AIESEC in Central and Eastern Europe

Time to say goodbye...

2009-07-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Dear friends from CEE

It´s time to say goodbye... the crazy and amazing year I had in CEE is now over...

...so I just wanted to THANK YOU!

First of all, thank you CEE for the opportunity of working with you... in a GN that Im not from, but that now makes me feel so much at home and became so "mine" :) Thank you for accepting and trusting me... thank you for each support/encouraging word regarding my work... thank you also for challenging me and thank you for teaching me your working style

Thank you Mo, Juanca and Juli for being the greatest team I can imagine for CEE in 08-09!! Thank you for the chats, the crazy ideas about our GN, for the work together, for making me laugh, for recognizing my work, for encouraging me... and for sharing so many similar values and dreams with me... Im sure we will aork together again in the future! :D

Thank you MCPs for the strategic discussions about CEE, for all the fun and work at MCPs meetings, for the work of the sub-committees, and for leading your countries towards the great results that now we can see! :D You were my role models during my term!!!

Thank you VPXs for the conversations about numbers, analysis, pools... for constantly sending your opportunities and for seeking for cooperations... thank you for the great fun at the X Meeting and for our greatest idea that was implemented: the X track at CEEMOS ;)
And more than that: thank you and congratulations for the 57% growth over the last term!!! :D
You showed me what hard and smart work together can achieve!! And you made me really proud to be from CEE, the best GN in exchanges in our term :D

Thank you people from Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Serbia, Armenia and Romania for the country visits!!
Thank you for hosting me, for sharing your strategies, challenges, theories... for seeking together for solutions and for implementing the ideas we created... thank you also for sharing your personal time with me, for going around with me in your countries, for sharing your culture, your history, your dreams and ambitions for the future! I learnt a lot from you ;) and you inspired me a lot!! :D

Some more thanks:

To all the people that worked with me at conferences... as facis, chairs, conference managers... thank you for making imposible things possible, for making stressful situations lighter and for all the fun we had together!

To all the people that worked with me virtually... either creating some new strategy or having a chat to discuss some hot topic... you thought me a lot about CEE reality! and you brought life to the days I spent in the office and smiles to my face everytime you came to talk to me!

To all people I interacted with during my term... to all delegates at conferences I attended, to all LC members I talked to... thank you for your smiles, for your questions, for your hugs... thank you for sharing your ideas with me and for believing so much in AIESEC and in CEE... you are the ones that bring all the success to CEE!!

To each of my sisters and brothers that I have around this GN: the people that hosted me at their homes, that shared their beds, their families, their food and their lives with me... you are GREAT!!! Without you guys my year wouldnt have been so lively, so crazy and so amazing as it was... I was never alone in any of the 27 countries I´ve been to this year, because in each and every city, I had someone to care about me... and that´s why now I have a home in so may places around this GN! (and you all have a home wherever I will be in the globe!)

THANK YOU!!! :D

I had an incredible year in CEE GN Board... I learnt so much... I grew so much... I made so many new friends... I became much bigger and my world became much smaller...

Now Im taking some vacations to travel around with my mom (Im now in Bulgaria, at the black sea coast... Im also going to Turkey, Croatia and Portugal... to visit places I´ve been to this year and I want to go back and to visit some friends that invited me to their places :D)

On the 12th of august Im going back to Brazil... and very soon after that, Im starting my internship in Uruguay! (yes, Im matched!! :D) I´m gonna work with education in an NGO... and hopefully start my career in the 3rd sector - that is where I want to work!

I hope we will keep in touch in the following days, months and years... and I hope our paths will still cross many times in the future...

Thank you, my dear CEE friends...

Barbara

Bulgaria... and the incredible feeling of being at home

2009-06-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

I love Bulgaria!!

It's not the most beautiful country I've ever visited... nor the one with the most amazing history... nor the one that impressed me the most... but it is, for sure, the one where I feel most at home!

I arrived to Sofia and found my way to the MC flat... had a shower and walked the 20min to the office, as if I were walking in my hometown... I arrived to the office and was welcomed with warm hugs from a "family" that hosts me so well...

(view from the window of the office)

...I participated in a conference where I discussed interesting topics with people that are very inteligent and willing to change the world... I shared my learnings, my trips and brazilian culture with people that are preparing for their exchange and were asking me inteligent questions about Brazil (not the stereotypes smaba-naked-women-soccer-and-carnaval)... many members came to thank me and appreciate my work... and, talking about work, I had the most productive country visit of my term!

(with the people from the conference)

(working with the new MC team - creating the planning model for the LCs)

...how could I not like it?

Besides that, I learnt a lot about Bulgaria, the culture... I can already read cyrilic, I understand some words... I learnt how to dance "xopo", typical bulgarian dance... they took me to a typical bulgarian restaurante to eat typical food...

(dancing xopo)

(with the guys from LC Sofia UNWE, in the bulgarian restaurant)

And it was not only this!

The guys there spoiled me a lot! :) They would carry my luggage/backpack, cook for me, take me for a walk around the city, invited me to visit their cities (and therefore I visited Veliko Tarnovo and Varna), hosted me in their houses, didnt leave me alone not even for a minute (there was always someone taking care of me... and when one person couldnt be with me anymore, he would call someone else to come to be with me), they were awesome touristic guides, were very happy every time I read cyrilic or said some words in bulgarian... and one of them even took my clothes to wash in his washing machine...

(dinner with the MC - the guys cooked for us!! :D)

...very good to have people thinking about me, taking care of me, making me feel safe and comfortable...

I love Bulgaria!!

(it's not even 12hs since I left the country and I already miss it)

(Barbara Basso - april 2009)

Falling in love with Ukraine... Falling in love with CEE...

2009-05-13T23:43:00.000-07:00

… and I left. The road is my driver and my guide, and within this amidst of things, the only constant thing is my yellow bag where my life fits just perfect. What an illusion that we need things and that those things, many things, will make us happy.

Upon my departure, Ivan wished me to re-discover CEE. Instead, I ended up [re]discovering myself. I believe that so far, this is the most self-revealing experience I have lived. Sometimes, especially in the airports and especially if my flights have delays, I sit down and try to capture the magic of this experience, I try to figure out why is it so intense, so rewarding, why it gives me so much, what catalyzes the learning, where the points of awareness reside.

I guess a part of it is given by being on my own, by the absence of any context. I move, every week in another context, another people, another culture, another language, another manner in which people express themselves. There are no stable elements of environment that I can turn to as points of reference. Except myself. I am the only point of reference, the only source of questions and answers in the same time. And I guess that this keeps me connected a lot with who I am. To those things that are basic, the foundation of being me.

I begin to think that exchange experience must be similar, but more difficult and in that sense more transformative. The environment is different, that's for sure, but you don't get the chance to reset the system every week. At the end of the day, it is a battle of will, at the end of which you transform, by adapting to the other culture, for sure different. Your core stays the same, the emotions, affects, but the cultural pattern in which one is born is massively challenged. Ergo, this is where the personal transformation comes from.

I fell in love with Ukraine, more precisely with Kyiv. Funny enough I haven't visited anything particular. However, something unexplainable, that you can't exactly put your finger on – precisely similar to falling in love – makes me float when thinking about it. Could be the people – there's a special kind of passion and a spark in their eyes, in the way they talk, in the human relations. It snowed! I felt again that kind of childhood happiness, which instantly puts a big kinder smile on your face. Again, after such a long absence, I felt a kid again. I never want to loose this feeling – how could I have lived without it so long?

Maybe it's the ukrainian-russian language that exerts a kind of fatal attraction on the visitors. A special kind of magic. Could be the music, the people and the spirit. Could be a mix of the above. Suddenly, I felt that the otherwise heavy feeling of communist architecture was totally neutralized. On the contrary, there was a weird feeling of home that those grey, wet buildings were inflicting on me.

Maybe I am rediscovering CEE in the end, maybe it's about the fact that we will double our results, maybe indeed I will double the level of awareness that I have about myself, and what I can do with it. Maybe in the end, CEE is me!

(Monica Costea - november 2008)

*****************************************************************************************************************************

I have arrived in the MC of Ukraine - a gorgeous spring came over Ukraine in the meantime, while I was away - the place where I fell in love with CEE some months ago! Everything is green, a swift breeze is washing through the trees, smell of flowers and a lot of youth all around!

I feel jalous. Why?

I was standing at the door with Ilar, NST Finance, when a fancy-nice dressed up chick jumps from a cab - she holds with both hands a huge buquet of roses, and a big bag with red-fruit cakes. Her light bue eyes shine with excitement, she smiles a lot and talks aloud with the taxi driver. Hugs me and greets us - Anna, she has just finished a 1 year project in LC Kiev as OCP, a huge one - with interns coming and working with kids in orphanages, for which she raised more than the entire Ukraine MC budget for a year - she told me this story in one breath, while we were making the 3 steps that were separating the courtyard door from the front door of the house - the closing of the project just happened and she is completely thrilled - we enter the house and she calls everyone in the kitchen to jump on the cake! Me included.

One by one, the MC ppl - current, elects, NST come around - we shake shands, we greet, we hug, we eat cake and drink water from colourful ceramic mugs and you can hear all around, from that bunch of almost 20 ppl, all sorts of conversation about the Kiev project, 100 indians getting ready to get on the plane to come to Ukraine, Lyubov going to Norway on 15 June, Tanea calling her elects for the session... the MC Current is undisturbably working in the lounge while the elects are talking about MC - NST roles in 09'10 in the room just near. They all bunk in 1 house, flat and office in the same time, that has witnessed this year huge amounts of energy put into an ambition to "Grow Unlimited". The currents must be 2 weeks away from the end of their terms, yet they work harder than in the 1st. They have just changed the financial model with the current LCPs, they will have a team of 7 and NST of 8 ppl next year, 1 brazilian in the team and an ambition on growth to 1100X...

Something really beautiful is happening in a far off neighborhood of Kiev - 15 electric kids are cooking something great for a country that is the biggest in Europe in size! Not many know this, but they want to spread a lot of peace and meaning around Ukraine. They are a generation of change, they have the energy of a virtuoso team, they have determination and will to never stop. And they will do so and more!

I want to be part of a story like this! Wait a second, ... I am!

(Monica Costea - may 2009)

I am CEE GN Board

2009-05-06T03:28:00.000-07:00

Do you want to do the same as we do? Do not miss your chance: APPLY!!!

Happy Holidays!!!!

2008-12-24T06:45:00.000-08:00

Where do you live?

2008-12-01T12:33:00.001-08:00

I have to answer this question several times per week...

In this exact moment, I live in a sofa in the kitchen of the MC flat in Slovenia, in Ljubljana... but last week I was living in a bungalow in a park-natural reserve in Lisbon... 2 weeks ago, I lived in Skopje in an apartment with 2 guys from Hing Kong and a girl from Macedonia, with whom I was sharing the room... the week before, I was sharing the room with 3 guys from Bulgaria, in a flat where there were 2 more bulgarians and 1 polish living...

Since june, I've lived with an indian girl in Norway, with a german girl in a building of a train station that was transformed in a students house... I lived in the flat I used to live in Prague; I shared a sofa with a girl from the US in Rotterdam; I lived in Sao Leopoldo, with my parents; I lived in my sister's flat in Porto Alegre; I lived in Salvador, with a friend from AIESEC there; I lived in Holliday Inn, in Sao Paulo, with other 600 people; I lived in the students dorm in Zagreb, where I could speak portugues with a friend from Madeira; in Croatia I also lived in a primary school in Rijeka and in a small village near Zadar - both in the Adriatic coast...

And in between all this traveling, I live in Budapest, in Hungary... sharing a flat with a colombian guy and a polish girl. I've already paid 5 months of rent... and in total I spent 52 days actually there - and this is around 7 weeks!!

During my traveling around CEE I don't even know anymore what is "to live"... in 6 months I've slept in 30 different beds, in 20 cities, in 13 countries... I've shared room with people from the most diverse countries, I've shared bed, I've slept on the sofa, in sleeping bag, on the floor...

...and I arrived to the conclusion that, wherever I am for more than 3 days sleeping in the same bed, I "live" there...

But then I started to think about the question "Where do you live"... and where I actually LIVE, I can tell...

...I live in the streets that I walk, in the cities I explore, in the countries I visit...
...I live in the leaves of the autumn that break under my feet, in the soft snow where I leave my footprint, in the sand of the beaches I've stepped...
...I live in the historical buildings, in the stones of the streets dated from past centuries, in the bells that ring in the gothic churches...
...I live in the landscape I see from the top of a hill, in the mountains seen from the window of the plane...
...I live in the flow of the Danube, in the sunset in the Tejo, in the snow that covers Ljubljana...
...I live in the trains, in the airports, in the bus stations, in the borders, in the stamps in my passport...
...I live in the dinners I cook to my friends and in the food from their countries that they share with me...
...I live in the "mate" that we drink together, in the hot tea after a cold day...
...I live in the talks that I have with all these people I meet, in the wonderful stories of their lives, in their plans for the future, in their opinions about the world...
...I live in the laugh shared with friends, in the smiles of the people that cross my way in the streets, in the hugs of "good to see you again"...
...I live in the party nights and in the lazy sundays...

...I live in every moment, doesn't matter the country, the city... doesn't matter the bed where I sleep, the shelter under which I protect myself or who are the people that see my "I've just woken up" face... I LIVE my adventure, my trips... I live my CEE and my year around here... I live all this because I am exactly where I wanted to be in every moment... :)

Experiencing the Balkans

2008-11-26T04:41:00.000-08:00

I had been told that the people in the balkans are warm and welcoming… going there for country visits made me experience that!

