Emerging Leaders and Fresh Perspective - Ankit's Diary IGE 2014

The International Gold Event is an important part of the set gatherings that bring together Award stakeholders from around the world. The IGE is unique because it engages directly with Award Holders and gets them together to collaborate on ideas that contribute to the Award's growth. The International Award has recently revised its mission to make the Award accessible to all eligible young people in the world by 2026. While reaching out to youth in every country is certainly very ambitious, the Award has brought in some significant changes in the last five years that will help in making this mission a reality. The Award is now branded or co-branded uniformly across the globe to create an identity for participants, alumni and Award units that run the Award. The Online Record Book that was recently piloted in India, is now a critical tool that not only helps in monitoring quality but also makes the Award experience more efficient for participants. A mobile application for logging in your sectional hours is under development as you read this!

With recent and upcoming changes, there is a need for fresh perspective and leadership that leverages these initiatives to deliver the Award to young people from diverse backgrounds in different regions of the world. Through its theme of 'Leadership for a Transformed Award', the IGE 2014 in South Korea was able to develop key leadership skills in Award alumni and helped all of us understand the opportunities and challenges for the Award's growth. The event concluded with the meeting of the Emerging Leaders- an elected body of Gold Award Holders that works closely with the International Award Council to make decisions for the Award's future. While the Emerging Leaders would work directly with Award administrative bodies, all of us returned home with enhanced understanding of the Award and ideas to expand its presence in our respective countries.
For the participants at IGE, the event was a fantastic opportunity to learn and relive our experiences from the Award. Working in teams with delegates from the around the globe was yet another opportunity to discover ourselves and know people and cultures better. We shared our Award stories and the lessons learnt and were pleasantly surprised by the similarities and fascinated by the differences of our Award journeys.  All in all, the IGE is a wonderful opportunity to help Award Holders stay connected to the Award and contribute meaningfully to its vision.

IGE 2014 Anwesha's Diary - Part 1

Who is a leader? What qualities do we seek in a leader? The International Gold Event (IGE) 2014 tried to address these two primary questions. Though the questions seem simple enough and anyone can give very insightful answers to these questions, we, the delegates of IGE 2014 wanted to understand the intricate details of leadership.

IGE Seoul saw participation of seventy-five very enthusiastic emerging leaders from thirty four

countries. We all came together to understand the concepts of leadership, get a stronger hold of the “global’’ nature of the Award and to build ‘high-performing teams.’

The event started off with team forming- delegates from different countries were grouped together and each group was assigned a facilitator. At this point, probably it will be helpful if I mention that to understand the diversity among the representatives we were randomly put in a group and were expected to work together. It did not matter what kind of activities we did because at the end of the day what we had to achieve was to become an effective team.

So what is your definition of an effective team? What I had in my team was a bunch of very capable people each with their strengths and weaknesses. Rob Oliphant, Tim Smith and John May had planned out numerous activities for us. These ranged from a variety of ball games, skipping and other innovative games. This is when our creativity and team-spirit was put to test. All the tasks set were team games. They were simple enough- no big deal jumping over a skipping rope right? Wrong. In a team of eight, two were to stand on the edges holding and spinning the rope while the rest of us had to jump over it with each loop. This was probably the toughest things that we had done in a long time. Soon enough we realized that we had to delegate the taller ones to spin the rope. At the end were not only expected to display team work, but also learn about efficient utilization of individual talents. 

Over three days and through many exciting activities, we were made to practice what ‘high-performing teams’ are. We started recognizing each other’s talents as we began trusting one another with responsibilities. 

IGE 2014 Adrija's Diary - Part 1

International Gold Event 2014 Korea was an occasion where 75 individuals from 43 countries came together to drive forward the Award’s growth and development in the coming years under the theme of “Leadership for a transformed Award”.

Adrija (5th from Left) with her team members.

It was indeed a memorable day when I got the news from Mr. Bivujit Mukhoty that I have been selected for International Gold Event, 2014. Since 2006 I have been involved with the Award Programme through the special project named Sri Sarada Math, Rasik Bhita. I felt so fortunate to have travelled in air for the first time and it was really a special moment in my life.

We worked with multinational group of participants with whom we visited different places in Korea to gain insight into the Korean culture. It was during these trips that we came face to face with the diverse challenges faced by Award Leaders within the Korean society. Our trainings were all activity based and were conducted by Mr. John May (Secretary General, The Duke of Edinburg’s International Award Foundation), Rob Oliphant (Regional Programme Manager, Asia Pacific) and Tim Smith (Head of Operations Support and Service Development). Through the sessions we learnt how to work in a team, work as a leader and developed skills for setting up social projects. 

At the end of the global event we prepared a presentation on what we had learnt during the course of the event and were asked to present it to a panel headed by the Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward and many other officials from the International Body of Duke of Edinburg’s Award. Our topic of presentation was based on Environment for which we visited Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Otter Research Centres in Hwacheon. It was a red letter day in my life when I came to the DMZ as it was an unbelievable experience standing with the South Korean soldiers. Before coming to IGE I had no knowledge of otters and their importance in our environment. 

International Gold Event Diary - Part 1

International Gold Event 2014 finally kicked off with a brilliant opening ceremony as witnessed by our IGE reps Anwesha Ghosh, Ankit Durga and Adrija Chatterjee. First session of the event was taken by John May, Secretary General. The participants have been divided into several groups and have an assignment that will be completed with due course of the 10-day forum. The final presentation will be on October 29, 2014 in presence of HRH Earl of Wessex. 

Activities with the motive of team building, leadership and efficient working have been major part of the first three days in Seoul. Activities included presentation, games and discussions which covered most aspects of team work. According to the IGE rep Anwesha, “all the sessions have been very fruitful and indepth.” While for Ankit and Adrija the exposure that they are experiencing is incredible, meeting new people and learning their stories has been the essence of the grand event.