“HEY AIESEC!
WHAT’S UP?”
These phrases are very commonly used to initiate an AIESEC conference. ‘AIESEC’, for those who’re unaware, is the worlds largest youth-run organisation that focuses on developing leadership capabilities by learning through practical experiences in challenging environments for the younger crowd. It has quite the rigorous screening process when it comes to shortlisting new recruits for its General Body (GB). Therefore, you can imagine my excitement when Tatheer Fatima called me up to let me know that I had made it into our Local Committee (LC) aka ‘AIESEC in IBA’.
Registration & Preparation:
Following this, the Executive Board (EB) encouraged all new recruits to participate in the Fall Regional Conference – South (FRC SOUTH’21). Its purpose was to properly introduce freshly inducted ‘AIESECers’ to the work guidelines & culture of AIESEC. As indicated by the name, this conference was held in southern Sindh, Hyderabad and lasted for the 3 days of 19th, 20th, & 21st of November. Hence, ‘AIESEC in Hyderabad’ was our host LC.
To my surprise, I was selected as one of the 3 Head Delegates (HDs) for our delegation. The other two being Kumail Alim & Minhal Shakeel, both of whom very efficiently completed the duties they were allotted. I was responsible for arranging transport while Kumail was tasked with managing delegate expenses & Minhal worked on getting out the merchandise. And of-course, how could I not mention the individual overseeing all 3 of us & making sure everything panned out smoothly – Wallaya Bilal (EBR – Executive Board Responsible for FRC).
There on, just two days before the actual conference, we had a pre-conference meet at Kumails place (where we had literally the most amazing biryani ever! Kumail, please thank your nano on our behalf again!). In this, Umar Khan (President) guided us on the strict protocols we had to follow at the conference as well as the things we needed to bring along.
Day 1:
On the early morning of Day 1, we left for Hyderabad as a group of 35 & reached there at around 10 am. After getting settled into our rooms, we went straight in for attending the opening plenary. Here, we met up with the other delegations (namely ‘AIESEC in Karachi’ & ‘AIESEC in Karachi South’) as well as the chair, Yasir Tanveer (who also happens of be an IBA Alumni).
As the conference commenced, the delegations were mixed & grouped up corresponding to the six AIESEC values:
- Striving For Excellence
- Demonstrating Integrity
- Activating Leadership
- Acting Sustainably
- Enjoying Participation
- Living Diversity
These 6 groups were then made to sit together and do fun, interactive activities. The goal here was to instil in us the importance of these principles in creating leaders of positive impact. Moreover, AIESECers of old shared their experiences & journeys with the organisation in an inspiring display of multimedia presentations.
This day gave us all a major ice breaking in terms of knowing people from other LCs to actually getting to know about what AIESEC is about. It concluded with a social: Qawali which was exactly the sort of release we needed after such a hectic day.
Day 2:
On Day 2, candidates were divided into groups made in accordance with their portfolios. These are basically the different departments of AIESEC such as marketing, HR etc. Mine was Incoming Global Exchange (ICX). The groups were then taken to different rooms of the venue where the host team had them learn more about their portfolios through enjoyable tactics like guessing games & memes.
After that, we had a very thorough interactive session with the spokesperson of L’Oreal. He had us do another amusing little activity which was a part of L’Oreals campaign against street harassment. We drew the letter ‘D’ on the palm of one of our hands & had our photos taken to show support for said movement. The ‘D’ was a representation of L’Oreals 5D’s method for combating street harassment. This day, like the previous one, also ended with a social but this time it was ‘Halloween’.
Day 3:
Day 3 was sadly our last day there. We were given a shot at coming on stage and sharing our stories as well. It was very motivating to listen to everyone who spoke up. While there were definitely other essential aspects of this day, my most important takeaways were the heartfelt emotions being exhibited at the end – when we said our goodbyes to our newly made friends from other LCs & embraced each other in a group hug. It would not be an understatement to say that tears rolled down our cheeks as we bid farewell to the place we made so many amazing memories in.
We didn’t leave empty handed, though. Everyone received ‘sugar cubes’ as a take-home present. These were basically envelopes which had each of our names written on them. Other candidates had to write down their thoughts about us on a piece of paper and put it in them. Just reading these on my way back home made the pain of the goodbyes so much more bearable.
Conclusion
As a whole, I’ll definitely say that this conference was a great learning experience and a much needed one at that. We got to know so much more not only about AIESEC but the people who are frequently around us as well. I made friends with other sophomores like Rafay (best roommate xD), Maryam, Jojhar, Laiba, and so many more who I (unfortunately) never even got the chance to meet before despite being their batch-mate. I talked to folks from other LCs & had, what I feel, was one of the most endearing conversations I’ve ever had with Yasir Tanveer (bless him!).
I’m so glad I joined AIESEC. It has been a fantastic experience thus far & I can’t wait to see where this journey takes me next. This is only the beginning & there’s a long way to go but I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT!
P.S. My apologies to everyone whose name I mispronounced throughout the trip. Trust me, It was an honest mistake. 😅
Happy New Year, y’all! 🙂
