So, I went to Guatemala. I learned a lot of things on this trip and here I will have the opportunity to share that with you. The conditions were: still a bit tired from the trip to Italy, going before everyone (together just with Janeth) to provide support for the Organize Communication (OC) to perform and to check the financial situation of the conference.
I got there and started to work. I faced a lot of challenges since the beginning. The OC were facing 2 main challenges: financial issues and with communication. Let’s talk about to the one that is more complex: communication.
I and Janeth come up with some dynamics and we had the chance to have one day with the OC to work with those points. The mood wasn’t the best and we were a bit scared. From what we heard from them – I can be honest now to say – that we were really afraid about how this event would be delivered.
Then, the last harder to fix, but definitely the one that could generate harder consequences: money. When we finally could have clarity about the numbers in the budget – and it really took a long time to happen – I realized that the OC was starting ILC with a loss of 19.000,00 USD. I couldn’t be more afraid because the situation was indeed chaotic. The MC had no idea about this number, the OC wasn’t very concerned about the budget, no financial incomes, few opportunities to fundraise – a real hard situation to deal with.
After a while things were improving massively: the other facis arriving, the chair arriving, the start of the preparation of the conference itself. Everything was much better. I had a lot of fun with the Brazilian corner and my friends there. Keeping in mind all the challenges that we still had with the OC, we started the conference: 3 days pre-meeting that I was much more involved in OC stuff than with stuff related to the sessions that I had to deliver. In something around 2 days I was able to see one of the most drastic changes that I saw in my professional life.
We changed things in the budget: reduced meals, re-negotiated with the hotel, looked after sponsorship for beers, and checked every single line in the budget to search for possible expenses to cut. The OC finally started to work together and delivered an amazing conference. And also showed up another character in this history that I truly believe that had a huge impact on all of it: the chair.
This English dude, 22 years old – younger than most of the people in the faci team – with a great mood, the will to work hard, the ability to do everything in a very smooth way, to deal and have effective communication with a very diverse group of people, to adapt and change due to external impositions, to manage people to take the best of them.
And the content of the conference was also very appreciated by the delegates. Indeed I was experiencing the best AIESEC conference I’ve ever seen happening. I had some challenges with some stuff: DHL almost disconfirmed and confirmed the participation one day before the conference started; I still had meetings with the OC to attend and it took a lot of my time for sessions; some of the sessions needed to be done under the running-tired mode. Obviously, the results weren’t the best for my sessions.
This experience drove me to get to some important conclusions:
- You don’t need to be great, if you’re able to take the right decisions. If those decisions are related to the people that will be working with you, you’re halfway to succeed.
- Prioritizing has a cost. People will see what was damaged, but most of them will never get to really know what was preserved.
- Sometimes, one person can make the whole difference. If this difference is made by being able to manage people, somehow, it would be possible to deal with almost any circumstance. It seems to be something desirable to be chased by everyone that wants to succeed. (Yes, I’ve learned that with JJ)
- You can have some of the best time of your life... working.
- You can be effective and have loads of fun at the same time. It will depend who will be on your side.
- Shit happens. The art of life is to be able to clean it without anyone noticing. The rule for that is: don’t go against laws or ethics. Keep your boundaries with you.
- The best plate that you may taste in your life can be a mushroom soup in the presidential house of the Republic of Guatemala.
The results of the conference almost couldn’t be better: the OC left the conference having profit; the facis did some of the best sessions that I’ve heard about in my life; the delegates were extremely happy: I’ve never seen a mood good enough to let all the delegations to evaluate with the highest grades the OC more than one day; the connections between the facis was incredible – it’s been a while since I’ve seen people having that much fun; delegates learned a lot and are now able to come back to their countries to apply what they have learned: we empowered a region. The dream of many people was realized: we had a GREAT ILC.
And I was ready to go travelling around :)
I was happy that I had this crazy group of Colombians, Ruthie and Mishu to go around Guatemala. We went to: Tikal, Panajachel, Antígua and we climbed the volcano Pacaya and saw lava 3 meters away from us. It was all magical. I was really happy to have received this nice invitation and I truly enjoyed every moment of this trip.
I am happy I am finally finished this huge history. I was missing writing about random topics that I know that you that are reading this blog also like. But since I started, I thought it would better to finish. I hope you have enjoyed this history that finishes with me coming back to Mexico, where I am going to stay for the next 2.5 months.
Thanks again for reading it. And for the ones that didn’t like, don’t worry. I am sure that in the short term I won’t have such a huge route to talk about.
Cheers! :)
Ps.: I’ve also learned – again and again – about that people generally won’t recognize what you have done. But I am still happy that I am in AIESEC to learn about these things. It will help me a lot on the future. :)
I got there and started to work. I faced a lot of challenges since the beginning. The OC were facing 2 main challenges: financial issues and with communication. Let’s talk about to the one that is more complex: communication.
