It's not every year you get to have a birthday party with 2,500 of the most passionate and motivated young people you could ever hope to meet. But that's exactly what happened to me this year at JCI European Conference!

This was my first visit to an international JCI conference, and one that I'll never forget. Three days of training, sightseeing, meeting amazing people from across Europe, influencing the future strategy of JCI globally, touring local businesses, sightseeing trips - all this and more were on offer for three action-packed days in Braunschweig, Germany.

Add to all this parties over four evenings and you might begin to imagine just how amazing this experience was. The only tough bit - trying to fit it all in!

Here are some of the things which really stood out for me.
· Meeting people from all over Europe who know Sandra, our 2012 JCI Sheffield president. They lit up when they mentioned her and said how amazing she was! My response: "I know!!!" :)
· Seeing hundreds of people chanting ‘Tim, Tim, Tim!' whilst waiting for him to make an appearance in a mankini (he lost a bet with JCI Denmark over which country would have the most delegates!).
· A complete stranger coming up to me on my birthday after hearing it announced on the tannoy, grabbing my hand and saying in such a heartfelt way that I nearly shed a tear, "This is going to be an amazing year for you!"
· Painting with words training delivered by Patrick Knight - what a guy! You MUST go to his training if you ever get chance.
· Meeting so many great people from all over Europe who all want to make a difference (and who know how to party!).
· Spending time with the seven other JCI Sheffield delegates and c65 other UK delegates - what a great bunch!
· JCI Sheffield being shortlisted for four awards. There are hundreds of chambers in over 40 countries across Europe. Being shortlisted in one category would have been amazing for us, but FOUR is just hard to compute it's such a massive achievement! Of those four, our very own deputy president Dan Senter was one of the top three JCI members in Europe! To put this in context, there are c31,000 JCI members in Europe! We were also in the top three chambers in Europe! It's hard to write this without lots of exclamation marks!!!
· Meeting the cow milking champion of the conference ;)
· Twinning with JCI Mayo - I can't wait to get started on joint Mayo / Sheffield projects!
· Seeing the union jack so well represented in the outfits of the UK delegation - check out the photos and await the video!
· Understanding what ‘Partying German Standard' means (it means the beer and Jaeger don't stop!!!).

If you're considering whether you should go to an international JCI event, stop thinking about it and get it booked!

Vicky Bulman
JCI Sheffield Marketing Director