I am in Brazil in the 3rd (or 4th?) day of IC (but I don’t know when I will have internet to post it). IC, the AIESEC International Congress, in rough lines, IC bring together 600 AIESECers from the 106 countries we are present in, but there’s much more people, partners, alumni, facilitators, etc. I guess it’s around 1000 people from all around the world. It’s very dear to me to come back to Brazil, especially because this congress celebrates the 60th anniversary of AIESEC (and Norway was one of the founding members).
The celebrations of the 60th anniversary are almost over and it was one of the most amazing 2 days in a conference. It was lots of meaningful discussions around a wide variety of topics using open spaces technology. I discussed about education and violence in Latin America and those discussions gave me some very meaningful insights on what I want to do with my life and how to start that.
What is most amazing in IC, though, isn’t the sessions – sometimes with unclear relevance or basic content – but the people you meet, the speakers sharing their wisdom, the thoughts you hear and discuss, the people from the countries you barely knew you get to know. I discussed with Venezuelans about some problems with Hugo Chaves, I saw people from Georgia and Russia speaking about the war that is going on, I saw people from US working on expanding AIESEC in the Middle East to make a positive impact, I met these very funny people from Kazakhstan, those smiling Lithuanians, re-joined the Nordics and the Latins with all our spirit and so on.
People, in the end, are the best input, process and output of IC.
I am having billions of thoughts, insights, challenging my own ideas and concepts, meeting amazing people, smart and passionate AIESECers, ex-AIESECers and partners. Just as an example, a couple of days ago Fabio Barbosa, CEO of Banco Real (ABN Brazil) and Santander Brazil, was speaking about sustainability. Considering Banco Real just won an award as the best bank around sustainability in the world, I guess he is a very qualified speaker. Other people who were speaking were Kelly Michel (founder of Artemisia), Martin Wandmaker (Global vice-president of Talent Management for DHL) and Toke Moller (co-creator of the Art-of-hosting and the guy who lead the open space time that I loved so much. But the “anonymous” people are great also, for example, Nicos, my roommate, which is a very easy going Greek dude and highly fun (as most Greeks here, I definitely want to visit it, they are so Brazilian).
Definitely, IC and AIESEC are life-changing experiences and I truly recommend to everyone. I am very grateful to AIESEC in Porto Alegre, that gave me the opportunity to start in this great organization. I hope I am up to the challenges I am setting to myself. If not I don’t know what would happen, but also if yes, so that’s pretty much ok. Living the present now.
That's why I love so much this organization and I'm so grateful for everything I experienced there!
ReplyDeleteDuring my @XP, I was already grateful for all the opportunities that were given to me – even things that I don’t have the opportunity to do now, when I’m working in ‘real world’.
I left AIESEC 1 year ago, and now (more than then!) I realize how great my time in AIESEC was, and how important it was to made me the person I am now.
[[I’m sure I don’t need telling you to enjoy this time and make the most of it. You’re so special (and I know it since we met, when you were “my ambassador” =p) that I know you know it, and feel AIESEC in a different way, as few in the organization really do).