“We won." It was the opening of an editorial in the major daily business newspaper in Italy, Il Sole 24 Ore, written by Alessandro Fussacchia, the advisor to Minister of Foreign Affairs Emma Bonino.
On behalf of Minister Bonino and the Italian government, Fussacchia helped lead the victorious bid to host the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Milan—the economic capital of Italy that is coming into its own on the global stage.
“Countries around the world are racing to build the best startup ecosystems,” said Jonathan Ortmans, chair of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress and president of Global Entrepreneurship Week. “Italy’s startup scene has started to boom and Milan is at the heart of it.”
The Milan event will officially be co-hosted by META Group, a Terni-based organization focused on advancing innovation and entrepreneurship, along with Global Entrepreneurship Week and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Milan was selected over impressive bids from Doha (Qatar), Medellin (Colombia) and Split (Croatia).
The Global Entrepreneurship Congress is an inter-disciplinary gathering of startup champions from around the world-where entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, thought leaders and policymakers work together to help bring ideas to life and build entrepreneurial ecosystems. Roughly 2,000 people from all parts of the ecosystem in 140 countries meet and share ideas and initiatives to help new firms start and scale.
Since it launched in 2009 at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City (United States), the GEC has been hosted by Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Shanghai (China), Liverpool (United Kingdom) andRio de Janeiro (Brazil). Speakers have included famous entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson andMarc Ecko as well as startup champions like Brad Feld of TechStars and Dave McClure of 500 Startups mixing with government leaders like Alexei Komissarov. Komissarov is a former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year who is now leading Moscow’s drive toward entrepreneurial growth.
In March 2014, Moscow will host the next Global Entrepreneurship Congress. Dozens of related fringe events will be centered around two primary events — the Research+Policy Summit and the Start+Scale Forum. More information is available on the GEC 2014 website.