In Croatia, I met people that were happy to teach me their language, that were patient enough to repeat several times till I got the words… I met people that love to party – and that go crazy when the croatian music starts to play (and I even learnt some parts of songs)… I met people that are very aware of their past, that feel the weight of the years of war – but that are happy with the improvements and positive about the changes that are happening in the country… I met people that are proud of their country, that wanted to show me the beauties of Croatia… people that were interested in talking to me, that came and approached me during their conference to ask more about my country, to share their ideas, to ask for opinions, ideas, feedback…

There, I lived for 2 weeks with 2 amazing girls from the MC that made me feel at home and became some kind of “sisters” with whom we were sharing gossips, stories, ideas and plans for the future… :) Also, I went for 1 weekend to the coast with one girl from the LC… that took me to her house, to her family… showed me her village, shared her life… and took me to some of the most amazing landscapes I’ve seen in Europe…

And I met AIESECers that know what they want to achieve and what they have to do… and have very good ideas on how to do it! I met OCPs that really want to make changes, OCPs that wanted to learn the most that they could during the conference and that are still in touch with me to tell me about the progress of their projects! I left Croatia happy to have met those people, amazed with the beauty of their nature and positive about the future of AIESEC in Croatia… Guys, you just need to do the things you know you have to do! ;)

In Bulgaria, when I arrived to the MC Office, I saw:

Sweet, no? :)

There, the MC boys took very good care of me, cooked for me and shared chimarrão (in spanish: “mate”) with me! In Bulgaria I also felt like at home – I was already saying “I’m going home, now”… ;)

In Bulgaria I had night city-tour with 2 crazy and funny friends ;) – and what was supposed to be a 1h walk, became also a typical bulgarian dinner (with the most delicious food I’ve tried in Europe! I really like bulgarian food!!) and end up in a retro-party in a disco! I was also taken to the mountains, to see some of the beauties of the country – and in 1 day, I visited 3 of the 100 places that have-to-be-seen in Bulgaria!

In Bulgaria I heard stories of people that overcame obstacles and succeded, I got to know more about their ambition – for this term and also for their future – and I realized that my role there was just to share some ideas and work with them to make their great plans happen!

Then, I took the bus to Macedonia… and at halft past midnight, in the bus station of Skopje, I met 6 happy AIESECers, holding the AIESEC banner and waiting for me. Even if that was the first time they had ever seen me, they jumped around me, hugged me and gave me a brazilian “tchu-tchu”! Cute!! :)

In Macedonia, I was on a tv show talking about AIESEC, I gained a mom and an uncle ;), I went to a Kafana and saw how party looks like with the people from LC Skopje

And what about AIESEC in Macedonia? I was really impressed by the clarity that they have about their ambition for AIESEC in Macedonia… those people really want AIESEC to Make Sense in their country… they really see the relevance of AIESEC in their country and they want to work hard for the things to happen!

The MC team in Macedonia has people that are very new in AIESEC, that don’t have so much experience, but that have all the willingness to make changes… they also have people with very good working experience in their area and that are bringing the knowledge to AIESEC… they have a very tough current situation, but they have people that are committed to make changes! With them, we talked about AIESEC in 3 different GNs (that are represented in their diverse MC team), we discussed the possibilities they have, the tools they can use… and we created an Exchange Growth Innitiative that will Let the Sunshine In :)

There, I also met with a very intelligent LCP, that has a very clear plan and very clear means to achieve it. She leads an EB team of only boys and an LC that currently has more than 90 people! They want to do more exchanges in this term than AIESEC in Macedonia has ever done in the past 7 years… and from what I saw there, I’m sure they can do it!

I’m right now on my way back to Budapest… with Slovenia and Bosnia still in front of me… If the visits there will bring me similar warmth and positive energy, I’ll be sure that the balkans are the best countries to work with!! :)

Thank you, guys! You will rock the house!

Barbara

The first 4 months of a GN Board member...

2008-10-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Month 1 - June - Getting to know & Transition

Arrived in Budapest. Spent here less than 24hs. Went to a conference in Norway (spending 1 day in Germany going there and 1 day coming back). Represented AIESEC, made some contacts. Visited Oslo, saw the 24hs-daylight. Came back to Budapest. Found out we couldn't stay in the same flat anymore. Started to search for a flat. 1 long week of flat-hunting. Found a flat (for me, Juanca and Anula). Had transition with Geri. Went to Rotterdam.

Month 2 - July - Transition & GN Boards Training Camp

Arrived in Rotterdam. Had transition with Ivan, Ira, Geri, Juli and Mo. Got to know a lot more about CEE reality. Prepared MCPs meeting. Went to Prague. Delivered MCPs Meeting. Went back to Rotterdam. Other GN Board members arrived. Had 1 week training with AI 07-08. Had sessions about country development model, did internal and external analysis of CEE, had trainings in each functional area. Got to know more about other GNs. Started to form a nice "family" with other GN Board members. Had some team dinners with AI, some barbecue on the roof. Walked around Rotterdam. Got to know the planning from the new AI team. Started our GN planning. Finally met Juanca. Had some cool parties with the other GN Board members. Went to The Hague to see Vincent and Juli bungee jumping and drunk beer at the beach till 11pm. Participated at AI transition party. Came to Budapest again.

Month 3 - August - Starting to work & IC

Settled at our new flat. Started to explore our new city. Spent my birthday at lake Balaton. Had CEE GN Board team days. Created our team stand. Finalized our team plan. Created some taskforces. Defined the countries I will visit. Prepared IC pre-meeting. Traveled to Brazil. Met many many many people that I like. Felt like in a national conference in Brazil. Delivered IC pre-meeting. Had many people from different places in my country, felt proud of being brazilian. Enjoyed IC very much. Met a lot of alumni from @Brazil and from my LC. Had meeting with my taskforces. Had meeting with some countries. Had lots of fun with the GN Boards. Discussed some topics that I'm very interested about. Met many people I would like to work with in the future. Felt sad that IC was over.

Month 4 - September - Working at home & Preparing Country Visits

Went to Salvador (northeast of Brazil) for 1-week hollidays. Took 2 czechs and Anula with me. Enjoyed my country a lot. Showed the real Brazil to the CEE girls. Enjoyed the sea and the beach. Went home for 2 weeks. Enjoyed my parents and my sister. Met many old friends. Discovered new things in my city. Had virtual meetings with my taskforces. Created a lot of tables, analysis, excel sheets, wikis. Defined content for my country visits. Planned the logistics and made the budget for the visits. Traveled back to Budapest. Payed the rent. Met with trainees. Got my hungarian visa. Started to prepare my other visas. Left to Croatia for my 1st country visit...

...and this was just the begining... a lot more is still to come! :)

Love being GN Board :D

CEE GN Board 08-09

2008-07-13T16:59:00.001-07:00

Finally together!!

Our first picture:

Juli (Central Asia Coordinator), Juan (ER Manager), Barbara (Regional Cooperation Manager)

2008-07-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

Hey AIESEC!

Do you know what you will do on 11^th of July?

We know!!!

AIESEC in Poland invites you to join us on our Summer Matching Mania.

If you want to find an internship for you or your EPs, if you want to find the perfect EPs for your TN taker just spend this day with us!

On 11^th of July between 9 AM and 3 PM GMT + 1 120 EB members from all 19 LCs of AIESEC in Poland will be there for you to realize with us.

Currently AIESEC in Poland has 275 EPs and 184 TNs and this number is growing every day!

If you have any questions:

Check Polish Searchtool Wiki: http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10019766

Write to us on matchwithpoland@pl.aiesec.org

And check this movie:

11.07.2008 9 AM – 3 PM GMT + 1

120 EB members

Around 500 internships

We will be there, what about you?

Thank you and see you!

2008-06-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today was the last official day of our term.

I was thinking of writing a post to say thank you, but I rather want to tell you the story about an amazing year. I would say the most amazing year of my AIESEC experience.

If you ever think in your life whether to take a challenge or not: take it! There are so many things you will learn you never thought...

At the beginning of the term Geri was asking me how I am going to change. Than I thought that at the age of 25 it is not that easy to change and I am actually not going to change.

Now, 13 months later I have learned to listen and ask the right questions, I see beyond the words. There are also few very practical things I learned: how to travel cheap, work from any place, live on a tight budget, never freak out when traveling to a foreign country, etc. But this is nothing compared to the fact that in 13 months I worked with people from almost 50 countries!

Traveling for two months around different countries in order to support them in providing more quality life changing AIESEC experiences. Discovering different ways of cooking, public transport systems, currencies, different working and partying styles. Having amazing conversations about life, the universe and everything else.

How can you ever put in words those things?

There are not even enough words to express how grateful I am to each of you who I have met on my way. I can only say THANK YOU and say from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you for giving me the inspiration and feeling of being proud to be a CEEtizen. Thank you for teaching me how to understand better the region we are living.

Thank you!

It turned into a thank you post at the end :).

And now I will be moving for my X experience, so would be glad to see you around!

GN Board Transition

2008-06-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hello AIESEC in CEE!

This is the first post from your new GN Board! And it is to tell you a little bit about how our transition is going on...

Right now Barbara and Juli are in Rotterdam, together with Mo, Ivan and the current GN Board... we've been discussing the external trends in the region, the internal current reality, the history of the region, our performance in the past 4 years... we've also talked about our role in the GN Board and the timeline of the activities that will happen during the year... and we started our GN Board Plan!

We're still waiting for the 3rd GN Board member to arrive to Rotterdam: Juan is still solving some visa issues and is coming to meet us here as soon as he can!

Next week we're going to Prague, to meet all the CEE and WENA MCPs. And after that, we come back to Rotterdam, to meet the boards from all the GNs and participate in the "GN Board Training Camp", that is organized by AI to prepare us to start our term.

And the last week of our transition will be from 14 to 18 of July, when we'll have the final plan for the CEE GN Board for 08-09... and then, we are ready to go back to Budapest and Istambul and ROCK THE HOUSE!

We hope you guys have a very nice start of your term... and we are all very excited to work with you during this year!

Your GN Board 08-09: Barbara, Juan, Juli

Visegrad 4! Achieving more!

2008-05-15T01:17:00.000-07:00

The Visegrad
group of central European Countries have managed to realize the first Concrete Sub Regional Cooperation in CEE!!!

They have together applied and have been approved the Visegrad Fund for CEE the Summer Realization -
Each country raises 2 TNs and send 5 EPs within this
initiative) and it is the support for CEE The Summer Realization

To know more about Central European Sub regional Cooperation in AIESEC Click here

To know more about Visegrad Group click here

To know more about CEE the Summer Click here

Entrepreneurship Forum in Lithuania

2008-05-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

Entrepreneurship Forum

April 29^th, 2008 Lithuania

Microsoft Lithuania together with Vilnius University and AIESEC in Lithuania held the first Entrepreneurship Forum on 29^th of April, 2008 at the Vilnius University Physics Faculty’s Auditorium. The event gathered over 60 students of different faculties of Vilnius University, Pro-Rector, Deans and Lecturers.

Mindaugas Glodas, Microsoft Lithuania Country Manager welcomed all Entrepreneurship Forum participants and moderated panel discussion.

Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation was a keynote speaker. Jan’s inspirational speech was very warmly accepted. Students were interested in Microsoft’s student programs – such as Imagine Cup, Students to Business as well as raised many other questions.

From Left to Right: Mindaugas Glodas, MS Lithuania Country Manager (1) Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation (2)

Panelists of the Entrepreneurship Forum:

Gediminas Rainys, Secretary of Ministry of Economics
Juras Banys, Pro-rector of Vilnius University
Vaidotas Levickis, Representative of Lithuanian Employer Confederation
Rene Richter, President of AIESEC Lithuania
Eugenijus Savicius, President of Junior Achievement Lithuania
Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation
Mindaugas Glodas, Country Manager of Microsoft Lithuania

Juras Banys, Pro-rector of Vilnius University thanked Microsoft for initiating this event as well as stated his view of entrepreneurship in Lithuania. Secretary of Ministry of Economics, Mr. Gediminas Rainys has announced the strategy of entrepreneurship in Lithuania and gave many good hints for students how to get financial support to run businesses. Mr. Rainys has stressed the importance of Technology Valleys as well.

From Left to Right: Mr. J. Banys, Pro-rector of Vilnius University (1); Mr. G. Rainys, Secretary of Ministry of Economics (2); Mr. E. Savicius, President of Junior Achievement in Lithuania (3), Mr. R. Richter and A. Bagdonavicius, AIESEC Lietuva (4)

Mr. Rene Richter, President of AIESEC Lithuania has delivered a very driving speech on entrepreneurship. He stressed the importance of being active ourselves before the Governments provide us with supportive conditions. Mr. Richter has been educating students to disengage from “Perhaps /Probably/Likely Culture”.

Mr. Eugenijus Savicius, President of Junior Achievement in Lithuania has delivered presentation on education of entrepreneurship as well as indicated social entrepreneurship as a very important one. Mr. Savicius has compared Lithuanian entrepreneurship situation with other European countries saying it’s not bad at all.

Moments from the Auditorium

Quotes:

Vaidotas Levickis Representative of Lithuanian Employer Confederation: “It is really challenging to dig in at competitive market for young entrepreneurs, great job skills, innovative ideas are as much essential as the ability to evaluate the previous experiences and learn from leaders”

Dan Moldoveanu, Representative of AIESEC Lithuania: “Modern youth perceive that opportunities to compete in market are ensured not only by theoretic but also practical skills. The discussions when business leaders share their experience are highly useful for young people who seek for improvement”

Q&A session was very important to us to understand what are expectations of students to improve next year organizing Entrepreneurship Forum 2009. We have also prepared the questionnaires for untold thoughts and evaluation of the event.

- The overall evaluation of event was GREAT!
- The best speaker – Jan Muehlfeit!
- The second best speaker – Rene Richter, AIESEC Lithuania

Students were also asked to provide the main issues of entrepreneurship development in Lithuania. Here are some of them:

Students do not feel confident about themselves to run businesses
Not efficient bank credit policy for students
Bureaucracy
Fear of risks, lack of knowledge, conservatism
Nobody is looking for potential talents and there’s no attempt to educate them, development of talents is left for drifting

Students have also provided their suggestions for topics at next year Forum:

How to gain skills that are needed in business our days?
How to motivate people and attract them to our business?
Generation of ideas and business plans
More best practices (also bad practices to avoid)

http://gatve.delfi.lt/archive/article.php?id=16859972&rss=search

We would like to thank Jan Muehlfeit and Mindaugas Glodas, Lithuanian Country Manager for interactive communication with students, Kate and Aurelie for ideas developing agenda of the event, Deividas and other our Subsidiary Colleagues for organizational assistance.

