Accelerating new firm formation. Strengthening local, national and regional ecosystems.
GEC+ is an international event series that focuses on a geographic region or industry-specific sector, bringing significant expertise to strengthen those entrepreneurship ecosystems and aid the acceleration of startups. Run by the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and hosted by or in collaboration with third-party organizations, GEC+ events are smaller, more specialized iterations of GEN’s flagship event, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.
While GEN convenes thousands of delegates from 200 countries at the GEC – which is hosted annually in a different rising entrepreneurial city – GEC+ events can be developed independently by local hosts or in collaboration with GEN to focus on the specific needs of a region or sector. While the content and design of each event is unique, overall themes and topics reflect global entrepreneurship trends, research, policies and programs that focus on helping entrepreneurs start and scale new businesses.
Previously, GEC+ was held in:
- Daegu, South Korea, focused on new models for teaching entrepreneurship.
- Cape Town, South Africa (2017), focused on research efforts to measure the entrepreneurial mindset.
- Bangkok, Thailand, focused on digital transformation.
- Taipei, Chinese Taipei, focused on AI and IoT.
- Cape Town, South Africa (2024), focused on uniting and advancing Africa’s entrepreneurship ecosystems.
- San Juan, Puerto Rico, focused on building an entrepreneurial future for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Global Entrepreneurship Network operates programs, like GEC+, that make it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a company. By fostering deeper cross-border collaboration between founders, investors, policymakers, ecosystem builders and others, GEN fuels healthier and more efficient local and national entrepreneurship ecosystems. Network members collaborate to democratize opportunity, drive economic mobility, create new jobs and grow economies while developing the conditions for entrepreneurs to solve the world’s toughest challenges.