During one week in November, 165 countries will celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week – with nearly 10 million people expected to participate in 35,000 events and competitions. The local, national and global efforts connect entrepreneurs at all stages to potential collaborators, mentors and investors to help them start and scale innovative new businesses.
Now in its ninth year, GEW has doubled in size since it was launched in 2008. The wide-ranging effort unleashes an estimated $140 million through members and partners of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.
While every event is unique, several GEW themes will spotlight common topics and important focal points throughout the week, including: Startup Cities (Monday), Youth (Tuesday), Women (Wednesday), Investors (Thursday) and Scale-ups (Friday).
The GEW Investors theme coincides with Business Angels Week – run by EBAN, MBAN and ABAN with the support of the Global Business Angels Network – with hundreds of events focused on early stage investors in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Other highlights for #GEW2016 include:
The Global Entrepreneurship Index, scheduled for release on the opening day of GEW (November 14), measures the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystems in each of 155 countries and ranks them from top to bottom.
The official opening of GEW is being held in Johannesburg, South Africa, to begin the road to the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which will bring 5,000 entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, researchers and startup champions to the city next March.
Ten promising new startups will be named as finalists in the Startup Open – with the winner getting a free trip to Johannesburg, South Africa and a spot on stage at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March 2017.
Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, will take the stage at INCmty in Monterrey, Mexico.
The launch of Startup Huddle series of events to strengthen local startup ecosystems by connecting emerging entrepreneurs with other entrepreneurs, mentors and investors.
The official finale of Global Entrepreneurship Week is being held in Cork, Ireland, at the Startup Nations Summit. The summit will unveil a new tool to help policymakers and advisors share and explore innovative policy approaches and public sector-driven programs that help entrepreneurs start and scale new high-impact companies around the world.
Join the Global Entrepreneurship Network at http://gew.co to learn more and participate in the global conversation about supporting startups and strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems using the social media hashtag #GEW2016.
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