The ELSA

standing our cultural diversity, was also“Midscultural communication” held by acoach from Communication Partners - a professionaltraining company. SusannaMehtonen and Li Axrup from the InternationalBoard prepared ELSA ONLINE training, whichactually happened online and was much moreuseful than manuals or PowerPoint presentations.Members of different NGs had a chanceto discuss and share their experience, to makeplans for establishing long-term cooperationand simply get to know each other better.The Meeting was combined with the internationalseminar “Legal aspects of E-commerce”,which pointed out problems and gave solutionsfor dangers and threats of modern communicationtechno ogies. The participants hadan opportunity to learn about digital signatures,Internet business–to-customer trade,legal aspects of SPAM, Internet banking or e-commerce threats. The marketing directorfrom one of the fastest developing banks inPoland - mBank – told us about Internet bankingas the safest and fastest way of managingyour money. He also ensured us that savings,which might seem to disappear and become“virtual” to quickly, are absolutely safe, consideringthe high level of customers’ data securitythe bank provides. A member of the PolishInternet Police showed us methods of preventingcrime on the web and modern ways ofcoding and protecting consumer information.Lecturers answered many questions – most ofthem concerned registration and protection ofdomain names on the Internet. To sum up -everyone who came to the CEM gained someextra-academic knowledge.It has been noticed, that such events are veryimportant for widening ELSA and build astronger network not only in the Central andEastern European region, but also all overEurope. Once a year we have the occasion tomeet and discuss our progress and make plansfor the future development. The meeting isalso an opportunity for national board membersto establish partnership programmesbetween ELSA countries, make agreements forstudy visits or support groups that organiseinternational events. This is one of the bestways to bring ELSA’s aims into life – to buildstructures for cooperation among law studentsand to strengthen the progress of stronger tiesbetween the European countries.Such events are an example of successfulimplementation of ELSA’s ideas.Our goal is to develop the Central and EasternEuropean Meeting in the future - as a tool ofimproving the ELSA network. The next eventin this cycle is to be organised in Iasi/Romaniain September 2002. So be prepared – scheduleyour calendar to come to Iasi. You will experiencethe unique character of the Central andEastern European Meeting that you will notforget. Ask someone from the participants ofthe Central and Eastern European Meeting inBialystok and get anxious to come. The meetingis meant for people from Central andEastern Europe but of course - everyone isinvited. It’s important to widespread the ideaof regional as well as global cooperation inELSA. Meeting wonderful people from differentcountries and sharing with them commonideas and an unforgettable spirit – the ELSASpirit, can give you the unbelievable feeling ofsolidarity and unity. Take part in that process -your help will make it more effective.