October 26-30 were a few special days for Young SIETAR. Those were the days of this year's edition of our annual congress - the "pinpoint" of the YS year. This congress took us to the incredible Slovenia (to its capital city, Ljubljana, and to Planica at the foot of the Triglav National Park).

The theme of this years Congress was "ON OUR WAY TO A BETTER WORLD: How our ideas, experiences and skills can help to address challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s world." The programme offered a compelling mixture of different approaches and tools. After an "immersion day" where participants had a chance to discover Ljubjlana in small groups, we moved to Planica, where we had a chance to discuss our experience and to talk to an acclaimed Slovenian American (or American Slovenian, depending on how you look at it) novelist, Erica Johnson Debeljak. 

The next days were an adventure of knowledge and experience sharing within structured sessions such as one on a review of the history of the Intercultural field and workshops facilitated by our brilliant guests & friends: Kelli McLoud-Schingen, Kazuma Matoba, Jean Grow, Maria Prahl.

It was also the first time the case-study approach was used to analyze real-world issues and to put our collective knowledge, experience and ideas to use. The presenters were Raffaela Corrias from Italy with a case on The Interfaith Encounter Association (Jerusalem), Maria Prahl from Germany with the group Balkan Let's get up and Barbara Vodopivec from Humanitas in Slovenia.

50 participants from 20-odd countries participated in (and hopefully, as the evaluation results suggest, enjoyed!) the event.

Missed it? Be there in Belfast in September 2012! 

P.S.: We also held a mini-board meeting with new and old members of the YS board. We looked at the past years' activities and new plans.

P.P.S.: Be on the lookout for some nice pics coming soon!