The start of the Energy Challenge 2.0

Since 2019, the annual project of the Youth Day as a part of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, organized by HES UNECON, has been realized in the upgraded format of the Energy Challenge. It still holds the status of the International Business Congresses’ working project and has the support of the leading energy companies and organizations as Gazprom, Uniper, Wintershall Dea, Gasunie, Energy Delta Institute, OMV, Shell, Schneider Electric, ESMT, Expoforum, and others.

Youth Day: Energy Challenge as the part of the 9^th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum 2019

On October 1-3, 2019 the final events of the project of Youth Day: Energy Challenge were held at the 9^th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF). It is the 5^th jubilee edition of the project.

The organizer of event is Higher Economic School of St. Petersburg State University of Economics (HES UNECON) under the support of organizations members of International Business Congress (IBC): Gazprom, Gasunie, OMV, Uniper, Wintershall Dea, Shell as well as with partnership of Energy Delta Institute (EDI), European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), Schneider Electric, Siemens, Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) and Expoforum.

July 15, 2019 the study process in Virtual Academy has finished. The participants submitted their final #project_challenge aimed to assess their research and analytical skills, as well as the ability to present the project to the public. The project should be related to energy industry: technology, business process, market, product etc., and explain its competitive advantage, creating value, feasibility, impact etc.

On July 7, 2019, the learning part of the Virtual Academy within the project of Youth Day: Energy Challange was completed. The last fifth module was devoted to the topic of “Sustainable energy transition“. The European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), represented by senior lecturer Christoph Burger and Program Director Jens Weinmann, moderated and developed the training materials and assignments.

June 10-23, the fourth training module was held at the Virtual Academy. Students were invited to study technical trends in the energy sector.

Three companies held webinars and answered the participants’ questions online:

On June 9, the Virtual Academy completed the third training module, which was devoted to market trends.

The representatives of three Youth Day partner companies held their webinars:

The end of the second module is coming. The module is dedicated to partners companies’ strategies.

Participants of The Virtual Academy have already listened to three speakers:

• May, 15 – Irina Mironova told about the strategy of Gazprom;
• May, 17 – Julia Boermann introduced the new strategy of merged Wintershall Dea;
• May, 20 – information about Schneider Electric was presented by Gilles Nougier, Vice-President Zone Europe and CIS.

The last webinar provided by Afkenel Schipstra, Gasinie, is scheduled for May, 23. The third module starts May, 27 and contains webinars and analytical materials about market trends.

Upgrade of Youth Day within St. Petersburg International Gas Forum

For four years of successful implementation the project of Youth Day has attracted attention of more than 500 students from 25 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and even Australia. They had a chance to meet the leading experts of oil and gas industry, to communicate with top managers of world energy companies in off-tie format and to demonstrate their competences in personal and group competitions. This opportunity to visit the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF) is an incredible experience for future industry professionals.

Prize trip of winners in Youth Day 2018

April 2-13, 2019 the winning team of Youth Day 2018 Case Contest participated in the international study trip to partner energy companies in Russia, Germany, the Netherlands and France.