CEE-WENA ER meeting - 23-26 November 2006

In this week an External Relations meeting was held for the European ER responsibles on national level.
I also ran a session, it was about a non-corporate update from the AI non-corporate corner and about sharing news, opportunities for countries and the best case practices that we can learn from each other.
It went very well, although it was an after-lunch session (when people usually sleep and digest), people were very interested and they asked very cool questions and there was a great discussion going on at the end.
Amit and me were hosting six people altogether in our house, the entire Polish delegation (four people) and the Portuguese and Hungarian delegates.
Many ER people asked me about my future plans. It was very strange because I remember two people arguing some months ago from the AI team whether an AI member should already know what he/she wants to do in the coming term or if it shouldn’t be a requirement, it’s simply good if the person actually knows that clearly. But now I really feel that AI has become a role model in this sense as well, people want to learn from us, they want to know how we plan our long and short term future, and if we just say: ‘I want to become an AIESEC alumni and I want to get a job’, it sounds pretty disappointing.
But luckily I do have concrete plans about my short term future :) and I was happy to share them with the ER people.
I shared with many of them that I have realized that it is really possible to make a positive impact in the society and I want to continue to work in a company/organization where I can see this impact every day. Having a global reach is also very important for me for the long term future as I love living in a multicultural environment, I love communicating with countries all over the world and I also feel myself capable to sense and understand the different realities of the different regions of the world and support their development – yet respecting their uniqueness.
Thirdly, I would like a democratic working environment that is similar to AIESEC, in a sense that I would like to be able to innovate, to bring my unique perspective and leadership skills, to be challenged as well as recognized when I achieve the goals set.
And finally, I would like to combine all the above with my financial background because this is the functional area I am passionate about and that I will graduate in.
So, as a concrete idea, I came up with the World Bank – which is a bank yet a global organization, supporting all countries of the world and taking an active role in many developmental issues, such as HIV/AIDS or children’s education.

But going back to the ER meeting, we were partying every night but the last party was far the best of all!!!
We started in Café de Beurs at 11 p.m. and after a couple of drinks we decided to dance.
And as a real Hungarian, when the dance floor became too boring, I went up on the table!!!! :) And Maria and Petroula followed me, and so did Agata and Melissa after a while. Amit and Abhishek were sooo proud of me. :)
I must say, I haven’t had such a great party for a long time! All my favourite songs were played and we arrived home at 3 a.m., after 3 hours of non-stop dancing.

I was only missing one special person… but hopefully the next time when I come back to this place, he will be with me as well. There’s only one month to go….
Ah, and Amit made a picture of me, dancing on the table, and wanted to send it to this special person to ensure that he’s also proud of me…. :)


Stay tuned until the next posting! Next week I’m going to Paris and Brussels for sales trips and for an EU conference and I’ll have a lot of stories to tell for sure.