24 Hours.

That was all the time a fledgling organization, Living Forest, and the Mexican Ministry on the Environment had to create a full program promoting forest promotion and marketability. At their unique request, the University of Michigan Envoy was charged on Monday night with organizing, creating, and implementing an end-to-end communication strategy to promote the event and coordinate speakers, catering, and seating for the event.

In short, Mexico’s Ministry wanted to attract multiple forestry and carbon trading leaders to the world premier of “In Lak ‘ech Ala K’in,” a 3-D environmental movie shot 10 days ago with sponsorship from Sony and James Cameron of Avatar fame.

So, as UM students, we did what came naturally: we dug in and knocked it out.

After an all-nighter and several hours on Tuesday, the commitment paid off and Living Forest was able to pull off a great show that attracted an array of leaders from Mexico and abroad. Many thanks to Katie Pethan, creator of an eye-catching program brochure, Marisol Ramos for logistical expertise, Erb Alum Gabriel Thoumi for securing speakers and creating a wonderful attendee pool, and to my good friend and visiting guest Juan Cespedes for helping me build a fly-by-night promotional website http://www.living-forest.org . The COP 16 Envoy is proud to add a UN-sponsored event to the list of unique volunteer activities that UMICH students engage in every day!

Written by MIGUEL SOSSA.