Over 650 youth and nearly 100 organizations participate in this year’s International Congress
ISTANBUL, August 31, 2007—This year’s AIESEC International Congress held in Istanbul, August 21-30, 2007, brought together over 650 young people across 100 countries. The ten-day congress gave AIESEC members the skills they needed in order to perform in their roles over the next year. It also provided a space for organizations to interact with top talent youth from across the world. Highlights throughout the conference include;
Travel the world in three hours
The conference was kicked off with AIESEC’s famous Global Village, showcasing the cultures, customs and traditions of 100 countries around the globe. Citizens of Istanbul were invited to tour the stalls of countries, taste food from across the world and marvel at the traditional dress of all corners of the world, from Afghanistan to Kenya to Japan to Colombia.
Top executives from Cadbury Schweppes and ABN-AMRO lend their expertise
A day of leadership development sessions, run by top managers from ABN AMRO and Cadbury Schweppes, this day is not only inspiring for delegates, but is also a great opportunity for ABN-AMRO and Cadbury Schweppes to train their top management in facilitation of a diverse audience.
“The session was a great platform for us to learn from one of the leading companies in the world, from people who have been there and already done that. I am sure that everyone learnt a lot from this activity and would take back a lot of knowledge to their own countries”, said Maria a delegate from Estonia.
Both Cadbury Schweppes and ABN AMRO have placed more than 300 AIESEC members in their organisation in various parts of the world. David Evans, Customer Category Manager-Tesco (Cadbury Schweppes) found the experience to be great for himself and extremely challenging. “Both Cadbury Schweppes and AIESEC have a lot in common and are extremely big organisations, we surely can learn a lot from each other” he said.
Alumni honoured for their contribution
Seven more AIESEC alumni have been awarded the honour of being inducted into AIESEC’s Hall of Fame, notably for the positive impact they have made on society. The following alumni received the honour of their names placed beside previous Hall of Fame inductees: Alan Middleton (Canada); Gabor Cseffalvy (Hungary); Jiro Hagi (Japan); Milos Motoska (Czech Republic); Samuel Adetola (Ghana); Kent Libiso (Kenya); Togay Bayatli (Turkey). Gabor Cseffalvy the Managing Director of Creanove Organization and Management Development in Hungary, was also nominated for his never-ending support of AIESEC in Hungary. “True leadership, unfailing positive energy, continuous innovation, living everyday according to your values. They were my thoughts after meeting him for the first time”, shared Tomas Mihalovits, President of AIESEC in Hungary.
Norman Barnett and Bharat Bhasin Award
On this day the ‘Norman Barnett and Bharat Bhasin’ Award was also presented to the most promising initiative taken up in the AIESEC network. This award went to AIESEC in India, for their technology project Eureka. Through this project AIESEC in India have been able to facilitate close to 20 youth exchange programs, where students from different parts of the world have come and worked on the issue of Technology with the more than 100 partners that are associated with this project. A sum of 1000 U.S. dollars will be given for the same. This award was presented for the first time in the year 1997.
Youth learn about the issues facing the world today
Top executives lent their expertise to AIESEC members during Learning Networks Day, giving delegates a chance to expand their leadership skills to include a deeper knowledge about issues the world is currently facing. Having knowledge in a specific area will allow AIESEC members not only to develop a broad set of leadership skills, but also specifically leadership skills around a specific issue, enabling them to make a positive impact in society in that area.
More than 650 delegates were able to participate in workshops, panel discussions and listen to keynote speeches from top experts in the fields of Education, HIV/AIDS, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Responsibility, Information Communication Technology and Finance.
The day was kicked-off by a keynote speech from Augusto Lopez Claros, former Chief Economist and Director, Global Competitiveness Program at the World Economic Forum, who spoke about the need for talent for a sustainable future.
AIESEC expands its network to include Iran
During International Congress this year, the global body of AIESEC decided to expand its network to include activities in Iran. The expansion is lead by AIESEC in Germany who has been doing research in the country after the set-up of an expansion initiative in Afghanistan. Research for a possible expansion in Iran has been undertaken over the past year, which concluded Iran needs an organization like AIESEC to ensure that the country has a generation of positive leadership to carry forward to the future.
Jonas Lilienthal, who is part of the team leading the expansion team says that it is a great opportunity for AIESEC to be present in Iran, both for AIESEC members to create a lesser bias or perception of Iran, but also for Iranian people. “It is important for AIESEC as a non-political organization to enhance contact between Iran and the rest of the world,” he said.
About International Congress
International Congress is AIESEC’s largest annual conference, running for ten days each year in August. Locations change every year and countries bid to receive the honour of hosting the event. AIESEC in Turkey last hosted this conference in 1967. This year, the conference ran from August 21 – 30 at Yeditepe University, in Istanbul. More than 650 young people from across 100 countries participated in the event.
About AIESEC
AIESEC is the international student platform for young people to discover and develop their potential. Present in over 1100 universities and encompassing over 23,000 members, AIESEC is one of the world’s largest youth organizations. Focusing on providing a platform for leadership development, AIESEC offers over 5000 leadership opportunities each year, in addition to over 4000 international internship opportunities for youth. AIESEC is an organization that activates leaders, creating a culture of change agents that have a positive impact on society.
