GEW is well underway and so are global pick competitions like Creative Business Cup, happening until November 19 in Copenhagen. The three-day event brings together various players from the global entrepreneurial ecosystem to celebrate creativity along with innovation. Winners of the Creative Business Cup will be announced tomorrow.
Last night, Get in the Ring hosted the last of its regional finals, rounding out the lineup for its global finals in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on Friday. The two final startups to be invited to compete wereChoo Choo Baby Carrier from Moldova who won the regional finals for Eastern Europe andTemplafy from Denmark who won the regional finals for Western Europe.
GEW is celebrated by 44 European countries this year, with just a few of the many highlights being:
Albania
GEW started in Albania yesterday with a National Conference on Entrepreneurship. The conference was organized with the support of the US Embassy in Tirana. GEW Albania will be hosting a total of 15 activities during the week.
Austria
The Entrepreneurship Summit is the main event of Global Entrepreneurship Week in Austria. The summit offers the opportunity to get to know a lot of inspiring people - 100 speakers will be involved - and their ideas – in plenum and in about 25 tracks. Participants will learn a lot of possibilities to implement your own ideas in a better way.
Young entrepreneurs from all over Europe will be competing in Vienna to win the ‘Youth Start – European Entrepreneurship Award’. During the Summit, the kick-off for the 9th BA Idea - and Business plan Competition‚ Next Generation will take place.
Belgium
GEW Belgium is starting the week off right by breaking new world records! GEW Belgium broke the world record for the largest speed-networking event, gathering more than 1,000 people. Tomorrow, they will join in celebrating women in entrepreneurship with an event at Euronext, featuring a keynote by Michèle Sioen, CEO of Sioen Industries and the Chairwoman of Federation of Enterprises in Belgium.
Also happening in Belgium this week is a great tattoo project, hosted by Unizo, one of GEW Belgium’s partners.
Denmark
Prospective and existing entrepreneurs can now for the seventh consecutive year look forward to inspiration to start their own business or get advice on how to make their business grow during the Danish Growth and Launch Incubators 2014, November 17 - 21.
The campaign especially focuses on digital growth opportunities, alternative financing, export and management. The campaign is hosted by the Business and Growth Ministry, together with more than 30 partners looking to help Danes who dream of starting their own business. So far, Denmark has more than 100 events coming up and is expecting to have more than 250 during GEW.
Ireland
Yesterday, GEW Ireland launched its campaign with the GEW Creative Compass Competition in which over 5000 children across the country are expected to participate in. Workshops are taking place across the country inspiring and educating children about starting up in business and how through creative and innovative thinking success can be found in all walks of life.
Italy
GEW Italy has doubled their activities and partners this year! They focused the campaign on the growth of the Italian Startups ecosystem and on the new pro-startups laws made by the government, because nowadays Startups are a great opportunity to create new firms and jobs, despite the current economic crisis.
As part of their lead-up to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress which Milan will host in March, ‘The Italian Job 2015’, an initiative that aims to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs and is run by The University of Chester and The Riverside Innovation Centre has launched. Over the course of three months, students will be challenged to turn an initial investment of just £10 into the profits necessary to fund travel to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Milan, in March 2015.
Lithuania
Working with key partners like Enterprise Lithuania, The American Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania and LCC International University, GEW Lithuania has prepared a full week of engaging events. This year, GEW Lithuania is focusing on innovation with special attention being paid to the entrepreneurial skills that may lead to the next competitive advantage in the form of innovation. 2INNOVATE – decoding entrepreneurship is a conference held within Global Entrepreneurship Week to talk about these topics and chosen due to the current situation in country, where we see that a stronger emphasis on innovation is needed. GEW Lithuania is also expecting a couple of very important events on female entrepreneurship, youth entrepreneurship and creativity such as “Women in Business World: No Limits for Success”
Luxembourg
GEW Luxembourg kicked off last weekend with the 5th Startup Weekend Luxembourg November 14 – 16, 2014. One of the highlights of the week is an innovation roundtable on how to #DisruptEurope digitally being held on November 18th at the European Parliament. Top European Union decision makers, MEPs such as Renato Soru, Eva Paunova, Patrick Vlaskovits of 500 Startups and many other speakers will be establishing a clear roadmap what needs to be done for youth innovation and entrepreneurship. The roundtable will be followed by a cocktail.
Moldova
In its second year in existence, GEW Moldova is ready for a busy week or promoting entrepreneurship, starting with supporting their local startup Choo Choo Baby Carrier, which will be representing Eastern Europe at the Get in the Ring Global Finals on Friday. Also on the GEW Moldova agenda is the Entrepreneur Gala on Sunday evening, a featured event of the campaign, hosted to celebrate entrepreneurs, entities and individuals supporting entrepreneurship who distinguished themselves throughout this year.
Netherlands
Entrepreneurs are a driving force behind the Dutch economy and GEW Netherlands wants engage as many potential entrepreneurs as possible with their events this year. Events organized in the Netherlands as part of GEW 2014 range from master classes, to global competitions and house parties.