Last two weeks at AIA

The past two weeks at AIA have especially busy, so I will also group them together in one post. I have spending a lot of time putting the finishing touches on the EMPTJ course outline, and contacting participating mediation centers to get the necessary registration forms. Now comes the difficult part, the marketing campaign. My boss really wants me to take initiate with this aspect, which is a lot of pressure but allows me to be very creative. I have contacted all of the english newspapers in the EU with an editorial proposal, and I am hoping to be able to write an article about international mediation in general that does not sound too much like a mere EMPTJ advertisement. I will try to explain its relevance to international cooperation in general, and especially for the internal market of the EU, which has grown increasingly complicated and ridden with disputes since the financial crisis. I will also use social media, e.g. facebook and ADR blogs to spread word. I am very happy that we already have 3 potential students who would like to register. I am confident we will reach 30 before August, which is the maximum.

The UNCITRAL conference that will take place in June has also needed a lot of attention. Aside from booking a location, creating registration forms and brochures, I have also been researching recent developments in UNCITRAL because I will be writing the introduction to the conference and the publication, as well as providing relevant annexes. Mr. Billiet had be sign us up to use the UNCITRAL library for a day at the end of March, which means we will be flying to Vienna for the one day to spend hours upon hours in a library. I will learn a lot I'm sure, but I would really like it if we could see the city as well!

After learning that the UN recently introduced a mediation office into their human resources department, I was able to get an interview with their chief mediator later this month. I put together a long list of questions, which is more of an outline for a broader discussion and sent it to his office. I am hoping to reveal the importance of a mediator to the ability of an internationa organization to meet its goals, which in the UN is especially important. I think that without a strong internal mediation service, the global community will essentially suffer because the UN will less functional. Thus, the mediator serves as a bridge between the UN's missions, and the civil society. Anyways, that is what I expect to write about after the interview.

Monday I will go to a conference in Brussels on the Belgian Economic Mission to India as a representative of AIA. Our organization is looking into possibly expanding into India, because it international arbitration has recently begun to grow in popularity in the region as its expands economically. The conference is only half a day, so I will mainly be trying to network and spread word of AIA's latest projects. I'm looking forward to learning more about the commercial connection between the two countries, and will likely write an article about it for next month's newsletter.