JCI is not only a Local or National Organisation, but a “Worldwide Federation of Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs” as the official tagline goes.

Hence, the International Director, Nils, attendend the JCI European Conference 2009 in Budapest, Hungary from the 10 – 14 June.

The Opening Ceremony saw 2,490 JCI delegates cheering and waving their national flags, whilst all National Presidents were welcomed on stage and several speeches by the Deputy Mayor of Budapest, National President of Hungary and finalyl the JCI World President – Jun Sup Shin – were carefully listened to.

The Opening Ceremony featured a magician and a dance performance as breaks between the official speeches.

Finally, the delegates poured into the hall, where the Hungarian Welcome Night took place. The Welcome Night started with some traditional Hungarian music followed by the more common music played at parties.

The second day was reserved for JCI trainings held in a 5* hotel, which also was the Head Quarter hotel for the conference. The International Director of Portsmouth took the opportunity to take the JCI Presenter training all day.

But any JCI conference day would not be complete with a joyful evening programme. The Danish and Serbian Night at a stunning location catered for an unforgetable evening. The location for the evening was an old citadel on top of a hill overlooking the Danube and the City of Budapest.

Whilst the Danish put on some 1980s music, the Serbs partied with more recent music.

Friday, the third day of the conference, saw more trainings and the JCI Debating and Public Speaking competitions. Whilst JCI Portsmouth’s International Director took a training session called “Leadership Leaves Legacy” the JCI UK debating team made their way through to the final of the competition until they were beaten by JCI Ireland’s debating team.

Nevermind the loss in the debating competition all of the UK delegation enjoyed the German Night at the amazing Szechenyi Bath – a world famous Hungarian Spa. Whilst some of the conference delegates took the opportunity to take a dip in the water, which has a natural temperature of over 70 degrees (obviously it needs to be cooled down for people to swim – the pools have a temperature of about 36 degrees) others enjoyed German food and beverages.

The last day of the JCI European Conference was the day of the keynote speakers delivering inspiring presentations. Names such as George Soros, Marcus Orlovsky or Erno Rubik (inventor of the famous rubik’s cube) were amongst those who spoke. The topics ranged from creativity and business sustainability in times of crisis to the more serious issues of corruption within governments and businesses.

finally, the conference came to a close by recognising the achievements of JCI chambers around Europe at the Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner. It was JCI Catalonia, Norway, France and Finland making up the majority of all awards received. JCI Germany received the award for the most outstanding Senator.

After all awards were presented a liveband called “Cool Miners” played until the end, which was about 3am.

Overall, JCI European Conferences are worth attending. The International Director was able to find our JCI Portsmouth twinning partner in Belgium and networked with members of JCI Germany and received lots of business cards. Besides getting a certificate of attendance of the Conference and the training course JCI Presenter the JCI parties are not to be missed, if you are a serious member of JCI. Afterall, JCI members want to have fun after a long day of training, debating or public speaking.

For all of you who are interested in attending the next JCI European Conference in Denmark – Information can be found on the official website!