GEW Belarus 2015 Results

This year, GEW Belarus hosted a fifth anniversary series of business events in the country. 7 days between November 16 and 22 encompassed 30+ events in economical, political and legal domains, digital marketing, consulting, programming, design thinking, and much more. The number of participants reached an all-time high of 2000+ attendees. The organizing team did their best to find a balance between practical and inspirational contents, formal lectures and evening networking sessions, closed invite-only investor workshops and open door kids festivals.
Fifth Entrepreneurship Forum, which has already become a flagship event of GEW Belarus, opened the program. This year’s goal was to provide a platform for an open and comprehensive dialogue between business and government. Distinguished speakers from government included Kirill Rudyj, aide to President; Vladimir Zinovskij, Minister of Economics; Vasiliy Matyushevskiy,
first Deputy Prime-Minister; Sergei Novitskiy, Deputy Chairman of Entrepreneurship Development Council. The business side was represented by Pavel Daneika, Director of IPM business-school; Yuri Zisser, Head of TUT.BY MEDIA, private investor; Andrei Yarantsau, top-manager at Game Stream, private investor; Oleg Husaenov ,Director at Zubr Capital Managing company Oleg Husaenov.
The startup community was gathered around International Startup Conference on November 17, and enjoyed workshops from renowned international speakers, including Calum Cameron, Managing director at Estonian accelarator Startup Wise Guys; Elise Sass, Startup Lead at Microsoft; a speaker from Ulej.by, first crowdfunding platform in Belarus; Tugce Ergul, Founder of Angel Labs Venture Fund.
Entering New Markets was the agenda of November 18. The opening panel discussion gathered ambassadors of 3 countries – Estonia, Germany and Great Britain, with Tania Marinich, Founder of Bel.Biz, national host of GEW in Belarus, as a moderator.
The highlight of this year’s program was Children’s Festival I am a Future Entrepreneur. More than 200 kids joined the event to learn about programming, design thinking, to practice English and to take part in the drawing competition.
This year, Association of European Business partnered with GEW to bring to life a series of events for Swedish Institute alumni and beyond.
The choice of motto of 2015, Unleashing Opportunities in Times of Change,  was not occasional: it’s never easy to do business in challenging economic times. Yet, if used wisely, these very changes can open up new horizons and carry companies to new heights. The program of GEW Belarus was crafted with the aim to spark fresh ideas and bring new valuable connections into participant’s lives. In this sense, GEW Belarus 2015 was a true success.