This month saw 20 members of GEW’s European host organisations join forces in London for the European Entrepreneurship Convention. The two-day event was a timely opportunity to share experiences of GEW 2009, swap ideas on how to maximise the impact of the Week this year and strengthen one another’s campaigns.
The Convention took place in the heart of London at CityPoint, the venue supplied by GEW Global Sponsor Regus. If the view was inspiring, though, it was no match for the entrepreneurial energy which Global Entrepreneurship Week’s network of Hosts and partners brought with them!
Some highlights from the two days:
- Hosts from Turkey, Iceland, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Russia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Austria & Italy sharing some of their best efforts including:
- Iceland’s simple but ingenious ‘Activity Band’ initiative. A select number of wristbands were distributed to a range of people across the country. Each recipient had to start a GEW activity before passing the band on to someone else to repeat the process. Each band’s journey was then tracked via a specially-created website.
- The German/Polish touring Infocar. The Polish campaign sent a fully GEW’d-up car to some of the German campaign’s most memorable initiatives. This generated considerable media interest.
- GEW Russia hosted a conference on the “Role of Microfinance in overcoming the Financial Economic Crisis”. The event was featured speeches from Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and Princess Maxima of the Netherlands.
- The man behind the ‘Speednetwork the Globe’ concept Oli Barrett energising the crowd with an early morning round of speednetworking.
- YBI’s Director of Communications Steve Metcalfe speaking on the impact that GEW has had across the YBI network in the developing world.
- Karen Wilson, Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation sharing thoughts on the coming campaign alongside some of Kauffman’s most exciting new projects.
- CEO of Smaller Earth Chris Arnold delivering a high-octane presentation on GEW Official Activity Your Big Year. YBY has already engaged 29,000 people from an amazing 146 countries!
- Rajeeb Dey of Enternships speaking on his entrepreneurial journey and the impact of GEW on his work.
We were also delighted to bring together our extended network - including government representatives, entrepreneurs and partner organisations – at an evening networking reception in London’s The Hospital Club (something of an entrepreneurial hub itself).
So, thank you to everyone who made the event such a success. It was a pleasure to hear first hand from those making GEW the force for good that it is. See you next year!