Amazing experience! I participated in the Entrepreneurship track (the Alcatel Lucent part was already mentioned) and afterwards we had great keynote speakers, an open space and a forum. I have to say what impressed me the most today was this young guy called Vishen, an AIESEC alumni, which own a company called Mind Valley.
Absolutely mind blowing.
Besides being a great speaker, he had such amazing hints on how to build a great work place to work. He was so inspiring, so vision driven, I felt extremely touched by his way of thinking and working. Certainly I will implement some of these things in my current team and in AIESEC Norway. The guy is so generous, he is a true alumni example, he gave to us one of his company products to support us to achieve our goals. And, as his wife was in the norwegian AIESEC national board, I invited him to chair a conference in Norway and now we just need to set the date, because we has extremely up to it!
I am impressed with my own experience in International Congress. I didn't skip one single session and I am alive and kicking. My energy level is very high, I am not tired at all. And now I have a discussion with all the Presidents for 2.5 hours, which leads the end of it at 23:59.
Showing posts with label IC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IC. Show all posts
25 August 2009
My own AIESEC 2010
There was this session on International Congress to understand to ourselves what the global AIESEC 2010 vision means to each one of us. It was a very inspiring session with the virtual presence of the previous 5 AIESEC International Presidents: Brodie, Dey, Gabiza, Juan and, of course, Aman.
It was especially cool to see what Brodie had to say, since he is such a legendary icon for us AIESECers. In the last years, there was no one (and no team) in AIESEC so celebrated as he as President of AIESEC International and his team, the ones who were responsible for the process of the vision 2010 creation in the International Congress 2005, in India.
I am totally part of the 2010 generation. When I joined AIESEC, back in April 2005, my first regional conference (organized by my Committee, AIESEC Porto Alegre, Brazil) had a huge focus on the AIESEC 2010 vision. I feel really connected to it since them: when I was vice-president in my local committee, our team used the 2010 to create our own vision, when I was in the national board of Norway the same thing and, obviously, now that I am leading AIESEC Norway, the national vision is 100% based on the Global AIESEC 2010 vision.
To connect even more, on the session we were asked to create our own version of AIESEC 2010, a personal state, something that you will believe it's 2010 for you. And here is mine (rough words maybe, but the feeling is there):
I want to lead AIESEC Norway to accomplish 3 things:
- Achieve 99 exchanges realized
- Have star members living a 5 stars experience
- Be a financially sustainable organization
Personally, I want to be the CEO that AIESEC Norway needs to achieve the above and be admired for leading by example and supporting my team (my vice-presidents and my local committee presidents) to achieve together our goals and vision.
It was especially cool to see what Brodie had to say, since he is such a legendary icon for us AIESECers. In the last years, there was no one (and no team) in AIESEC so celebrated as he as President of AIESEC International and his team, the ones who were responsible for the process of the vision 2010 creation in the International Congress 2005, in India.
I am totally part of the 2010 generation. When I joined AIESEC, back in April 2005, my first regional conference (organized by my Committee, AIESEC Porto Alegre, Brazil) had a huge focus on the AIESEC 2010 vision. I feel really connected to it since them: when I was vice-president in my local committee, our team used the 2010 to create our own vision, when I was in the national board of Norway the same thing and, obviously, now that I am leading AIESEC Norway, the national vision is 100% based on the Global AIESEC 2010 vision.
To connect even more, on the session we were asked to create our own version of AIESEC 2010, a personal state, something that you will believe it's 2010 for you. And here is mine (rough words maybe, but the feeling is there):
I want to lead AIESEC Norway to accomplish 3 things:
- Achieve 99 exchanges realized
- Have star members living a 5 stars experience
- Be a financially sustainable organization
Personally, I want to be the CEO that AIESEC Norway needs to achieve the above and be admired for leading by example and supporting my team (my vice-presidents and my local committee presidents) to achieve together our goals and vision.
Youth to Business Forum
Besides interacting with AIESEC members and alumni, there is another key interaction that brings a hell lot of value to my AIESEC Experience constantly: interacting with "externals" - people not from AIESEC, but from other organizations, companies, government, etc. Here in International Congress 2009 in Malaysia we have one full day called Youth to Business Forum, where we can interact with these "externals".
