«Current translation pending review – For demonstration only».
With eleven international simulated organizations, almost every country on the planet will have at least one aspiring diplomat to represent it in Rhodes. The reason for the 9th International Rhodes Regional Organization for Simulation 2018, which will be held in October and will bring more than 430 young scientists and students to Rhodes, with organized missions from 13 departments and universities, including Greece and many others abroad.
Last Friday, 24/08/2018, the Organizing Committee of the conference met with the Deputy Mayor of Rhodes Culture, Sports and Medieval Town, Mr. Teris Hatziioannou, of the South Aegean Regional Adviser on Education, Lifelong Learning and European Programs, Ms. Haroulas Yasirani. The body composition was completed by the Honorable Presidents of the House of Europe in Rhodes, Ms. Marilena Sokianou and Ms. Anna Charitou, and the Board of Directors members of the House, Mrs. Lina Filippaki and Mr. George Minas. Mr. George Karanikas, Secretary General of the Law School, graduate of the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, also participated in a teleconference. The process was chaired by Mr Michalis Kavuklis, Head of the Organizing Committee and President of the House of Europe in Rhodes.
In addition to the organizational issues raised and discussed, the conference highlighted the importance of the conference for the development of academic tourism in our region. RhodesMRC is an essential synergy of local actors: it is organized by the House of Europe in Rhodes, the South Aegean Region, the Municipality of Rhodes and the Mediterranean Studies Department of the University of the Aegean, with ongoing support from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The institution began as a small conference that brought together only 50 people in 2010, now becoming two stand-alone conferences, one for students and young scientists and one for high school students, with more than 600 attendees each year. Over the past eight editions, more than 1,400 people from 22 countries have participated. Many attendees have been participating for two or three years, while many have become more involved and staffed future editions of the conference by taking on roles and representing Rhodes in their cities and universities. Already, many of the former graduates of the conference have held positions in European institutions, large companies abroad, are researchers or lecturers at foreign universities, remaining loyal friends of the RhodesMRC institution and ambassadors of our island.
The great originality of the conference is that it takes place in places scattered in the city center: the City Hall of Rhodes, the South Aegean Region, the Dodecanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Plaza Hotel among others, turning the city of Rhodes into a huge congress for three days and even at the end of the tourist season. With the help of conference volunteers and the use of state-of-the-art technologies and best practices developed by the conference itself, meeting 11 committees in multiple buildings simultaneously becomes a reality and a unique experience for participants and the city.
An important part of the meeting was the link between this year’s conference and the participants’ experience with the celebrations for the 30 years since our Medieval City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and with the actions of the European Gastronomic Region – South Aegean 2019 will give the event a more intense character. At the same time, during the university conference, which will take place October 10-14, two extremely important events will be held, with a limited number of seats open to the Rhodian public, for which more information will be announced soon.
Having garnered numerous international awards in previous years, this year the conference is under the auspices of the Secretary-General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization and NATO and has received the official support of 8 Embassies in Greece. RhodesMRC is the largest international meeting of young leaders in the island and the largest annual international academic event organized by our island’s stakeholders, proving Rhodes’ unique role not only as a place of hospitality but also for the production of academic knowledge and development.
Based on the above, the Organizing Committee meeting concluded with the agreement of all, that the conference should be formally established and that the involvement of all the stakeholders should be permanent and timely, with a timetable for the next edition of the conference, which will be and its tenth anniversary, for which preparations have already begun. RhodesMRC aims to serve as a continuous platform for the development of the fields of International Law and International Relations, taking advantage of the conference’s active contacts with academic and research centers in Greece and abroad, with applications and implementations beyond both existing ones.
More information about the conference can be found at www.rhodesmrc.org.