained in seminars.
This is to encourage our members to go in international seminars and to show our diverse possibilities also to new people interested in AIESEC.
Kats’ story from WENA LDS 2010
Being as an AIESECer for a year, having been to many national conferences, so when knowing there are international conferences coming, I thought, it came to time that I have to go for it. I wanted to have as much AIESEC experience as I can. Because there were so many conferences going on in the world at that moment, so choosing which one to go for was really a tricky. I struggled for a while between the Solution in Vienna and WENA LDS. But I am happy and completely satisfied with my choice finally. I feel so grateful and lucky to be selected as one of the super cool WENA LDS 2010 delegate in Malta
The conference lasted for 5 days from 12th until 16th of March. It took place in Suncret resort located in Qwara city of Malta. There were more around 300 AIESECers from WENA and other regions as well, such as Tunisia, Egypt, Croatia, Morocco and Turkey, etc. the whole conference was just as massive as promise. I was impressed by the CC (congress committee), their reception was so well-planned and thorough. The airport pickup was great, pre-lodging was good, instruction was clear thanks also to the communication team with the media as Facebook group, fast response, always keep the friendly spirit though there were some problems with flight booking whatever. Another amazing thing was the Air Malta flight discount for delegates. They were so talented being able to have that deal. Though I didn’t have any benefit from it, because there was no direct flight from Finland but I still felt thankful for those who had it because looking for economic flight ticket to Malta was not easy at all. Talking about the plenary, I have to say it was awesome. I’d never liked to go to morning plenary before, but they always had surprised program for us such as karaoke from Men to Women, Awesome Talk, Real people real story of AIESECers, those were really awesome, the Croatian punishment was also one of my favorite part, it was hilarious. About the rollcalls, it always is the best part of the show, I was so amazed being able to watch all different global rollcalls, some were really innovative, I at least took home some of those and wish to implement them to our LC. To some countries, practicing rollcalls is part of their AIESEC activities. The sessions, I have to admit I like all the sessions provide. We were grouped into small home group with 15 people. With our members, we did sessions together during the whole conference. And the sessions were so practical and fun to do; it helped connecting people, building team spirit. Some helped defining goals, planning future… Thanks to all of that, we all were connected like we were friend long ago, we went through up and down, we lost, we won, we were mad at each other, we praised and supported each other. It is no joke; I actually made some really good friends from there. Finally, we won the Best Homegroup and the project game. And the Nordic circle, we did many of it, but the most memorable one was the last one on the last night. The whole Scandinavian delegates in one circle, toasting, confessing feeling toward each other, it was so touching, the moment of truth so we may call. There were people that actually cried in that Nordic circle. I also restrain my tear whiling toasting. That may be one of those moment that I can never forget in life. Or the closing plenary, when everyone standing singing the last song together before leaving home, then started hugging each other for one last time. Those pictures were so beautiful to see.
Here are some of the memorable moments from the conference.
If I have to grade this conference, I will give it an A+ for organizing and facilitating. The general review to me is absolutely positive though there were few shortcomings but it didn’t really matter compared to large amount of the positive impacts it had on us.
Alexis’ story from WENA LDS 2008
Hello everyone! My name is Alexis Lastikka. I’ve been a member in AIESEC Tampere’s ICX-team for about a year and was voted this spring as the VP ICX for the term 08-09. As I was planning to apply for the EB of the upcoming term, the opportunity to apply and attend to the nearing WENA LDS 2008-seminar seemed very tempting and interesting. Since this seminar is mainly aimed for the members of the current EB or for the members who are intending on taking a leadership role in AIESEC during the next term this was also a very well-timed occasion concerning my input in AIESEC and for my Local Committee in Tampere.
The WENA LDS 2008-conference, which was held between the 3rd and the 7th of March, was my first international conference with AIESEC. I was really excited and interested in seeing and meeting many different people from around Europe and Northern America as members of AIESEC as well as individuals from various cultures.
