Ideas Bank

ideas bank

Bring Global Entrepreneurship Week to life in your community. 

The Global Entrepreneurship Week Ideas Bank is a curated collection of event formats, campaigns, and programming concepts that can be adapted, tailored to your community, and made your own. These ideas are intended to be a source of inspiration, not a prescriptive formula. Every campaign looks different.  

HOW IT WORKS

01 | Explore the Ideas

Every idea is tagged by audience type so you can filter for what works in your context.

02 | Adapt it for Your Community

Each concept is a starting point, not a script. Adjust the format, scale, and focus to fit where you are and who you serve.

03 | Run An Event

Host your event November 16–22, 2026 and add it to the global map of Global Entrepreneurship Week programming.

A QUICK NOTE ABOUT TARGET AUDIENCES

Global Entrepreneurship Week reaches people who have never seen entrepreneurship as a path for them. They aren't hard to find: they're in every country, every community, and every walk of life. What they have in common isn't background or circumstance — it's simply that no one has ever shown them that entrepreneurship could be for them too. 

GEN has created a list of sample personas (target audience personalities and traits) to help you tailor your campaign to these new audiences.

girls with dogs in park
The General Public

They haven't thought about entrepreneurship, not because they've rejected it, but because it's never shown up in their world in a way that felt relevant. The most important thing this campaign can do for this audience is make entrepreneurship visible, local, and human.

Explore the Ideas Bank

young male
The Next Gen Explorer

Young people who are curious, ambitious, and searching for direction, but haven't been shown that building something of their own is a real option. They don't need to be convinced that the world needs changing. They need to be convinced that they're the ones who can do it.

Explore the Ideas Bank

black female
The Underrepresented Builder

They have the ideas, the drive, and often the deepest understanding of the problems worth solving. What they haven't had is access to networks, capital, mentors, and spaces that were built for someone else. This campaign meets them where they are.

Explore the Ideas Bank

asian female
The Anxious Professional

They're employed, but feeling unsettled. Automation is reshaping their industry, and they know it. They're not looking for a side hustle; they're looking for a new path that puts them back in control.

Explore the Ideas Bank

father and son
The Stability Seeker

They're drawn to the idea of entrepreneurship but held back by real risk: financial obligations, family responsibilities, or simply no safety net. They don't need to be inspired. They need to see a practical, low-risk first step that fits the life they already have.

Explore the Ideas Bank

mother and daughter
The Problem Owner

They're already solving problems in their community, their workplace, and their neighborhood. They just don't call it entrepreneurship. Our job is to show them that the word belongs to them too, and that there's a whole ecosystem ready to back them. 

Explore the Ideas Bank

"Parents Who Build" Community Networking Event
Target Audience
Parents and caregivers who have built community solutions; family-network entrepreneurs and school community leaders

A relaxed networking event held in a school or community setting, celebrating the informal solutions parents have already built — WhatsApp groups, childcare cooperatives, neighbourhood food networks — and explicitly naming them as entrepreneurship. The event provides a peer community, signposting to support, and a low-friction next step for those who want to formalise or scale what they have started.

"Someone Should Fix This" Sector Problem-Solving Day
Target Audience
Anyone who works in, uses, or is affected by a sector — employees, customers, caregivers, community members, and everyday people who have noticed something that doesn't work

A sector-focused event that starts with one simple invitation: bring a problem you've seen, experienced, or lived. Hosted in partnership with a relevant employer, community organization, or professional association, the event helps participants — regardless of their background or credentials — turn everyday frustrations into clear problem statements and explore what it might look like to solve them. The format works in any sector and for any audience: run it with teachers, patients, logistics workers, farmers, parents, or retail staff — anyone who has ever thought 'why does this work this way?' is the right person to be in the room. 

"Builders in Our Community" School Take-Home Campaign
Target Audience
Parents and families of school-age children; school communities and parent-teacher associations

A campaign delivered through schools in the form of a simple take-home resource during Global Entrepreneurship Week — a conversation starter, a short family activity, and a local event listing — designed to make entrepreneurship a dinner table conversation for families who would never otherwise encounter it. Teachers are encouraged to introduce Global Entrepreneurship Week in one class or assembly, and parents are invited to participate in a free community event or connect with a local resource.

 

"First Steps" Peer Mentoring Sprint
Target Audience
High school students aged 15–18; youth organizations and school entrepreneurship programs

A structured peer mentoring program pairing secondary school students with university-age founders for a week of daily 20-minute conversations during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Designed around specific questions ('What was your first step? What do you wish you'd known?') rather than open mentoring, making it achievable for both parties and repeatable at scale.

"Behind Every Business You Love" Local Founder Celebration
Target Audience
Residents of a town, city, or neighborhood; general public with no prior connection to entrepreneurship

A public celebration event held in a town square, market, or community centre that puts faces and stories to the businesses local people already use and love — the bakery, the childminder, the mechanic, the food market stall. The event requires zero prior interest in entrepreneurship and is structured as a community celebration rather than a business conference, with a simple physical prompt ('Which local business couldn't you live without?') driving social sharing.

The Founder Playlist

Commission local founders to each contribute one song that soundtracked a pivotal moment in their journey — a late night of work, a rejection, a breakthrough. Compile it into a public "Entrepreneurs Thrive Here" playlist released during Global Entrepreneurship Week, with each track linked to a short founder story. Distribute through streaming platforms, local radio, and community spaces. Music as an unexpected on-ramp to entrepreneurship stories.