Talk:Agency for International Trade Information and Co-operation/Archives/2013

comment about Finnish news article

For what it's worth, I am unimpressed with the article in the Finnish press claiming that this agency only organized cocktail parties. As for organizing seminars, "that's what all international organizations do". There were strategic problems with this agency, i.e. it was replicating what other Geneva IO's do. In my opinion, the agency hadn't found a unique value-added, and after a while, donors got annoyed. But the article about cocktail parties is pretty unfair (also "an unsubstantiated swipe"). The people employed at this agency worked hard in good faith. They don't deserve commentary such as this. 194.230.159.104 (talk) 17:47, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

• Most* of what goes on in Geneva involves seminars [and negotiations, and meetings, and planning-sessions, and ... (etc)] - and cocktail parties are a part of the work-scene. i.e. to criticize this agency for that kind of activity is to open criticism of every Geneva international organization (and the 25,000-30,000 people they employ).

It's like saying "eh - Washington. All they do is talk about things and have cocktail parties". Same difference.

This agency was started with a good idea, but they never found their niche of "unique value-added", instead focused on "staying safe" and doing what everyone else was doing. Which meant that the agency was replicative, and eventually, this wound-up attracting (justified) criticism, possibly resulting in closure.

The agency had good intentions and put in good work, so the cocktail-comments are uncalled for, in my opinion.193.239.220.249 (talk) 15:24, 31 October 2011 (UTC)