Feature

Rubayat Khan

When I joined AIESEC, little did I know what was awaiting me. It would be a gross understatement to call the last 3 years a roller-coaster ride, as it has certainly been far more thrilling and enjoyable than that. But the pinnacle was yet to be reached, until I went to Hyderabad 2 weeks ago to facilitate an international conference.

It was the Asia Pacific Exchange Leadership Development Seminar (APXLDS 2007), one of the largest regional conferences in AIESEC, hosting 150+ delegates from 20 countries. This was the first time someone from Bangladesh had been selected as a facilitator in a conference of this magnitude, and hence my feeling after hearing the news was a pleasant concoction of ecstasy, satisfaction and responsibility towards my country.

Despite my midterms being schedule at the same time span as the conference, the convincing act was a fairly easy one at IUB, which is usually very supportive of co-curricular activities. Leaving Dhaka on 13th March, I was received around noon the next day at the Hyderabad airport (a boon as it always is for AIESECers anywhere in the world!) and transported to the campus of Indian School of Business (ISB), one of the most modern and highly reputed business schools in Asia and also the venue of the pre-meeting. There I met my fellow facilitators, all brilliant and enthusiastic young leaders from all over the world. Working in a diverse team was not new to me for sure, but teaming up with 11 individuals from 10 different countries from 5 continents certainly gave new definition to the word “diversity”! I had known quite a few of these people from previous conferences that I attended, and there was even one friend from Malaysia whom I was meeting for the 4th time, each time in different corners of the globe. Just shows how small this world is for AIESECers!

Throughout the first half of the first day, there were very interesting and ingenious exercises and games designed to help us in teambuilding. Then the meeting started, and what a meeting it was! For four days, we went over the agenda, allocated sessions, designed our own sessions, conducted dry runs, gave feedback, improved the sessions, and repeated this entire cycle numerous times. The only breaks were in the afternoon, when we would hit the swimming pool for some refreshment, and at late night, when we would sit in the couch and play Mafia (for those of you who don't know what it is, search Wikipedia). Perhaps nothing helped us more in getting close to each other and work as such a great team than the game itself! On the fourth day, we moved to the venue, a 130-acre resort 40 kilometers from the city. The entire day was spent coordinating with the organizing committee, and preparing the venue. Last minute preparation for the sessions was also underway. The conference itself was officially inaugurated in the Opening Ceremony the next afternoon, after the Global Village (a cultural festival) was held near a famous Mughal fort in Hyderabad. We moved back to the venue that night, knowing that the time had finally arrived to judge whether all the effort for the past few days would pay off. It was crunch-time!

The next seven days zoomed past us like a breeze. Every morning, we would start with a Faci meeting and then move straight on to the sessions. Here I must mention that sessions in AIESEC do not mean boring speeches by some I-know-it-all old people, but rather are interactive discussions, outdoor activities, and brainstorming exercises designed to bring out creativity in people and give them insights into themselves and the organization. Sessions would run from 9 AM in the morning till 10 PM at night, after which there would be learning circles on different issues of interest and finally parties all night long. Even after being in this organization for 3 years, it still amazes me how AIESECers can manage to work all day, party all night, and that too for an entire week! As the conference was approaching its end, I was getting more and more frustrated. I did not want to leave this conference, all the wonderful people I had met, and my amazing team of facilitators. The closing itself was as always an emotional one, with everybody hugging everybody else and crying. Even knowing that I would probably meet half of these people somewhere later in my life, it was hard to control my tears. By now, I had grown so attached to this conference that it felt nearly unimaginable to leave it and go back to regular life in Bangladesh.

Delegates left on the same day as the closing, while we the facilitators stayed back for the post-meeting. All night, we played games and chatted and had fun. The next morning, after a two-hour meeting to compile feedback on the conference, it was time for us to part. I am glad I did one thing before I left got videos of each of my teammates saying something to me in my camcorder. Nothing was more emotionally stimulating than watching these videos over and over again when I came back. This is how it always is in AIESEC. You have intense experiences, experiences that change the course of your life, your dream, and above all transforms you into a much better human being but like everything else in this world, these experiences stay with you only in memories and lifelong friendships.