The oikos Spring Meeting 2014 in Copenhagen is over, but it will definitely remain a reference point for me for years. So many experiences, contacts and inspirations which will follow me through all my life and I am very grateful that I got this chance.
Opportunities are what I discovered when working with our partners. There are plenty of them waiting for us, we just have to take them!
Thanks to the great support from Lenka and Adriana of the oikos International team, we mapped out what our goals are and how to measure what we achieve. For the first time what I learned in university was actually useful!
And in the end: this was our crucial point when talking to our partners before the event: we know what we wanted to achieve and we have a picture on what impact it should have.
In a volunteering student organization, everybody has resources which are necessary to achieve the goal and if you think you cannot see it, it is your responsibility to make these strengths visible to the respective person and yourself, so you can get the best possible outcome for everybody.
Incredible what you as participants gave to us as a chapter! We feel like a part of a bigger organization now and also feel inspired to work in cross-collaborations, after we got in touch with your projects and different approaches of sustainability.
 
Happiness is like a Kiss. You must share it to enjoy it.
Bernard Meltzer

Optimistic thinking helped me through the first period where I took over the coordination and also through the period shortly before the Spring Meeting where we struggled with the fundraising.
What I learned is: it is not enough to be optimistic for myself; it is also crucial that I can incubate my team members with a sense of: we will make that happen, we can do it!
 
“Sustainable Cities” was the topic of our conference and certainly this will also be a topic for some of us to work and live in and I think Copenhagen is a great example how to do it one possible way.
I was lucky to start such a big project and also my networking career in Denmark as the culture is supportive for people who are doing their first steps into the business world. Low hierarchies and easy going communication culture was one of the reasons why I felt encouraged to contact partners and to call people at a level I have never talked to before. This should also encourage future project leader in other countries to do so, as I grew confident: This is possible everywhere!
You have certainly seen that the conference was shaped in a very straight way of Green Growth which is popular in Denmark and I was happy to receive a lot of feedback from you which was critical to that point of view. The Spring Meeting showed me that our chapter has a very special and sometimes narrow view on sustainability which can be complemented through valuable and necessary discussions from outside our chapter.
I hope to see you all again at the Future Lab 2014 in St.Gallen!