It was amazing to see so many nice and friendly people when I finally arrived at the opening site of the conference. The opening was held on Monday afternoon in a beautiful hall in the center of Bamberg, an old and nice town in Bavaria which is famous for its many local beer breweries. We also got to know some other facts about Bamberg and its history during the opening event as well as hear live traditional music from Bamberg played with different flutes.
After the opening we headed for the conference site itself which was situated in a beautiful small town on hills called Heiligenstadt, a half an hour bus drive away from Bamberg. The site was a peaceful and natural area with a cosy youth hostel and many bungalows to provide us accommodation. We were divided into twelve small home groups which acted as an essential and important network through the whole conference.
On the second day we had funny and interesting outdoor sessions with our own home groups, which we had gotten familiar with on the opening day. The outdoor day included mostly blindfolded sessions which taught us to work as a group and to trust ourselves and other group members. It was a very good way to get to know your group better via the practical co-operation involved.
On Wednesday we had some self reflection concerning our values and their relations and importance to us as leaders and to leadership as a whole. We practiced presentation skills at most of these home group events for example when we were presenting our values through our own artistic pictures to the other members of the group. That day we also had some interesting former members of AIESEC as external quests to give us sessions about different topics such as selling or deep conversation. The evening was climaxed with the official dinner which was a really nice experience as they always tend to be.
Thursday provided us with many self reflection and discussion events with our home groups. We were discussing the leadership and its role in society and also considering our own characteristics and goals as a person and how they would apply to ourselves as leaders. It was really great to have also other group member’s views and face-to-face feedback of my characteristics and to analyze and give my own feedback to other group members as individuals and leaders. In the evening there were superb parties with the great and unifying AIESEC dances and spirit, like in every evening of the conference.
Me(2nd from right) having a lunch with (from the left) Johanna from Germany, Euryn from Iceland, Dario from Italy and Sylvia from Italy"
On the last day of the conference, after sharing our contacts to keep in touch also after the seminar, we headed back towards the center of Bamberg. We had our beautiful public Global Village there in a local shopping mall. It was like the whole Europe being gathered and present in one hall with every country having e.g. their traditional food and clothes exhibited. It was such an emotional way to end the great experience.
In addition, I took part in an amazing three-day Study Tour with a group of about twenty WENA-participants. It was a perfect way to get to know the other internationally-minded people even better. And, of course, to see the beautiful landscape of Bavaria and explore three of its wonderful and historical cities: Bamberg, Nurnberg and Munich.
All I can do for you via this report is to warmly recommend these international conferences AIESEC realizes every year; for WENA LDS really pushed me forwards and helped me to discover my inner leader, which, I am sure, is possessed by every individual.
Alexis Lastikka
VP ICX 2008-2009
AIESEC Tampere
Anne’s story from WeGrow 2007
This is the conference report from WeGrow 2007, which was held in Greece. The starting place was Athens and the main part of the seminar was held in a hotel a couple of hours from Athens. Around 150 delegates from approximately 20 countries attended the seminar and 13 of them were Finns. I travelled to Greece with a couple of guys from LC Saimaa and spent the first day sightseeing with them.
The first official day, Wednesday, didn’t hold any sessions in it. After the official opening in Athens everyone moved to a nearby market square where we held an open-air Global Village. It was open for public and it sure did attract a lot of interested people. If I remember right, the estimation of visitors was around 2000. I’m sure all the @ers and ‘normal people’ were having a great time. The rest of the day was just travelling to the conference site and chilling out. We were also divided into Home Groups. Some of the sessions were held in those groups and we also reflected on the days and gave feedback during our Home Group time.
Thursday was started by individual goal setting for the conference and continued with a session on how to cooperate with other LCs. Some outdoor activities was thrown into the agenda before a long session about AIESEC history, AIESEC Way, how to measure success in Growth Networks, what is our contribution for 2010-vision and some statistics about exchange. All the history and @ Way-stuff was a bit out of place, I think, since all the delegates had been through those things during the recruitment and induction of new members. But the statistics were the most interesting part for me and it was really fascinating to get a more global picture of the whole exchange situation and to realize how huge some countries are in exchange. Pro-Action Café, where people divided into groups to discuss their mutual interests and problems, was held during the evening. The atmosphere was great and there were people who really got help to their problems.
