The Champions League Final

The Champions League Final is on the 28th of May in Wembley. One English team, Manchester Utd., are definitely in the running to be Finalists. In previous years when English teams have been in the Final, we've seen huge query volumes for the city hosting the Final. This represents a unique opportunity this year, with the final taking place in Wembley, London. The usual queries are for Flights/Accommodation, but this year we can expect volume across Flights, Rail, Bus and even Ferries due to Irish fans travelling to the final.

We expect traffic to spike just after Easter, and the period will be very short (approximately one week). To help you prepare and capitalise on this unique opportunity, we have created a report and also a pre-recorded Webinar discussing the report.

Webinar Link:https://googleemea.connectsolutions.com/p55242231/

Stephen Cunningham, Industry Analyst

International Student Week in Timisoara (ISWinT) 2011

ISWinT team is proud to announce that preparations for this year’s festival, which will take place between the 18th and 27th of July, are in full swing. ISWinT (International Student Week in Timisoara, Romania) is an international festival that gathers participants from all over the world each year since 1994. The purpose of this festival is to give the students from different countries the opportunity to communicate freely, to express their opinions in a productive manner, while enjoying a taste of our local culture. The theme for this summer is “Celebrate Innovation. Keep Tradition”. The reason behind this particular choice of words is to emphasize the antithesis that appears between tradition and innovation, two sides of a continuously flipping coin.

During the 10 days of festival the participants have the opportunity to make new friends, discover the Romanian culture, discuss and express their opinions during the workshops or while attending the conferences. As a means to relax and have fun, they get to attend parties, themed evenings, or afternoons dedicated to recreational activities, such as games, sports, or simply escape into the tranquility of nature. Romania's beautiful landscapes are revealed during the two-day trip when we will visit the surroundings of Timisoara. 

Program

The festival program is composed of 13 different workshops and a number of cultural events and study trips.

Costs

There is a 100 euro participation fee that will cover accommodation, food (3 meals/day), free entrance to parties and all the places we will visit, the costs for the trip in the surroundings of Timisoara, transportation around the city during the festival and materials for the workshops. The 100 euro fee does not include travel expenses to and from Timisoara and visa costs.

Application and Eligibility

All you have to do is fill out the application form until May 15, 2011, and we'll contact you by June 10 if you are selected! There are also some conditions required for eligibility: it's absolutely necessary for you to be an 18-28 years old student. The working language of the festival is English.

If you have any questions, end an e-mail to: contact@iswint.ro

http://iswint.ro/

Convention of Young European Citizens 2011 in France

Convention of Young European Citizens 2011 will take place on 7 – 17 July 2011 in Cluny Abbey, Burgundy, France.  Since 2001, more than 460 young people from more than 30 different countries have come together at the Convention of Young European Citizens in Cluny. This year’s themes will be threefold and interconnected. The first one, ‘The Environment’, will be dealt with along with Energy Resources. The second one, ‘Economic Development’, will take into account the economic crisis we are currently experiencing. The last one, ‘Social Progress’, puts a particular emphasis on the current circumstances regarding social issues. We will propose food for thought and will suggest a few proposals on each topic separately and on the whole issue.

Since 2001, the Convention of Young European Citizens has received the label “Université Européenne d’Eté“ from the French Ministry of Youth, Education and Research (Ministère de la Jeunesse, de l’Education Nationale et de la Recherche) every year.

Working principles:
• Participative method
• Theoretical lectures : conferences and interventions
• Hands-on teaching : negotiation and mediation training
• Intercultural and interdisciplinary exchanges
• Active participation through dialogue and Open Space debating techniques
• Experts are available on site
• Participants are guided through the process by an experienced team of Cluny alumni

The summer school can grant ECTS credits (a certificate of participation is sent to the participants after the approval of a final report).

Eligibility

Interested students of any faculties over 20 (the candidates must be born before 1 st January 1991).  Apart from these language skills, no other academic or professional qualifications are required. Working languages are French and English.

Application

Send your application, which must contain :

- a letter of interest,
- a CV.
Applications must arrive before 30 April 2011 by e-mail to europe@cluny.ensam.fr or by post, to Institut Européen de Cluny, rue Porte de Paris, F 71250 CLUNY.