I just left one workshop with Alcatel Lucent about entrepreneurship and it was amazinly good. Basically we discussed very briefly our ideas around what is entrepreneurship and went straight to practice, working in groups to come up with business ideas, pitching these ideas to the other groups and receiving investments.
Our idea was very successful and it was brilliant to discuss it with everyone, because it's something that I do intend to do in the future: an experiential learning program that attaches itself to normal education, giving to high school students the chance to develop competencies and skills such as project management, communication, leadership, etc. Of course, it was also great to receive the feedback that there was some holes in our idea, for example how we are going to fund it which needs to be a little further developed.
I truly believe that not only we AIESECers gain with it, but also the companies by hearing the youth voice in this matter. I may sound a little full of myself saying that AIESEC is the youth voice, but, hey, we have some thing going on there, see this example:
Recently there was an youth program that took 50 young people to Antartica to study the problem with the gobal warming. From thiese 50 people, 6 were AIESECers. Consider we have only 35,000 students and university students are millions, I guess this is a pretty advanced representation when talking about youth that actually DO SOMETHING to change the planet into a better place.
Now I am going back to the forum.
I just left one workshop with Alcatel Lucent about entrepreneurship and it was amazinly good. Basically we discussed very briefly our ideas around what is entrepreneurship and went straight to practice, working in groups to come up with business ideas, pitching these ideas to the other groups and receiving investments.
Our idea was very successful and it was brilliant to discuss it with everyone, because it's something that I do intend to do in the future: an experiential learning program that attaches itself to normal education, giving to high school students the chance to develop competencies and skills such as project management, communication, leadership, etc. Of course, it was also great to receive the feedback that there was some holes in our idea, for example how we are going to fund it which needs to be a little further developed.
I truly believe that not only we AIESECers gain with it, but also the companies by hearing the youth voice in this matter. I may sound a little full of myself saying that AIESEC is the youth voice, but, hey, we have some thing going on there, see this example:
Recently there was an youth program that took 50 young people to Antartica to study the problem with the gobal warming. From thiese 50 people, 6 were AIESECers. Consider we have only 35,000 students and university students are millions, I guess this is a pretty advanced representation when talking about youth that actually DO SOMETHING to change the planet into a better place.
Now I am going back to the forum.
24 August 2009
Innovation
((Self-reflection time at AIESEC International Congress 2009 in Malaysia))
I consider myself quite creative, but been in AIESEC Norway for some reason has been retracting a little my creativity, I am not being so crazy anymore. I believe this is because I started to believe I know everything already and I have all the keys and nothing else can be different. Clearly I was not in the organization when the minds of brillient people came with a whole new concept called "the AIESEC experience". I cannot accept the "peak" as my peak, because this means death. I need to reinvent myself, go to the next level. Stretch, again, my bondaries.
I think I need to connect myself again with the realm of possibilities, be less grounded on the reality.
Being a fully responsible executive with a quite restricted experience at young age sometimes restrict you. Or, maybe, only me?
How can someone be responsible for a 1.5 million budget and the whole strategic development of AIESEC Norway be less grounded on reality and more connected to the unseen possibilities? How to balance responsibility and creative strategical thinking?
Any hints?
I consider myself quite creative, but been in AIESEC Norway for some reason has been retracting a little my creativity, I am not being so crazy anymore. I believe this is because I started to believe I know everything already and I have all the keys and nothing else can be different. Clearly I was not in the organization when the minds of brillient people came with a whole new concept called "the AIESEC experience". I cannot accept the "peak" as my peak, because this means death. I need to reinvent myself, go to the next level. Stretch, again, my bondaries.
I think I need to connect myself again with the realm of possibilities, be less grounded on the reality.
Being a fully responsible executive with a quite restricted experience at young age sometimes restrict you. Or, maybe, only me?
How can someone be responsible for a 1.5 million budget and the whole strategic development of AIESEC Norway be less grounded on reality and more connected to the unseen possibilities? How to balance responsibility and creative strategical thinking?
Any hints?
