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- Outside the building. This is the Rotary International World Headquarter or short „One Rotary Center“
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- When you exit the elevator on the 18th floor, you see all the flags of countries and territories where Rotary International has a club.
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- In the middle of all the flags, you find the Rotary wheel.
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- …and I found the German flag.
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- This is the boardroom where our meeting was held.
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- My little part of the table and all the documents to use and consider.
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- A view into the room from the back, where the was place where the Rotary Internationl staff members could support us with comments, presentations and insight
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- This was the view out of the window from the meeting room. In the mist, there is the skyline of Chicago.
The meeting took place on the highest floor of the building (floor 18) in the „Board Room“. It’s a large room where you find in the middle a table in the shape of an elliptical ring. In the middle of the ring, there are huge screens where the presentation slides are shown. In front of your seat, you find a small microphone. It may be helpful for people who speak very low, but it is crucial for the interpreters. On one side of the room, there are several booths for the interpreter. They can see into the room without being seen themselves and they will only hear what you say when the microphone is switched on.
It is fascinating how well the discussion worked being effectively held in 3 languages: English, Japanese and Spanish.
As participants, we came from 5 different continents, all different walks of life and with different backgrounds. It was fascinating to see how well we could work on all the topics and discuss our different viewpoints – always in an atmosphere trying to find a consensus.
In the future, I will certainly look differently at pictures from diplomatic meetings – having experienced what it feels like to work in such a setting.