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Febuary 2010
The First National Leadership Seminar of AIESEC Jyväskylä
by Heidi Clee
It was a cold Tuesday morning as the materials and equipment for the seminar were being carried to the
It was not much after 9.30 when people already started arriving to the seminar. At the front desk students received in exchange for their ticket a stamp and a lunch ticket. Marked for life for the seminar, or at least till nature called, the students were then asked to show their ID and were 'checked in' receiving a folder with the information on the seminar, a notepad and pen. Everything seemed to run quite smoothly and even the people at the museum's information desk were kind and helpful. Precisely at 10, the doors to the lecture hall were closed and the first National Leadership Seminar of Jyväskylä began.
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The Seminar began with a welcoming introduction by Kaisa Oikarinen, president of AIESEC Jyväskylä after which Marko Filenius from Arena Interactive spoke about the AIESEC Leadership Experience. The program for the seminar consisted of about 6 lectures on different forms of leadership. Some of the speakers admitted already beforehand of being quite enthusiastic about the event and it showed in their presentations. It was great listening to them and from many it could be seen how much they were looking forward to sharing their experiences with the culturally diverse group of students. Some of the questions and topics discussed were, for example: why
Other speakers of the seminar included: Timo Kovala (Being an Entrepreneur), Jason Lepojärvi (Virtuous Leadership), Kimmo Vesajoki (Values-based leadership), Jyrki Aho (Leadership in Coaching), Susanna Valkeus (Women and Leadership) and Ahti El Massri (Leadership in Multicultural Groups). Students seemed to be especially interested in virtuous leadership and leadership in coaching and for these lectures many more students arrived. Meanwhile outside the lecture hall, members of the organizing committee were sitting at the front desk in shifts ready to help and show the way to the visitors of the seminar.
Lunch was served from 11–16 throughout the seminar at the Alvar Aalto cafe. The main lunch break was held at noon, but to keep everyone satisfied and energized the cafe was kind enough to offer free coffee and tea to everyone which proved to be quite popular and satisfactory with everyone during the breaks between the lectures. Even those left outside the lecture hall were not forgotten by friends and team members who brought them coffee and cookies. The seminar went according to schedule. People were asking questions and speakers were making jokes. Sometimes it seemed that the OC President Stefanie had to try really hard to keep things on schedule. Unfortunately there was nothing that could have been done when Jyrki from JYP started speaking about Leadership in coaching. The lecture lasted 20 minutes longer than it should have and even from the outside you could hear the uproar of the crowd.
It seemed that those who showed up to the event were glad to stay. During the breaks each student had the opportunity to approach the speakers and ask them questions, discuss with them or simply thank them for the session. At the end a group picture was taken of the organizing committee and some final AIESECer of the month awards were dealt. During most of the day there had been snow blowing outside and freezing cold weather and around 7 pm, it was time to finish and send everyone back out into the cold. But the work for the OC-members was still not over as all of the equipment, the banners and cameras, had to be gathered away and taken back to the AIESEC office in Mattilanniemi.
All in the entire event was a success. With 62 visitors, amazing speakers, interesting topics and a good atmosphere as well as 10 new AIESEC members.
