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Conference Report
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
The 57th IAESTE Annual Conference was held
in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia from 22-28
January 2005. 211 delegates, exchange
administrators and accompanying persons from
69 countries attended the Conference which
was held in the Hotel Caribe.
At the opening ceremony Professor Bernard
Baeyens, National Secretary IAESTE Colombia,
acted as Master of Ceremonies and he began by
reading a speech from the President of
Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, who was unfortunately
unable to attend the Conference. He passed on
his good wishes to the participants and spoke
of the importance of IAESTE in today’s world.
Professor Baeyens then introduced the
Conference Chairperson, Mr Goran Radnović,
National Secretary IAESTE Serbia and
Montenegro, who invited the Conference
Honorary President, Dr Javier Botero, Vice
Minister of Education in charge of Higher
Education to address the General Conference.
Dr Botero spoke of IAESTE as a great example of
international co-operation and of its
importance for the development of nations.
The guest speaker was Dr Hans-Peter Knudsen
from the Colombian Association of Schools. He
spoke of the importance of IAESTE being able
to offer a high quality exchange programme
and of the need to promote contact and
goodwill between academics, institutions,
employers and students.
The General Secretary then gave her report
which included a special welcome to invited
guests: Mr Gustavo Lopez, Andean
Representative for UNESCO and the
Rector of the Universidad Tecnológica
de Bolivar - Patricia Martinez.
Advisory Committee Member and
National Secretary IAESTE Germany,
Günter Müller-Graetschel introduced
two of the new Co-operating
Institutions, Universidad Tecnológica de
Panama and Jomo Kenyatta University,
Kenya. Juana Aparicio of Panama and
Ndirangu Kioni of Kenya both
addressed the Conference and thanked
the Members for their welcome.
During the ceremony, the delegates and
guests were entertained by a Colombian
Dance Group. Professor Baeyens
concluded the proceedings by
welcoming everyone to Cartagena de
Indias and hoped that the 57th Annual
Conference would prove to
be a successful one.
A total of 6998 offers were
made available during the
exchange sessions and
mentors were assigned to
new Member countries and
new delegates to help
them throughout the
Conference when
necessary. A successful
Meet and Greet session
organised by SID ( Seminar on IAESTE
Development) prior to the Official opening
ceremony enabled newcomers to IAESTE to feel
welcome and to meet experienced IAESTE
members before the Conference started in
earnest.
During the Conference the IDT Co-ordinator
(Internet Development Team) Mr Kim Jensen,
gave a presentation to the Conference on the
work of the IDT and invited all participants to
attend an IDT Training Session during the
course of the Conference, while Mr Peter
Merrild, FoIN Co-ordinator (Friends of IAESTE
network) gave a report on the progress of our
Alumni Association. The Conference re-elected
both Co-ordinators for 2005.
The SID Co-ordinator, Mr Jeff Lange, National
Secretary, IAESTE United States presented his
report on the work which followed the 19th
SID which was held in Tunis, Tunisia in May
2004 and was re-elected as the SID co-ordinator
for 2005.
Our hosts Dr Leonidas Lopez and Professor Bernard Baeyens
Chairperson,
Mr Goran Radnović
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