News

From the 8th to the 11th of June, the JADE May Meeting will take place this coming weekend in the beautiful city of Marseille, France. The second international JADE meeting in 2008 is organised by Marketing Méditerranée (www. market-med.com) and will gather two representatives of each National Confederation, the JADE Executive Board and several French Junior Entrepreneurs.

Like other international events the JADE May Meeting itself is an opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing among Junior Entrepreneurs. Also, the General Assembly, which gathers five times a year, will be held in Marseille, thus allowing JADE members and the Executive Board to discuss strategic concerns of the organization.

J.E.To.P. and JADE Italia are proud to announce the JADE Italia May Meeting 2008. It is taking place in Turin on the 16th, 17th and 18th of May and aims at promoting the collaboration amongst Italian Junior Enterprises. The event will also welcome Junior entrepreneurs from other countries

Besides JADE Italia’s General Assembly, the meeting will hold Workshops and Conferences regarding Quality Management, a recent common topic among JE’s.

Some specific activities during the event will also have students from Piedmontese Athenaeums, so that the challenging reality of JE’s can be promoted and the JE Concept spread.

For more information, please click on the following link.

The event in the European Parliament on 8 April 2008 offers the possibility to engage in a ‘Pact for Knowledge and Innovation’ where stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors will consider how the ‘The 2020 Challenges’ can bring benefit to Europe’s economy and citizens. The need of a pact, as expressed by the organizers, is based on assumption that Europe’s future depends increasingly on its ability to both generate and manage knowledge and innovation.

JADE, as an official supporter, is present to highlight the JE Experience as one the most effective ways of relating Higher Education and innovative learning methodologies in order to stimulate an entrepreneurial mindset amongst the decision-makers of tomorrow.

A working session during the day will provide for the opportunity to discuss the establishment of a permanent Forum between the Members of the European Parliament and stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors. Besides organizational issues the meeting will also reflect on an annual work plan to be executed in a series of breakfast-, lunch- and dinner debates.

The Declaration underpinning and substantiating ‘A pact for knowledge and innovation’ will be presented during the Cocktail Reception prior to the dinner.

For more information, please click on following link.

In the December and January editions of the Club Junior-Enterprises (CJE), CNJE (also called JADE France) hosted two renowned speakers: the Minister for Higher Education & Research, Valérie Pécresse, and the President of the MEDEF (an association that gathers French CEOs), Laurence Parisot. During the March edition, CNJE had the pleasure to welcome Brice Hortefeux, Minister of Immigration.

In addition to the Minister, CNJE was honoured by the presence of Mr Bruschi, an attorney specialised in Human Rights, and Mr Sacko, President of the association of the Malian students in France. The Conference was attended by 500 people, mainly students and politicians.

A very interesting debate on immigration was held. Although the debaters agreed on the current situation of immigration in France, they did not share the same ideas to improve the future of immigrants. Moreover, this edition of the CJE was an opportunity to strengthen the situation of CNJE as a student think tank leader.

For the first time a CJE Conference was organized outside Paris, it took place in Clermont-Ferrand. It was organised with the much-appreciated help of SEGMA, the 35-year-old Junior-Enterprise of the ESC Clermont Business School.

On behalf of CNJE, Cédric Legros (CNJE President), had the opportunity to discuss with the Minister the status of foreign students from outside the EU, who still do not have the right to work for French JE’s. The CNJE really hopes this situation will change.

From left to right : Cédric Legros (CNJE President), Minister Brice Hortefeux, David Chong (CNJE Club Junior-Entreprises manager) and Florence Poutriquet (CNJE international manager).

The Biennial Conferences of the European Economic and Social Committee have a long-standing tradition and mark the mandate of the EESC President in office. As a key event, it highlights and treats the issue of entrepreneurship considered as particularly important for the European integration process and brings together main societal actors having an interest and responsibilities in the area.

JADE will attend the 2008 Biennial Conference in Athens on September 8th and 9th. It concentrates on the President’s main theme “Entrepreneurship with a human face”.

Click here to download the first press release.

CNJE - Confédération Nationale des Junior-Entreprises (also called JADE France abroad) - released some key figures for 2007:

- 123 associations of which 93 are Junior Enterprises and 30 are Junior Initiatives
- 12.462 commercial proposals made by the French network
- 2.152 project leads
- 135 international projects
- 374 projects dedicated to entrepreneurs and start-ups (marketing surveys and website design)
- 8.360.828 Euro of accumulated turnover
- 167.376 potential students that can realize a project
- 10.611 students having worked for a Junior Enteprise
- 33% of all clients were SME’s
- 31% of all clients were large companies

For more information, feel free to contact international@cnje.org.

