Mediation

Ten reasons to celebrate the ICC Mediation Competition

  • 22 January 2015
ICC Diversity in business

The ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition, which will bring together law and business students from all over the world from 5-11 February, marks its 10th anniversary this year. Here are 10 reasons to celebrate.

An event that continues to grow in size…

The Mediation Competition has been growing steadily since its launch in 2006. For this year, 67 universities were selected in a competitive application process and more than 130 professional mediators have been invited which brings the total number of participants to over 500.  With this, the 10th ICC Mediation Competition will be the biggest so far. The Competition has also become ICC’s biggest educational event.

…and in its diversity

The last decade has seen participants from 49 countries participate in the ICC Mediation Competitions, while the overall gender distribution in 2015 will be 44 % men and 56 % women.

World-leading mediators share their expertise

The Competition is proud to welcome each year many of the world’s leading mediators. Members of some of the most prestigious mediation associations worldwide, the mediators often belong to the leading practitioners in their home country and internationally. Eight of the 10 most highly regarded individual mediators according to the Who’s Who Legal: Mediation 2014 report, participate for example each year in the Mediation Competition.

Taking mediation into new business contexts

Since 2011, the Competition has been open to business and economics students, thus taking into account the importance of training the next generation of business makers in dispute resolution skills. Participating in the Competition has also led to the inclusion of ADR into the curricula of law and business schools worldwide, encouraging the training of dispute resolution skills to students.

Connecting today’s mediation experts with tomorrow’s practitioners

The Competition is one of the world’s leading mediation capacity-building events, both for the next generation of mediators, dispute resolution experts, and for future users of commercial mediation. It brings together experienced mediators and students across generational and cultural divides.

A worthwhile logistical challenge

Organizing almost 200 mediation sessions during five days as well as training sessions, social events and discussion rounds, dealing with around 140,000 emails in the preparation of the Competition, relocating participants lost in the streets of Paris – the Competition remains a logistical challenge for the organizing team but also a most rewarding one.

Share ideas, experience and best practices

The Competition is a unique networking event enabling international mediators to share their ideas, experience and best practices. It also allows them to observe each other acting as mediators – something which is usually impossible due to the confidential nature of mediation proceedings.

Supported by top-end law firms, partners and dispute resolution players

Ten years of Competition also means 10 years of combined efforts by many stakeholders in the field to make this event possible through financial and logistical support. Many law firms, associations, other dispute resolution institutions, media partners, consultancy firms and the bar of Paris have made this event a reality.

Paris… “oui, oui”

Hosted in the French capital, participants take advantage of everything Paris has to offer.

Looking forward to the next 10 years

In the years to come, ICC hopes to continue augmenting the Competition’s geographical representation, notably from universities in regions that have not yet been so well represented in the Competition, in particular from South America, Asia and Africa. It also hopes to see greater participation from mediators from regions not yet well represented among the professional mediators – so that the Mediation Competition will take an even more important role in building a network of international mediators.

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