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1. Opening Remarks by Jan Pronk, Professor of Theory and Practice of International Development at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Netherlands and President of the Society for International Development (The Netherlands)
2. Renata Villers, Executive Director of Amigos del Aprendizaje (ADA) and Fellow of CALI (Central American Leadership Initiative, of the Aspen Institute and INCAE) (Costa Rica)
3. Panel Discussion: Making Innovations Happen
Facilitated by Professor Nika Silvetti, Coordinator of Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development program at UPEACE (Italy)
Dr. Juergen Carls, Government Advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture in Lisbon, Portugal; Freelance consultant to the FAO; and Professor for UPEACE (Germany)
Andrés Castro Ruiz, Director of Architec, SA (Costa Rica)
4. Break Out Presentation 1
I participated in Appro-Eco Scouting: Looking for Ideas that Really Work.
• Gail Swithenbank, Principal, Green Design Strategies (USA)
Antarqui participated in Innovative Model for Hands-On, Experiential Learning in Higher
Education
• Dr. Pedro Bidegaray, Director of International Academic Programs, EARTH University (Peru)
5. Break Out Presentation 2
Both Antarqui and I participated in Social Entrepreneurship—Innovating from Within.
• Mohit Mukherjee, Director, UPEACE Centre for Executive Education, (India)
(Can you guess who it is?)
6. Exposition
We presented the project using video clips and pictures that we took before in Niigata. We could get to talk to a lot of people!
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It was indeed a rich event in which we learnt a lot about "innovation". This is what we really needed!
We started Azur Indian Music Project over 2 years ago, in fact, we first begun to play music at some parties and gigs, soon after we gradually formed this as a project (not just playing randomly) on International Understanding for Japanese citizens using the means of music appreciation combining our skills. Coincidentally our educational background and work experience were very similar; music and development.
But, we faced difficulties, it was mostly about finance. Our project depended on the budget of respective entities which asked us to perform, but not many entities had enough budget; particularly, for spending for work of art. So, it endangered our lives, too, lol!!
Another issue was promoting. We mainly targeted schools (both private and public, from nursery school to high school), posting our advertisement to each schools. However, we only received some responses. I analyzed it had something to do with school schedule. Since schools in Japan starts in April, they plan educational design by sometime in February at latest. In this sense, if advertisement and their interest doesn't meet by then, it would be definitely hard to change their mind to have us out of their initial plan in the middle of school year.
Other issues can be our own time constraint. Since I could not predict until when I could stay in Niigata depending on my other work which enables and sustains myself to continue music project. Indeed, I could not have continued this project without having other job because it was financially tight without, as I mentioned above!
After all; everything was put into a negative circulation, financial tightness leads to be passive towards active promotion, and this circulates to financial problem.
As we proceed this project in Costa Rica, we really need to get these problems solved.
1. Fund
2. Promotion
Honestly, this conference gave us fresh and innovative ideas not only from the talks by the lecturers, but also from participants through some of the activities that we took part in. Furthermore, we could meet many people who belong to various organizations, NGOs students from many countries. Hopefully we sum up every essence we gained and this enables us to move forward!
(Plus, I was personally feeling comfortable to participate in the conference because "development" is much more familiar to me than Peace making and Media :)) )
(Tonight's dinner; Pescado y Mariscos con salsa de tomate @ Club Union :)) )
Entry: Midori
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