Relax, art and faith in Italy

My trip to Roccamare this year was a relax short vacation after the all the efforts that went into organizing the European Regional Alumni Congress the week before. 

Resort Roccamare

The food, the venue and the people were amazing as the years before and I enjoyed it very much.

Great people

Delicious food

This year, I came earlier and stayed longer - spending two nights in Rome at Beatrice‘s and Andreas‘s place. On my third time in the eternal city finally visiting the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. On earlier trips, there were always long queues holding back spontaneous urges to visit. So this time I booked a tour already Thursday night to enter on Monday and it was already difficult to get a place. I finally decided for the tour „Faith and Art“.

Crowded entrance to the Vatican Museums

With my printout ticket, I could enter the lobby of the museum on the fast track, then went through the security check and got my final entrance ticket and tour meeting point from a special counter.

Views in the Garden:

View from the Gardens to St Peter's Dome

fountain statue

fountain face in the Pigna courtyard

A nun conducted the tour with us and started explaining about the Sistine Chapel, the artists and the the art already in the lobby on a big digital screen as the Chapel is quite crowded, you should be quiet in there and the guards not only make sure you don’t take pictures but also compliment you out if you stay too long. According to the guide it’s less crowded on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

our guide in the Gallery of Maps

 The Vatican museum feature tremendous amounts of art, statues, paintings and more.

Belvedere Apollo in the Octagonal Court

Venere felice - the happy Venus in the Octagonal Court

gilded bronze statue of Heracles

Painting in the Gallery of the Candelabra

At the end of our tour through the museum, we entered the Sistine Chapel where the conclave elects the pope. As they are closed off from the outside world, they show their result with burning the voting cards in a little chimney that is brought in only during the conclave. Black smoke means no candidate received the necessary majority, white smoke means a new pope has been elected - “Habemus Papam”. The current pope Francis was elected in the 5th ballot, while his predecessor Benedict XVI was already chosen after 4 ballots.

last photo before the Sistine Chapel, no more photos inside

The Sistine Chapel is in large pieces of Michelangelo who painted the ceiling (including the famous Creation of Adam scene) as well as the fresco on the sanctuary wall displaying The Last Judgement. Other famous contemporaries decorated the other walls.

We finished the tour with a visit to St. Peter‘s Dome, the Pietà and many saints. Three hours of art, faith and walking these historic halls gave a lot of food for thought.

Pietà by Michelangelo 

Altar piece in St Peter's Dome

St Peter's Square and Dome

Afterwards I roamed the streets of Rome from the Vatican City to Piazza Venezia having a nice Italian lunch in between. Then I collected my luggage to return to airport and then home.

streets of Rome

European Regional Alumni Congress in Varna, Bulgaria

This year the European Regional Alumni Conference happened in Varna Bulgaria. My first time in the country saw sunshine and rain.

View from my room

Pool Area

Together the Bulgarian Organizing Committee, the Serbian Conference Manager and Serbian Host we delivered a wonderful event that was positively received by the Bulgarian, European and International delegates. Arriving a day earlier gave me the chance to enjoy the benefits of the 4 Star Melia Grand Hotel as well as prepare last minute things.

Presenting the agenda

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday more delegates arrived and we started of the event with a before the dinner Welcome and Get-2-know. From very old and conference experienced alumni to young alumni and active AIESECers joining for the first time, from Varna itself to India and Argentina and from all sorts of professional backgrounds, the delegates made an interesting melting pot. The first evening, we lounged in the lobby welcoming all the new delegations with a big applause.

Host & OC are ready for morning plenary

The second day concentrated on impact that we want to generate with the Alumni Theme Program „Break out of the Routine“. The delegates created several project ideas to put the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into action. Several focusing on climate action (SDG#13), education (SDG#4) and innovation (SDG#9).

Let's reduce plastic use in Germany!

In the afternoon, we went out to the Varna Port and spent two hours cruising the bay to get a different perspective of the city. As the Black Sea was a bit rough dancing on the ship was difficult - nonetheless we tried our best.

Black Sea

On return to the hotel and after the dinner, we launched into the Alumni Talks - 6 speakers gave us insights on different topics: from „The new mindset of sales“, „A life without fear“, to „Take ownership of your life“ or „Inner peace“. In the Global Village afterwards, all countries presented their cultures, food and drinks. We also enjoyed a Bulgarian folklore dancing group who not only performed but also taught us some moves.