Best regards,

Jurgita & Linas

Microsoft Lithuania Citizenship Team

First National Congress in MOLDOVA!

2008-04-29T03:01:00.000-07:00

We did it!
From 17 April till 20 April we organized the 1-st NC in Moldova!
The location was just fine, the atmosphere was very hot, and everyone was enjoyed. We chose 4 national focus areas:
-High Quality of AISEC XP
-Long term partnerships and financial sustainability
-AIESEC Balti Development
-Increase the quality and quantity of exchange

CEE at International Growth Day in Germany!!!

2008-04-18T09:04:00.001-07:00

What happens if you put 54 German LC EBs s and cool CEE LCs in one place .... GROWTH of course!!!

CEE Countries were at International Growth day to cooperate, interact and share !!

Contact the representatives from your country to know how you can benefit from the cooperations at the argest German national conference - NKK

The life of a GN ER

2008-04-13T03:56:00.000-07:00

When I told you I can have breakfast in one place, lunch in another and fun in a third one, I really meant it.

Tuesday, 15th of April:
- 4.00 am Arriving to Sofia from Istanbul
- 9.00 am flying to Vienna
- 7.00 pm arriving in Brussels

What are you still waiting for? Deadline for application is 20th of April. You can't have a more exciting year in AIESEC. With opportunities, people and impressions...

CEE in Growth Day!

2008-04-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

CEE on International Growth Day in Germany!

This Weekend CEE will be at the National Kick-off Conference of AIESEC in
Germany with more than 300 EB members + OC +
Facis + NST+ AI and of course the German MC.!!!!

To get in touch with 54 German LCs and meet AIESEC Germany’s future LC EB-
generation,build up partnerships and therefore increase
the performance of CEE!!

Contact your country or region representative or mail nayagam.geraldine@aiesec.net in case you want to capitalize on this opportunity!!!

Baltic Representative
Marjam Vaher - Current MCP Estonia

Poland
Warsaw UW
Karolina Kołpacka - karolina.kolpacka@gmail.com | LCVP OGX elect
Mateusz Kitka - kitka.mateusz@gmail.com | LCVP Communication elect

Warsaw SGH
Agata Szafalowicz - agata.szafolowicz@gmail.com | LCVP elect
Michał Tomczyk - michal.tomczyk@gmail.com | LCVP elect
Malwina Radoszewska - malwina.radoszewska@gmail.com | Current LCVP Exchange
!:)

Poznan
Alina Dziadosz - alina.dziadosz@gmail.com - LC VP ICX elect
Monika Pabiszczack - monika.pabiszczak@gmail.com LC VP OGX elect

SEE representative
Anca Bungardean anca@aiesec.org.mk / anca.bungardean@gmail.com

Krakow
Karol Jedrzejczyk - karol.jedrzejczyk@gmail.com - LCP current
Małgorzata Bednarek - LCP ICX elect

Wroclaw AE
Mateusz Pospieszny
Tomasz Szajniuk
Malgorzata Wosinska
Malgorzata Mazurkiewicz

Romania
1. Mariana Calin- MC VP Xe - mariana.calin@gmail.com - delegation responsible
2. Roxana Opris- LC VP X @ Cluj- doria.opris@gmail.com
3. Vlad Pascu- LC VP ICX @ Cluj-pascu_vlad@yahoo.com
4. Andreea Dereli- LC VP OGX @ Bucharest- andreea_dereli@aiesec.ro
5. Alexandru Ariton- LC VP ICX @ Bucharest- alexandru.ariton@gmail.com
6. Simona Berbec- LC VP OGX @ Iasi- simona.berbec@gmail.com
7. Cristina Pascaru - LC VP ICX @ Iasi- pascarucristina@yahoo.com
8. Razvan Dragu- X mb @ Constanta- razvan.dragu@aiesec.net

Czech Republic
vieroska@gmail.com

SEE (South East Europe) Representative
Anca,MC Exchange Macedonia
anca@aiesec.org.mk

Wondering what to do in the summer? CEE the Summer!

2008-04-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mail Geri at nayagam.geraldine@aiesec.net if you would like the original movie sent to you.

Thanks Marjam for your contribution and Geri for the great video :)
So here's a chance - making an adventure this summer, going away from Estonia for 2-3 months to work in a new country.

The program is easy - you apply, get selected and get a chance to choose an internship from different Central- and Eastern-Europe countries.

You arrive to a new country and culture (CEE region is rich of cultures - from Turkey and Balkans to other side of Russia), create a new network of friends, get new professional experiences and once you arrive back - see a world in a whole new way.

5 reasons to go abroad this summer vs staying in Estonia:

1. It's an adventure - want to live an exciting life? Make exciting things, go out of your box even if scared in the beginning

2. Develop yourself - it's not so easy to start your life all over in a new country, so you don't have any other chance then to become a more confident, capable and aware person once your out of your comfort zone

3. Get friends - some of my best friends are from CEE region, they are different, I love it (I love my Estonian friends too, anyway it's good from time to time be overwhelmed by kissing-hugging-smiling-sharing-people from South part of the region)! World is small, it's good to know people

4. Discover a new culture - people do things differently "out there", they understand world in a whole new way than you, they challenge you with their values, approaches and explanation of how things work. Getting to know it makes you see Estonia differently and bring some innovation back here

5. Make a next step in your professional career - university over or about to end? What next? I guess some reflection time while discovering new working styles and spending time out of the influences "back home" helps you to figure this out

So here's the idea - grab your chance before you get settled in an internship in Estonia you hope will help you in the future. Or get settled with a permanent job or a family or anything else that would keep you permanently here without finding out what COULD have been. 2-3 months of investment of your time to something that can influence you a lifetime is worth considering.

On the road again

2008-04-04T03:41:00.000-07:00

Actually I am on the road from February 14^th :), when I left from Budapest to join IPM for the CEE premeeitng, the GN time and evantually as AI candidate.

You should all know the stories around IPM already, so this is just to give you an update about EuroXPro and my current trips.

EuroXPro

I don’t even know where to start from. The 10 days flew like 10 hours. I want to try to summarize the whole experience in several sentences, and if I want to describe the feeling that I had at the end of the conference it was of being satisfied that we have prepared the ground for an amazing 08/09 term. I was feeling happy to see the things we have been putting so much efforts in this year getting into action, many new ideas being put forward, people talking to each other, connecting and feeling a part of one big global organization.

I experienced the best national night I ever had at a conference – the CC took us for traditional Russian hand cratfs workshops, so we were able to actually try and do stuff like dolls and baskets on our own. We were playing Russian games outside in the snow, but I think the hit of the night was the fortune teller J. And imagine that even after spending 5 years in this country I was excited to try and see all those things.

Meeting the founders of AIESEC in the USSR in 1988. I don’t think that we can possibly imagine what those guys had to go through to bring AIESEC into the USSR back in that time.

The astonishingly beautiful city of St. Pete and the wonderful snow storm we got at the end of the conference.

The final touch of the whole experience, just because it can’t be boring was absolutely randonly meeting Ivan on the way to the airport and finding out he is getting late for his flight, then arriving to the airport and finding out he needs to go to another terminal, running there and checking in on the very last minute and laughing like crazy about the whole experience.

It all sounds a bit like a mess of thoughts and memories, but this how it feels rigth now J.

Than I took a 4 hour flight combined with a 4 hour difference to come to Bishkek for country visit and work with the MC on financial sustainability and revenue generation. And you can’t believe what an amazing country this is! Where AIESEC makes so much of sense, and where it is needed so much to bring the needed change in society – the needed growth and drive in young people to connect to the future of their country. Yes, it is a poor country. Yes, you don’t have wi-fi and expensive caffes. Yes, it is hard to live here. But just imagine the difference we can make as an organization in an environment where the need for proactivity, leadership, growth, entrepreneurship, drive is so obvious and so needed.

I am so happy that I came to find myself in the right place in the exact right time when I am needed.

And promotion time - GN Board applications are out! Check the CEE wiki.
Hugs from Bishkek,
Ira

2008-04-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

GN Board 08/09 applications are out!

I have connected MCs to find common synergies and initiate relevant cooperations, I have been responsible for content and delivery of regional conferences for MCs and LCs. I have done in depth research of CEE and its subregions to aid AIESEC countries in CEE to capitalize on this to the maximum I have participated in country coaching in mutually identified areas.

I’m the CEE Program Manager 07/08

Geraldine Nayagam

I have done sales, networking and negotiations in 10 different countries; I can have breakfast in Budapest, lunch in Prague and party in Warsaw. In 8 months I have been to 12 different countries. I am directly contributing to 2010 goals by selling and delivering Regional Exchange Partnerships. I am responsible for securing a budget of over 30 thousand Euros that supports the development of 25 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

I’m the CEE External Relations Manager 07/08

Irina Ruseva

It is the time to take great challenge and it is the time to take a great responsibility.

With all our excitement we want to announce that GN Board 08/09 applications are open!

For Candidate Guide click here

For Application Guide click here

Learn more about our experience on the CEE blog, or mail us at nayagam.geraldine@aiesec.net - Geri CEE Program Manager or
irina.ruseva@aiesec.net – Ira CEE ER Manager.

CEE GN Board 07/08

CEE Newsletter

2008-04-03T23:29:00.000-07:00

The Legacy!

EuroXPro is over, GN Board applications are out, second round of country visits has started, spring recruitment is almost done and all this means that we are on the way of building the legacy for an amazing 08/09, and it is our responsibility to prepare the ground so that we can have the best Q2 ever!

"It is precisely the possibility of realizing a dream that makes life interesting."
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Read further here

News, news, news!

2008-03-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

Moving fast! Now!

Global Planning is over, AI s/election is almost over, excitement for the coming term is even higher.

Still for many of us there are still 4 more months to go in order to leave a great legacy for an even more amazing 2008/2009. Four more months with a great deal of knowledge we gained during the term, four more months to make the best possible of our terms.

"When there is no turning back, then we should concern ourselves only with the best way of going forward."
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Read further here

Wondering what to do next year?

2008-03-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

Love traveling?
Love challenges?
Want to work in a multi-cultural environment?
Want to gain an unique team experience?
This is for you... (yes, it says meet us tonight, but you can always mail us as well:)

Wondering what to do for the summer?

2008-03-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

CEE GN Board in a country next to you...

2008-03-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is true! We are coming - soon, very soon!

Our first stop:
EuroXPRO, St. Petersburg, Russia, 18th- 23rd, March

Ivan:
- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, aka the super Baltic region
- Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia

Geri:
- Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ira:
- Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Greece

We want to meet you again!

Directors!

2008-02-23T02:07:00.000-08:00

For those who still don't know, the Directors for AIESEC International in 08/09 are:

Monica Costea - Romania

Annika Rudback - Egypt

Kate Hanlon - Australia

Phil Oduor - Kenia

Felipe Cardenas - Colombia

Li Zhen (Vincent) - Mainland of China

Congratulations to all of them and we are looking forward to find out who is the next CEE Director on Monday.

Greetings from Ohrid,

Ira

AI s/elections

2008-02-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

The most amazing part of the AI s/election process is that you get more than 30 people from all over the world who are putting forward their ideas about AIESEC, about how the organization can look like and what kind of impact it can have.

More than 30 people from all over the world dreaming about the future of the largest global student run organization.

30 people with amazing passion, dreams, courage, daring to take the responsibility of making a bigger impact.

AI Director announcement is tomorrow night!

New PAI is Juan Cajio - current Director for Iberoamerica GN.

Best wishes from Ohrid,
Ira

AIESEC in Kyrgyzstan

2008-02-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

Dear AIESEC in Kyrgyzstan!

I am writing this mail and my hands are shaking, emotions running through my head & heart: excitement, happiness, fullfillment...

With a great privilege and pride I would like to announce that 2 hours ago AIESEC in Kyrgyzstan was granted the FULL MEMBERSHIP STATUS!!

After 2 years which brought first exchanges and projects, activated first Kyrgyz leaders in AIESEC, 2 years which were sometimes very challenging, the dream started by Elina and carried on by our generation became true!

As full members of AIESEC network we are entitled to take part in all strategic decisions of the organization with a vote right. It also means that with opportunities in front of us we shall accept the responsiblity for using them and utilizing the potential.

It is now in our hands. ALL of us. Each member at any position. We are good, we can be great. And the role of term 0809 is to use our achievement as calatyst for growth. And that needs people who can take it further - Leaders on local level - in LCEB Bishkek!

Thus, on this historical day we are opening the applications for LCEB 0809, which you can find in myaiesec.net.

If there is time to achieve, it is now.
If there is option to grow & develop, it is here.
If you want to be a part of history, take destiny in ur hands!

On that day I would also like to thank people who made it happen. First of all to Elina, Shavkat, Sergey, Zemfira, Ailar - who established AIESEC in the country and initiatied its operations in 0607. AND To my MC team for all the commitment and action taken towards that goal in last 7 months, in all, even the most unfavourable conditions. Without you this would not happen!! THANK U!

With the best wishes and hugs from sunny Macedonia,
proud and happy :)

sandra, Irina & Lumi

Greetings from your MCPs in Macedonia

2008-02-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

Leadership generations

2008-02-19T04:07:00.000-08:00

Hello, CEE!

