View Annual Review - IAESTE

Conference ReportThe 56th IAESTE Annual Conference took place in Vienna, Austria from 17-24 January 2004.223 delegates, observers and accompanying persons from 72 countries attended the Conferencewhich was held in the Penta Vienna Renaissance Hotel.At the opening ceremony the NationalSecretary of IAESTE Austria, Ms MonikaKümmel, invited the Conference HonoraryPresident, Mr Rolf Kratochvil to addressthe delegates. As a former IAESTE GeneralSecretary from 1968-1974, he was knownto many of the members present and hehad also served in every official role in theAssociation. He was ConferenceChairperson in Vienna in 1955, in Haifa in 1965and in Budapest in 1987. He was also a memberof the Advisory Committee in 1951-52 and1962-63. He spoke to the delegates about histimes in IAESTE, the growth of the Associationand his hopes for the future of IAESTE.The guest speaker was Sergio Gardelliano fromthe Vienna International Centre of UNIDO. Hespoke of the work of UNIDO and the possibleareas of contact between UNIDO and IAESTE.The General Secretary then gave his report andwelcomed invited guests from FISITA,Norsk Hydro, SACE, IAPS and theTechnische Universität Wien.The delegates and guests were entertainedduring the opening ceremony by threepieces of music played by a quintet fromthe Vienna School of Music. Ms MonikaKümmel then concluded the proceedingsby welcoming everyone to Vienna and wishingthem a successful Conference.A total of 6290 offers were made available duringthe exchange sessions and mentors wereassigned to new member countries and newdelegates to help them throughout theConference when necessary. A successful Meetand Greet session organised by SID ( Seminar onIAESTE Development) prior to the officialopening ceremony enabled newcomers toIAESTE to feel welcome and to meetexperienced IAESTE members before theConference started in earnest.During the Conference the IDT (InternetDevelopment Team) successfully launchedPhase 3 of the IAESTE IntraWeb and werevery pleased to report that nearly 90% of theConference participants attended their trainingsessions. Mr Nicholas Leonard, the IAESTEOmbudsman presented his second report to themembers, while Mr Tobias Wittmann, a greatservant over the years to IAESTE, informed theGeneral Conference that he was standing downfrom his position as FoIN (Friends of IAESTEnetwork) co-ordinator. The General Conferenceapproved the appointment of Peter Merrild asthe new FoIN co-ordinator and Kim Jensencontinues as the IDT co-ordinator.The SID co-ordinator, Mrs Pauline Ferguson,presented her report on the work whichfollowed the 18th SID which was held in Skopje,Macedonia, in May 2003. Mr Jeff Lange,National Secretary, IAESTE United States, waselected as the SID co-ordinator for 2004.As required under the IAESTE statutes, Dr AdamRylski, National Secretary, IAESTE Poland, retiredas a member of the Advisory Committee, havingcompleted his term of office. The GeneralConference elected Professor ChikaosaTanimoto, National Secretary, IAESTE Japan tothe vacant position for the period 2004-2007. MsGabriella Rácz, IAESTE Hungary, was elected tothe Advisory Committee for 2004.Professor Goran Radnovic, National Secretary,Serbia & Montenegro was elected as Chairpersonof the 57th Annual Conference to be held inCartagena, Colombia from 22-28 January 2005while Mr Jean-Michel Alaverdov, NationalSecretary, IAESTE France was elected as ReserveChairperson.The members then elected Malta as the hostvenue for the 58th Annual Conference to beheld from 21-27 January 2006.IAESTE Austria provided a range of social eventsduring the conference. Special events included adinner at Heurigen “Fuhrgassl-Huber” and amemorable evening at the Leopoldsberg Castle.The farewell dinner was sponsored by MobilkomAustria and was a celebration of a very wellorganised conference and an acknowledgementof the completion of the third and final term ofoffice for the General Secretary Jim Reid and awelcome to the incoming General SecretaryPauline Ferguson.The National Secretary of IAESTE Germany andAC member, Günter Muller-Graetschel, made apresentation to Jim Reid on behalf of all themembers. He spoke of the contribution whichthe outgoing General Secretary had made toI A E S T E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 0 4 9