This is one of four international events of the European Junior Movement. Currently, this movement has more than 380 Junior Enterprises, in 16 European countries and 34 thousand Junior Entrepreneurs.

This edition was jointly organized by two renowned Junior Enterprises in the national and international context - Iscte Junior Consulting (IJC) and ISEG Junior Business Consulting (JBC).

The JEE Spring Conference 2023 took place in Lisbon on 12, 13 and 14 May and was attended by around 250 participants from all over Europe. At this event, the participants had the opportunity to take part in workshops, networking sessions, round tables and a business case, as well as cultural activities that gave them a new vision of the city of Lisbon.

During the weekend, these European students were in contact with more than 20 guests - leaders and experts from the most diverse areas - ready to help them and boost their careers.

JEE Spring Conference 2023 is all about development. With that in mind, we thought "Growing together" was the best theme to represent it.
This event is for everyone - all students, all Junior Enterprises, and all companies attending the event. We will be at the meeting point of a new generation and organizations with decades of experience. The meeting point of students preparing for work and of companies ready to share their know-how. All these companies will have the opportunity to hear and see the new perspectives and ideas of their future leaders.

Everyone present in Lisbon undoubtedly left with much more. We all grew together.

Other details about the event:

The Business Case had a different aspect to any that has been held in the past - the prize was GIVE and not RECEIVE.
We established a partnership with a social institution (Casa dos Rapazes) that will share with us one or more problems they face in their daily lives. During this time, 10 teams of 5 participants worked on innovative and easy to implement solutions for the institution to apply in the short term. In fact, we think there is no better way to involve participants in a social cause, and where both parties benefit from the experience.
Thus, we know that part of the participants will leave their signature in the Portuguese community, something more rewarding than any monetary prize.

The JEE Spring Conference 2023 was a Zero Waste Event and a Carbon Zero Event.

   1. In order to eliminate food waste, we established a partnership with Refood. At the end of the event, the team will donate all the food that was not consumed during the weekend to Refood.
   2. We will keep the production of new merchandising for the event to a minimum. Only the credentials and eventually the bags will be produced for the event. Otherwise, the stock of pens, lanyards, notebooks, and reusable cups from past events will be used.
   3. During the event, we will encourage all participants to use public transport. We will count the kilograms of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere for each type of transport. It will be up to the participant to choose which transport to use, but they will have the opportunity to compare the different options and see which one is the most polluting. We want to educate and make participants aware of the impact that their choices have on the environment.

All these initiatives have one major objective - to show Portugal and Europe that it is possible to organize an event of this size with minimal environmental impact. We would like to see these and other initiatives being put into practice in future Movement events. We hope that this is the starting point where we begin to give more importance to leaving the community in a better state than we found it, socially and environmentally.

- Guilherme Ramos, IJC