More than 200 young leaders from all over the world are sitting now in plenary and waiting for the oficial opening of IPM. It's a bit late so we have time to talk to people whom seen at Ic last time, half a year ago in Turkey. every time we get off the plane we see signs on different language or even written in different letters. Already 50 times once in a year international, smiling young crowd appeared in one of the world capitals and it doesn't matter for them, for us - what's the distination: Guatemala, Egypt or Republic of Macedonia. Leadership - the world which would be wirtten on our flag if we have a flag, doesn't have a "homecountry", can't be kept by borders.

Few minutes ago I met my predcessor, Katya, who is now the global coordinator for InBev. I realized that there are 3 generations of Russian MCPs at IPM. Then I looked around: Slovakia, Macedonia, Estonia...there are quite a few countries which are standing in a groups of three, gathered by IPM from different parts of the world: Switzerland, Kazakhstan, France, Belgium.
Yesterday the girl from CC, when we tried to keep the sugar inside the broken pack, asked me if I'm the current MCP of Russia. She turned to be the former LCP of AIESEC Timisoara, the big boss of my MCVP Communication. Victor told me about her, about their last year team, about her experience in Kufunda village in Zimbabve where I hope to go one day...

What I have now in my mind is that the most valuable thing in AIESEC is not only growing number of young people with leaderrship experience, but tough times and happy moments they had, all these small things like night talks, getting lost in the cities, chatting in msn with 8 hours time difference - which tied them together and made any distance just one phonecall long. So the main input for myself stays the same as last year: look around, talk, fall in love, smile, have fun,remember.

Nastya Gulyavina,
MCP 07/08 Russia

IPM LIVE!

2008-02-18T04:01:00.000-08:00

It is the first day of IPM.
Pre-meeting finished yesterday with great roll calls and getting ready to rock the house.

Reporting live from the Global Village at the central square in Skopje with almost a 1000 people present! It has been amazing once again, even though it is my 3 IPM and N-th in a row Global Village it is exciting.

Pictures and videos coming tonight! PAI elections, Director speeches and global planning - life is exciting!

Hugs,
Ira

Latvia National Conference

2008-02-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, AIESEC Latvia had its National Conference - NatCon 2008. The conference had a huge impact on our delegates and it turned out to be the best National Conference in the last years. We had 2 tracks, one dealing with PboX management for newies and one focused on Leadership Development for our EBs and OCPs.

Our conference team was made of 8 people of 6 nationalities. Our chair was Vishal, new elected MCP of AIESEC in Belgium. The facis were from Lithuania, Russia, Turkey, Romania and Latvia. All the conference team created a great atmosphere for AIESEC Latvia networking and bonding.

To the success of the conference contributed the externals invited, representing companies as PwC, Deloitte, Microsoft, CVO Recruitment and British Chamber of Commerce. It turned out that each day of the conference we had someone invited and delegates could network with the guests as most of them stayed at the conference later than planned initially (they enjoyed AIESEC spirit).

Added to this, we also had the chance to listen to the vision of the MC candidates for next term. They shared their ideas for how to improve and make AIESEC Latvia grow.

All these contributed to a great conference that made all delegates leave home inspired and motivated to work!

We as MC team would like to thank the faci team, the chair and the OC for contributing to NatCon 2008!

Wish you all such wonderful moments in your national conferences!

MC Team of Latvia 2007-2008

2008-02-06T08:14:00.001-08:00

CEE LDS 2008/ 25 Feb – 1 March | Ankara, TURKEY

What is CEE LDS?

The conference in CEE which reunites the people who are going to lead the CEE LCs in 2008
The CEE conference meant to enable CEE leaders to be successful and lead their teams towards performance
The conference aiming to bring a practical approach to leadership development in AIESEC: how can I take the most of my Leadership XP? How can I be a successful leader in AIESEC?

Who can come?
Elects: OCPs/ EBs/ Team Leaders
Wannabes – people planning to be in a LR in their LCs in the next 1- 2 months: the potential LC leaders, especially the OCP wannabes - OCPs/ EBs/ Team Leaders
Current LC leaders: OCPs/ EBs/ Team Leaders

We invite you to...

Explore your leadership potential and the opportunities available for this stage
Rediscover the global aspect of AIESEC and make friends and partners from all over the AIESEC network
Challenge your understanding of AIESEC and CEE
Get ready to lead your team
Learn in a truly global environment
Have fun with CEE GN& enjoy Turkey

Apply here: http://ceelds.org/eng/index.php?ceelds=registration – DL 10 Feb

Find out more at the CEE LDS wiki: http://myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10004217 and at the CEE LDS site: http://ceelds.org/eng/index.php?ceelds=registration

For more questions write to: irina.ciobanu@aiesec.net

CEE Newsletter

2008-01-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

The latest news and updates from the region can be read here.

Greetings from the office!

Why is it great to be CEE ER?

2008-01-24T08:03:00.000-08:00

Continuing my series...
I think today I did two of the most astonishing things I have ever done in AIESEC...

First: I went to a company meeting at 7.30 in the morning.
Second: I was sitting in the middle of a fancy new shopping mall in the center of Prague, under the amazed look of a guard, being absolutely insolent, using some random wireless to make a Skype call...
And the best part is that I managed to find a plug in the mall - so I am still here, and the guard obviously gave up on me :)

Why I am in Prague and why I am working from a mall is a seperate story :).

News time!

2008-01-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

You can read all latest updates from CEE following this link

Updates

2007-12-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

We haven't been here for a while :).

So what has been happening?
ER Summit some many weeks back in November
One month of office work - I know you can't believe it, but I was a whole month in the office
Some really good news of Sami (WENA Project Manager) joining us in the office starting January
Preparing really cool and exciting LN Day and Leadership Tomorrow Forum for CEEMOS and CEELDS
A wonderful Christmas dinner prepared for by the Hungarian MC.
And far from the least - a super exciting CEE MCPs Meeting starting on Tuesday in Romania

I hope you are enjoying the weekend and the upcoming holidays.

Warmest wishes from the called Vienna Airport,
Ira

CEE Newsletter

2007-11-29T07:58:00.000-08:00

Opportunities, latest updates about and from Ivan, Geri and Ira and much, much more.

Latest CEE Newsletter can be found here
Enjoy reading!

Apply, continue the growth

2007-11-24T02:43:00.000-08:00

"You don't have to be great to get started,

but you have to get started to be great."

Les Brown

There are many moments in life when we stand on a crossroad seeking for the right direction without even asking ourselves “Where I actually want to go”.

In the year of “One AIESEC” making it happen we have set the right direction of growth. For the first time in the last 5 years AIESEC in Bulgaria is Growing and leaving 2006 in the
past only with 07/08 5-months results shows the unleashed potential for growth of this AIESEC country. You have the incredible opportunity to join a team that will inherit an organization that simply wants to grow and need a team to make this growth sustainable in the upcoming 2 terms towards 2010. So you can be the ONE that will take this role and leave your name in the history. You will set the standards that the future generations will try to beat. You will make another star show on the AIESEC sky.

YOU can be the ONE.

AIESEC in Bulgaria wants you in that team and is ready to offer you an experience that will push your limits and simply change your life. A year full of intensive self-discovery and dynamic working environment. A year that nobody has said was easy but all say was amazing.

We are ready to get you ready!!!

Are you ready to get started?

Read the MC 0809 Candidates Booklet

and get the application started!

All the best,

Steli.Ivo.Milen.Blago.Aga

MC Team 2007/2008 “The Lead Forward”

AIESEC in Bulgaria

Hiking snowy fields Czech style

2007-11-18T12:18:00.001-08:00

Some weeks ago Lukas (the MCVP XD of AIESEC Czech Republic) mailed me to ask me if I can go and be the chair of the OPS.

I had a very slight idea what I am putting myself in, since it was right between coming back from Poland and the Finance Summit and the start of the ER Summit. Still I decided to go since I enjoy chairing a lot and AIESEC CzR is a role model country for me and also OPS is so much a different conference compared to any other conference in AIESEC.

So here I was just after half a day of catching up with Geri in Budapest - finishing a bottle of wine in 1 hour and gossiping, the next afternoon I was already on my favourite Student Agency yellow bus on my way to Prague. Yes, I was smart enough also to arrange two more meetings with companies, so I have even more reasons for coming here :).

Meetings were great - both quite interesting and also very inspiring :).

Still this post is about the OPS itself.
On Thursday morning we were supposed to leave for the site at 7 in the morning and so we did. We had a very carefully planned schedules so that we are on site around 11. Well, we almost managed.

The second time we were supposed to change from train to bus we missed our stop, so we thought that going to Prerov is not very smart, we got off the next stop with the idea to catch the next train that is going back to our stop. The next train was in 1 hour and since it was quite cold instead of waiting there we thought that we can walk back to the previous station - according to plan it shouldn't be more than 1 hour - it was just 5 minutes by the train!
And so our journey began:

As you can see it was not such a bad idea at the beginning, after some 15 minutes it got a bit harder, but we thought that there is no sense already going back.

After some 30 minutes we realized that it was not a smart idea at all, but we couldn't go back... so, here we were with all our stuff and me with a trolley bag! If you were traveling like me for 2 months with a backpack you could possibly understand my desire to finally have just a small bag and nothing on my back.

Nobody told me we will be going through a snowy field for almost 1,5 hours. :). We somehow managed to our station and being happy and extremely tired we found our bus stop just to realize that next bus is in 1,5 hours - no way we could wait with our feet cold. So we decided to hike! Yes, I was hiking for the first time in my life and it was quite successful. :)
So far so good - we got to the town where we had to take another bus, that was in 2 hours... So it was time for lunch and taking off our wet shoes!

A shot of Becherovka and some tea as well as a very nice lunch made everyone's life much beautiful and we even celebrated the successful team building with tochena Kofola :).

And after some more traveling we finally got to Cenkovice to discover amazing mountains covered by snow! I haven't seen so much snow for the past two years! It was so amazingly beautiful and so extremely cold!

Some more pictures from the site:

To a beautiful individual :)

2007-11-11T12:49:00.001-08:00

Happy birthday, Ivan

Live from PwC CEE Finance Summit!

2007-11-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

"Well, we had a main responsible and than we had a supporting responsible and an overall responsible for that.
Ah, so that it is why it didn't work!"

Brilliant phrase, isn't it? :)

It is the second day we are spending in the amazing office of PwC who are our kind hosts in the heart of Warsaw.
Yesterday was about getting to know the role of a CFO in a company and the budgeting process and today we had the opportunity to put ourselves in the shoes of our auditors when they try to understand our financial statements.
The brilliant group of CEE VP Fs with some WENA participation in the face of Denmark and Austria :), have been sharing and talking about budgets, financial planning, connections with other parts of the office, Google groups and spreadsheets.

It is amazing to see that pro activity works :), those lovely people got tired of everyone forgetting about them at Global and Regional meetings and putting them in the ER track and they just left at IC and came up with the great idea of having a Finance Summit - and there it is! Up and running with a lot of ideas and plans here in the PwC office in Warsaw.

Hugs from Poland,
Ira

Done!

2007-11-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

Done with country visits.
Amazing one month in the Baltic countries is over.
A lot of people and experiences that challenged me in many ways.
Next time when wondering whether to take a challenge or not - take it! Even though it might be hard and not exactly the way you expected it, but you will learn as much as you will never be able to while staying at home.
And do not forget that this year is your year - enjoy it and know that it will never be back :).
Hugs from Riga airport, on the way to Brussels and back to my ER work,
Ira

p.s. If you are wondering where I am going next: I am in Brussels till Tuesday to meet Bridgestone about the next year contract and then I will meet all the VP Finances for amazing three days with PwC in Warsaw. You thought it will be over? No! I am going to Czech Republic for meeting with a potential partner and to chair the preparation seminar for the people about to go on exchange and on the 19th I am finally back to Budapest for the ER Summit and one month of office work :).
Isn't it exciting? Applications for GN Board are to be released in March :)

proposal how to spend 15-18.11.2007

2007-10-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

You joined AIESEc this Autumn?
You dont know what to do between 15th and 18th of November???
Come to Sofia

How far is it to Tallinn?

2007-10-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

There is a Russian joke about two Estonians traveling on a train (Privet, Denis!)... I will not tell it here, since it is highly culturally insensitive :), but still what I wanted to start with is that I arrived here with my mindsets of people being slowly, three similar countries, people not too passionate and energetic. And my worldvview was challenged to the maximum.

I am now sitting in the middle of Tallinn in the most beautiful MC office I have ever seen in my life (Sorry, AIESEC Turkey, but your office needs a lot of cleaning :)).

I spent 5 days here on a country visit with people who challenged my perspective about AIESEC and how can AIESEC look like and what AIESEC can be to a full extent. Estonians are people for whom innovation and being the first to do something is extremely important. AIESEC in Estonia is a youth organization who is supported by the government and has an amazing office that even has a sauna right in the middle of the ols town of Tallinn.
On my first night Inna was challenging me with questions - why you don't have a mentor? Mentor is someone different than just a good friend. Mentor is not someone who is necessarily a good friend...

Than Marjam amazed me with what a balanced life she has, how mature and deep person she is, how she can handle even the most frustrating situation... I truly started believing that there is a balance between AIESEC and life.

And than today was my last night with the MC - we had a very spontaneous, but still ver ynice dinner, gossiping and talking about our future, making plans and laughing.

AIESEC Estonia can be a role model country how to stay relevant in a fast changing highly competitive environment. And you know how to do it, girls :).

To all of you out there I wish you could live the experience of discovering new country and new people every week.

Hugs from Tallinn, on the way to Riga,
Ira

Experiencing the Baltics - Live from Energy

2007-10-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

After almost getting arrested in Lithuania, 5 days in Latvia I arrived to Tartu - a city in Estonia, to participate in Baltic Energy - a conference that gathers all people from the Baltic region to experience and learn together.

I just wanted to share the energy with you! It is extremely exciting to see all those newies, oldies, OCPs, EBs, MCs...
And this is to share with you the unbelievable energy I found here:

Heading for Tallinn in a few hours and two more country visits to go...

Oh, yes, I had my "panic moment" after yesterday night I realized that the CD with all my materials for the country visits is missing. Thank you Marjam for saving my life :) and two country visits.

