Our Polish Adventure
Clay and I just got back from the Negotiation Days conference in Poznan, Poland.
This was the 3rd year of the conference which is organised by students for students. Everything is done by a team of student organisers, including fund raising, sponsorship, PR, organising logistics, hotels, flights, materials. I would say it was approximately twice as well organised as any commercial conference I have ever been to. We were constantly attended to by 'angels' who took care of every need we had, took us to lunch, showed us around the city and generally made it as easy as possible for us to do what we were there for; 4 workshops in 3 days to about 80 people.
In total, the conference was attended by around 3000 students. A remarkable feat on the part of the team of organisers.
I learned two things on that trip; firstly that students in Eastern Europe were pretty much as I expected - committed, enthusiastic, fun loving, eager to learn, motivated and more mature than I think I am now. The MBA students of the UK and US really have to watch out - a new generation of professionals who aren't complacent about their freedom are coming.
The second thing I learnt is not to drink 15 wściekły pies in one night. It's a shot of Polish vodka resting on top of raspberry juice with tabasco in the middle. The most exciting drink I have ever tasted, but the next day - boy, did I feel rough.
You can see photos of the conference at http://peterfreeth.smugmug.com/gallery/1411516
This was the 3rd year of the conference which is organised by students for students. Everything is done by a team of student organisers, including fund raising, sponsorship, PR, organising logistics, hotels, flights, materials. I would say it was approximately twice as well organised as any commercial conference I have ever been to. We were constantly attended to by 'angels' who took care of every need we had, took us to lunch, showed us around the city and generally made it as easy as possible for us to do what we were there for; 4 workshops in 3 days to about 80 people.
In total, the conference was attended by around 3000 students. A remarkable feat on the part of the team of organisers.
I learned two things on that trip; firstly that students in Eastern Europe were pretty much as I expected - committed, enthusiastic, fun loving, eager to learn, motivated and more mature than I think I am now. The MBA students of the UK and US really have to watch out - a new generation of professionals who aren't complacent about their freedom are coming.
The second thing I learnt is not to drink 15 wściekły pies in one night. It's a shot of Polish vodka resting on top of raspberry juice with tabasco in the middle. The most exciting drink I have ever tasted, but the next day - boy, did I feel rough.
You can see photos of the conference at http://peterfreeth.smugmug.com/gallery/1411516
1 Comments:
I was impressed by the shear skill and efficiency of the organisers. To organise an international conference of this size is no easy task, but they made it look easy. We were looked after by ‘angels’ who made sure we had everything we needed to make our workshops a success. The angels looked after us the entire time, making sure we were fed and watered both during and after hours.
My observations of the Polish students were that they are bright, energetic, fun-loving, warm, and eager to learn. I asked Artur Banaszkiewickz, one of the angels, and a 4th year International Relations major, what he felt the young 20-something Poles wanted for themselves as a generation. “We want to be seen as a nation to be important. We want to be good at something and respected for how good we are.”
My other observation is that these young leaders of the future are great travellers. Many of them travel to the U.S., U.K., and Ireland to work, learn, and practice their English.
I had a great time. Some memorable moments: being made an honorary DJ at 2am at a student party, drinking homemade Hungarian vodka at same party, and stumbling home from the big end of conference party at 5am and ripping the flesh off of a whole chicken (cooked of course!) with Artur, Wojciech, Patryk, and Pete. Oh yes, and learning the true meaning of nie martw sie after we missed our flight home Friday evening!
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