In the last couple of days, Egypt had enjoyed a tourism refreshment with the arrival of football player Lionel Messi, and a few days after that, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel also landed, and then within hours, actor Will Smith also made it to Egypt! If the Sphinx could move, we’re pretty much sure it would be dancing right now! As a continuation of this tourism boom, AIESEC Egypt will be expecting over 600 visitors from all over the world, specifically from the Middle East and Africa region to attend MEAXLDS 2017.
In case you are not familiar with AISEC and MEAXLDS: AIESEC is a global, non-political, not-for-profit youth organisation with its headquarters in the Netherlands. It has 70,000 active members from 2,400 universities. Its self-proclaimed aim is to provide their members with leadership skills and quailities from facilitating and creating exchange opportunities.
In order to organise the network, regional conferences take place annually in different countries. One of those is Middle East and Africa Exchange and Leadership Development Seminar (MEAXLDS), which, as the name suggests, is made for the MEA region. Simultaneous regional conferences for Asia Pacific, Europe… etc. will take place. And AIESEC Egypt has managed to win the bet twice and host it in 2016 as well as the upcoming one in April 2017.
Abdelrahman Ayman, AIESEC Egypt’s previous president and now AIESEC International current president-elect, said “it’s a conference that gives us the opportunity to bring all different people from the region together in one place. People think about Egypt and they have one question, how am I going to come to Egypt? Is it safe? Because the media portrait at the end of the day is only the downside of a lot of things.”
Such a conference is organised mainly to give updates about the whole network, to reflect and evaluate the past year’s activities, and to plan for the upcoming period. Along with strengthening the international relations, uniting the region, and, most importantly, giving the host country exposure. In this case, it is Egypt. From one side the conference itself will be taking place in the crown jewel of Egypt itself, Sharm El-Sheikh. This is beside the pre-tours in which the delegates will participate, taking place in Cairo, and including sightseeing, such as the Pyramids, the Citadel, Coptic Cairo, Sultan Hassan Mosque, and much more. Furthermore, post-conference tours will be taking place, but this time all over Egypt, like Sinai and the Fayoum oasis.
Alaa Draz, MEAXLDS president, also said “this is an opportunity for Egypt not only to polish its dusted tourism flare, but also to amend and strengthen the bonds it has with its neighbouring countries. We seek to host all diverse races, religions, and nationalities in April, to unite under the mission of youth development for a better continent, region, Middle East & Africa.”
While Timo Schewik, local committee president at AIESEC Munich, Germany said “an international conference such as MEA, is an experience about knowing more and accepting other cultures, aside to finding and realising that at the end, we’re all humans and we should not make any difference between nationalities or colour, but to see that we can all work together to make the world a better place.”
The conference claims to celebrate cultures and their differences, to achieve the message of “peace and fulfilment of humankind potential”, to unite the world as one, to invest in youth and empower them, as like AIESEC states it believes, they are the key to unlock a better future.