It has been an amazing experience so far, that only words can't describe. I just wish you to be waking up each morning and realize what a meaningful job you have.

Hugs from Tartu,
Ira

Ivan's experiences - My first Cyrillic experience, Bulgaria

2007-10-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

Your Director's first post to this blog :), so enjoy reading and check his map to see whether he is coming to your country!

---

Getting there

Bulgaria was my destination, so it started at 3 something in the AI office in Rotterdam, I left by train to the Schipol airport because at 6:00 p.m. I had to catch a flight to Budapest, where afterwards I had to catch another flight to Sofia, where afterwards I had to catch a cab together with Ivo, president of AIESEC in Bulgaria who went to pick me up at 2 in the morning and afterwards we had to take a minibus to the bus station where I had to take a bus that was taking me to the venue where the EnterCEE conference was held and organized by the LC Vieliko Turnovo, so basically traveling by all this means of transportation took me almost 20 hours and I made it!

EnterCEE Conference

I arrived to the conference where almost 50 AIESECers from CEE where training themselves and committing with their local projects to this regional initiative that can be the biggest and more impactful in the AIESEC network! (no pressure :)). There, on a beautiful hill almost in the middle of this Balkan nation I had the honor to work and share with the conference team, Cebollita, Gulsen, Woytek, Anula (who left before I arrived) Tina, Geri and Vlada, the Chair. These guys really made an awesome job and they had the best support, energetic, open, smart and passionate CEEtizens making the most of the conference.

Then after the conference we went sightseeing a little bit in Troyan just for ½ hour, enough time to see the colourful downtown and took another bus to Sofia, some hours of good sleep and nice conversations and the capital of Bulgaria receive us with a soft rain, then we take some cabs to Studensky (this is the way it sounds in my head) and close another day.

Stay in Sofia and other adventures

Then for the following days I had to accomplish several things: 1. Train my GN board for their country visits. Done! And they already started them, a full day of training and discussions and going trough several documents that we expect are valuable for our countries. 2. Social time with my GN board. Done! Excellent Bulgarian wine and cool conversation about past, present and future. 3. Buy my backpack for country visits. Done! Now it will visit 11 countries with me in the following 2,5 months. 4. Get my Ukrainian visa. DONE!!! Thank you Ira for the translation and all the lobby you had to make. 5. Spend some time with Bulgarian MC and MCP. Done! We went for a good dinner where I tried a kind of cake made of potato and vegetables and then went to “the apartment” great place to visit in Sofia!. Also went with Ivo for a walk/chat over the night, very useful indeed. 6. Deliver the ER training. Done! Feedback to some proposals, revision of budget, pricing, sales practices… nice way to get started.

I also did some sightseeing, I saw the Saint Sofia statue, visited the old university, the Alexander Nevsky cathedral and in general enjoyed the view of the city including girls on skirts, Bulgarians love skirts and I love girls wearing skirts :). Go skirts.

At the end, as always, everything good has an end, so my visit in Bulgaria was over. The Bulgarian MC gave some presents and showed me the hospitality and gratefulness of that AIESEC country that has started the growth path and will beat the historical exchange record this year :) (cool country to look and learn guys), I run out of the office that has one of the most impressing views of any AIESEC office I have seen (right in from of the parlamient), I forgot to take my ticket! So Geri had to catch a cab and take it to the airport but at the end everything was alright, the first of my 11 eleven CEE countries was behind and I was in my way to Rotterdam, to pack and head to Lithuania, the land of the beautiful ladies.

Expanding?!

2007-10-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made presentation for people who can create a new LC - It was amazing eXPerience for few reasons:
1 - Showing movie from IC in Germany - date about AIESEC in this movie - over 80 countries, over 18 000 students
Currently, just 3 years after - over 100 countries, over 30 000 students - great isnt it?
Still what will be the growth our term will contribute to?!
2 - Why there is no AIESEC in Belarus?! Why there are still countries without AIESEC if there are people there willing to be our members...
3 - Contact with people, reminding yourself of your first step in organization, first projects and tasks that at that point of time were impossible for you, now seeming to be so easy... do you always have this passion? Do you have it for every small activity you are doing? If not why do you do these things?
4 - happening right now, today - out of 15 people at presentation we have already 4 appying to AIESEC wohooo!

Together with first people interested in establishing new LC

CEE Newsletter

2007-10-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

GN and Gloabl updates, opportunities and more!

The last CEE Newsletter is HERE.

Enjoy reading :)!

Wondering where Ivan is going?

2007-10-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

To my team

2007-10-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

No matter where you are :)

what do u do between 16 and 17.10.2007?

2007-10-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/

CEE Shouts at EuroCo

2007-10-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ivan's favourite :)

The oldest and at the same time the newest CEE song...

And last but not the least... WENA and CEE shouts together.

Speaking about WENA and CEE together, Ivan and Rob have decided to demonstrate even physically the synergies between the two GNs.

Live from EuroCo 07 in Lithuania

2007-10-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

Is school useful?

2007-10-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

How often do you complain that ur study is not sth u can really aling with ur personal goals?
Today I realized I do love my studies...
why?
1) I have e-learning courses- I can study while being in Bulgaria, I can study with people from all over the world; exchange opinions, share experience- amazing, trully virtual platform;-)
2) I have demandind tutors that challenge me, expect me to research and learn, I think that I have to spend much more time on this e-learning that I used to for "normal" classes...
Still one of the subjects I attend is Transformation of CEE :-) Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions?
Frankly speaking I don't but I'm happy I was asked them now!
I enjoy my studies :-)

1. Please discuss the influence of socialist regime and central planning for the today situation in CEEC addressing positive and negative aspects (you may refer to CEE as a region or choose only one country).
2. Please analyze the main challenges for CEE region in the globalized world (you may focus on one/ several countries or one/ several aspects).
3. What would you change in the CEEC transition agenda as a reform expert? Please assume it is 1990 and you have already the experience of the transition results as presented over the course?
4. Which country/ countries would you consider the best example of transition in CEE? Why? Please give arguments for your choice?
5. Which country/ countries would you consider the worse example of transition in CEE? Why? Please give arguments for your choice?
6. How would you assess the EU enlargement of 2004 from the perspective of CEE new member states? What problems/ challenges and benefits would the new members face?
7. How would you use the experience of transition in CEEC for the changes in China? What scenario of changes is possible in China? How would the Chinese agenda differ from the CEEC experience?

I&I updates : Updates from the ONLY conference in AIESEC which reunites the LCPs of the strongest GNs in AIESEC.

2007-10-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, Irina and Irina are at EuroCo :).
Which means that Ira made it to Vilnius after a 14 hour journey (this is a seperate story catch me during country visits) and Iritzi and Ivan has already been here for some time.

Following are Iritzi's thoughts (pictures will follow later).

Hugs from the other Irina :)

Iritzi's random thoughts from EuroCo

Updates from the ONLY conference in AIESEC which reunites the LCPs of the strongest GNs in AIESEC.

Yeap - it is a conference with a lot of Ps - MCPs, LCPs, OCPs - everybody here has a P somewhere ...

- I have never seen a group of AIESECers bonding and connecting to each other so fast!!! Never have I seen AIESECers doing such intense netoworking from Day 1 of a conference ( and I have been to 2 ICs!) Never have I seen a bunch of people enjoying each others' comapany so much!!!

- we are so lucky to have a truly unique chair - Caro was MCP of Switzerland for 2 terms, aaaannnd - she even attended the ancient version of EuroCO - WeastCo ( from the times when we had Weast and Meds, not CEE and WENA )

- Things seem to flow and to come so naturally - most of the facis were/ are MCPs ( at least once) - and all the delegates have seen several conferences - so things come so naturally. I mean really - when they enterned the opening plenay - it seemed like the entire room was on fire instantly:D

- today is day 1 - we started with the home groups

- Ira - please please hurry up and get here - everybody is trying to talk to me about ER!!! They are obviously confusing me - soooooooo, ER seems to be pretty popular around here since so many people are looking for you

- Ivan and Rob are here - they did their sexy AI dance in the morning plenary today; Ivan helped us out with the coreography of the faci dance - veeeeeeeeeery sensual. Not just sexy - coulumbian-wise sexy ( man, you guys should see these)

- Australia is in the house!!!! we have 1 LCP from the other end of the earth attending EuroCo!

- during GN time, CEE gets to stay in the plenary - cause like always CEE LCPs are more than WENA LCPs - WE ROCK!!!

- I feel truly blessed to be here - I am the only person in the faci team who was not MCP, not even LCP - I am so lucky to be here and to be witnessing EuroCo - it's not a conference - it's a phenomenon! I am really considering running for any of these 2 positions next year :) - and this coming out of me only after 1 day of conference - gives a total different view of what our product leadership is all about! It is first and foremost about THESE PEOPLE!

- Lithuania...Vilnius - truly beautiful - yesterday after global village ( which was inside a shopping mall) we got to walk through Vilnius to reach the site of the opening ceremony. One colour to describe Lithuania so far: greeeeeeeeeeeeeeen. So many forests.

3 Words to describe my EuroCO XP so far: Explosive. Private. Friendships

Stay tuned!

EnterCEE conference impressions - all zipped in 4 minutes

2007-10-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

This is an e-mail Vlada, the MCP of Serbia and chair of the EnterCEE conference last weekend, sent to us today.
Feels good :). Thank you Vlada for everything!
---

Hello CEEtizens,

I just wanted to share with you couple of impressions as being a chair of Enter CEE conference in Bulgaria last week.

First about the OC and AIESEC Bulgaria - amazing humble people with aim to serve as best as possible to everyone.I really enjoyed time spent with them. They made the conference very pleasant and unforgettable. Thank you AIESEC in Bulgaria and AIESEC Veliko Trnovo for all the effort. You were great!

Geri and E-drive team (faci team) - Geri did great preparation of conference and faci
team as well. It was really smooth to work with them. E- drive team is a group of special people. If I should choose 2 words to describe them that would be smart and cheerful.
They were so eager to deliver great conference but not only that! They spend so many late hours before and after the conference trying to find a way to make program as successful as possible and their support as E-drive team to participating LCs and countries as useful as possible. I was so impressed and amazed. I salute you guys!

Delegates - coming from so different backgrounds and with different experience it was a real excitement and sometimes challenge for facis and me to deal with that fact. They were all interested in content and wanted to learn as much as possible and have fun as well. I met so many interesting delegates that are really passionate about Entrepreneuralship and their projects - it was so nice to talk with them and seeing them putting effort during sessions.

Ivan - your presence there was really good for all. Having you there gave to conference a special flavour that neither OC, facis or I could give. Even being sick and taking all those horrible pills you made it ;) Thank you for the inspiration and showing all of us a big picture.

Last but not least about the program - this was a great learning experience for me - both personal as being a chair and learning about the EnterCEE program and gaining deeper understanding of the program and our GN. I realized that we can make it happen. We can make this program successful. We can make it more relevant to external environment.
We can make it a great platform for our members.

We just need some more faith and effort to do it. I think we are so close, so close like one step away. Just by learning little bit from similar initiatives from Ibero America, AP and Africa GNs we can make it a solid and strong program with great impact. I think that we should to do what
other GNs are quite good at - making additional effort and looking out of their countries!

What is there that may happen for whole GN! How we can make a f...g great program on GN level that will rock not the house but the whole GN! :) Just by making this aditional step towards unity for common good we can do it.

Please excuse that I dared to take this role of commenting the program and giving my personal observations about the GN, program and our attitude. I hope that after "investing" more than 7 days of my term into this program by being a chair of EnterCEE conference (which was great pleasure and honour)

I felt like you will allow me to do this.

Thank you for reading this thoughts of mine :)

Zdravo

Vlada

2007-10-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

I sometimes wonder whether we realli think so or it is just empty sentence. The more eXPerience and knowledge you have, the more importance this sentence becomes to you?Induction period is coming, lot's of the conferences taking place, so if you think you have sth to share with others take your chance and apply as faci.
My last conference - EnterCEE was really amazing. I hope participants learnt at least as much as me. I increased my self- awareness, ability to cooperate with different people, public speaking etc.
Morover, my network of contacts increased again. I feel that now I can undoubtedly say that CEE is my playground.
Anula, Geri, Gulsen, MarTina, Wojtek and Vlada ;-) Thank you for this XP, cannot wait to meet and work with you again.
Just to share with you my feelings...
Enjoy the Faci Roll Call

And | or feel our happiness and pride at the end of the conference :-)

Enter... CEE...

Sometimes things happen for a reason or the adventures of a CEE ER

2007-10-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

I always say that things happen for a reason...

After a great week in Macedonia, a weekend with family and two nights with two of my amazing teammates (Ivan and Geri :)) in Sofia, it was time for EuroCo and Baltics country visits.

Well, this is how I thought about it. AirBaltics had another opinion about that. Having a super-complicated plan of getting there through Istanbul, I arrived again to the amazing place between Asia and Europe, met Mehmet and the other amazed MC members :) and in the morning happily went to the airport, just to find out that there was a problem with the payment of my ticket and I couldn't fly.

So I ended up working for 2 days from Istanbul until 7th when luckily I will be able to fly to Lithuania after all :). But at the end of the day it turned out to be an amazing day - I met with Orcun who is soon to start his internship in Bridgestone in Paris, as well as saw Candost, the President of AIESEC Turkey live on the national TV (CNBC Channel), talking about AIESEC and opportunities. Here are some pictures :)

The happy MC, waiting for Candost appearance on TV

And Candost himself :)

And this is the my travel map :) Thanks Ivan for the idea :)

Hugs from Istanbul and see you soon around,
Ira

EnterCEE spirit

2007-10-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

What are your connections when you see/ hear EnterCEE?
I bet you think of CEE spirit don't you?
Do you remember dicussion about CEEtizen - what it means for us, what are the differences and similarities between the countries.
Having almost all the CEE countries in one place, obviously we had to scream some of our shouts

as well as we came up with some new, especally for EnterCEE:-)

So I bet you don't have doubts anymore about CEE spirit:]

EnterCEE number 1!

