ITC2006: The most amazing conference ever!

This is an article I have made for the Danish AIESEC'ers, and as it describes one of my most emotional experiences, I believe it fit to share it here too :)


I was asked to describe the conference I have just attended in Lithuania, a thing called ITC2006, a conference where every person had experience and interest in learning and people development, and a conference that have become one of the strongest, and most emotional experiences in my life. The objective of the conference was to create a holistic view, or complete overview and understanding of the way we drive learning in AIESEC, and of course to create a network of highly skilled and motivated individuals throughout the world. I strongly feel I gained the two objectives, but besides this, I have gained so much more both personally and professionally than I ever expected!

To conceptualize the conference, try to remember some of the most professional and amiable people-people you have ever met in AIESEC, then imagine a conference where almost all delegates are like that. Try to recall some of the best and most inspiring facilitators or trainers you have had –then imagine a conference were they fill out the whole seven person faci-team. Imagine the best chair you have ever had at an AIESEC conference – then imagine a person who is even more inspiring, jumpy and in touch with people. Imagine these people, split into groups of 14, working from nine o’clock in the morning, till eleven o’clock in the evening, both learning about and experiencing each of the learning environments. Imagine the stress and the joy of having to design, plan and execute a five hour training at the end of the conference for a group of Lithuanian university-students, and the following joy when the students express that the training widely exceeded their expectations. Imagine a conference, where everybody, even tough Viking Danes, sob during the closing plenary, desperately clinging to the group he/she have shared almost a week together with.

I know this is very emotional and I know the experience will be living in me for many years to come. It is an experience which made me realize the full potential of AIESEC as a source of inspiration and learning for young individuals, and which gave me the last connections in my understanding of what I have been doing for the last many years in AIESEC. It is an experience, which made me regain my passion in pretty much all aspects of my life, and have made me rethink my whole current situation and my future – and even open up my own blog on the net ;)
So all together, a truly amazing personal experience!

From a practical point of view then yes, I gained my objectives. I now know how learning environments fits into the big picture, I know both how and why we use every one of them, and have loads of ideas of how to make them come through in the LCs. Let me share my main holistic line of thought regarding the purpose of learning in AIESEC: We want to create peace and fulfilment of humankind’s potential. This we want to archive through creating change agents, who will create a positive impact in society for the rest of their lives. The way we develop change agents, is to give every member a chance to go through the AIESEC experience, so he/she get a practical opportunities to develop the attributes of the change agent. The “official” goals are made explicit through the competency layer model. The practical way to create and support this individual development is through the six different learning environments which are constantly nurtured in AIESEC. These are self-discovery, team experiences, mentoring, virtual spaces, conferences/seminars and learning circles. So, in order to increase the “production” and quality of our main product, the change agents, we need to ensure that each of these environments empowers each and every member of AIESEC, to the fullest of his/her potential, or in other words from a PD-pow, it is important to create an attitude of self-driven learning in the LC, and to make sure that the members have the tools and education, to make the most out of his/her time in AIESEC. A simple example is to make sure that people know the DISC team-model, so they have a reference to why they clash with certain kinds of people in the daily work – a nice way to strengthen the team-experiences learning environment (or strengthen learning, during team experiences).

We learn, and create learning environments, because this both support the very purpose of AIESEC, and the very purpose of us being in AIESEC. We can gain individually, as groups and as an organisation at the very same time, by just keeping this very beautiful idea in focus. AIESEC is learning, through learning in practical experiences we perform amazing things, and help shape amazing individuals. That’s the beauty of our organisation!

The theme of the conference was “Learning to Fly”, and I must say that I have been flying high every day since I returned. My challenge now, is to land again, and to find ways to share the insights and inspiration with you. A way I will open here and now, is to issue this open invitation – feel free to write me with any questions, ideas and issues, and I would fully enjoy answering or discussing them with you, and I would love to use my network to gain even more insight into any of these topics!