The story of AIESEC 2015 begins over 15 years ago, with the creation of AIESEC's first midterm ambition.

In 1996 AIESEC developed a midterm ambition. The first incarnation of this ambition was called "Direction 96", and its purpose was to bring a long term direction to AIESEC.

It wasn't until 1999 at International Congress hosted in South Africa that a midterm ambition was created that converged the thoughts of the many young people in AIESEC. The midterm ambition which was created at IC '99 was AIESEC 2005 and called for AIESEC to deliver 10,000 exchanges by the year 2005, amongst many other achievements. 

Unfortunately, this midterm ambition was not considered so successful as AIESEC did not manage to achieve the goal of 10,000 exchanges in 2005. AIESEC 2005, however, brought a sense of unity and common direction to the organisation; something that was missing for many years. This sense of unity and common direction was enhanced further with the creation of AIESEC 2010. AIESEC 2010 was developed at International Congress 2005 in India through a methodology called "Appreciative Inquiry". 

AIESEC 2010 contained measures of success as well as a planning & tracking framework that supported entities in the network to improve their operations. Today AIESEC 2010 is considered to be a very successful midterm ambition due to achievements and stories created. 

As AIESEC achieved AIESEC 2010, the time came for AIESEC to step back, re-evaluate itself, and determine a new midterm ambition. The process to create this new ambition began in November 2009, and by International Presidents Meeting 2010 in Tunisia the process to create AIESEC 2015, our new midterm ambition, began. The journey to create AIESEC 2015 began with the "DREAM Process", and this guided the network through 1.5 years of creation. This journey of change management will come to a close at International Congress 2011 in Kenya with the finalisation of the AIESEC 2015 midterm ambition.