2007-10-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

How was your weekend?
For some people from CEE it was amazing! I think I will keep on posting about it for the whole week or more.
Why?
Cause during previous weekend EnterCEE conference took place in Bulgaria! Hopefully delegates have at least such amazing time as I had. Being part of Faci team. I wish I had opportunity to meet E-Drive team again. People so passionate, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. People with whom you can overcome the biggest obstacles and you really believe you are here to make a difference in CEE and to achieve results!!!
I wish I had opportunity to meet again delegates- people able to grow during such period of time, people able to leave their comfort zone in order to learn more, to know more, to improve themselves.
Now sitting in the MC office it's hard to focus only on MC duties, EnterCEE became such an obvious part of me that my only focus is how to make day longer in order to have more time for EnterCEE ;-).
Hopefully Picassa and You Tube will let me put some videos and pictures here soon :-)

AIESEC Serbia - NLC News

2007-09-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Today we got confirmation for one new special guests on New Leaders Conference in Serbia on 28th of November!.... and his name is....

...... Mr.Derek Small!!!

AIESEC Serbia is proud to host and work with Mr. Small on this big event. If you want to know more about Mr. Small, you could visit: http://www.aiesec.net/alumni/home/hall-of-fame/inductees/2006/derek

Greetings from Serbia for CEE region.

@ly yours,
Mici

AIESEC Serbia - Leadership Forum: News

2007-09-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

One of the special guests on New Leaders Conference in Serbia on 28th of November will be......

...... Mr. Houston Spencer from Alcatel Lucent!!!

Mr. Spencer was representative of Alcatel Lucent on last IC in Istanbul and AIESEC Serbia is proud to host and work with Mr. Spencer on this big event.

Greetings from Serbia for CEE region.

@ly yours,
Mici

AIESEC Serbia - Leadership Forum

2007-09-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hi CEE Region!

On 27th and 28th of November AIESEC Serbia will realized New Leaders Conference as a part of Leadership Forum project.

Short description:

Leadership forum is a project whose goals are understanding, encouraging and developing leadership among young people, as well as forming a strong network of innovative, strategically oriented young leaders that will certainly be drivers of positive changes in Serbia in the future.

Mission: Activating leadership among young people.

Vision: Strong network of strategically oriented young leaders.

More information about project you could find on: www.newleaders.org.yu

Greetings from Serbia,
Mici

= = A torn page from an OC diary = =

2007-09-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

My name is Silviya.

I am in my 3^rd student year at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Just came back after one year of wonderful exchange eXPerience in AIESEC St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Currently I work with above 60 people from over 16 nations in order to create an amazing, colourful, full of energy and @ spirit conference.

Hello, I am the OC Delegates on EnterCEE Conference 2007, hosted by LC Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria J

Why I am spending my time to organize a conference, you may ask.

Well, it gives me the opportunity “to taste” 15 nations in such a short period. It challenges me to find a way to communicate effectively with different people. You learn to rely on people you do not know, to work virtually, to challenge yourself every second and at the end of the day to still have a smile on the face and the conviction that this responsibility is really worth!

I think often on my first participation on a PBOX conference when I was an OCP in Switzerland. It was so motivating, so inspiring, so many new contacts and the dream of 20 people to realize their projects. We promised to support each other, to match together, to meet each other around. And we did it J And it was WENA GN guys ;)

Now I want to be there and to feel the great happiness seeing so many project teams, 54 projects on one place, CEE spirit and we will rock the house. And not only the house, but everything around us so that this rocking feeling will keep “echoing” in our hearts for months afterwards. Because this is a conference for YOU – for the EnterCEE participants. Just for you, dear CEEtizens!

***

How does an OC day, exactly 1 week before a conference, look like?

7.30h. Alarm clock. Mm, too early to get up… Yes, maybe in Bulgaria, but have to call in St. Petersburg and it is already 9.30h there. Sofia is hardly waking up…

8.00h. First sms of the day. Goog morning, world J Nasko (LCP, LC Veliko Turnovo) has just faxed few last night’s invitations. Great, my people in Turkey will get their visas. Thinking a bit about the strange situation – working not on site has some disadvantages: you can not finish your work on your own. And the greatest advantage: you learn to work effective, intense and happy in a virtual team, real time and respect team responsibility – thank you guys J

9.00h. University classes. Yes, no matter the conference we still have duties to the university…

12.00h. University is over. Time for EnterCEE Co work J

12.30h. At home. Starting tone of Windows, 10 new mails around the conference in the last 4 hours. New delegates, ideas for some small surprises for the delegates from my dear OC colleagues. If the delegates just knew what is expecting them :P

Excited, really excited… 1 week left J

15.00h – discussions with Geraldine and Deni (OCP) about the delegates, the conference itself, different inputs and feedbacks, work is getting more and more various… Chats with the Bulgarian MC. Sending mails to the Sofia´s LC to host our delegates

16.00h – call from Turkey. Funny – I spent the last 1.5 years abroad, 2 different countries and had never dealt with embassies so much as now. It brings me on thoughts of differences and ununited Europe, and how horrible it is yet that we are not equal in the chance to use opportunities. Calling the embassy: “international student organization – conference – 15 nations from CEE”… “oh, yes, it will be ok. Only the visa takes 4 days”. Cool – AIESEC breaks the borders, not only metaphoric said ;)

19.00h – come on, every @er needs a break, time to have a nice dinner with friends ;)

22.00h. Checking mails. New delegates, new invitations. Cool, we’re getting more J

23.00h. OC is tired. Jokes and fun stuff running through skype J Planning next steps.

0.00h. Time to sleep. Last check of mails. Everything done! Happy, happy J

There is only one week left. I cannot wait. I met so many people during the last 3 weeks, finally time to welcome them and show them the fruits of our work…

Destination: Success

Direction: Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria

Goal set: amazing EnterCEE Conference 2007!

Are you packing already?

Ready…

…steady…

…go!!!

P.S. I know, you are excited as well and would so much want to go just right now. Wait for few more days – 27^th is near ;)

Till then: keep your good mood and check our site: http://sourcecore.net/AIESEC/EnterCEECo2007/

GN Board Life Updates

2007-09-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

After we spent two weeks at home we are again on the road :).
But before we update you on what is coming in the following months, short social update, or otherwise sometimes it is good to get lost :).

On Saturday after the GN Board Plan review meeting we decided to go for a nice Turkish lunch and take a different route on the way back home and we ended up at the Castle District or otherwise the most touristy part of the town :). After that we realized that this place is 10 minutes walk from our house, felt very ashamed and decided to come back on Sunday and we did! Here are pictures to motivate you to come and visit us at some point :).

The last one is the nice dinner we cooked for ourselves :)

What's coming in the next weeks:
- GN Plan First Report - to be released soon :)
- EnterCEE Conference
- EuroCo
- Country visits
- Finance Summit
- ER Summit

I really want to post my travel plans :)

Starting in a few hours:
21- 28, September - Macedonia
2-3, October - Sofia, GN Board training
3-4, October - Istanbul
4-5, October - Riga
6-14, October - Vilnius, EuroCo, Country visit
15-17, October - Riga, Country Visit
18-21, October - Energy, Estonia
23-26, October - Talin, Country visit
29 - 2, November - Riga, Country visit
3-5, November - Brussels, sales meeting
6-12, November, Poland, Finance meeting
12, November - finally back! :)

Life is exciting!
I know you know that :).

Hugs from Budapest,
Almost on the way to Sofia,
Ira

Happy!

2007-09-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

I am happy, because I am successful :).
Or vice versa. You decide.

But there is one thing I know the feeling of being successful and achieving things is incomparable!

I am 5 000 EUR away from my target.
I matched my third internship today. 7 more to go.
I spent amazing month traveling and one more is on the way.
I work with incredible individuals and I achieve great results.

What else do you want from life?

Hugs from autumn Budapest,
Ira

RECRUITMENT

2007-09-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

Of course I'm TM so my days are now dominated by recruitment, and I know not only mine!
So CEE are you ready to recruit your people:-)?
Leaders of AIESEC 2010?
Diversified pool of our potential EPs?
This is also time to verify relevance of our current activities for the local societies.
Think of Bran eXPerience we present by our behaviours and apporaches?
So CEE TMs are you ready for recruitment 07?
Are you ready to share your impressions?
Hope to get to know what members will we have across CEE:-)
What kind of generation of achievers we will cocreate with them:-)

AIESEC 2010. What's your contribution?

2007-09-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

TN-In-FI-MC-2007-1260 matched to SN-In-RU-NT-2007-1380
TN-In-FR-MC-2007-1451 matched to SN-In-TR-IZ-2007-1663

10 more to go!

8 000 exchanges. What's your contribution?

after IC

2007-09-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

So IC is over - time to go and achieve.
But there is sth more important for me- time to cooperate.
I'm sure CEE will achieve a lot this year- there is no other way!
But what I'm impressed this year was regional cooperation of CEE country.
Partnerships, country meetings and finally common rollcalls of Baltic, Balkans and others proved that there is spirit in CEE. Something important besides that- you do not need to go far far away to have life-changing XP.
CEE countries are waiting for CEE inhabitants and can ensure you high quality opportunities.
So what are u waiting for?

On being a CEEtizen

2007-08-29T02:10:00.001-07:00

Last night was the CEE party. So you can imagine the amount of people and level of energy this morning in the planery :).

Still I wanted to share the second best decision I have taken in my life (the first one was to move to study in Russia). So the second best decision I have taken in my life is to run for the CEE GN Board.

There is no other more exciting place in the world that in 3 months gave me the opportunity to travel so much, to learn so many new things (starting html and looking for a flat in country you don't speak the language and finishing with how to make more possible in partnership), to build an amazing network, to have a 1 a.m. conversation about the EU and Turkey's accession, than at 4 a.m. to have another conversation about Bulgaria - Turkey relations... The place where I keep on realizing everyday what is that I want to do with my life :).

I was born Bulgarian, I am Russian in my heart, people here say I look Romanian, when I hear Turkish people speaking and when I look around I feel like home in Bulgaria, I am missing Budapest and Prague, I LOVE the Baltic spirit and energy, the Balkans will always be in my heart.

I remember in February I was sitting in a group with the 40 most outstanding people from the network and I was answering the question What is in my mind and what is in my heart.

What is in my heart is an unbelievable excitement and love for an amazing region with the most ambitious and hard working people ever.

What is in my mind is the question how to capitalize on that? How to build on that? How to achieve more? How to bring what is needed in this region? How to make more possible for the world around us? And than the ideas and more excitement comes in from just imagining how it would feel when we do it. What we would see and what the people around would be saying.

No, this is not an-IC-generated-excitement. It is the realization that you once again make when you see the faces of the people behind the e-mails. When in the morning you say cesc, ahoj, dobre rano, dobro utro, dobroe utro, hola, merhaba, lavas (and I am sorry for all the wrong spelling).

Looking forward to even more exciting 9 months.

Hugs from the magical city of Istanbul,
IR

AIESEC Praha

2007-08-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

I hope you don't mind copy pasting :). But I liked the idea about the event so much :).
Enjoy reading:

Rodicak, August 2007

This special event became a tradition in LC Praha. Every summer we organize this for our parents – basically to show them what AIESEC is doing, why their children are staying whole summer in Prague, what are our results, what we are getting out of that ... Probably the most interesting part is meeting of our parents with our trainees – to show them real exapmle of our work.

The rest of the story is here.

Cultural and language differences in CEE :)

2007-08-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

I remember we were having a lot of fun during transition when Jarda was telling that in some CEE countries people don't say mashed potatoes, but smashed potatoes.
Imagine someone throwing potatoes around the kitchen to smash them :)

But when I saw this at lunch some days ago it just made my day:

Participate in IC

2007-08-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Always wanted to go for the biggest event that gathers more than 650 young people from all over the world?
Always wondered where is your MC and LCPs gone for 2 weeks?

Now you have the chance to participate in International Congress!

Join the discussions, see videos from sessions, read session materials!

All this is just one click away: http://live.myaiesec.net/

IC impressions and updates by Agnezka

2007-08-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

IC impressions from the VP TM of AIESEC Bulgaria :). Enjoy and wish you all an amazing weekend!
Day before yesterday was so called day zero. Without any sessions but with Opening Plenary – some roll calls were really amazing!, Global Village – this year organized in the different ways- countries were having their stands not in alphabetical order but we were grouped in GNs. Due to hot weather Global Village took place inside so this was also something new for me. At the end of the day we went to the Official Opening. During the day not only had we opportunity to get to know other countries or meet new and old friends but also listen to few speeches – PAI, but also Turkish Alumni, AIESEC member during 60s who is now leading supervisory board of AIESEC in Turkey. In his speech he shared with us his perception of AIESEC and the need to look deeper into environmental issues of the current world. We came back home about 23 so it was a long day!
Yesterday was the first day with sessions- opportunity to get to know people and get into IC flow. Our facilitators do amazing job and make us passionate about everything happening here! Imagine 600 people knowing AIESEC Way, attending and running already some sessions on this topic but being extremely excited about discussing it! The main theme of conference is achievement and we as generation of achievement so of course we also clarify what does it mean for us – personally , for the organization.
From personal perspective- every night partying till around 4 so probably tonight I will skip it cause I will not be able to focus on sessions?
Lots of discussions with old friends giving another boost to think. Talks and drinking with some Polish people having this unique feeling of reunion and being amongst friends. Food- the same breakfast all the time Im wondering what will be the feeling when finally day after IC comes and I will eat sth else for breakfast;-). Meetings are getting into agenda making it full – E-Drive Team funny, challenging team with the aim to contribute to results of the whole Growth Network. Two working groups- Diversity and Knowledge Management plus country meetings makes agenda almost without free time, but for sure this sth that makes this conference so special and energy is coming to you out of nowhere:]!