The selected candidates will be informed by email before 15 May 2011.

Costs

The selected candidates must confirm their participation by transferring the sum of :

* 200 € for citizens of: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden.

* 120€ for citizens of: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and third countries.

The costs for accommodation, working materials and meals will be paid for by the European Institute. Travel costs will be at the expense of the candidates.

Contact

Institut Européen de Cluny – CCIC

Arts et Métiers ParisTech

Rue Porte de Paris

71250 CLUNY – FRANCE

Tél. : (00 33) (0) 3 85 59 53 60

Fax : (00 33) (0) 3 85 59 53 66

europe@cluny.ensam.fr

Click here to read more and download application form.

PhD Opportunities at Open University Business School, UK

The Open University Business School is triple accreditated (AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS) business education establishment located in UK. 50,000 people from more than 107 countries have already chosen it, as Europe's largest management school, to progress their careers. We invite you join them or to sponsor your staff to join them. 

In 2011, the Open University Business School is inviting applications for a number of full-time funded PhD studentships (circa £15,000 per annum) in the following areas:

• Marketing
• Strategic management
• Human resource management, organization studies and organizational behaviour
• Finance
• Managing knowledge and innovation
• Public leadership and social enterprise

In order to be considered for a studentship your application must be based on one of the following proposed projects. Once you have decided which project interests you the most, you should make an application through the online Research Degrees Prospectus.

Please note that your application should include a 1000 word statement which indicates your knowledge of the literature, methods and likely approach to your project of interest; a covering letter indicating your suitability for the project, as well as your application form and any transcripts or certificates you are required to include. Please also note that you require 120 credits of research methods training for direct entry onto the PhD programme. If you do not have this training you will be required to do a one year full time MRes first.

The closing date for applications is 30th April 2011. Start date 1st October 2011.

Website: http://www8.open.ac.uk/business-school/about-our-business-school/phd-opportunities

wiiw GDN-SEE&CIS Announces Research Competition 2011

The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), with financial support from the Global Development Network (GDN), the Austrian Ministry of Finance and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), announces a SEE & CIS research competition within the framework of the wiiw Global Development Network Southeast Europe (wiiw GDN-SEE) research project.

Proposals are invited from economists and other social scientists. Projects with a significant commercial aspect or those that seek the funding of the dissemination of previous results (such as book preparation) rather than original research are explicitly excluded.

For the competition, the following topic has been identified: ‘Crisis Effects: Growth Prospects, Social Impact and Policy Responses in SEE and CIS’. The main hypothesis to be tested is the following: The crisis shock introduces structural breaks in the distribution (e.g. increase of inequality) across different dimensions conditional on the change in potential speed of growth, the quality of development, and the induced or adopted policy changes.

The areas of research are the following:

· Macroeconomic effects: Financial flows and inequality; Distributional effects of public spending; Intergenerational justice and investments

· Microeconomic effects: Crisis effects on income and poverty

· Policy response: Incomes policy; Fiscal policy; Monetary policy

· Improving labour market institutions: Wage setting process; Organisation of vocational training and skill upgrading; Potentials for improved social partnership

· Political economy implications: Including social responses and institutional changes

Details
• Funding for individual projects will range between € 5,000 and € 8,000. Grants may begin as soon as 01 July 2011 and end no later than 30 November 2012.
• Depending on the size of the individual grants, the research competition will reward up to 12 grants.
• Applicants from outside the Southeast European region1 and the Commonwealth of Independent States2 will not be excluded a priori, however one of the goals of the wiiw GDN-SEE&CIS project is regional capacity building. Thus, each research team should include at least one young researcher (up to 35 years of age) from the region.
• Applications may be submitted by individuals or teams of researchers. No applicant can submit or be a part of more than one proposal.
• Funds for accepted projects will be released according to the following schedule: onethird upon award of the grant, one-third upon the receipt of a progress report at the midpoint of the research, and one-third upon the receipt of the final deliverables of the project. Where this schedule would constitute a serious hindrance to the proposed research, the applicant may petition for funds to be released on a different schedule after the award of the grant. Final deliverables must include at least one formal research paper that has been submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal. Proof of submission will be required.
• All successful applicants should agree to come to Vienna to present the results of the research at a seminar at wiiw’s expense. In addition we anticipate smaller workshops involving recipients in the various thematic areas held at wiiw in order to encourage links across researchers.