Almost the whole Friday was a single long simulation, but the day started off by revising all the current WENA GN projects (EUnity, Horizon, Bridging the Gap). The simulation was held in our Home Groups and all the Home Groups got a new ‘identity’. We had to roleplay an LC and do all the stuff an LC does during the year. I was a Student Relations person with a Dutch girl and our job was basically to do OGX stuff (while having a fancy new title). The simulation was a great experience, I think this was the session I got the most out of during the seminar. The first problems occurred when different countries had different job descriptions and abbreviations so some of us were a bit confused on what we were supposed to do. But when we got started, it was fine. The sim was hectic from start to finish. We had deadlines all the time, people were running around the place delivering messages and going to meetings. The biggest problem, I think, was that people weren’t communicating well enough between ‘teams’. No one knew what other people were doing or if they had problems or anything. And our Project Manager was just running around and trying to maintain the bigger picture. This was the main problem we agreed on during the feedback session and realized it could have been easily evaded. We just didn’t agree on mutual communication and updating rules at the beginning of the simulation.
During the evening there were some lighter program, Living Library. Some of the facis were telling about their own experiences in different roles during their AIESEC career. That was a really interesting session and could have lasted longer.
On Saturday there was a session called ‘The WeGrow University: Global Tools for Achievement in your LC & Project Managers Excellence’. Basically we got to choose two shorter sessions around the topic we found interesting and useful. I attended a session about Learning Environment in LCs and the other one was Pool Diversification. The latter one was about how to expand to other EP types in our universities and how to attract them. I was the tiniest bit disappointed since it didn’t quite live to my expectations and wasn’t as useful as I hoped it to be. On the afternoon there was two sessions related to topic ‘Leading my team to success’. Again we got to choose what sessions to attend based on our needs. I chose a session about how to have an effective meeting and another about delegating. We did simulations on both sessions and it was great to receive tips from different people. Those sessions were very much needed, and I found them to be really useful.
The bigger stuff on Sunday was the Good Case Practice Fair where every country had their own stands and listed down good & bad things in their country or LC. People were going around and discussing things that were relevant to them. This really was interesting and gave a better picture of what is happening in other countries. The rest of the day was just wrapping up and reflections on what we learned during the conference.
On the whole, WeGrow was really amazing. Not paying attention to a few practical problems during the conference, the content of the conference was useful and interesting and the people (both delegates and facis, and also OC) were awesome. The most useful conversations were of course during free time, breaks and Home Group time, and every one of them was interesting and meaningful in its own way. I got so many new friends from other countries, but also from the other Finnish delegates. The week had been intense and leaving was definitely sad, but I truly felt the conference was worth every effort.
Anne Ruupunen
Vice President of Outgoing Exchange 07/08
AIESEC Tampere
Mika’s Story from EuroCo 2007
The seminar was organized in Lithuania in Vilnus 6-11.10.2007. I flight from Tampere to Riga and from Riga I traveled by bus to Vilnus. During the same travelling I also used some days time to get known Vilnus and Riga.
There was really much of program during the seminar and the agenda was full of everything. There were plenaries, learning sessions, time with home group, discussion times and many workshops. Every night there were also parties and one evening there were kind of gala night in Vilnus. With the official program, first we started by trying to figure out what kind of leaders we are. What could be our strengts and weaknesses? On the evening we had learning circles where we formed learning circles around the topics or concerns we were specially interested about. Only one person was speaking on the time. The next day we had some externals telling us about some special topics and I was listening a topic about entrepreneurship. After that we had some workshops about things which we were specially interested. I was in workshops of coaching and delegation. I learned specially very much during those workshops and those things I think I’ll never forget.
On tuesday was the day of our Growth Network where we got more to know different realities aroung which we were living on different countries. We got information about different projects of West European and North America Growth Network. Also we had a session of myaiesec.net and we all got a bit shocked because changes were happening so fast with the system. On the evening we had a living library and it was really interesting to listen different stories of people telling about their lives in AIESEC. Secon latest day was a wednesday. We had different really interesting learning sessions during the day and on the evening there was a gala night. Thursday was a short day, because it was the day of leaving. Everything happened so fast.