So here it came- second day of the conference with new concept being continuity of what was happening before.
Two AI teams on the stage giving you lots of thoughts how it can be to manage organization from global perspective. Bringing more understanding regarding Global Focus Areas as well as time to think about value of our AIESEC XP and its relevance- yeap not quality but value and relevance. Amazing how similar is our perception- members of AIESEC, our feelings, thoughts and in the same time how rarely we discuss them, analyze the reasons and show passions and excitement as well as interest in world issues.
Additionally IC is obviously place of long discussion and exchange of opinions, getting to know reality of other countries and challenging obvious things and facts.
I can imaging that there are still so many days to come but on the other hand time is running as crazy and soon will be home. Doing my best to have positive impact and change and reshape world around me to make it better place.

Live from CEE GN!

2007-08-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

Live! from CEE GN meeting at IC 2007 in Turkey.

We just finished the country role-calls and the Opening Plenary, we saw the GN Board Launch, that you can also see over here :)
Now enjoying the sun and the amazing weather in Istanbul, getting ready for the second part of the day when we are going to get to know our CEE reality better, we will found out how each peace of the CEE puzzle look like.
Tomorrow is the time to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Find the right fits and glue the puzzle.

Stay tuned and get connected to IC Live! at http://live.myaiesec.net

From the Asian side of Istanbul,
Ira

The adventure begins

2007-08-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

We are here! In the heart of an incredible city so diverse and so amazing!
My journey took quite some many hours :), but I can't describe the feeling of being here.

I was at the office of AIESEC Istanbul today. Amazing place! Incredible atmosphere, unforgettable window view, pictures of trainees, awards, thank you letters all around the place. I simply admire the people who work there and are changing the world. Every day. One person at a time.

Sitting currently in the MC office. With Geri and Iritzi behind my back:
Moving to the venue tomorrow. And getting ready for the only event in the world that brings so many young people from so many different countries for 12 days to learn, discover, discuss, build, do, change the world.

Extremely excited to meet all the CEE people in just one day!

Life has never been more exciting and interesting! Unforgettable views, meaningful conversations and tones of feelings I can't describe.

One for all, and all for the future.
Hugs from Turkey,
Ira

Thank you!

2007-08-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Better later than never, but...

I just wanted to say thank you to my amazing team-mates: Ivan and Geri for the wonderful weekend we spent together.

We spent two days together it felt as though we have not spoken to each other for ages!

Ivan, thank you for staying positive all the time and actively listening to my feedbacks :)
Geri, thank you for sharing this year and the amazing experience of being a CEEtizen with me.

And to all the other CEEtizens - extremely excited about meeting you all and sharing my experience so far in just 1 week in Turkey!

Why is it great to be CEE ER?

2007-08-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

Because this is my travel schedule:

26th - 30th August - Prague PwC meeting
3rd August - Bratislava SkyEurope meeting
4th - 5th August - Budapest GN Board Meeting
7th - 9th August - Prague Hills meeting
12th - 15th August - Bulgaria
16th - 31st August - Turkey IC

And don't ask for October... Geri said that the bus agency I am using should introduce Bus Miles and More or Frequent Bus User programme especially for me. You should have seen the face of the people in the agency when I told them that I need to go to and back Bratislava in the same day... The almost asked: But why?!?!

Hugs from the office,
Ira

Ira's adventures continued...

2007-08-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

So after I didn't get to London last week on Thursday I headed again to Prague - the most beautiful and romantic city (after St. Petersburg in Russia) I have ever been in my life. There are places that you have always wanted to visti and when you come there for the first time you feel overwhelmed, you want to see everything and somehow when I came to Prague the first time in June I didn't feel that I am coming to a place that is waiting for me. This time it was different - I am getting used to the city and it was getting used to me. I got off the usual tourist track (except for the castle, sorry but I couldn't miss that one) and that was amazing! I know I am a tourist myself and shouldn't be complaining, but why to go with the crowds when you can enjoy an extremely beautiful view of Prague from Vyshgrad?

This is a church somewhere around Karlovi nameste. Amazingly beautiful!And a sign outside saying: Your car is not a trezor! Good sense of humor from the Czech Police :)
A different Prague:

Enough of tourist stuff :).

Thanks to the super-lovely and hospitable Czech MC and previous coincidence that we had the keys from the Czech MC flat in Budapest, I was not sleeping under a bridge and I could enjoy the blue coach in Haje :). I also went to Novy Bydzov. It is not just Novy Bydzov, but it is the home town of Petra (MCVPER in CzR), spent the day and a night there with her parents and lovely dog. Thanks a lot Petra for your hospitality, it was great meeting you and your parents! Keep training for the next topalki competition :).

Not too many adventures this time, right? Well, not really. Everything went smooth, the PwC meeting was great. I have been chasing the guy all over Europe! Can't wait to IC to let you all know about all the cool things we are going to do with them this year.

4 days left - Apply for the E Drive Team

2007-07-27T06:16:00.001-07:00

A Year ago I wanted to finish my AIESEC career, butI wanted to experience something reallyprofessional. I was full time working, but still was getting e-mails with great opportunities is CEE region. Experience what I had in E-Drive team was/is incredible – our team meet just ONE time, but I now feel that I know those people for years.

Why full time working (ex)aiesecer wanted to apply to E-Driver team? There are tons of reasons why I did it, but for now I can share few of them:

“Virtual platform” – most of our time was virtual meeting. It sound easy, but try your self to coach people who you have met just one time, try to help them being 1000 km away from them.

“Entrepreneurship” – I wanted to see can I help project teams who where running entrepreneurship orientated projects. My business now is connected with 10 different countries and experience what I gained from SUPER DUPER wonderful St. Petersburg people, from my team this is helping me a lot.

“Our network” – I spend one year with 100 young entrepreneurs from more then 20 countries. I experienced theyentrepreneurship reality, they business opportunities and now I have not just new friends all across Europe, but also young Entrepreneurs network.

But this is just one part of “iceberg”, each of us could share amazing moments what we have had together. And feeling that we have helped to some of OCP’s, LC’s you can experience just becoming E-driver and You will become a small Entrepreneur who is developing himself, but You also will help to your own country – You will become a new, young, experience Entrepreneur.

“WE GO”

Take the step and DO IT,

Edmunds Domkins

/ Entrepreneur /

E Drive team - 7 Days left to apply

2007-07-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

Hey CEEtizen, I’m member of the CEE Entrepreneurship Drive team. Or I was? It’s hard to say for sure. For the last 12 months I had the once-in a life time opportunity to expose myself to a personal limits stretcher.Entrepreneurship! I was raised in a family of 2 entrepreneurials but never really thought seriously about it before I encountered this opportunity in my inbox. Actually I’m speaking about the time when I became OCP of a Business Expansion project and I had the privilege to attend the first CEE PBoX conference in Budapest, Hungary in 2005 and develop my project management skills. 9 months later I became member of the CEE E-drive team – supporting implementation of program for development of entrepreneurship spirit and skills among young people from CEE – called EnterCEE. I want to share with you 3 key-learning points about entrepreneurship:

#1: It’s not enough to think out-of-the-box but you need to make things generate the desired impact, no matter if it is a profit or not.
#2: It’s not enough to think out-of-the-box but you need to be able to take the risk to do it.
#3: You cannot be successful entrepreneurial if you are not able first of all to think out-of-the-box.

Being member of the E-drive team I not only managed to learn that but I also went through some brand new experiences for me. I improved my knowledge on project management while developing sessions and trainings for EnterCEE Conference. I had my first international Faci experience and I will never forget the eagerness and openness of the delegates and the incredible FACI teammates that I’m still encountering around the world. And of course my first touch with the rest of the so called E-drive team. 6 incredible people that I learned a lot from and owe a big smile for the thousands of inspiring and challenging moments we had together.

I cannot hide that the most exciting part for me was the coaching initiative and more specifically my LC Visit to Vilnius, Lithuania…But, by the time this experience reached its end I learned one more important lesson:

#4: Open yourself for the people around you. They know about you more than you can expect. And, make sure you keep the friendship and contact with them. You never know what destiny is waiting for you.

Wish you a truly inspiring year ahead! I want to welcome you all to EnterCEE Conference 2007 this time as president of the Hosting Country – AIESEC in Bulgaria.

Ivaylo Dimov

MCP 07 08

AIESEC Bulgaria

Evca and her experience in Serbia

2007-07-23T04:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know Evca, she is now in Serbia on a traineeship :), for those of you who don't know her - she was leading AIESEC in Czech Republic last year (the first female MCP by the way :P) and is currently living her last stage of the AIESEC xp in Serbia :).
Enjoy reading!

Working in NISSAL...

So, here I work. For 2 months, till 10th of September. NISSAL - the largest company and leader in production of aluminium and aluminium alloys. Yes, exactly - whole week I had to learn what it means, that AW2007= AlCuMgPb, that there is big competition in business of profiles, market with bars is stable. Bars, tubes, extruders, alloys...what a business man.Interesting though. I am first intern in the company. Only foreigner among 600 employees. Working from 10am - 4pm - what a time in comp. with MCP`s 12 hours (I am even having time for swimming in the morning now!)

I am working in Export Department. With other 4 colleagues. My job is to expand market of aluminium profiles to Czech Republic and Slovakia and to find potential dealers....of aluminium scrap. Little bit of pricing and feedback of selling materials. Even it is similiar to TN selling I am learning everything from the beginning. Once you learn how business is working in aluminium you will know how to deal with any business (use to say my colleagues) This is the Export manager Tamara.

The rest of Evca's experience in Serbia

Another experience from Central Asia

2007-07-23T03:05:00.000-07:00

Kyrgyzstan is another very new CEE country that is in Central Asia together with Kazakhstan and Sandra is their MCP. She was on the Polish MC last year.
Further you can read impressions from the first two weeks of Sandra in Kyrgyzstan.
Enjoy reading!

First 2 weeks on KG land!

Finally I find a moment to update the blog and write how I am doing. Thanks friends for all your impatient mails and worries. It is a great feeling to know that I have so many caring ppl all around the world :)

First 2 weeks has gone by so fast that I can't believe. I am fine, even perfectly fine :) Those of you who know the most would probably not believe that I eat healthy food, sleep long and have time for myself each day after 18/19:00 and on weekends :) Gosh, it is so cool! First 2 weeks in few most importnat aspects:

Central Asia as you don't know it ;)

First of all I need to break main stereotypes you may have abt CA. If your only thoughts abt "stan" countries are: soviet union, lack of security, not developed economy etc.- you cant be in bigger mistake. Of course KG is not Western Europe, but it all depends what you treat as most important and how much you really live the value of "Living diversity". And - important - each country here is so different!

The rest of the story is here.

Message from Ivan to CEE LCs

2007-07-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys Here is a message from the AI CEE Director for CEE LCs

Click here for more information

Kazakhstan Adventures

2007-07-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

Kazakhstan is the newest AIESEC country in CEE and Denis is their first MCP. He used to be the MCP of AIESEC in Estonia last year. What is interesting about AIESEC in Kazakhstan is that they used to be a part of AIESEC in Russia and now they are a separate country. So AIESEC has been for quite some time there :).
Anyways the purpose of this post is to share some of the first impressions of Denis being their. I once took the same trip myself and I can tell you - Denis describes it perfectly! I felt like I am taking the trip myself again :)
Denis, I hope you don't mind sharing this :).
Enjoy reading!
---
My trip from Tallinn to Almaty

Yeah! Finally I got a chance to sit a little bit longer in internet.

After about 5 days travel by train from Tallinn through Moscow to Almaty, after two weeks of integration and solving a lot of practical issues I can say that I more or less settled down.

The trip by train Tallinn-Moscow-Almaty

Every time I said to the locals that I came by train and spent 5 nights in the train, they were really surprised :) They didn't know anyone, who would have done the same. That was actually cool trip! Me and Viljo enjoyed it!

Farewell at Balti Jaam was nice. Some important for me people came to see me for teh last time during this year.

Train from Tallinn to Moscow was quite decent. A couple aged about 50 shared a compartment (kupee eesti keeles) with us. Me and Viljo celebrated our first evening in restaurant-wagon by drinking some Baltika beer.

Crossing the Estonian-Russian border got me a little bit sentimenthal. Probably, I won't see my homeland for one year. A lot of different thought in my head before I got sleep...

We arrived in Moscow and were happily picked up by Nastya from AIESEC Russia. We walked around in Moscow for about a day. We saw famout Red Square and Kremlin. I got impression from Moscow, which I had expected - it is too big, too crowded, too noisy. Too everything. Probably after living there for a while, I would start to like some things there. But so far, no intensions to go there for a longer period.

Jalutades Moskvas, m6istad p6him6ttelist erinevust Eesti ja Venemaa vahel - suurus. K6ik on v2ga suur, imposantne ja muljet avaldada sooviv. Iga hoone, park v6i tee karjub sulle n2kku: "Vaata kui suur ja uhke ma olen!" Sama karjuvad ka loendamatud mustad maasturid t2navatel.

The train Moscow-Almaty was different from previous one. Less decent, so to say. More of 1970s style. The major difference for us was that we were not in a separate compartment, but in platzkart, instead. It means that there is a big wagon, which has separating walls inbetween the sections, but no doors. So, you really had to get to know your neighbours. Me and Viljo discovered restaurant-wagon and celebrated the first evening in our new home for 3 upcoming days and 4 nights. We celebrated it with the first Kazakh beer I ever tried.

The rest of the story is here

Whatever happens, happens for a reason

2007-07-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

or in other words, welcome to the adventures of Ira...

This was supposed to be an excited post from London. But it is not. I didn't go to London. My meeting was canceled. I felt so mad yesterday when less than 12 hours before my plain departure I was told that the meeting is actually canceled. And everything seemed so perfect.

Still I spent one amazing day with Yanka and Veve in Bratislava :). This is the super cool MC Slovakia office - an amazing office with very cool working environment.

