Trip to Macedonia - IPM 2008, Ohrid

After a office start in my company, I finally got a chance to do some field work! My final destination was AIESEC International Presidents Meeting 2008, held in beautiful city of Ohrid (Republic of Macedonia). I was suppose to be there on 20th of February.

As I was coming to Europe, wanted to use the chance and do some extra work. So I decided to visit TCS and AIESEC in Hungary, as we have Global Delivery Centre there and its one of the most important points for European business. Wanted to explore more about possibility to have ACE associates from Hungary and how to include it in their country talent development strategies. Managed to get to know more about our Hungarian operations and got some ideas how to incorporate ACE. After that, I met with Dex and Bence from AIESEC, discussed about possible cooperation fields with TCS, and afterwards head to the train station to catch a train to Belgrade, and afterwards afternoon connection to Skopje.

During my waiting time on the station I met (you will not believe it), one guy, called Sam, who is from Mumbai, and lives in the same area as I do! His story is not that green, as he came to Hungary searching for a better life, and got tricked by his Hungarian connection, loosing all his money, and now earning for his living by offering hostel to backpackers he find on the station. Quite a hard living. But even dough he had lots of problems, he showed something I saw lots of time in India, happines, he was allywas smiling, ready to chat and help anyone troubled. Soon, my train came, needed to say goodbye to Sam, and left for Belgrade.

My god, how much I was waiting for this moment! After 3 months in India, I got really home sick, wished to see my family, friends, see my home soil just for a few moments. It was quarter to 7 in the morning, shiny day in Belgrade! As I didn’t told to anyone I’m going to be in Belgrade, it was a quite surprise I ulocked the door of my flat and found everyone sleeping. If you could just see faces of my aunt, brother and sister. They couldn’t believe their own eyes :-). Thought they were sleeping and having a dream, it needed about 2 hours for them to recover from the shock! Afterwards, I went to the city for a lunch with my friends Ana and Natasha, to see my other aunt (wanted to go to her work first, but it would have been a big shock, so I decided to go home :-)) and sister. As I had my train at 14h, didn’t got too much time to enjoy, but these few hours were so rejuvenating and so refreshing, you cannot believe it!

14h, cought my train and off to Skopje. Trip was quite slow, from planned arrival at 23h, I got there at 1 AM. Beside that I slept over, so I was all alone in the empty train, thank god I woke up 15mins after it stopped and the guys from the hotel I was staying in waited. As soon as I arrived in the hotel, met an good old friend of my Navarrete from Spain. I know him from 2003, we met on some conference in Croatia. Craziest guy I ever met. Of course, meeting him means we need to refresh the memories with few beers (nothing less than finest Stalla Artois :-)).

Now something more about the conference, in order to understand my role there. IPM is the most important conference in the AIESEC world, as it gathers all current and newly elected country presidents of AIESEC. AIESEC International elections are held, most important global strategy planning and development process is conducted, as well as choosing the next year global focus areas. Also, this is a big networking platform for corporates and AIESECers, so almost all Global Parters have their representatives there - TCS, PwC, InBev, DHL, ING, Cadbury Schweppes, Electrolux and Alcatel Lucent, presenting their global internship programs running with AIESEC International and attracting the brightest and best from their network.

We had a workshop there, about persuation and influencing people, beside that, we used a chance to present our ACE program to the AIESEC country representatives. I personally had about 17 meetings with different countries, Juliana also, so we covered most of our focus countries. Got quite a good response, expecting some good results in the next two quarters.

This was also a chance to see old friends, beside Navarrete, Vlada and Lidija from Serbia, old Macedonian alumnus (some of which I didn’t saw for 4 years or even more). Quite a catch up.

One of the night was ING official awards gala. They were giving 4 awards, 3 in specific area of AIESEC Experience, and 4th one as overall excellence. Serbia (beside 10 other countries) applied for Award for Leadership in Brand implementation. And we won!

I remeber last IPM, in Egypt, when I was running for AIESEC International Vice President External Relations and Communications. We were sitting during the official dinner, and telling to each other how we are going to win it next year! We made quite a big results in branding area that year, but simply due time we didn’t applied. Next time, UBS Global Excellence award is target ;-). You can see on the photo me and a winning trophy, styled with ING lion tails.

As I had one big part of the day free, we decided to do a little sightseeing of Ohrid city and the lake. AIESECers showed us around. The city itself is amaising! Something like a mixture of old Adriatic seaside cities like Kotor but with the beautifull, Alpes like, nature. Crystal clear water in the lake, mountain peaks covered by snow, pine treas all over the coast, with the Bizantium period buildings and monasteries, it’s just a perfection!

Our guide showed us all important buildings in the city, old Roman amfiteatar, old printing office (where they still make paper by the old recepie), old monasteries, the oldest faculty in Europe (built in Roman times). Then we took a boat ride back to the city, and driving off seeing the perfect sunset, like the sky was burning in its beauty.

The thing that striked me the most about the people there is the way of life. They work extremely hard for the few months of the tourist season, and live from that money the rest of the year. But most of them have a casual view on life, they would rather enjoy it and use the most out the day, than think about tomorrow.

Girl that was our guide told us similar story. How her father lost his job couple of times because he was getting late on work, due long nights he spent enjoying and driniking with his friends. But they don’t look at it as a disaster, as their friends will help and he will find another job. They don’t aspire more in life, they are happy as they are. Take the most of life, enjoy in small things, be happy. Something similar is mentioned in the story I posted previously, about a Cup of Coffee. Read it. Sometimes we focus too much on things that are not important (estetics, not the essence), forgeting what is really important in life.

Same things I experienced in India, where people are no matter how poor, happy, enjoying their life and getting the most of it. Great example is JRD Tata, person that redefined Indian industralization. But one thing not that known about him. Tatas are Parsi religion, and they act in the similar way I experienced in Ohrid. He was head of the biggest business empire in India (and worldwide) for about 30 years. He died with no belongings and estate. He lived in the rented house, drove with its company car, being transported with the company vecihles and airlines, and after he died, nothing of material value left behind. Beside that, Tata Son (major owner of Tata Group) gives 60% of its profits to charity! Quite impressive in this raise the profit margin world, and quite a rare example.

This trip left a impact on me, I realize that Balkan is like that, even my country, Serbia, out of big cities, people live in this way, being just happy with what they have, not wishing for more, more and neverending more. Industrialism and business revolution brought just more stress and unhappines. Also, I realized that I’m slightly changing in this environment, becoming less stressed about the problems and challenges, accepting them as they are and at the end being more satisfied with my life. India thought me thing or two :-).

After IPM, I went back home, for a 5 day wacation. Unfortunately I caught a nasty flu, and been in bed for the time home. Saying unfortunately, as I didn’t saw almost any of my friends, and was stuck in bed with high fever. At least I saw my familiy and felt again that home atmosphere. Luckily I got off high fever night before my flight, so I was capable to travel! India again, felt so strange, like I was out of Mumbai for months, not just two weeks. And I’m still here, preparing for a new trip. Saint Petersburg in Russia, or as we would say ????? ?????? :-). Looking forward and stay tuned for the pictures ;-).

Enough for this broadcasting, thank you for the time, and stay tuned for the new adventures!

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