16 August 2008

ScaLDS 2008 – general ideas

This post is a more general one, I intend to make some special posts about different things in ScaLDS.

ScaLDS - or Scandinavian Leadership Development Seminar – is a conference that started in 2004, in Norway, and unite every year MCs and EBs (respectively National and Local AIESEC Executive Boards) from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The main purpose of this is to connect AIESEC Scandinavian countries (with very similar internal and external trends) and leverage on it, making AIESEC grow in performance.

This year ScaLDS was hosted by Sweden, the first day in Stockholm and the rest of the 4 days of the conference in Fiskeboden. All MCs from Scandinavia are required as facilitators, so that was my involvement in it. I must confess that I was very very annoyed and frustrated with ScaLDS, all the confusion, going forth and backwards all the time. Yes, Imagine 20 people, from around 12 nationalities, scattered in 5 different countries, trying to create a common conference agenda, mostly using virtual means of communication, and you will have a more or less clear picture of it. That’s probably the recipe for chaos – and, if this was the recipe, I must say that it actually worked perfectly.

So, I was totally not wanting to go to ScaLDS, I thought it would be the crappiest conference ever and I would hate it. I had so much to do, ScaLDS was always under prioritized. Our arrival at Sweden was also not so promising: 8 hours by bus (much worse than the Brazilian ones) and when we set foot in Stockholm, around 6am, we had this marvelous idea of going to sleep a little in the Swedish MC apartment, dropping off our luggage and going for some sightseeing around. The thing is that none of us brought any kind of contact list and, in this modern Gmail times, where everyone relies on internet connection, we could not get one with our internetless and useless laptops. So Sonam knew where the MC flat was and we went, after some 30-45 minutes trip by bus. When we arrive, we knocked in every door and, to our surprise, there was no AIESECers around. Our discovery? The MC has changed flat, most precisely at the other end of town.

Besides all this, at pre-meeting, when meeting the 20 Scandinavian MCs, people from all continents, things started to heat up. Those high talented people working together, with the help of the AMAZING chair, Marina, from Romenia, was incredible. We started to get along, joke, work, discuss, disagree, make roll call and, when we looked again, we were this huge big Scandinavian team. Objective number 1 of ScaLDS accomplished.

Our energy was very high, we wanted to make the best conference ever. And, when the time came, when the delegates were in the plenary for the first time, I knew that was destinated to be a great conference. I felt very energized, more than in my first AIESEC conference. I thought conferences would never give me this chill again, but I was wrong. ScaLDS rocked.

Besides the amazing conference team and the delegates themselves, there was a group of 8 individuals that made my days happier and sunnier in the rainy Fiskeboden. My homegroup, the “10 Nature Suckers” (don’t try do understand the name). Homegroup is a small group of people, lead by a facilitator (in that case me) throughout the conference, almost delivering the sessions in a personalized way, making the experienced for the individuals more relevant. And, of course, you really get to know much better these people than the other delegates, so we really bound together. I was so extremely lucky to have this amazing homegroup. They were so passionate, intelligent, commited and funny. I felt I really impacted the life of those 8 amazing people and I will have them forever in my heart. My first facilitation in home group – I was very afraid, because I was never in a home group conference before even as delegate. But it went better than I would imagine. ScaLDS really challenged my world view about how things are in Scandinavia, changed my opinion about how impactful a conference can be, about how a chair can save a conference, how a group of people with a high diversity can create a better outcome than the best individual in the world, how I can have meaningful conversations, etc. ScaLDS was a huge hammer in my brain and one of the best AIESEC experiences I had – probably the best conference, beating even the amazing TR Track at Conade 2007.

The other group of people that realy surprised me in a good way were my 4 LCVPTMs. Oh - my - god, they are so good! In our discussions, they were really alive and kicking, even in the early morning after parting or late in the night. They are brilliant and they get the concepts so fast. I am sure they will rock supreme Talent Management this year. This is the year of change and those guys will lead it, for sure.

And, of course, I could not forget the FUN TEAM. Fun team is a team responsible to make some jokes and games during the conference - since Unite, my first fun team experience, I ALWAYS want to be from this team. We have so much fun together, it's amazing. Don't understand me wrong, usually we suck at making people laugh, but we have some good laughter, so that's great! In fact one of the only "compliments" we got was "yeah, fun team is not funny, but they are better than the avarage fun team". Our shout was:

- Hey fun team! - WE SUCK!

Some random moments in ScaLDS:

The unforgetable faci team:

Minutes before opening plenary:
Conference team roll call (the process of creating it was so funny!)


Fun team judging the performance of the AIESEC talents during the global village:

Me and Sveinung at Pina Colada party:

The fun team and the gossip box in the gala dinner:

The absolutely amazing view from Fiskeboden:


ScaLDS rocks, these Scandinavians are always surprising me. If every conference was like that, people would pay to be part of AIESEC. Thanks a lot!

We’re Nordics, We’re Nordics
We’re far away from home,
We’re highly obnoxious
So leave us alone
We drink when we’re thirsty
We drink when we’re drunk
We drink ‘till we’re motherless
And have a good time ti ai ai aim
Sing, sing, arriba arriba
We live it up, we live it up
We live it up, we do
So give us some Aquavit

If the ocean was whisky
And I was a duck
I’d swing to the bottom
And never come up
But the ocean aint whisky
And I am no duck
So lets go to ScaLDS
And have a good ti ai ai aim
Sing, sing, arriba arriba
We live it up, we live it up
We live it up, we do
So give us some Aquavit!

2 comments:

  1. who's leading the fun team and holding the mic? =p

    It could be no one else but you.

    crazy little funny bastard! =p

    (but I have to admit that fun teams are SOOOOO funny for us who are part of it =])

    ReplyDelete
  2. nooo, I was not the fun team leader - it was Sveinung, DAMN FUNNY DUDE. :) But I was the "project leader" of the gossip box ;)

    ReplyDelete

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