We spent one day discussing products, pricing, sales strategies and it was all so different to talking over skype. Only when I actually sat with the girls I realized what exactly is going on there, I realized what is that they need. Technology has made our life easier in a way but obviously we still have not learned how to communicate properly virtually. Cause somehow half the information is not transmitted over skype, phone or mail...

After the not so good news, that I am not flying anywhere, we decided that there should be a good ending of the evening and went out for the incredible fried cheese and beer and of course night walk around Bratislava.

Lot's of different and funny statues:

And of course a late night walk is nothing without zmrzlina!

In general in Slovakia it felt the same as in Czech Republic :). I could understand the language, I could see the good old communist style buildings, they had the szmazny syr (sorry about the spelling).

My adventures though were not over. Today I had to leave early morning to come back to Budapest. And because obviously there is something wrong in the universe in the past few days I managed to sit on the wrong train... How come? Well, I decided to be smart enough to sit on the train that was arriving to the train station that is closer to the office. Obviously that was a more expensive train than my ticket was for, so when they were trying to make me pay the fine I just kept on telling that I am a student, I don't have money, and I have a ticket to Budapest and the train is going to Budapest, so I don't understand what is the problem... I didn't get a fine :) and I arrived happily to the office only to discover that there is no electricity.

What is good news you will ask? That after all my meeting with PwC is going to happen next week in Prague, and today I got one more traineeship to deliver. So after all life is bright and sunny again :).

Stay tuned for the Prague adventures and keep your fingers crossed for me :).

Hugs,
Ira

Apply for the Drive Team!

2007-07-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

My name is Nenad Mladenovski and I am a E-Drive Team member. You would expect me to say "I was E-Drive team member" in the term 2006/07, but this experience has had a really big influence in my life and I sincerely believe that I'll never stop being part of the E-Drive teams since it is already part of my life.

I come form a 2 million country named Republic of Macedonia, situated in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula, but this experience has made me feel like a World Citizen. All the virtual meetings with the E-Team and the facis for the EnterCEE conference just made the world a smalled place on which we all live. The conference it self just made us become closer and better friends... after the first session I already felt as part of a big E-Family... at the end of the conference there were no more facis or delegates or externals or OCPs, just Entrepreneurs.
I loved the experience the most because of the difference and the diversity of the people. They challenged me to the unimaginable level. If it wasn't for them, I might have never apply for MCP. [Thank you for asking all of the questions]

I learned a lot about me, the way I think and work, the person I am and the person I want to be.
I learned about other countries and their cultures, their AIESEC culture, their challenges and their GCPs, the way they approach the challenges, their structure, the P-BoXes they run and the way they run them, the support they get from externals, the cooperation they have among LCs and different P-BoXes...

What I enjoyed the most was servicing the cause. We worked for the benefits of all the LCs that participated the program and by this we extended our circle of influence on the whole CEE GN. There is no better emotional experience than contributing beyond yourself.
My gratefulness can not be expressed by word for this experience, but a hug and the shine in my eyes would say a lot.

Bon Appétit to all that want to taste the meals cooked in one of the best kitchens in the world, called E-Drive Team.
Senior Chef,

Neno

Nenad Mladenovski

MCP 07-08

AIESEC in the Republic of Macedonia

Do you have it in you?

here is where you can find the appliction

Test your Knowledge and Take the Enter CEE Quiz!

2007-07-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

There are some people who know a lot about Enter CEE

There are some people who think they know a lot about Enter CEE : )

And!!! There are some people who think that Enter CEE is this complex rocket science that you need a Phd to understand!!!

Are you a Super CEEtizen?

Do you have what it takes to do an Enter CEE project in your LC?

Do you have all the information you need to start?

Well there is only one way to find out

Click Here to take the Enter CEE Quiz

(Pssst….you can click here for a document that can help you :) )

Apply for the Drive Team!

2007-07-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

E Drive Team Member 06-07 Experience Sharing!

Heeeey AIESEC :)

My name is Miroslav Ilijevski, Miki, originally I come from Serbia, a fantastic country in the hearth of Balkans. Currently I am living my dream by living and working in Paris for MC in France as MCVP LC Development

For me personally, E-Drive team enabled me to coach and do LC visit to the LC outside my country,
to meet wonderful people in LC Ljubljana in Slovenia,
to work and adapt to diversity…

It gave me a lot of different perspectives and out-of-the box thinking that I didn’t have before.
I understood the importance of self-initiative and taking risk in the situations of uncertainty…

If we want to make things work and to be happy with our lives, we need to learn and work hard for ourselves and for the others to achieve it.

More than that, I find the importance of investing our time in the others, in our friends, successors, family etc. as essential if we want to have a sustainable positive impact on the world.

Today I have contacts in about 50 AIESEC countries, great life-time friends from not only AIESEC from my country, but also CEE E-Drivers who made an incredible impact on my personality. I am able to challenge the change agent characteristics that we are developing within people in AIESEC and to be out of my comfort zone.

For future generations, If I could give you one tip for the future – it would be AIESEC. Dream, Explore, Challenge yourselves and enjoy your AIESEC XP.

All the best,
Miki

Do you have it in you?

here is where you can find the appliction

one week...

2007-07-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

This post was supposed to be about one day of my VPTM life, but its hard to choose one day, cause everyday brings something new and important.

So for those curious how week of MCVP TM in Bulgaria looks like here it comes:

Monday- We started with the Monday Morning Meeting- checking how we managed to deal with the priorities from the previous week and setting priorities for the coming one.

I was satisfied with my previous week performance- Bulgaria and Bulgaria TM community got new look and Summer Functional Executive Meeting preparation was on the good track. Main focus of the week was rather obvious in that part of the year:

SFEM preparation

Recruitment preparation and…

NST weekend meeting.

If you think that sitting from 10 till 18 or even longer in the MC office, looking at screen of your laptop, analyzing previous recruitment, thinking of profile of members to recruit, trying to set the best education cycle is boring, you’re wrong!

Recruitment is a process that helps us to attract and select top talents, but who is top talent?

On Monday I asked myself few questions and the following 4 days I was trying to answer them.

What kind of environment do we create now in AIESEC and what is the ideal state? How far are we from ideal?

What is the quality and appeal of the AIESEC eXPerience and the Learning Environment?

What competencies should we find in our candidates in order to recruit the best ones, who will contribute to the growth of organization and in the same time can develop in AIESEC and become true leaders.

These are only few of my questions from the previous week…

Monday and Tuesday was spent on going through all available documents that I found, some of them read for 10^th time. Documents about Change Agents characteristics and their development, Global Competency Model, Structured Learning Process, Learning Environment.

New ideas came up almost every hours, new perspective, things to implement.

So.. time to move to execution – whole Wednesday and Thursday past so fast on preparing members development cycle and tool to assess educational needs.

In order to create useful virtual space for the members I researched HR webs, webs on Learning Environment, competencies. I cannot imagine active learner who is not learning from virtual resources nowadays! I got really overwhelmed by the amount of useful external resources available on the internet. We often seem to forget about them- being so dip in our AIESEC work, but they can really help us!

Weekend was also working days due to National Support Team meeting.

Due to synergy effect, constructive brainstorming and challenging discussions we came up with ideas what ideal @XPerience means for us, what kind of Learning Environment we want to see in the LCs at the end of the term.

Having in mind that, we moved to creation of candidate profile and SFEM session.

Dear EBs of AIESEC in Bulgaria I can ensure you that SFEM will bring a change to your life and after that you will not be able to look at AIESEC in the same way anymore!

Aga - Happy that the next amazing week has started.

E-Drive Team Applications Open!!

2007-07-13T02:08:00.000-07:00

Hey You!

Yea You!!

Are you a proud CEE AIESECer?

Do You want to be a virtual driver?

Do you want to play a strategic part of an initiative that will be providing opportunities to.....

members and companies in 18 countries,

more than 40 local chapters..

in the economically fastest growing region in the world!!!

As a drive team member you will be helping to shape the program that aims to enable members in CEE countries to live an AIESEC Experience around Entrepreneurship

We need a group of committed and proactive virtual drivers who will together build success of the program

Do you have it in you?

Here is where you can find the application

Deadline - 1st August

Why to stay in AIESEC for longer?

2007-07-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

Some recent events in my life make me think why I'm here?
Why to stay in AIESEC for longer?
Term 2007/2008 will be my fourth year in AIESEC. When I wonder why I'm staying for longer in organisation instead of going to work or do sth else, the asnwer is easy. Nowhere else can I go through so many amazing moments, develop myself so much and see that in the same time I help other people. In October 2004 when I joined AIESEC I didn't expect that after three years I will be a person that have already run two big international conferences- such big event are normally organised by specific agencies. I will have met around 1000 people from all over the world and have a friends- not colleague in countries such as Nigeria, Hong Kong, India. I didn't expect that in your twenties you can be a true leader. Lead organization, inspire your peers and get practical, useful knowledge aroud your interests. Finally, I didnt expect that I would decide to go for one year abroad- to work for students' organization, live in another culture, among people not speaking my language and together with them manage organization. But this is what I'm doing right now in Bulgaria, everyday getting to know myself better, overcoming my barriers and external obstacles, helping other people and realizing that you can do whatever you want in your life if it's realy sth you want to get from life.

CEEtizen (Geri came up with the title :) )

2007-07-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

I was walking to the office this morning and thinking where I am from (strange thoughts to be thought at 8 in the morning but still).
This has been the hardest question for me to answer for the past few years.
I was born Bulgarian...
But than I lived for five years in Russia... which made me a bit Russian
I am currently kind of living in Hungary as long as I travel all the time... and this will make me kind of Hungarian.

And than I thought that I actually do come from CEE. I have been moving so much around in the past two years and still a lot of moving ahead. I lived in the country that influenced CEE for more than 40 years, I was raised in country that is a CEE country.

All of sudden it was so much easier for me to understand where I come from! Of course I am still Bulgarian! And I will always be. But somehow it is much easier for me to identify myself with a whole region rather than with a specific territory. Because than I can be a little bit of everything - Bulgarian, Russian, Hungarian... I can be as happy as Serbian people are, or as brave as Macedonians are, or as hearty as Czechs, or drink as much as everybody in CEE does :). Or work as hard as Romanians do, or be as straight forward as an Estonian or .... so many countries still to discover this year and so many pieces to the puzzle to add!

Proud to be a CEE person,
Ira

Exciting times

2007-07-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well, just to continue yesterday's topic... This is my schedule for calls for today and tomorrow :). Exciting times!

Today we are having interview with one of the people who applied to rock the CEE conferences next year, and also the ER coaching intitiative is getting shape with the groups finalized and almost all the country coaches in place!

If you never understood what are those two people doing in Budapest, now you know - we are supporting and enhancing country cooperation!

And here is one more picture just to remind you how much time we have left till we all meet together at IC CEE premeeting!

When I think of premeeting in general for me it is something that is small and in general preparation... well, not now. I am still amazed at my reaction when during transition Jarda said that there are actually 150 people at CEE premeeting. It is a conference!

It is not a premeeting! It is a truly unique CEE conference where we will all come together as one GN! Well, that's exciting! Looking forward to meeting you there!

Smiles from the office,
Ira

2007-07-10T08:18:00.001-07:00

Guess what Ira and I have been doing lately? Talking!

In the past two days ......Hours spent in country calls: 8 (eight)
Countries we spoke to:

Croatia -Alexandra
Bulgaria - Steli , Blagoy
Czech Republic - Klara from LC Prague, Martina
Austria- Amit
Poland - Patryk ,Wojciech
Turkey - Mehmet,Gulsen
Macedonia- Anca
Slovakia-Marta
Latvia-Jana
Estonia - Inga,Elisa
Serbia- Dragana
Lithuania - Andrius,Dan
Hungary - Dex
AIESEC International Jarda
AIESEC International Mairi
WENA PM Samy

And it is only Tuesday!

AIESEC Serbia News Letter - May/June 2007

2007-07-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

.:: This Edition Highlights ::.

MCP Corner

Intro
MAY
JUNE

Communications Corner

AIESEC Serbia COMMs 07-08 Role
MAY
JUNE

External Relations Corner

AIESEC Serbia ERs 07-08 Role
MAY
JUNE

Finance Corner

AIESEC Serbia Fs 07-08 Role
MAY
JUNE

Talent Management Corner

AIESEC Serbia TMs 07-08 Role
MAY
JUNE

Exchange Corner

AIESEC Serbia Xs 07-08 Role
AIESEC in Serbia X Current State
Raise My TN Campaign
1000 X campaign - The Ultimate Exchange Competition

Leadership Forum Corner

OC Elections
Leadership Forum

: Editor's Pick ::.

Dear member of AIESEC in Serbia

Welcome to the first issue of AIESEC in Serbia Newsletter. The goal of this Newsletter is to keep you updated with the work of MC team with the ambition to include your opinion into our work and future of AIESEC in Serbia. In following pages you will have chance to read more about our activities and achievements in past period in each functional area. We hope that this will be useful and interesting for you to read. We invite you to share with us your thoughts and ideas how to improve communication within AIESEC in Serbia.

Your MC

.:: Newsletter Link ::.

AIESEC.org.yu

In last 2 months, since new MC start term, a lot of things happened and we have a lot of things to share with you and there was no way to send this newsletter over AIESEC.net because of its size and restriction of our system.

So, this newsletter is possible to find and read only online...

>>> Click here to read complete newsletter <<<

Why is it so great to be working in the GN Board?

2007-07-03T05:57:00.000-07:00

Because in one day you call people in Turkey, Romania, Canada and Sweden whose lives you are soon to change.

Because you find companies that tell you that they want to come and tell the AIESEC people that each single person can change the world. And not only tell but show them how they are changing the world.

Because it is amazing to be surrounded by people who believe that it is posisble!

From the heart of CEE,
Ira

CEE MCPs Meeting

2007-06-28T02:30:00.001-07:00

10 minutes from Neno (MCP in Macedonia) :).