The following lines are some notes on the IGU 2012 Congress in Cologne, written by a participant who, by the way, is also one of the IGU VPs. That’s why the notes begin one day earlier, on Saturday 25 August, when all of the VPs were taken to the Dönnhoff estate, Oberhausen/Nahe,for a wine-tasting. Very regrettably for me, being a teetotaler, from beer to vodka and beyond. But the introduction of Herr Dönnhoff has been an incredible lesson of geography, with a real holistic geographical approach, and competence spanning from natural to human and economic knowledge: for the first time in my life, I felt obliged to taste all the different Riesling offered, trying to perceive the different sensation they were giving to mouth and throat. From this point of view my failure was rather complete, but the last wine was incredibly enjoyable and appreciated by all of us: yes, everybody, including myself. A very special ice wine, and I didn’t know at all that such a kind of wines exists.At night we could assist to a peculiar “Intercultural Evening” show, organized and offered by the young participants in the Geographical Olympiad.

The following day the Opening Ceremony was held in the KölnerPhilharmonie( the geographical speeches were separated by musical interludes: the orchestra being composed by young music students. During the event the winners of the Geographical OlympiadiGeo were awarded, with Singapore gold medalist in both, single and team competitions ( All in all,a most uncommon and truly wonderful Opening for the Congress.

Opening Ceremony: FraukeKraas, Dieter Soyez and the very young orchestra

Some Sessions had already been held, though the Scientific Program officially began the following day:the spaces of the University underwent a very heavy load of charge, simply explained by two numbers: 2,865 participants from 90 nations. During the following days, the morning to night Sessions hosted more than 2,100 full ticket participants, of which more than 400 Ph.D. students and almost250 students. Apart from these, I like to mention 295 volunteerstudentsof the Geography Department, who formed many teams, such as: coffee counter, IT manager for every lecture room, students car service etc. Prior to the IGC, they were instructed by elder students and told: you're the most important 'face' of our congress. My relative observation, now written also as IGU VP: they have been a wonderful, efficient crew from early morning to 10,00 p.m., and this just because the law obliges this kind of services to finish at that time. Thanks to them, by the way, one could find

Buffet was available at every hour

refreshments and snacks all the day long: something very appreciated by their fellow students, who could save dozens of euros, not having care about nutrition. But should be stressed the higher form of cooperation, as their task was to take careof electric equipment for loudspeakers, slides projection and so on,wherever needed: not easy at all, as sometimes more than 20 Sessions were held simultaneously.

Gala Dinner in the GildenimZims brewery was one of the most unusual (and appreciated)

I participated, of course, in the General Assemblies, the Keynotes Speeches and, as VP, inpeculiar activities of the EC and some other initiatives of the common program. To give some examplesIGU the two Special Projects initiated by Ton Dietz (the Geographical Journals and the Sustainable Cities projects), the International Year on Global Understanding (BennoWerlen), the new Commissions on Mediterranean (Maria Paradiso) and on Toponymy (Cosimo Palagiano and Marcio Leal de Menezes), the Meeting with African Delegates, the Francophone Sessions and others.

I finish with an official announcement: useless to say, the real Scientific Report on the Congress will be soon completed and published on (as well as on

Giuliano Bellezza