I and Janeth come up with some dynamics and we had the chance to have one day with the OC to work with those points. The mood wasn’t the best and we were a bit scared. From what we heard from them – I can be honest now to say – that we were really afraid about how this event would be delivered.
Then, the last harder to fix, but definitely the one that could generate harder consequences: money. When we finally could have clarity about the numbers in the budget – and it really took a long time to happen – I realized that the OC was starting ILC with a loss of 19.000,00 USD. I couldn’t be more afraid because the situation was indeed chaotic. The MC had no idea about this number, the OC wasn’t very concerned about the budget, no financial incomes, few opportunities to fundraise – a real hard situation to deal with.
After a while things were improving massively: the other facis arriving, the chair arriving, the start of the preparation of the conference itself. Everything was much better. I had a lot of fun with the Brazilian corner and my friends there. Keeping in mind all the challenges that we still had with the OC, we started the conference: 3 days pre-meeting that I was much more involved in OC stuff than with stuff related to the sessions that I had to deliver. In something around 2 days I was able to see one of the most drastic changes that I saw in my professional life.
We changed things in the budget: reduced meals, re-negotiated with the hotel, looked after sponsorship for beers, and checked every single line in the budget to search for possible expenses to cut. The OC finally started to work together and delivered an amazing conference. And also showed up another character in this history that I truly believe that had a huge impact on all of it: the chair.
This English dude, 22 years old – younger than most of the people in the faci team – with a great mood, the will to work hard, the ability to do everything in a very smooth way, to deal and have effective communication with a very diverse group of people, to adapt and change due to external impositions, to manage people to take the best of them.
And the content of the conference was also very appreciated by the delegates. Indeed I was experiencing the best AIESEC conference I’ve ever seen happening. I had some challenges with some stuff: DHL almost disconfirmed and confirmed the participation one day before the conference started; I still had meetings with the OC to attend and it took a lot of my time for sessions; some of the sessions needed to be done under the running-tired mode. Obviously, the results weren’t the best for my sessions.
This experience drove me to get to some important conclusions:
- You don’t need to be great, if you’re able to take the right decisions. If those decisions are related to the people that will be working with you, you’re halfway to succeed.
- Prioritizing has a cost. People will see what was damaged, but most of them will never get to really know what was preserved.
- Sometimes, one person can make the whole difference. If this difference is made by being able to manage people, somehow, it would be possible to deal with almost any circumstance. It seems to be something desirable to be chased by everyone that wants to succeed. (Yes, I’ve learned that with JJ)
- You can have some of the best time of your life... working.
- You can be effective and have loads of fun at the same time. It will depend who will be on your side.
- Shit happens. The art of life is to be able to clean it without anyone noticing. The rule for that is: don’t go against laws or ethics. Keep your boundaries with you.
- The best plate that you may taste in your life can be a mushroom soup in the presidential house of the Republic of Guatemala.
The results of the conference almost couldn’t be better: the OC left the conference having profit; the facis did some of the best sessions that I’ve heard about in my life; the delegates were extremely happy: I’ve never seen a mood good enough to let all the delegations to evaluate with the highest grades the OC more than one day; the connections between the facis was incredible – it’s been a while since I’ve seen people having that much fun; delegates learned a lot and are now able to come back to their countries to apply what they have learned: we empowered a region. The dream of many people was realized: we had a GREAT ILC.
And I was ready to go travelling around :)
I was happy that I had this crazy group of Colombians, Ruthie and Mishu to go around Guatemala. We went to: Tikal, Panajachel, Antígua and we climbed the volcano Pacaya and saw lava 3 meters away from us. It was all magical. I was really happy to have received this nice invitation and I truly enjoyed every moment of this trip.
I am happy I am finally finished this huge history. I was missing writing about random topics that I know that you that are reading this blog also like. But since I started, I thought it would better to finish. I hope you have enjoyed this history that finishes with me coming back to Mexico, where I am going to stay for the next 2.5 months.
Thanks again for reading it. And for the ones that didn’t like, don’t worry. I am sure that in the short term I won’t have such a huge route to talk about.
Cheers! :)
Ps.: I’ve also learned – again and again – about that people generally won’t recognize what you have done. But I am still happy that I am in AIESEC to learn about these things. It will help me a lot on the future. :)
3 comentários:
It was nice to read your blog entry. I specially do agree with your P.S.
Regards
Vivek
jeje:)
Marco , 1 comment, actually I heard a lot of very positive feedback about ur sessions :) so don't underestimate it :)
Great Conference, great memories, great people:) It was "small happy world"
:)keeping it always in heart;)
aah... would like to be there too. miss being in CTs with you, Tuliooo!
Hugs, and enjoy this time that you still have!
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