The latest issue of the JADE newsletter, the bi-monthly JADE Gazette, has just been released. Within this issue you will find:

• Insights to the JADE Spring Meeting, which gathered 130 Junior Entrepreneurs from all over Europe (28 February - 2 March, Brussels)
• The theme “Building Values for Decision-Making”
• Events attended by JADE and organized by our members
• and more

If you would like to contribute to the next edition or comment this one, please send an email to mail@jadenet.org.

Part of the JADE year are two time periods (around April and November), in which the national Congresses of JADE’s members take place. The first National Congresses will take place on the last weekend of March in Portugal and Italy. The dates of National Congresses follow. For the JADE Executive Board this is a time of traveling and interaction with Junior Entrepreneurs from all over Europe.

28-30 of March:

JADE Italia National Congress, Milan.

11-13 of April

JADE Netherlands (UniPartners Nederland) National Congress, Delft.

18-20 of April

JADE Austria National Congress, near Graz.

18-19 of April

JADE Belgium National Congress, Louvain-La-Neuve.

25-27 of April

JADE France National Congress, Aix-les-Bains.

25-27 of April

CEJE (Spain) National Congress, Segovia.
go to the official website.

22-25 of May

BDSU (Germany) National Congress, Hannover.

Brussels, 28 February - 2 March 2008. Gathering 130 Junior Entrepreneurs from all over Europe, the JSM was a success! The initiation of the event took place with the Opening Ceremony and an ensuing Gala Dinner on Thursday, at which the winners of the eXcellence winners were announced. Friday, as well as Saturday morning, was dedicated to workshops for and by Junior Entrepreneurs to be followed by the Closing Ceremony on Saturday afternoon. 

We would like to thank our participants as well as partners and network supporters for making this event happen and for the support and appreciation that has been bestowed on us. 

Opening Ceremony & eXcellence Awards

The Opening Ceremony, taking place in the beautiful auditorium of ING, initiated the conference with an inspiring speech by Hans Martens, the CEO of the European Policy Centre on “new frontiers”, globalization and challenges of our generation. The eXcellence Awards’, the highlight of the meeting, gave the top three applicants for every category the opportunity to present themselves to the audience and the Jury, which was constituted of JADE supporters and partners.Although each category had exciting outcomes, the most innovative project experienced a very surprising turn of events as two winners were announced. The Most Engaged Junior Entrepreneur:Themis Papadimopoulos, JADE Hellas The Most Entrepreneurial Junior Enterprise:Conquest Consulting, Poland The Most International Junior Enterprise:Marketing Mediterranée, France The Most Innovative Project:JuniFEUP, PortugalKnow & How, Austria  The Jury, as well as the JADE Executive Board agreed that the scope, quality and amount of applications this year was exceptional, leading to feed-back of “great professionalism as well by the organisation as the quality of the projects presented. We are truly proud to be sponsoring your activities” expressed by Chloe Chometon, Recruitment Manager at Oracle. We hereby want to congratulate all winners and thank all applicants for their exceptional performance and fantastic applications.The content of the projects will be covered in more detail in the next newsletter, the JADE Gazette. To subscribe please send an email to mail@jadenet.org. For any additional information concerning the JADE eXcellence Awards, please contact frederik.depont@jadenet.org. 

JADE Welcomes a New Member from Eastern Europe: Impact from the Czech Republic 

At the Closing Ceremony, the results of two votes by the General Assembly were presented.JADE is proud to welcome Impact, as a new member to the JADE network. Founded in November 2006 in Prague, Impact is the first Junior Enterprise to be created in the Czech Republic and has convinced the other members of its members professionalism. It is now officially part the JADE network as a Consultative Member, a country representative representing a single Junior Enterprise (as opposed to a National Confederation). We look forward to see Impact grow and spread the Junior Enterprise spirit in the Czech Republic, so that in the future, more Junior Enterprises will be founded and will enable more students to bridge the gap between theory and practice. 

New Honorary Member: Florian Pesendorfer

At this moment in time there are not more than a handful of Honorary Members in the JADE network. An Honorary Member is a person who has contributed extra-ordinarily to the network. This sign of recognition was given to Florian Pesendorfer at the Closing Ceremony on Saturday.Florian is awarded for his outstanding effort for the JADE IT System as leader of the JADE Portal Task Force that not only introduced JADE’s Intranet. Further he provided workshops throughout Europe on its use. JADE thanks Florian for his contribution in the position of Senior Project Manager from 2003 to 2006 and welcomes him to the distinguished circle of JADE Honorary Members.