23 August 2009
Cultural sensitivity?
((some of the dates will be messed up, because I wrote lots of posts offline and programed them all at once, because internet is quite restricted here))
I can't imagine a place where people are more culturaly senstive then in AIESEC, but even here, I sometimes have my doubts of the extent of this sensitivity.
We are here in International Congress 2009 with more than 600 people from 100++ countries. Naturaly, there are some of them that are muslims and are fasting during Ramada (and of course they don't drink), which is happening at the same time as the Congress.
We from the western part of world, on the other hand, love to have a party with loads of alcohol. Now I pose my question: are we, AIESECers from the west, culturaly sensitive by drinking in Malaysia (a Muslim country)?
Don't get me wrong, I am not telling we are not, quite the opposite, my question is really sincere: is culturaly sensitive to not drink in the Muslim country or by accepting the drinking and the Muslim delegates completly leting it go as "things from the western culture"?
I am going to grab a beer tonight and thing more about it.
I can't imagine a place where people are more culturaly senstive then in AIESEC, but even here, I sometimes have my doubts of the extent of this sensitivity.
We are here in International Congress 2009 with more than 600 people from 100++ countries. Naturaly, there are some of them that are muslims and are fasting during Ramada (and of course they don't drink), which is happening at the same time as the Congress.
We from the western part of world, on the other hand, love to have a party with loads of alcohol. Now I pose my question: are we, AIESECers from the west, culturaly sensitive by drinking in Malaysia (a Muslim country)?
Don't get me wrong, I am not telling we are not, quite the opposite, my question is really sincere: is culturaly sensitive to not drink in the Muslim country or by accepting the drinking and the Muslim delegates completly leting it go as "things from the western culture"?
I am going to grab a beer tonight and thing more about it.
I am lucky to be in AIESEC International Congress 2009 in Malaysia
((Self-reflection time))
I consider myself lucky.
27 years old, Brazilian and I am the leader of the national office of AIESEC in Norway. AIESEC is just the biggest youth-run organization in the world, with more than 40.000 members spread around more than 100 countries.
I consider myself very lucky.
I am now in Malaysia (a place where I, sincerely, never dreamed of going) in IC (International Congress) that AIESEC runs every year, with around 600 delegates from all around the world (literaly).
The Congress is just starting. I feel energized as hell being around all those close friends from who knows how many nationalities. IC is an experience that I consider myself extremely lucky to be living for the 2nd time. Who, with 27 years old, can say that spend around 14 days with 600 people from 100 different countries, exchanging ideas, having fun, working together and giving his/her best to make the organization grow - not because of the money, but because we believe in it's ideal and relevance to society.
I consider myself extremely lucky, because I am one of the two delegates of AIESEC Norway in this Congress. And looking to the other national boards that brought their whole teams to IC, I feel a little envy. I really would like my team to be here. We couldn't bring all the 6 people in our team because we didn't consider as a wise investment to AIESEC Norway (both in human and financial resources) to bring all. But it would be damn cool if my team, the MC Big Bang, would be here. I am sure we would have a blast together. And we would brand AIESEC Norway very well, because we are a hell of a talented team. I would also enjoy to see our local committee presidents here, so they could experience the huge scope of this amazing organization.
IC is great, not because of the sessions, not because of the more than 60 "externals" (how we call people that are not from AIESEC, usually from companies, governement or other NGOs), not because of the cool 6 stars hotel or because it's in amazing Malaysia. No, IC is great because of these 100+ nationalities working together for one common goal, peace.
I miss my team. I would like they would be as lucky as me to represent AIESEC Norway in this Congress.
I am sure they understand, though, that they couldn't come because it was not a good investment for the organization. Those are true AIESECers: even knowing they would love to come, they use maturity to agree not to come, because it's not the best for the organization.
What a team I have!
I am so lucky to have them.
I consider myself lucky.
27 years old, Brazilian and I am the leader of the national office of AIESEC in Norway. AIESEC is just the biggest youth-run organization in the world, with more than 40.000 members spread around more than 100 countries.
I consider myself very lucky.
