A few months ago, I stumbled upon an email promoting a Conflict Analysis and Foreign Policy Training in Madrid. “Oh, wow” was my first reaction. First of all, because it was a topic I’m deeply into, second of all, because it seemed it’s going to be all new for me and I loooove to learn, and third, because it was in Spain. I think tapas was a good enough reason to apply for the training.
I’m kidding, of course. There’s no good tapas in Madrid (sorry, I was Granada Erasmus).
But there are many other reasons you should attend this training. For example, you will learn. A lot. When I attended the training in Madrid, there were people from various backgrounds: there were law, journalism, diplomacy, international relations and security experts and social psychologists (ok, only one – me). And all of them said the training was useful and that they acquired new skills. The training is almost completely practice oriented and you get a chance to implement what you learn about.
Which brings me to the second point – you will gain skills you probably won’t have a chance to learn anywhere else. Remember the variety of participants mentioned before? Yeah, well they all said it was all new to them, although they came from different universities and work backgrounds.
Which now brings me to the third point: exactly the people from different backgrounds. National, religious, work, study, experience, countries, we all differed. The opportunity to meet and engage with so many intelligent and motivated people is priceless. They all bring pieces of a puzzle with themselves, of different shapes, colours, texture, and during those three days we managed to put an amazing puzzle together.
Networking and planning potential cooperation is also an important part of the training. Different ideas emerge and you have a chance to do their reality-check because all those good people will help you understand when you are flying too high 🙂
But you also become inspired, many new ideas are born, you get to see and hear different viewpoints that make you think and enable your further professional and personal growth. And after all, it should be about development 🙂 Because only by investing in it, only by improving ourselves, we can improve the world we live in.
You make friendships. You meet an Axel who also has to spend a long night at the airport (the importance of this is kind of self-explanatory). You meet a Sara who instantly becomes a person you want to have in your life forever. You meet a Bek, whose charisma and night-time photo shooting skills bring huge amounts of joy to your day. (Yeah, there are stories behind these moments)
However, you should also attend this training because the world desperately needs it. We desperately need more people engaging in analysing such complex parallel realities called ‘conflicts’ and working through solutions that could potentially bring an end to them. Too optimistic? Well, as Gretzky (or Scott, or Michael Jordan for that matter, they were all attributed the saying) said – you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Of course, another key point you shouldn’t miss – an always-serious-super-experienced-never-smiling-extremely-witty-coffee-loving lead trainer. You really want to meet this guy.
Although we have no tapas in Novi Sad, the food is AMAZING. Coffee too. We have cakes and craft beer. We have culture. We have the Danube. We have a heart.
Welcome. I promise you won’t regret it.
