AIESEC events: SUCCESS 2014

 By: Unknown    09:15  AIESEC events, AIESECers Experience, LC posts   No comments

Our superhero, LC member Kim Alberts worked as OCP (Ogranizing committee president) for SUCCESS 2014, a national conference held 14.-16.3.2014 in Jyväskylä. She shared some of her thoughts about her AIESEC career, how she ended up working as an OCP in a national conference, what it was like and if SUCCESS 2014 was a success or not.

SUCCESS 2014

It’s good

To be

It’s good to be an OCP

"During the autumn of last year [2013] I searched for a student association to join, partly because I wanted to get involved in the organization of activities in Jyväskylä, and partly because I wanted to meet and hang out with awesome internationally oriented people. Via Facebook I found out about AIESEC, and before I knew it I was a member of this global but local student organization. I was happy to meet so many active, talented, happy and professional people and I quickly got sucked into the AIESEC culture.

Kim during SUCCESS 2014

A few weeks after I joined AIESEC, I attended a national conference where I learned about the history, values and goals of this enormous network. It was then that I saw what great variety of opportunities was offered within the organization, and what we could offer students from all over the world. On the way back home from this conference, my new friend Jose suggested that I should organize such a conference one day. ‘Yeah right’, is what I thought, realizing that I was only just introduced to this whole new world of opportunities. ‘Well’, I said more joking than anything else, ‘I even might consider it, if you come back to Finland to help me.’ Of course he said he would, but honestly who would take this seriously… Barely two months later, I was honored to be asked to apply for Organizing Committee President for the upcoming conference in Jyväskylä: SUCCESS 2014. After considering this opportunity (because of course I would like to lead a team to achieve such a challenge, but I was just a newbie without any AIESEC experience) and after the not too subtle suggesting and pushing of our EB, I decided to give it a shot and apply. And thank god (in this case Anna, Talvikki and Piia) that I did!

OC team introduced at the conference

The first task was to form a team around me with whom I would organize the conference. Since I had been team member of several organizations for activities and events, I had some idea of what I thought was important in a team in preparation for an end result. Different people with different knowledge skills are needed, because obviously I could not do this by myself. However, the most important assets that any team member should have (and keep!) are motivation and fun. So I decided to invite anyone within our local committee and also some friends outside of AIESEC who I thought might be interested. I figured that the people who would apply, would already have the motivation to help. The only thing I demanded from them was to tell me what they wanted to do, and keep me updated on how they felt things were going (the most important item on the agenda of each meeting was ‘happiness of the OC’). Luckily I was proven to be right, and with a total of 19 members our team was the hardest working and happiest team I have ever had the pleasure working with. And obviously I had not forgotten what Jose promised a couple of months earlier, so I invited him and he was the 20^th awesome member of our OC.

Obviously the organization of an event cannot go without challenges (future OCs: double check that you are organizing the conference for the correct date!), but everything that our team got to face, we faced with a smile and a determination to make it work. It is amazing to see how many big and small things should be taken care of to organize a weekend for 100 awesome AIESECers, and I felt privileged to be the one to supervise all the hard work that was needed to make it happen. I mostly enjoyed watching all team members cooperate, challenging themselves and each other, learning new skills, and while doing all this enjoying themselves as well.

OC team's morning meetup

Then, after 5 short weeks of preparation, SUCCESS 2014 was finally there. At Thursday the Faci team arrived in Jyväskylä, and after a brief bonding activity with OC and Faci, and a short night sleep, we were ready to get to work. We had booked a great venue, and all the ad hoc preparations ran smoothly. Ok, I have to be honest and the stress level was a little higher than normal at some points, but with the great spirit of the team we could receive the delegates with open arms and a smile. Now, I know that I should probably tell you how the organization of the weekend itself went, but to be honest it is all one big blur in my memory. I remember my hurting feet from walking back and forward to help here and there, but mostly I remember my hurting cheeks from smiling the whole weekend. I think I can speak for the whole team that it was the great spirit from everyone in the venue that kept us going, big thanks to the delegates, the Faci and chair for that. But most importantly, I could not have been more proud of all the members of my team, who were so independent yet coherent, so exhausted yet active so busy yet positive. Thank you Anna, Daniela, Amy, Piia, Marianne, Thao, Jose, Emmi, Flora, Amy, Johannes, Fiona, Hien, Anna, Iida, Tin, Lotta, Joanna, Otso, Linnea, Mika, Talvikki and Tsuri.

I think it is very difficult to describe the memories that I got from this experience, but I think the following will describe my feeling best: EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME!"