On the 16^th and 17^th of February, a weekend in Paris took place to brainstorm about auditing processes and quality assurance. Organised by JADE France with the courtesy of BNP Paribas, the French bank welcomed the participants in a beautiful building near the Opéra Bastille in Paris.  

The Confederations JADE Italia, JADE Portugal and JADE sent representatives to exchange on audits of Junior Enterprises to improve the quality of the network. Eric Dorlencourt, auditor from BNP Paribas, made a presentation, not only introducing the structure of auditing, but also putting emphasis on key elements, such as communication and the “separation of duties”. Crucial is that not all risks can be avoided, but that all risks need to be controlled.

JADE France shared its knowledge acquired through 15 years of experience in auditing Junior Enterprises as the French umbrella organization and the ultimate quality controller of French Junior Enterprises. Two of these added to the event with presentations about certifications. ISEP explained how they got the ISO certification, a certification aimed at the control of internal processes, while Agro Services Etude presented a certification by the French institute AFAQ AFNOR, aimed at quality assurance in the communication processes with the client. The certification “AFAQ AFNOR Service – Confiance, les Junior-Entreprises s’engagent » is a certification especially developed for French Junior Enterprises. 

For JADE, feed-back by the participants on the International Project Standard (IPS) was collected with the result that a working group will be set up to present a proposal on how to re-introduce the JADE quality label at the May Meeting. 
 

JADE thanks the JADE France and particularly its International Manager, Florence Poutriquet, for having initiated and organised this meeting, which left all participants with the inspiration and concrete recommendations on how to establish structures to increase the quality of the services provided by Junior Enterprises.

February 6th, Brussels. Following an invitation of the Microsoft’s department of Community Affairs, six youth organizations that represent students in Europe and world-wide gather to share their experiences, discuss possibilities of cooperation and, not least of all, to learn about Microsoft’s involvement with youth.

 The present organization, AEGEE, AIESEC International,  BEST, ELSA, ESN and JADE are all part of an informal group, the IFISO group, that regroups a large scope of studnet organizations. As such we are familiar with each other, but an occasion to meet is always welcome and for this occasion, JADE thanks Microsoft for being the catalyst.

 JADE looks forward to be closer in contact with the other student organizations and to further elaborate on the insights and cooperation possibilities gathered.

The latest issue of the JADE newsletter, the bi-monthly JADE Gazette, has just been released. Within this issue you will find:

• The theme of the “JEWC ‘08″, the Junior Enteprise World Conference organized by JADE Portugal
• An interview with Dimitris Dimitriadis, President of the European Economic and Social Committee
• Events attended by JADE and organized by our members
• and more

If you would like to contribute to the next edition or comment this one, please send an email to mail@jadenet.org.

Dear Junior Entrepreneur,

please remember to subscribe to the JADE Spring Meeting 2008 before February 7th, the official deadline. Please use this link to subscribe.

All information, including the agenda is available on the event website.

Should you be a potential sponsor interested in this event, please contact Frederik de Pont (frederik.depont@jadenet.org).

We look forward to welcome you in Brussels!

The JADE Executive Board

Inspired by the JADE Winter Meeting, JADE France invites representatives of the National Confederations of the Junior Enterprise movement (JADE members) to reunite on the 16th and 17th of February in Paris, in order to brainstorm on auditing processes.

With a 15-year experience in auditing Junior Enteprises, JADE France takes the role as a host to facilitate an exchange on auditing practices, and provide support and inspiration for measures of quality management within the network. Confederation representatives are urged to subscribe before the application dead-line on January 25th.

JADE thanks JADE France for this iniative and wishes the organizing team all the best with the final preparations. For additional information please send an email to: international@cnje.org.

On the 10th and 11th January 2008 the World Entrepreneurship Summit 2008 took place in London gathering 500 world business, policy and academic leaders from 40 countries around the world with a shared interest in stimulating sustainable economic development through entrepreneurship.

JADE was able to meet entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, researchers and more stakeholders providing support to the entrepreneurial community. Among acquaintences and network supporters, like Christian Weinberger and Tom Dodd from the European Commission (DG Enterprise & Industry), inspiring contributions were provided by Kevin Spacey highlighting the importance of involving youth in entrepreneurship, as well as Ben Saunders, a Polar explorer and “adventurepreneur”.

We thank the organizers for an excellent event. For more information please refer to www.wes08.net.