I am now in Malaysia (a place where I, sincerely, never dreamed of going) in IC (International Congress) that AIESEC runs every year, with around 600 delegates from all around the world (literaly).
The Congress is just starting. I feel energized as hell being around all those close friends from who knows how many nationalities. IC is an experience that I consider myself extremely lucky to be living for the 2nd time. Who, with 27 years old, can say that spend around 14 days with 600 people from 100 different countries, exchanging ideas, having fun, working together and giving his/her best to make the organization grow - not because of the money, but because we believe in it's ideal and relevance to society.
I consider myself extremely lucky, because I am one of the two delegates of AIESEC Norway in this Congress. And looking to the other national boards that brought their whole teams to IC, I feel a little envy. I really would like my team to be here. We couldn't bring all the 6 people in our team because we didn't consider as a wise investment to AIESEC Norway (both in human and financial resources) to bring all. But it would be damn cool if my team, the MC Big Bang, would be here. I am sure we would have a blast together. And we would brand AIESEC Norway very well, because we are a hell of a talented team. I would also enjoy to see our local committee presidents here, so they could experience the huge scope of this amazing organization.
IC is great, not because of the sessions, not because of the more than 60 "externals" (how we call people that are not from AIESEC, usually from companies, governement or other NGOs), not because of the cool 6 stars hotel or because it's in amazing Malaysia. No, IC is great because of these 100+ nationalities working together for one common goal, peace.
I miss my team. I would like they would be as lucky as me to represent AIESEC Norway in this Congress.
I am sure they understand, though, that they couldn't come because it was not a good investment for the organization. Those are true AIESECers: even knowing they would love to come, they use maturity to agree not to come, because it's not the best for the organization.
What a team I have!
I am so lucky to have them.
28 August 2008
IC 2008 mixed feelings
This is about IC content and how it relates to me.
IC has lots of sessions, some are related to AIESEC, some are related to personal issues (like the ones I told in the previous post) and some spaces are sold to companies so they can promote their brands and bring some value to us, while they profile themselves as a good choice for a career movement. In the war for talent, companies consider this as a good investment (and that definitely is, some companies that I never thought to work for seem pretty much a good option now, like Unilever, ING, Microsoft and DHL). Sometimes I feel valued, I mean, these companies fighting for us, for me, it makes some good impact in your self-esteem – and make you really be proud of being an AIESECer, because it seems organizations value our experience, values, profile, competencies, skills, etc.
But sometimes I feel bought – and bought cheap, by free stuff, like caps and bags or beer or anything.
I guess I am just going through a bad moment, caused by personal and professional stuff. IC is a very powerful experience, I can see now, because it seems I am having my first cultural shock related to Norway – even if I am in Brazil. Yeah, it’s strange, in these 2 months in Norway, I didn’t have any culture shock, but as I am back in Brazil (even though I feel in a global village with other 105 countries), I feel some pressing issues that are making me feel a little depressed, dazed and confused.
Maybe it’s just too much work and too little sleep, I don’t know.
IC has lots of sessions, some are related to AIESEC, some are related to personal issues (like the ones I told in the previous post) and some spaces are sold to companies so they can promote their brands and bring some value to us, while they profile themselves as a good choice for a career movement. In the war for talent, companies consider this as a good investment (and that definitely is, some companies that I never thought to work for seem pretty much a good option now, like Unilever, ING, Microsoft and DHL). Sometimes I feel valued, I mean, these companies fighting for us, for me, it makes some good impact in your self-esteem – and make you really be proud of being an AIESECer, because it seems organizations value our experience, values, profile, competencies, skills, etc.
But sometimes I feel bought – and bought cheap, by free stuff, like caps and bags or beer or anything.
I guess I am just going through a bad moment, caused by personal and professional stuff. IC is a very powerful experience, I can see now, because it seems I am having my first cultural shock related to Norway – even if I am in Brazil. Yeah, it’s strange, in these 2 months in Norway, I didn’t have any culture shock, but as I am back in Brazil (even though I feel in a global village with other 105 countries), I feel some pressing issues that are making me feel a little depressed, dazed and confused.
Maybe it’s just too much work and too little sleep, I don’t know.
25 August 2008
IC live
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.
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.
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