Bulgarian Folklore Dancers

Global Village

The next day was dedicated to personal development - every delegate could join one of the following trainings: „To motivate or to lead?“, „Using HR technology for your leadership development“, „How to become a social entrepreneur?“ and „Mindful balance at work & home“. In the meantime, Bulgarian Alumni started the Founders Meeting of their association - AIESEC Alumni Bulgaria - which was very successful. In the afternoon, we came together for an Open Space to discuss various topics.

For the evening, we all dressed up and came down for the cocktail and photo reception. After all photos were clicked we enjoyed a gala dinner in the ball room and our hostess Anja led us through the evening: the Bulgarians shared their status in forming the association, Peter Mandl (President of AIESEC Alumni Europe) presented awards to AIESEC Alumni Bulgaria, AIESEC Alumni United Kingdom, AIESEC Alumni Belgium and AIESEC Alumni Germany and before the desert alumni from three different generations shared their experiences: Victor Loewenstein on the 1960s, Beatrice Pesci on the 1980s and Petar … on the new millennium to commemorate 70 years of AIESEC. The evening finished with a fantastic party that lasted till the last delegate went to bed for a very short time.

Team of AIESEC Alumni Europe & AIESEC Alumni International

Sunday saw an update on the European region as well as information from AIESEC Alumni International on several topics. The closing plenary summed our experience and gave a big thank you to all the organizers and participants. Farewells as always took forever.

final group picture

When the biggest crowd had left, a small group was led by Zhan to the city centre of Varna for a guided tour. Thanks for the great time.

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin

Monument of Tsar Kaloyan 

whose army liberated the city from Byzantine rule and re-joined it back to Bulgaria in 1201.

Opera 

Grand Hotel London

Varna's flat iron building by Dabko Dabkov

Architect Dabko Dabkov 

who built more than 300 in Varna especially in the city centre

The Social Teahouse - founded by Maya Doneva 

Go there, enjoy a tea and support the young adults in their venture to employment and entrepreneurship: http://thesocialteahouse.bg 

Roman ruins

Pathfinder - a Leadership conference

Mid of April, I received an email by the Handelsblatt offering fee spots at its leadership conference to women thanks to Tina Müller, CEO of Douglas. All I had to do was telling why I want to take part:

My TOP five:
To grow out of my comfort zone
To discuss about leadership: success, ethics, how do we want to lead?, how do we want to be led?
To make it an equal opportunity conference
To exchange ideas that broaden the horizon
To network across industries

A week before the conference I was accepted and booked my train to Berlin and my flight back home.
The conference started with an evening get2gether and an exchange in different fields: HR & Admin, Marketing & Sales, IT and Finance. The evening concluded with music by Leslie Clio and a DJ.

After a night at the Motel One Potsdamer Platz, the event continued at the Tempodrome with live talks with Handelsblatt correspondents in Washington D.C., Beijing, Paris and Istanbul. They gave insights on current topics and their assessment on the political and economic situation.

This intro was followed by sessions on pioneering journey, meaning, nudging, exponential future, truth and authenticity that were introduced by the CEO of the different sponsoring companies and continued by experts in the area.

Especially interesting, I found Clare Jones from What3Words and Symone Sanders, press speaker for Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign.

Clare introduced us to a new way of mapping and addressing the world. Her company divided the world by 3m by 3m squares and gave every square a unique 3 word address using more than 40,000 words. As our address systems usually dates back 300-400 years and is not always adequate in finding a certain spot, this helps to bring medical assistance to expecting mothers in townships / slums in South Africa, help drones/ humans to deliver goods to exactly the right place and hopefully my guests to find the entrance door to my house: ///racked.view.codes.

More info you can find on www.what3words.com.

We also had presentations on artificial intelligence with a robot, on cyber security telling us how unsafe our devices are and about the future of work where we are turning more to freelancing than employed workforce.

Key learnings from the conference:

• Showcase positive behaviors by clients, employees, ...                 We usually overestimate bad behavior in others. 
• Be yourself, be authentic
• Embrace the future