The “Living Book Day” organized by UNIPort – the career advisory body  at the University of Vienna -- turned the beautiful reading room of the University of Vienna Library into a exciting venue of exchange.

66 personalities from different fields -ranging from CEO’ s, the chiefs of HR, Journalists, Professors, Marketing Directors, Film Produces, and even UN representatives - were ready to act as living books telling students in a 25-minute one-on-one “speed-date” about their profession and experiences in life – what they achieved and how, where they came from and how they got there.

From 4 till 7.30 the “Living Books” were available for rent and there was a great rush in the entrance room where about 500 Students were wanting to speak to their most favoured books.

The books covered all fields, from the field of education, media, international organizations, NGO’s, and also big private businesses like the Austrian railways, the ÖBB, or the Austrian petrol giant, OMV, as well as the cosmetic company L’Oreal, and the telephone giant, T-Mobil.

The experiences, and the different steps in life which lead each Living Book to their current situation were meant to give the students hope for the future and help them understand the different creative options they have in life. It was not primarily a talk about what steps would lead to the right career but more a talk to understand the different paths of life.

Many students, notably ones at the end of their studies and already writing their thesis felt this was the perfect opportunity to finally have a view of life from a different perspective than the lecture rooms and get a glimpse of the real working life.  They were also anxious to know what options they have and what chances they could take. If it was wise to join a big company or to try to start one’s own business.  This was a perfect place to get to know interesting people and be able to engage with them in a personal dialogue. 

While students may have been the ones benefitting from the short encounters, it was also obvious from the enthusiasm of each Living Book and their willingness to be lent out again and again that they enjoyed the event as much as their “readers” if not more.

Janos Tisovszky and Irene Hoeglinger-Neiva - the Living Books from the United Nations Information Service, Vienna – were fully booked through out the 4 hours, with students coming to them even in the breaks to ask about the different career paths and possibilities at the UN. Students were especially interested to understand how Irene and Janos got into the Oranization and how then they advanced in their careers and in turn wanted to know what they have to do to get there.

Many students from communication science were very keen to understand how UN communication works and many of them were indeed encouraged to apply and join UNIS as Interns in order to comprehend how the UN works from the inside.

For the second year in a row, UNRIC/Italy was invited to meet and brief students of the Master’s programme in International relations on the UN public information activities on the central and field levels; the UN peacekeeping, and UN job opportunities.  ASERI, Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations, is a truly international education and research centre, founded in 1995 thanks to the co-operation between the Faculty of Political Science of the University Cattolica and the Milan Chamber of Commerce. It trains experts of economic and political global systems, able to operate at high level within international organizations and systems, multinational companies, banking and financial institutions, public supranational administration.
 
This occasion therefore marked for UNRIC (which granted its patronage to the Master’s) the second operational contact with ASERI, and in particular with its “Global issues” section, devoted to inputs provided by practitioners. The working relationship – established in May 2012 - with the Master’s branch of the Milan-based prestigious University Cattolica, has so far proved fruitful, featuring two interventions of the desk officer in Milan and a study visit by management and students to UNRIC premises last February. This is a welcome strengthening of a high-quality relationship in the ever-expanding network of cooperation between UNRIC and the Italian academic world, as University Cattolica is one of Italy’s leading academic institutions.

In the period from 3 to 30 April 2013 the Visitors Service at Vienna conducted a programme called “United Nations in Classroom” to share and disseminate knowledge of the United Nations among Viennese pupils. The project was intended to both: bring the UN to the classrooms as well as raise awareness to the UN having one of its headquarters in Vienna and thus promote future visits by students and teachers. The project was initiated by the guides from Visitors Service as well as Visistor’s Service Chief, Andraz Melansek.

The project involved one hour lectures to pupils of Viennese schools aged 14–19. Nine different guides and the Chief of the Visitors Service conducted lectures focused on the mandate and work of the United Nations. Specifically, the lectures focused on how the Vienna based Organizations affect pupil's lives. Project invitation was published on the UNIS Vienna website and also sent to different Viennese schools via email. Schools that were able to organize at least three lectures per visit were given priority in booking. Not more than two different schools were visited per day. These instructions were agreed in advance based on the experience from the Pilot Project in autumn 2012. The plan worked well and contributed to the quality of the project and overall customers’ satisfaction.

Some of the feedback from the schools included the following points:
• The lecturers were very professional, friendly and spoke freely, they came across as very competent and had perfect time management.
• They handled the class well and have competently answered questions, students were able to participate in discussions.
• The presentation was well made and very well structured, no dry theory, videos were very appreciated, facts about the UN in Vienna were interesting.
• Pupils said they learned much, teachers and pupils have described the lecture as “fun”.
Based on the availability of funds, the project is expected to be a regular feature of the Visitors Services work to be undertaken in two time frames per year: spring (April) and a fall (October) phase.

On the 24th of April, UNIC Canberra took part in the Women's International Club event to highlight the diverse work of the United Nations and how it affects each one of us. In front of an enthusiastic audience of over a hundred people, Director of UNIC Canberra, Mr. Christopher Woodthorpe spoke on the topic of "UN in Our Daily Lives" which was followed by a lively question and answer session.

The speech highlighted the different aspects of the work of the UN ranging from providing help in emergencies to coordinating global efforts on standardization of telecommunications protocols which make things like the internet or mobile phone conversations a reality.

UNIC Canberra also took this opportunity to tell the audience about the MY World global survey campaign and how each person's vote counts towards a world that we all want. A voting table was setup to collect votes from the participants and to answer any of their questions on the matter.