Our Conferences

KICK OFF IN FEBRUARY 2O21: Olympic Games

After lockdown and a whole semester of online touchpoints, in September, we could host events physically for 200 people. It was an opportunity to be with our members again and engage them. Our venue was De Kalei in Dilsen-Stokkem. The conference was open for Local Executive Boards and Team Leaders. We had slots for 65 registrations, but we still had a few slots open, so some Team Members also joined the conference. It happened from the 17th to the 19th of September. and one direction (for sustainability).

Kick-off was the first conference of Member Committee Liana and we wanted to create a connection with the entity so we could Kick Off as ONE. We launched the ONE AIESEC in Belgium motto and had the theme of this conference as the Olympic Games, and the message we wanted to transmit through our agenda was focused on 3 pillars: one leadership (for pipeline), one entity (for unity) and one direction (for sustainability).

The chair of this conference was Insa Lata, MCP of AIESEC in Germany.

NatCO was our first National Conference and wanted to empower our network to apply for leadership positions since EB applications timeline was coming but also October is a performing month and the peak of results in the organization. It is the period to push the membership to achieve their goals before their exams. We had 115 registrations. The conference happened from 29th to 31st of October. With that in mind we wanted our delegates to go under the leadership journey, find out their purpose and create more impact for their LC. Based on this we had the idea of using SuperHeroes as our theme, so the delegate journey was the Hero’s Journey.

The Hero’s Journey is a model for both plot points and character development: as the Hero traverses the world, they’ll undergo inner and outer transformation at each stage of the journey. Thinking about it, the message we wanted to transmit through our agenda was focused on 3 pillars: our power (for purpose), our battle (for connection with the LC), our triumph (for responsibility and role awareness). In the end of conference we gave a t shirt for every delegate with the logo of ONE AIESEC in Belgium.

At the conference we also had partners joining. IBM, TEKsystems and Build Your Future delivered keynotes and workshops to the delegates.

EB Summit

Each year we organise a one day conference for the new elected leaders of the organisation to prepare them for their upcoming term. We hosted this summit online this year bringing together 40 new leaders to teach them about strategic thinking, how to plan for the year and bringing an understanding the history and context of this organisation.

The main objectives of the conference were: “Knowing my function and how to lead it”, “Knowing my LC context and focuses for 22.23”, and “I know how to strategise and plan for the future”.

TAKE OFF IN FEBRUARY 2022: Water Cycle

Take-Off was the first conference of the semester and the first one in 2022. It was designed for mid-February, a month that is used for the pre-attraction phase and recruitment, with a focus on closing the experience with the previous generation and welcoming the new one. What was new this time compared to other years was the invitation of the alumni network as well as the Executive Boards of 2021 for participation in the MCP election process.

At the conference we had partners joining. UCB and AKKA Technologies delivered keynotes and workshops to the delegates.

The drivers of the conference were the three states of water: Solid, Liquid , and Gas . Solid refers to the most structured and stable state of matter, which in our case meant the understanding of the leadership role and the value proposition of AIESEC for the youth. The liquid is a more malleable and shapable state that represents how we would shape ourselves according to the necessities of Belgium’s youth to deliver better experiences. These were the spaces focused on building knowledge and capacity in the membership. Lastly, the gaseous state is the most energetic, and we used the sessions related to gas to hype the leaders for the upcoming year of their experience.

We had a total of 54 delegates, including EBs 2022, and around 15 people from EBs 2021, members of the alumni network, and partners at the venue for the four days of experience (one day of pre-meeting and three days of the conference). Eleonora Barile, MCP for AIESEC in Italy 21.22 was the conference chair, the choice of conference chair was made by the MCP, which was also conference manager for Take-Off 2022, and it was done based on the strong culture of AIESEC in Italy towards results and a personal connection between both MCPs.

This conference was marked by a lot of miscommunication and mess-ups. The three most important to mention were the communication chair-conference team that was being done through the conference manager, the changes in the agenda that were also done by the conference manager without any alignment with the agenda manager or the conference team, and a storm that closed the railways and roads to the venue, making all delegates late for the opening session.

The main points of improvement from this conference and from my experience as Agenda Manager are:

• It’s necessary to choose a chair that will firstly connect to the membership, not solely based on their achievement or leadership experience.

• The communication between the chair and the conference team should be done directly, without the conference manager being the mediator.

• The conference team must be prepared to adjust the agenda, always communicating amongst themselves, based on any unforeseen circumstances, ranking the most important sessions, and cutting out those that can be done in other touchpoints.

SPRINGCO IN APRIL 2022: Spaceship of Leadership

SrpingCo 2022 was the last conference of MC Liana. Being at the performance peak for summer, it was a very important touchpoint for the network to find the skills and knowledge they need to be engaged and perform

The conference theme was connected to space and was based on the self determination theory. The agenda of the conference was designed to help the delegates feel competent in their roles, feel connected to the organisation and have a clarity on how to implement their strategies, hence building competance, sense of belonging and autonomy in the membership.

We thank the chair for the conference, Ufuk Tetik, MCP 21.22 of AIESEC in Turkey and the international facis joining the conference for creating an amazing faci team experience which got the best session feedbacks in this year by the delegates.

There were a lot of new innovative sessions focusing on interaction and discussion spaces created in this conference that can definitely be a benchmark for the coming generations to look at. Ormit Talent joined as a partner.

Conferences - Financially

Throughout the whole term, we have made sustainable decisions in order to drive profitable conferences. While 3 out of 4 conferences were profitable, we experienced a small loss during our lost conference due to low attendance of delegates and inflation hitting our budget. However, overall we have made a profit of 2.5K this term to cover the loss from the past years in the conference fund and return some of this money to the Local Entities in the future.