42nd Stop - Osaka, Japan

Finally! I’d been impatiently looking forward to being in Osaka for about a year, ever since attending my first JCI World Congress in Tunisia. A great occasion to meet up with old and new friends from around the world. I’d be seeing people I met during the previous 5 months in Madagascar, South Africa, Morocco, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, India, and Germany... plus my good friend Jacob from Nice and Deni from Albania.

It’s hard to describe the magic of a World Congress while keeping it short and simple (sorry, trying to make these blogs less detailed). Imagine 10,000 young active citizens from around the world, an entire city with banners hanging from lamp posts to welcome you, the Dalai Lama and Prince of Japan meeting with members of your association, a privatized Universal Studios with no lines, great food and parties in sports stadiums, inspiring speakers, fascinating professional and personal development trainings... oh and a wee bit of sight-seeing.

I think the pictures speak for themselves:

Pre-conference sight-seeing with Jacob

Asia-Pacific Party with Jai from JCI India

Asia-Pacific Party with pretty Jaycees

JCI Morning Show with Alisa from JCI Newport Beach

Trade show with Maude from JCI Menton and Denisa

Osaka: thanks for the great weather!

Universal Studios with Jacob and Denisa

Japan Night at the Kyocera Dome

Karate kid

Osaka Castle

National President JCI France Nicolas Lefévère with Denisa and me

Kickin' it in the outfield

JCI Pays Niçois and special guests

JCI World President Rolan Kwemain with innocent bystanders

A big thanks to my local association, JCI Pays Niçois, for sponsoring my participation, along with Thea and Jacob, to promote the JCI Challenge next year. The dates have changed so make sure to check your calendars! The new dates are May 30 and 31.

I also want to thank the French delegation and in particular Kevin and Sonja for all the logistical planning before and during the congress. And congratulations to Nicolas Lefévère, JCI France’s 2010 National President for being named national president of the year by JCI World President Roland Kwemain. Finally, thanks to Jacob and Deni for making this time in Osaka so memorable.

Congratulations JCI Osaka and JCI Japan for hosting such a good congress.

Impatient once again to see you all again in Brussels for next year’s world congress!

Next stop: Hirakatashi, Japan!

21st Stop - Johannesburg East, Part 3

Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, I was very successful using www.couchsurfing.org for the first time. More than four families had offered to host me and I was moving on to my third and final family in Jo’burg.

Carol dropped me off at the bus station and I rode into Sandton to get the Gautrain, this time alone (see first Jo'burg post about drive by bus shootings)! Tammy picked me at the Rhodesfield train station and we went back to her home to drop off my bags. Tammy’s half-sister, Claire, was home from school and decided to go out with us to do some shopping.

Later that night, Wendy, Tammy and Claire’s mom, Kobi, Wendy’s boyfriend, and Sharon, Tammy’s friend, joined us along with Wendy and Kobi’s four friends from Belgium who had just arrived for a three-week long vacation in South Africa. We had a lovely dinner followed by ice cream sundaes with a secret chocolate sauce. Actually, I’m not sure it is a secret, so I’ll share the knowledge: melted milky way candy bars with milk chocolate. Drizzle that over some nice French vanilla ice cream and you’ll be in heaven.

Emile Singeh from Cameroon had put me in touch with some fellow Jaycees from South Africa and I was finally going to get a chance to meet up with them during their mid-year recharge. I invited Tammy to join us and we set off early Saturday morning for the meeting after a crêppy breakfast ;-)

The weekend was the first of its kind for the JCI South Africa National Board and local presidents. The goal of the weekend was to evaluate what had been accomplished so far this year, plan for the rest of 2010, and start looking forward to 2011. We had a couple break-out sessions which consisted of SWOT analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) of different internal aspects of the association. I also had the honor to do a brief presentation about the the Nothing But Nets campaign and why I was in South Africa.

I must say that the fun highlight of the day was the warm up before the afternoon session. We went around the room saying famous company slogans or taglines. Then each person had to repeat their slogan, right after saying the phrase “under my underpants”... Thanks for the great laugh with KFC's “it’s finger lickin’ good”!

A big thanks to Ali, Tshepo, Michelle and everyone else for such a wonderful day. I wish you all the best of luck for the rest of the year and next and look forward to seeing you in Osaka in November!

Tammy had left earlier in the day, so I went back via the train. I figured it would be a good idea to use my Gautrain credit as I had foolishly purchased about $50 worth of it! The rest of night we enjoyed some of Tammy’s delicious Elvis hamburgers and karaoke. Thanks for the recipe Tammy (please contact me if you want it, they're honestly the best burgers I've eaten)!

