So I submitted the idea on a seminar for young diplomats on the role and mechanisms of International Organizations. Director Arthur Hirsh supported the initiative and together we started to pay a series of visits to section heads involved in training. Given the demand for such a course, as we heard during our encounters I started to draft a four-day seminar. The target audience being young diplomats based in Vienna, in particular, from small countries, which often have to cover several countries on a bilateral level and the multilateral issues, such as nuclear affairs, organized crime, industrial development and energy etc.

The draft became concrete and soon the project went online. More than 20 delegates registered, and their feedback was overwhelming, many of them appreciated being back to a university. The proximity of Webster Campus Vienna to the UN office enabled us to conduct parts of the seminar at the UN and parts at Webster. The City of Vienna sponsored the reception and congratulated us as well on the accomplishment. That pilot project did fly. Webster Vienna now considers doing another series of lectures for which we gained the participation of top speakers among both active and retired international civil servants. For the next stage we hope to obtain funds, since it was all voluntary work, all those days and nights getting it on track. But it put Webster Vienna Campus on the map for many young diplomats and for many section heads inside the UN offices. They now find their way to Webster. So we might establish that missing link between the academia and the extra-territorial professionals at the northern bank of the Danube River.