A Breakfast Meeting at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio Hotel

June 8th, 2007

Early morning, all of us met at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio Hotel to make sure everything was in place before the first participant arrived. Prof. Lee practiced her speech in Spanish and did the final check-up of everything in general. Fabiola reviewed her presentation and tried to match them with the Power point presentation created by Sudarat. Sudarat linked her laptop with the visual aid equipments provided by Global College and made sure both visual and sound were alright and ready to present. Cindy and Abdul helped Clarice and Brenda set up the front desk and arranged the documents and leaflets around the meeting room for the participants to take what they saw useful. Clarice and Brenda stationed at the front desk so they prepared the sign-up sheet and the list of prospective participants.

We encountered some problems such as the hotel did not put up the sign showing where a breakfast meeting took place, the deficient amount of light in the meeting room, and how we could figured out who was who so that we could take them to the appropriate tables. By all means, we had all the problems taking care of. First, we had the hotel put up the sign just in time of the arrival of the NGOs. Then we tried to turn the maximum light on but still not sufficient so we decided to open the curtains around the meeting room to get the sunlight from the outside. And to make sure who was who, we let each of them signed-up at the front desk and had the members took them to the tables where they belonged.

At 8 o'clock, the participants arrived one after another. We had them signed-up at the front desk with Clarice and Brenda and gave them a package of information necessary to complete the application process. Cindy and Abdul were the receptionists stationed at the entrance greeting the participants. Sudarat was a receptionist responsible for taking the participants to their tables. We let the participants socialized and enjoyed their breakfast while waiting for the rest to arrive.

Soon, the UN Resident Coordinator, Sr. Jose Manuel Hermida, opened the meeting. Followed by the speech from Prof. Lee explaining who we are and why we are here. Then Sarah gave a speech on behalf of Global College's staff explaining what they are doing and serving Costa Rica. After that, Fabiola represented all of us to give the formal Power point presentation to the NGOs about the benefits that an association with DPI at UN headquarters would bring and the complete guidance to fill-up the application form, followed by a question and answer period. During the meeting, many NGOs expressed an interest and raised questions about the application process. Some NGOs invited us to meet the following week either at their facilities or at the Global College for further discussion.

When the meeting was over, we had breakfast together to discuss about the meeting and estimate our success, in which we believed that it would bring a good number of NGOs to be affiliated with the NGO/DPI. Finally, we all felt relieved and satisfied with the outcome of the meeting that we put so much effort in.

By Sudarat Adirek