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IAESTE and thanked him for his dedication tothe Association and for his care and attention toall its members and co-operating institutionsover the last six years. As the outgoing GeneralSecretary is somewhat of a thespian in his leisuretime he appreciated the Japanese maskspresented to him by the incoming AC member,Professor Tanimoto. Jim alsoreceived a number of individualgifts from delegates. Mr JeffLange, former AC member andcurrent SID Co-ordinator paidtribute to Ms Susan Mollon forher excellent contribution asmeeting secretary and assistantto Jim Reid and the former GS ProfessorAbdallah Sfeir. The General Secretary, PaulineFerguson, then thanked IAESTE Austria for theirexcellent organisation, hospitality andfriendship during the Conference with specialthanks to Ms Monika Kümmel, Nationalsecretary and Thomas Faltner, the Conferenceorganiser.At the final Conference session MsChristina Vakomies, National Secretary,IAESTE UK informed the members of thesudden death of Professor Henry Cohen,former Chair of IAESTE UK’s AdvisoryCommittee. Professor Cohen had beenresponsible for IAESTE in the early years ofits development in Imperial CollegeLondon and was a true friend to IAESTE.He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.Professor Dr Mohamed Harajli, NationalSecretary, IAESTE Lebanon and Chairperson,received a presentation from former AC memberHenning Huuse, to acknowledge the excellentmanner in which he had conducted theConference sessions.Finally the General Conference thanked theHonorary President, Rolf Kratochwil, sponsorsand guests who had supported IAESTE Austriaand the conference events and the hotelmanagement and staff for their courtesy andsupport during the conference.Professor Pulat PulatovNS Tajikistan presentedthe former GeneralSecretary with atraditional Tajik giftGC 2004: My New ExperienceBY MARYAM FARAHANI SECRETARY OF THE IAESTE COMMITTEE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEHRANIn 2002 the University of Tehran joined theInternational Association for the Exchange ofStudents for Technical Experience as a new cooperatinginstitution. Simultaneously, I startedto work as the Secretary of the Committee.Although the work seemed to be timeconsumingand required a person with toomuch energy and concentration, I found itreally interesting to be involved in aninternational organisation. Besides increasingmy knowledge, I could learn many new aspectsof life through this worldwide activity. Ibecame familiar with different nations byreading about various countries. In summer2003 we received three trainees from Europewhose presence in our first year of membershipprovided us with lifelong memories.In January 2004 I had the great opportunity ofparticipating in the 56th IAESTE AnnualConference, which was held in Vienna. It couldbe mentioned as one of my life’s bestexperiences. The Conference was much morethan an ordinary seminar. I took part in theMeet and Greet session the very first night whereI met new members of IAESTE, and the newGeneral Secretary Ms. Pauline Ferguson, then theopening ceremony, the exchange sessions, theconference sessions, the international party, andthe social programme which were all full of niceincidents. Through the exchange sessions I hadthe chance to meet those people with whom Ihad been acquainted through e mails during thetwo years of my work in IAESTE.Thanks to the efforts and co-operation of allour committee members; executive andscientific, the support of the University ofTehran, other universities and companies, wewere able to increase our offers from 20 in 2003to 100 in 2004. During the seven days of ourstay in Vienna, we exchanged 43 offers withdifferent countries including among othersGreece, Germany, Brazil, China, UK, Oman,Switzerland, Finland and Sweden.As well as attending the very well organisedConference, I had the chance to visit Vienna’sAlbertina, Stadtsoper, Stephansdom,Karlskirche, and lots of other beautiful places. Imade many new friends from different IAESTEcommittees, and learned new methods ofworking during the conference sessions. Theimportant thing for me was that thisconference was an exchange of knowledge andviewpoints as well as information sharing onculture and experience.I hope that IAESTE Iran at the University ofTehran continues to be a successful cooperatinginstitution of IAESTE for manyyears, and I hope that we can form aNational Committee in the near future.I would like to thank Mr. James E. Reid;previous GS, Dr. Gheitanchi; one of myuniversity professors, Dr. Shekarchizadeh;person responsible for IAESTE in theUniversity of Tehran, Dr. Jabbehdar; the Headof our scientific committee, and Mr. Alizadeh,our committee advisor, and all those who madethis journey to GC 2004 a memory that I willnever forget.Maryam Farahani andDr Shekarchizadeh,University of Tehran,Iran, at an ExchangeSession at the ViennaGeneral Conference10 I A E S T E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 0 4