The AI Office

During one month, between June 14th and July 13th, I was in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for SSGN Board transition and planning. During all this time I worked in AIESEC International (AI) office.

To visit the AI office in Rotterdam probably is one “dream” that most of the AIESECer have. I’ve always wondered how it was and how the AI people were (they seemed to be soooooo distant when you’ve never been in an IC or at the office) and finally I had the opportunity to check it.

When I arrived there, after almost 20 hours traveling (flights and time lost in airports :S), my first thought was “What a chaos! The AI office is a mess!”. But then I realized that they had around 50 people there, working, when the normal would be less than 20.

There were there two AI teams (current and elected), and complete (no director in countries visits) and the Steering Team.

(And it got worst few days later, when the Learning Networks Drive Teams Meeting started… :S)

The office is really nice! It’s in the 4th and last floor of a commercial building and it takes the whole floor. It’s very spacious and clear. There are windows that take up two whole walls, so wherever you are looking there’s always a very beautiful view of the neighborhood (and it’s a great way to relax when you’re tired or when you simply want to have a privileged view while you’re working).

The desks are organized according to the job of the people, and they’re grouped according to their job. For examples, all the directors are near one of the others, all the ER team is together in one side of the room… They have also a meeting room, a library, one room they call “innovation corner”, one kitchen and toilets.

The library is the most interesting place in the office. Although it’s small and without windows, it’s worthy to spend some time there because there they keep some historic documents (for example, docs about all the ICs, since the beginning). One friend said in her blog: “It's really great being in the AI office; I expected it to be noisy and "million dollar contracts" being signed ;)”. I confess I expected the same, especially because IC is near and contracts are probably being signed now. But if it happened, I didn’t see :P (maybe because Peter, the VPER, has the best job in the world: during most of the time I was there, he was traveling around Europe to visit partners and do sales meetings). But the office is quiet, and I’m sure it’s really quiet when there’s only one team working there.