There were 160 LCP’s from all around the Europe and also from some other parts of the world in EUROCO. On the beginning I was really confused with so many unknown people. Soon I started to get used to it and I started to learn to know so many amazing people and their stories. Everyone was really open and it wasn’t difficult to get know people. It was interesting to hear how enormous AIESEC actually was in many other countries as for example Poland, Netherlands and Turkey. I feeled as we are only little players in Finland. That international understanding was something that I really got in Euroco and I started to see AIESEC with different eyes. I got friends from all over the world and now I have so many contacts to AIESECers in other countries. Maybe the best I remember many of those individual or little group discussions which were held in groups, evenings or during the pauses. When Euroco finished, I felt that everything happened so fast and all the friends left to their countries. There are so many lovely people that I maybe don’t see anymore, but I think that some day..
As learning points, maybe some of the most important things I learned were: What means to be really an active learner? How to do coaching? How to delegate? How to concretely measure your learning? As I want to be active learner, I want really to take these things to my practices. One saying which I learned from my Egypt friend Sami and which will be fascinating my rest of life, is:
”People look at things as they are and ask why.. I dream about the things that never were and ask why not… ”
Mika Hämäläinen
LCP of TUT 2007-2008
Mikko’s story from WeGrow 2007
The seminar started with the first public Global Village of my life. International atmosphere was tangible and AIESEC really showed its positive impact to society when ordinary people came to see stands and people of over 20 nations presenting their best in the market place.
The seminar itself was held little bit away from Athens at a well equipped hotel on a silent bay somewhere west from Athens. The bus travel took at least two hours. Hotel was on sea shore, had orange trees on the yard and a swimming pool. Some people got also possibility to enjoy its cold water during an Olympics activity where we practiced how to feel achievement (our generation in WENA GN is “Generation of Achievers”).
On first days we learned about our own Growth Network WENA (Western Europe and Northern America) and about what it really is to be part of an international organization and what is our situation or status related to other GNs and inside our own GN as separate nationalities. At last days we had a possibility to learn about best practice cases of those all countries and during the all seminar we of course formed personal relations to the people throughout the whole network. For me as a becoming EP the networking events were also a possibility to sniff how the TN situation in the Mediterranean area is. I’m applying for traineeship in this region and Latin America.
In functional time there was not straight area for neither Reception nor Information Systems but I considered myself most like ICX people and selected the activities that I did not know much before. Still there was one practice about reception and there I found out the importance of a buddy system for trainees. We hadn’t by this time that kind of system in Tampere and that gave an initiative for buddy system and Reception Team when some months after I came back to Finland. Not a bad thing at all: I could start my leadership role in AIESEC leading the buddy system! For the coming leadership role I also learned in seminar the importance of communication as one part of leadership. Another very new thing was a practice about issue based experience and project based LC structure.
Last day of the trip was left for sightseeing and I could enjoy the participation with Swiss AIESECers when looking around the places in Athens. Being part of AIESEC unified us as one group during the trip although I only know few of them by face from previous international seminar and those few days in this seminar. That’s one of the miracles that only AIESEC can do!
Mikko Setälä
Reception and Information Systems Coordinator
AIESEC Tampere
Term 2007-2008
Mikael’s Stroy Anatolia Congress, Istanbul
I was an AIESEC trainee in HSBC Oman for three months during the summer 2008. In June I got an e-mail from AIESEC Istanbul promoting an AIESEC Conference to be held in Istanbul in July. I had never been in an international conference before and this one seemed really interesting. I asked opinions from my AIESEC colleagues in Oman and one of them had been in Anatolia in 2007. She told only good stories about it so I decided to ask few days off from HSBC and finally got a leave after some bureaucracy.
I didn’t receive a lot of information about the program before but after arriving to Istanbul airport there were some organisers and few delegates to warmly welcome me to Turkey. Anatolia Congress is organized every year during the summer months and this year there were 250 delegates from 40 different countries. People mainly came from Former Yugoslavia and Greece but farthest delegate flew over from Texas, USA. As the delegate distribution already suggests, the theme of the conference was “Multicultural Communication”.
