First days of the conference

Though it'll be impossible to sum up to an acceptable degree the experience I'm going through let's have a go at it...shall we ;)

Well the first two days of the confrerence were hard, it's my first time and having only arrived that morning ( as compared to others who had few days earlier) and tierd with jet lag, adn not being connected with the people already was a lot of preassure. On top to all that i had few logistical issues running through my mind and all this mean that it was tiring :)

The amazing thing I have to note was that soo many people offered me there help, simply knowing that it's hard to get in to things at your first IPM by your self as an elect. So I've got another reason to go for IPM 2007 in Egypt, even if it's to ensure that the next MCPe does not go through the samething.

In the middles of all this kaos there were some amazing times also...especially the PAI speeches, Q & A, PAI Word Issue discussion were inspring. The speech Dey gave stood out from the others and was quite an emotional one also.


I also met Jennifer Corriero, (http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/jenergy) the co-founder of Take it Global who is with us for several days here, and infact we've made cooperation plans between AIESEC in Sri Lanka and Take it Global. She'll be comign in for a conference in Sri Lanka and parallel to that we'll put together a forum on "Youth Participation" with the participation of Take it Global members in Sri Lanka and members of AIESEC in Sri Lanka. Our idea is to have this during the first week of May and if any of you are interested just let me know.

Last night I also managed to speak to Iris (Netherlands), Jurga (Lithuania) and Martina( Czech) who are friends that we hosted in Sri Lanka in my first year in AIESEC. Original plan was to meet up with all of them, but due to some mis communication I might not get to meet up with Jurga and Martina as they've come during the week of the conference. The weeked after the conference I will spend with Iris before travelling back.

On Monday I'll be going to a Dutch school where I will make a presentation on Sri Lanka to School children. The school had chosen suppporting two Orphanages in Sri Lanka as their annual social project and I though to encourage the kids by paying a visit and letting them know a bit about the beauty of Sri Lanka.

Right now we are in the planing stage of the IPM where the Global Plan is being taken on along with how to adapt it at coutry level. The amazing thing has been that this years IPM is really addressing the running crazy implementation of the AIESEC exprience and istead bringing a strong strategic focus for the organisation for the next years.

What does this mean, for me it means it will address the most practical problems and have a common answer to all so that we do not run around doing this and that. This will ensure that we run aligned activities within the organisation. " Product Leadership" as a strategy really will put things in perspective.


Let's keep at that for now...

The new President of AIESEC International

Results

Sri Lanka votes

PAI !!! PAI !!! PAI !!!

Brody with the water

PAI Candidate - Peter

PAI candidate: Taco

On route

Day 1

Lift off from the Air Port was at 1:30pm on Sri Lankan time, after about 11 hours of flight time and some awesome scenes of snow covered mountain over Turkey (may be I was flyng over Sujatha's head ;) ), The first stop was the Charles De Gaulle Air Port in France. After 45 mins of transit time and less than a hour of flying time I was getting out at the Air Port in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Air Port was fairly big but had very little number of people tonight; I kept following signs first to clear the luggage and then to get out where I wanted to catch a train to the main bus station, This was the difficult part, most people seem not to speak English. After getting directions I finally came to the place where you get the trains. But then it was harder I had to buy a ticket and there was a machine there which had everything in German and on top that the scheduled did not have any train that would get me to the bus I had booked online. After asking help from another person who could not speak English I finally decided to catch a Taxi to get to the bus on time.

After explaning where I wanted to go by using the printout of the online booking I with the manage of a good Afgani-German driver who asked around to find the exact place for me I got to the station at 23:45 to catch the bus scheduled for 23:59.

Then was the most shocking thing, I was worried that I would get late and miss the bus is it’s Germany. German’s are supposed to be on time !!! But amazingly the bus came only 45 to 50 mins late J I was getting worried during this time of what to do if he bus is not there. Other than me there were only 2 Italian girls waiting around, they were in a better state than me cause they knew German but still we were getting frustrated. The whether in Frankfurt was mildly cold but was to cold for me after standing around the first 15 mins.

When the bus came finally I was so relieved and was ready to get on. But there was a problem, the driver cum conductor wanted my ticket and all I had was the print out of the confirmation of my online booking. After explaning several times with the help of the Italian girls I finally let on. J

After a while I realized that he had taken my paper with the booking and it being the only copy I had to also show during the return trip I was worrying. My plan was to explain that I needed it ( using more hand language) for the trip as I was about to get down. I got a better chance when the bus stoped after about 2 to 3 hours of travel and driver announced 15mins brake. After a first unsuccessful attempt in explaining using min number of words with hand signals I almost got thrown out. J Next attempt was better first I thought to ateast have the reservation no copied so asked for that and got that. Then it came to me to get a photo copy and they were ok to check on that and luckily for me the restaurant we had stoped at was able to give a copy. So got back to the bus and that was the happier outcome for both of us. J

It is after the bus started moving again that I took out the laptop and started write down the days happenings. Cant see much of a view out side cause it’s too dark. The panel on the bus gives the local time as 4:43am right now and the outside temp as 6 degrees.

Will add more things as I experience and find time to write down...

IPM 2006 in Netherlands

I'm to attend the International Presidents Meeting (www.ipm2006.org )of AIESEC as the President elect from the 22nd of Feb - 3rd of March 2006. After loads of trouble with getting my passport and many an adventure I've finally got everything ready to conquer the Netherlands.

The venue for the conference does really seem nice ... www.kdk-nl.org

Looking forward to my first time in Europe and to meet up with old friends. :) There is possibility that I might travel to Munich, Germany also to meet up with a close friend from School days and Conny who's joning my MC Team for the next term.

I've been telling everybody that I'd be dead at anything below +10'C ... they say the temp in Netherlands is about +5'C to -5'C. Hoping for a miracle :)

"Dilmah" Main Partner for "I Believe in Sri Lanka"

" I Believe in Sri Lanka" is written in all 3 languages of English, Tamil and Sinhala using coloured rice at the I Believe in Sri Lanka eve at AIESEC office.

Dilmah Tea (Pvt) Ltd. and MJF Charitable Foundation confirmed that they will be coming in jointly as the Main Partner for the I Believe in Sri Lanka project. The sponsorship is valued at Rs. 1000,000/= ( 10,000 USD) and will drive I Believe in Sri Lanka for one year.

This partnership was realized after 3 months of follow-ups by Kavitha to the initial visit by Kavitha, my self and Denzil. I really appreciate the effort of Mr. Hiran Fernando from the Foundation who backed us a lot in realizing this partnership.

"I Believe in Sri Lanka" has a brighter future !!!

Board of Advisory Meering of AIESEC in Sri Lanka

This was taken after the BoA meeting of AIESEC in Sri Lanka at the Holcim Board Room. In picutre are Mr. Rathika de Silva ( Head of Sustainable Development - Holcim Lanka) , Mr. Sanjiv Abeynayake ( Counry Director / Senior International Consultant - MTI Consulting, Mr. Nimal Gunawardena ( CEO - Bates Strategic Alliance ) and Vidura, Asanka, Me, Hiran, Ego, Prasad from the AIESEC Team.

Our meeting after the BoA meeting :)