GEW Sweden continues to build on the success of the previous years’ campaigns. The official statistics have not yet been released, but the event calendar contains around 300 activities involving more than 20,000 people around the country. There has been a well balanced mix of partners, participants, topics and event formats.
One flagship event of GEW Sweden 2015 is Anders Wall Lecture. During its 12-year history, the event has grown into Sweden’s most comprehensive gathering of students, entrepreneurs and distinguished business persons. The Anders Wall Lecture brings together the brightest stars of the Swedish entrepreneurial scene, who inspirenearly 2,000 students every year. Some of this year’s speakers were Petter Stordalen, the owner of the largest hotel chain in Scandinavia (Nordic Choice Hotels); Mattias Klum, a renowned photographer of nature and culture; and Filip Tysander, the CEO of Daniel Wellington, a Swedish watch manufacturer that jumped to $100 million in revenue in just three years.
Sweden’s Innovation Agency, VINNOVA, arranged their annual conference during GEW 2015. One of the speakers was Mikael Damberg, who is the Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Innovation.
GEW Sweden continued their collaboration with two renowned Swedish universitites – Linnaeus University and Luleå University of Technology. Both organized events during Global Entrepreneurhsip Week. Together they involved more than 1,500 participants in about 30 inspirational events with speakers from the Swedish startup scene.
During GEW 2015, the Swedish host organization – ESBRI – launched a series of blog interviews featuring some of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Sweden. One of them is Karl Lillrud, CEO of Pricelizer. His startup was selected among the top 50 in the Startup Open and shortlisted as one of the 20 hottest startups in the world by CNBC. We have talked to Michaela Holtz, CEO of Zeifie, another Swedish startup that was selected in the Startup Open top 50. Another succesful entrepreneur that was highlighted in the blog series is Sanna Nilsson, CEO of Codarica, that represented Sweden in the Creative Business Cup 2015. Codarica successfully positioned themselves among the top 12 finalists. GEW Sweden also talked to Alan Mamedi, CEO of Truecaller, soon to be the next Swedish unicorn. In the blog interviews, the entrepreneurs share their experiences on being an entrepreneur, overcoming obstacles and how an event like Global Entrepreneurship Week can develop current entrepreneurs and inspire new ones.
Read the blog interviews here.