During the conference we stayed in nice hotel next to the sea about 30 kilometers from Istanbul. On the first night we had reception with some high-level speeches and dancing followed by introduction party at the hotel. Next day we had full program starting with funny role calls from all the different countries. We also had presentations from Levi’s, Istanbul city and organizers. On the breaks we ate well, networked with other delegates and danced AIESEC dances.
On the night I experienced the best Global Village I’ve ever been. The idea of the Global Village is to introduce own culture to other participants by offering traditional dishes and drinks, dressing traditionally and playing own country’s music. This time the Global Village was outside on the pool and I didn’t even have time to go through all the almost 40 stands. It was so much fun and after we had after party in the hotel. Next day we had company presentations and problem solving exercises in groups. We also had some free time to go to relax on the beach and learn more about different cultures from other delegates. We had dinner in downtown Istanbul and we also stayed there over the night for next day’s study tour.
Usually there is a one or two day study tour either before or after every AIESEC conference. It is not part of official conference program but I really recommend taking part on those. This time we had a two-day study tour around Istanbul. It included historical sites of Istanbul and it ended on a beautiful cruise along Bosporus strait between Europe and Asia.
Anatolia Congress was a great experience and I made many new friends as well as learned new things. I still keep in contact with other delegates weekly and we plan to visit each others or attend same conferences in future. I recommend everyone to experience international AIESEC conference at least once. But just a warning, after first one you might get hooked…;)
Mikael Mäkinen, AIESEC Tampere
International Trainers Congress 2009
Prague, Czeckh Republic, 19th to 26th April 2009
Delegate: Thomas Westerberg
About International Trainings Congress
ITC is one of international conferences co-organized by AIESEC International. ITC is not a talent management conference. It is a conference dedicated to training, education and learning in AIESEC. Although those areas are often associated with talent management, they are in fact important for everyone serving in leadership position in the organization. It is also not a train the trainers conference. TtT’s focus on skills and other practical issues in the area of trainings. While in ITC you can also improve your practical skills in training, the main focus on theoretical education and the understanding of training and learning in AIESEC.
ITC’09 was organazied in 19th to 26th April 2009 in Prague, the capital of Czeckh Republic. The hotel that served as venue for the conference was excellent, although presence of aiesecers probably disturbed the other guests quite much, as the venue wasn’t dedicated to the conference. There was also two day pre-conference study tour, that was attended by part of the delegates. First day of study tour visited the historical town of Kutna Hora, and the second day focused on visiting sightseeing in the city of Prague.
The chair of the event was Vishal Jodhani, newly selected AI VP TM for the term 09-10. Conference manager was Sophie Lamprou, then current AI VP TM for the term 08-09. The delegates and facilitators included people from various European and MENA countries, Asia and a Canadian facilitator.
The content included theoretical topics in learning and training, various training methodologies, laboratories and workshop discussing current state of training and learning in the organization. There was also one day at the end of the conference dedicated to trying all these things in practice.
Most valuable things gained from the conference
During the conference I learned lot of valuable things about education, training and learning in AIESEC. Important was also the conferences orientation that learning leads action and results (learning = knowledge + action) instead of learning being just an activity to gain more knowledge.
For me the conference personally important, because everything in the conference connected some way on how organizations change and learn, a topic that has topic of interest for me sometime. I also met quite many new people, who had similar mindset as mine, and with whom I have remained in contact since then.
For the local committee of AIESEC Tampere, one of the most important things can be output in general, because there is lot of inromation about training and education. Of more specific topics, the output o f transition laboratory might be interesting.
Contact
Thomas Westerberg
thomas.westerberg[aiesec.net]
More information:
ITC’09 Live Wiki (output):
http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10075027
ITC’09 wiki for delegates:
http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10037391
ITC’09 website:
ITC’09 Transition Laboratory Output:
http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewfile.do?contentid=10076044
http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewfile.do?contentid=10076045
