From March 6-12, 2024, the second edition of the "International Startup League Startup Festival" took place in Belgium and was jointly organized by the two universities UCLL in Leuven and EPHEC in Brussels. The workshop week for students was themed "Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Circular Economy".
A total of 50 students from seven universities took part: Seneca Polytechnic (Toronto, Canada), Shenkar College (Tel Aviv, Israel), University of West Attica (Athens, Greece), Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oulu, Finland), EPHEC (Brussels, Belgium), UCLL (Leuven, Belgium), University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm. The students were accompanied by professors from their respective universities, who acted as coaches during the week.
The students spent the first four days in Leuven: beforehand, they were given the task of working out the respective business models of three sustainable companies from their home country with the help of a business model canvas and presenting them to each other. In the next step, they worked in small groups to design their own sustainable business ideas and then pitched them to the other students and a jury of professors.
The participants spent the second part of the week in Brussels, where they had the opportunity to visit the sustainable company ROTOR. ROTOR is a young design company that deals with the organization of the material environment and renovates and resells used furniture. EPHEC then hosted various workshops in which the students used a circular canvas to develop optimization proposals for ROTOR's business model.
In addition to the interactive workshops, cultural experiences were not missed out: the HNU group was given a guided tour of the Stella Artois brewery (AB InBev), the third largest brewery group in the world with its headquarters in Leuven. EPHEC students also organized impressive city tours of Leuven and Brussels for the international participants.
The excursion to Leuven and Brussels enriched the students both in terms of the practical experience gained and the formation of intercultural friendships.
The ISUL Startup Festival took place for the first time at HNU in May 2023.