For a more detailed description, please download the wiiw GDN-SEE project proposal at: http://www.wiiw.ac.at/balkan/files/wiiw GDN Proposal 2011.pdf

Proposals must be postmarked by 15 May 2011.

Questions and inquiries may be addressed to: research.competition@wiiw.ac.at

Destination Analysis Week 12

Please see the destination analysis below for the usual 5 industries. We've started to see some uplift in many areas, most notably in Car Hire, with double figure growth week on week across many of the top destinations. This is reflected in other areas, but is most pronounced in Car Hire.

Version 3.0 is on the way - this will include updated destination lists, a more comprehensive keyword bucket for the analysis, and Q1 2011 statistics for ad depth and CPCs.

Hostels

Holidays

Flights

Car Hire

Hotels

Stephen Cunningham, Industry Analyst

First International Conference on Youth Development (ICYOUTH 2011)

The First International Conference on Youth Development (ICYOUTH 2011) that will be held in Putrajaya, Malaysia on 1-3 November 2011 aims to explore issues surrounding the current state and role of adult-youth relations in forging and nurturing positive youth development. Diverse perspectives are sought from those who work with, and on behalf of, young people from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds with a focus on how youth and adults currently engage one another to forge meaningful relationships for promoting young peoples’ healthy development.

We invite academicians, researchers, graduate students, stakeholders, youth professionals, NGOs and other interested parties to participate by exchanging and sharing their experiences, new ideas, and research findings.

Objectives

1.To broaden participants understanding of the critical role that adults play in youth development-related efforts through the sharing of research, information and experiences.

2.To identify the sources of sustainability for youth-adult partnerships and their relationship to economic, community, cultural and social factors both locally and internationally.

3.To create an effective forum for cooperation among paper presenters and participants

4.To provide input for strengthening National Youth Development Policies and other policies related to youth development.

Submission Deadlines

Abstract submission	11 April 2011
Notification of acceptance	11 May 2011
Full paper due	11 July 2011
Early bird due by	10 June 2011

Abstract submission process

Acceptance of Abstract : If your abstract of no more than 250 words is accepted by the review team and you pay the conference fee by the specified deadline, your submission will be scheduled in an appropriate session for oral presentation at the conference.

Final paper submission process

If your abstract is accepted for oral presentation, you are encouraged to submit a full paper before 11 July 2011 for inclusion in the ICYOUTH 2011 Conference Proceedings. The full article should be submitted in Word (NOT .pdf). Final papers should be sent via email to icyouth2011@gmail.com. Please ensure that your paper is ready to go to press by the submission deadline, having thoroughly read the paper for errors. If English is not your first language then this is especially important. To facilitate easier processing, reviewing, and publishing all submissions, PLEASE follow this checklist:

• 12-point Times New Roman font
• Single-spacing throughout the document
• Double space (instead of indent) to designate a new paragraph or section
• Page numbers at the bottom center of each page.
• Top, bottom, and side margins no less than 1 inch or 2.5 cm.
• Cover page that includes title, authors, their affiliations, their contact information, and the topic of the submission.
• Title, authors and affiliations repeated at the beginning of the body of the paper.
• Manuscripts longer than 5,000 words will be returned for editing.
• Graphs and visuals can be reproduced electronically.

Registration Fees

Local participant / presenter	RM 500	Early bird due before 10 June 2011	RM 450
International participant / presenter	USD 270		USD 240
Local Student	RM 250		RM 250
International Student	USD 110		USD 95

*Fees will cover meals during conference days and conference material only.

Contact

ICYOUTH2011 Secretariat

Institute for Social Science Studies

Universiti Putra Malaysia

43400 Serdang, Selangor

Malaysia

Tel : 603 8947 1869

Fax: 603 8947 1856

Email : icyouth2011@gmail.com

WWW: http://www.ipsas.upm.edu.my/icyouth2011/