Next morning, I was back at the airport and off to Cape Town already. Thanks Wendy, Tammy, Claire, and Kobi for hosting me for these two nights. That’s two more bednets and two more families protected for the next five years.

Next stop: Cape Town!

7th Stop - Aarhus, Denmark

The moment we’ve all been waiting for (and by “we” I mean Delphine, Valérie, Jacob, Maxim, Erik and Charlotte, all members of JCI Pays Niçois): the 2010 JCI European Conference in Aarhus, Denmark! This was extra special for us since both Jacob and Charlotte come from Denmark and what better way to discover their country than at an international conference with more than 1000 other young active citizens from around Europe...

Erik and I left Potsdam together and arrived just in time to meet the others at the train station and take everyone to their respective lodgings. A big thanks to Delphine and Jacob for exchanging their apartment in Nice for an apartment in Aarhus. It was great to feel almost at home during our entire stay, with a big table for breakfast and great music (finally got to listen to an album from the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, 10 years after I saw them open for Spiritualized in Salt Lake City...).

The theme of this year’s conference was “learn, explore, share” and I think this aptly sums up the 6 days we spent in Aarhus. We kicked off our stay exploring Den Gamle By, literally “Old Town”, which is a replica of historic Danish village life. Whenever an old building in Denmark is slated to be torn down, if it has historic value, they take it down brick by brick and reassemble it in this park in Aarhus. Exceptionally well done, but what else could you expect in the land of legos!

The exploring continued Thursday afternoon with the public speaking competition on the topic “let us be the change”. I had the privilege of representing France and competing with some brilliant speakers. Congratulations to Solveig Malvik from JCI London who went on to win the competition and will represent Europe at the World Congress in Osaka, Japan!

The sharing had already begun Wednesday night with a fantastic welcoming party by our hosts the Danes, but I must say that the Germans took it to the next level with their party down at the docks in an old hangar on Thursday night. Try to picture a thousand people dancing with painted smiling faces, hagermeister and delicious German beer, sausages of every stripe and color, world cup soccer, smoke and lights, and music to keep you dancing till 4 in the morning!

I ended up learning the most on Friday morning. I am so happy I attended what I think might as well have been the best talk of the conference given by George Kohlrieser, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD Business School in Switzerland, psychologist and professional hostage negotiator. George gave us quite a few insights on what it takes to be a leader. The things that stick out most in my mind however are that people aren’t born leaders. About 95% of being a leader comes from experience and learned skills. We also learned that people aren’t naturally opposed to change, but rather to the pain and fear of the unknown. I see this a lot in the translation industry. Translators are like nervous hens when you start talking about machine translation. They fear that they are going to lose their relevance in the near future. Only when they understand the benefit of change (such as embracing machine translation to become more productive) will they overcome the fear. Finally, he told us that meetings can be up to 70% more productive (meaning faster and better!) if you have everyone stand up. I can’t wait to try this during my next 6-hour Wordfast training ;-)

Later that day, members from the French delegation met with the Honorary French Consul in Aarhus, Jørgen Hansen, and the JCI World President, Roland Kwemain. This is a unique opportunity for JCI France members to meet with French ambassadors and other foreign service officials when attending international conferences. Mr. Hansen talked about Franco-Danish relations and trade. Annual French exports to Denmark amount to €2 billion while Danish exports are worth €3 billion. In Denmark’s biggest university town, with 40,000 students, less than 50 of them are studying French. I think that language is probably the biggest barrier to trade and that if France ever wants to balance its trade deficit with Denmark, they ought to learn more Danish. Perhaps it would be even more practical to learn English since virtually everyone in Denmark speaks it...

The rain finally let up on Saturday for the duck race and street painting events. Conference attendees purchased 667 plastic ducks for $10 each to compete in a duck race on the river through the city center. The proceeds from this action will be donated to the Nothing But Nets campaign. After lunch, Maxim, Valérie, Jacob, Delphine, Virginie and I did a giant mosquito street painting to promote an international sports challenge our JCI chapter is planning in the South of France next year. Proceeds from this event will help fund mosquito bednet purchases as well.

The conference ended with an awards ceremony and gala dinner, a great opportunity to share one last night of talking, laughing, dancing, and singing before saying goodbye. Thanks to everyone involved in the organization of this event (Danes and JCI World HQ), the French delegation and national board members for taking care of us all week, and the members who made this conference so cheerful, interesting, and fun! Looking forward to seeing everyone again in Osaka, Japan.

Next stop: Copenhagen!