1. THE AEE GOING INTERNATIONAL
THE MEXICO CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE
BY:
JUAN CARLOS ECHAVARRIA FLORES (UDEM)
ANTONIO GALVAN LUNA (GALIKA)
2. In 2009, a group of Experiential Educators had a
vision to organize the first ever AEE Conference in
Mexico. The idea represented a big challenge, but
also a big step forward, since this would be the first
time an AEE Conference was held outside the USA
and Canada.
During the Mid-South Regional Meeting at the 2010
AEE International Conference in Las Vegas, the idea
gained strength and Galika, the University of
Monterrey, Unidos, and Compartamos partnered to
make the dream come true.
This is how it happened…
5. 1. Argentina
2. Bolivia
3. Brazil
4. Colombia
5. Costa Rica
6. Ecuador
7. El Salvador
8. Spain
9. United
States
10. Guatemala
11. Mexico
12. Netherlands
13. Nicaragua
14. Panama
15. Peru
16. Puerto Rico
17. Dominican
Republic
18. Russia
19. Uruguay
6. • Results:
– Several international partnerships
– AEE Colombia 2012
– Initiative to translate AEE
documentation into Spanish
– AEE awareness in Latin America
– Great network of Educators and
Practitioners
– Lots of new friends
7. • Although the idea started in
2009, the conference was
actually put together in only 4
months…
• The first meeting was held at
UDEM on January 14, 2011
• How did we do it?
9. • The organizing committee included
people from a Social Institution
(Unidos), Microfinance Institution
(Compartamos), University
(UDEM), Training and Consulting
(GALIKA & ODISEA).
• This helped create a very diverse
conference
10. International Sponsors & Partners
- Sponsors contributed with financial,
material, and human resources for the
conference
- Partners contributed with registrations
(5 minimum, paid in advance) and
promotion in their home countries
- Benefits: appearance in posters, media
releases, brochures, website, social
media, etc.
12. The sponsors & partners model allowed us to:
- No need for starting capital.
- Cover the financial cost well in advance of the event.
- Make the event very affordable.
- Spread the responsibility of attracting attendees
among several organizations across the continent.
- Reach more people.
- Force ourselves to raise the bar in terms of quality of
workshops, logistics, and image (create an excellent
conference).
- Offer more amenities and comfort to attendees
13. Some unique features of the conference:
- 3 host hotels
- Free daily transportation from all 3 hotels to the
UDEM and back (by private bus)
- High-quality image (posters, postcards, memo pads,
pens, bags, signaling, etc.)
- Gourmet welcome dinner at a private home, Mexican
night kermesse-style with typical mexican food and
live mariachis.
- Certificate of attendance to all participants.
- Electronic tickets
- Coffee breaks.
- Simultaneous translation services (Portuguese –
Spanish)
14. Marketing Strategy
- Specialized publications (Harvard
Business Review, local newspapers)
- Social Media (Facebook event page)
- Dedicated website
(http://www.aeemexico2011.com)
- AEE Website
- 1000 posters across Latin America
15. Our mix of media exposure allowed us to attract people
from all Experiential Education fields:
- Schools and Colleges
- Therapeutic
- Social Organizations
- Corporate
- Training and development
- Spiritual
- Community development
- Justice and ethics
- Outdoor learning
- Etc.
16. Content Strategy
- All the workshops were carefully
selected by a committee to ensure
that the quality would live up to the
expectation generated.
- Keynote speakers and macro-
session facilitators were selected
based on their record.
- We adopted a “Marketing
approach” to content.
17. Marketing approach to workshop content:
- We gave exposure to presenters (website,
social media, etc.)
- Presenters who see their name and bio on
the website of the event, invite people.
- Exposure also increases the pressure to
prepare a great workshop.
- When people saw the published
workshops, more proposals started
flowing in (didn’t want to be left out)
- We created urgency (sorry, all slots are
full, unless your workshop is awesome…)
18. Financial Results
- The conference just broke even
- VAT ate the profit, since GALIKA
took the administrative
responsibility (attendees didn’t
pay VAT, but we had to pay it to
the Mexican IRS nevertheless)
- With more time we could have
attracted more attendees and
thus made a big profit for AEE.
19. Learnings:
- Conferences must be great, as
evaluated by the participants.
- For international conferences,
they must be “tropicalized”.
- Marketing is extremely important.
- Multidisciplinarity is essential in
EE.
