Warsaw, and a short week at the office

The bulk of this week I was in Warsaw representing the AIA at a conference on multi-step dispute resolution, held at the University of Warsaw. When in fact Warsaw is quite close to Brussels and easy to get to by plane, I managed to extend my time there for practically three whole days. I suppose these negotiation skills I read about are rubbing off on me.

I am happy to report that the Conference went very well, and I am confident that I presented my speech coherently (and hopefully eloquently). I somewhat had the upper hand, for I was the only native English speaker on the panel and thus my speech was both longer and contained more material. I spoke about the practice of mediation in the US, which is actually where it first began. The topic was assigned to me, and while delivering my presentation I felt vaguely patriotic, as if I were representing my country and trying to sell our widsom. I surely didn't sound that way, but that's just how I sometime imagine such things. The only hard part was the question and answer session. The audience was a mix of international arbitrators and law students from central and eastern Europe. The students turned out to be the toughtest crowd. Their hungry minds forced them to interrogate me on every detail, both during the panel and even afterwards during the social banquet. They were much easier to deal with, however, when they had a glass of wine in their hands as opposed to a pen a paper.

My essay will be included in the conference publication, which is exciting. However, my co-panelist, an ancient Polish arbitrator who's both admired and poked fun at in the international legal world (probably for his deserved, casual arrogance), appraoched me after and told me he liked me speech so much he wants to publish it in the Polish Arbitration Bulletin. He is the editor of the magazine, which is entirely in Polish, and he said he would put mine in the March edition along with a brief summary in Polish. So, if you ever find yourself in Poland....

All in all it was an extraordinary experience. The law students were very welcoming during the banquet and were surprised when I told them my age. The following nights they helped me to "experience" Warsaw, which as I said in my previous post, is a really great city.

Friday I did my best to avoid the onslaught of the work that had been piling up during the week. I completed many small tasks and and prepared others for next week. With Warsaw behind me, I will now be working on wrapping up the EMTPJ project so that it can be advertised on the web in March, as well as organizing the UNCITRAL Conference for June. Still, I have an aching feeling something new and big will be thrown at me any day now.