Last week was Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) the world’s premier entrepreneurship campaign. From Presidents to Princes, CEOs, start ups and everyone inbetween, GEW involves literally millions of people and draws crucial attention to entrepreneurship and the positive social and economic impact it can have.
For the sixth year running, the Youth Business International network has supported the campaign, running activities around the world and encouraging people to start up their own business. YBI members currently host the campaign in more than 10 territories around the world.
Here’s a flavour of what’s been happening in our network during this huge global celebration:
Bhutan
In Bhutan, a country where entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept, YBI member the Loden Foundation took to their second year as host like a practiced natural. A week-long series of lectures and training courses for aspiring entrepreneurs provided one of the most ambitious programmes of any YBI member.
(left to right) Hoang-Anh Thi Le of YBI and Bhutanese entrepreneurs Pushpa Chhetri, Bimla Rai, and Rinzy Tshomo: share their experiences with the audience at a GEW event
You can find out much more about the Bhutanese campaign on the Loden FoundationFacebook page. From intellectual property advice, to entrepreneurship guidance for prisoners, the Bhutanese campaign had it all! Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lyonchen Tshering Tobgye’s even gave a speech at the opening of the week and Pema Wangchuk from the Loden Foundation, was interviewed on Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), Bhutan’s premier national TV channel.
Bhutanese Labour Minister Lyonpo Neegma Sangay Tsenpo spoke at the launch
Barbados
In Barbados, YBI member the Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT) hosted over 30 activities aimed at helping people to make the most of their business aspirations, under the theme: riding out the recession.
Participants at a business start up lecture taking place a the GEW Young Entrepreneurs Fair in Barbados
It is hard to pick a winner from the huge range of events taking place in Barbados but BYBT made a huge break through in media interest when the campaign was given leading coverage on First Nation News channel. As you can see from the scale of the coverage, BYBT have done an amazing job engaging partner organisations and embedding entrepreneurship in the national psyche. Check out the evening news from 4:18!
Canada
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation led a national campaign to complement the overall theme of storytelling – entitled “Hello My Name is…”. This campaign involves a series of online Meetups that provide successful entrepreneurs with a platform to share their story with aspiring entrepreneurs.
YBI member CYBF flew the flag, literally, for GEW in Canada
CYBF also teamed up with StartupCanada on the Canadian Mentoring Challenge, encouraging organizations and individuals across Canada to organize mentorship events in their communities – the goal was to collectively mentor more than 10,000 enterprising Canadians.
Matching the political engagement achieved by Bhutan, CYBF we commended by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said: “I want to thank the official host of Global Entrepreneurship Week in Canada – the Canadian Youth Business Foundation - who are marking this week by celebrating the immense success of Canadian entrepreneurs and inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.”
Dominica
Under the theme of “Celebrating youth creativity, passion and participation”, Dominica Youth Business Trust hosted a jam packed week of events, including a radio address by the Minister for Culture, Youth & Sports, a youth symposium on creative arts and music and a DYBT Graduation and Awards ceremony. Not to mention this perfectly coordinated Caribbean welcome from the staff at DYBT:
Mongolia
New YBI member Youth Business Mongolia was one of the partner organisations hosting GEW in Mongolia. A range of activities introduced hundreds of Mongolians from all walks of life to the opportunity and potential of entrepreneurship as a career. In addition an incredibly well attended Startup Weekend Mongolia challenged participants to take an idea from concept to product and business across two days.
Two participants from Startup Weekend Mongolia, part of GEW in the country
Paraguay
Fundación Paraguaya, YBI member in the country, held a huge campaign with a focus on practical skills and giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to get in front of potential customers and sell their products.
Entrepreneurship fair in the city of St. Stanislaus
Children were the stars of the Caacupe Fair where hundreds of products and ideas were presented by students from 35 schools. Paraguay also put special focus on the roles of women entrepreneurs with a range of women’s entrepreneurship fairs with female entrepreneurs showcasing their products.
Children from one of 35 schools that took part in the huge GEW Project Fair in Paraguay
Spain
On Wednesday, the official launch of Youth Business Spain took place in Madrid. Over 100 select guests came together to hear about the work of the two lead partners in Youth Business Spain: CP’AC in Barcelona and Fundacion Tomillo in Madrid in creating a national initiative to help young entrepreneurs in Spain. The launch event was supported by JP Morgan.
Guillem Aris of Youth Business Spain speaks at the launch of the programme, which took place during GEW
Switzerland
Reuben Saxon of YBI moderated a UN Town hall meeting on Youth Enterprise for Development, at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva,to the backdrop of GEW. The event was attended by 200 delegates, and affiliates of the University of Geneva. Panellists included Ambassadors from the permanent missions of Italy, Columbia and Portugal as well as young entrepreneurs from each country.
Reuben (left, standing) was moderator for the discussion at the UN
Trinidad & Tobago
Youth Business held an early GEW launch event on 31 October with speakers including, Mr. J. Errol Lewis, Executive Chairman, Junior Achievement of T&T; Dr. Rikhi Permanand, Executive Director, Council for Competitiveness & Innovation and Professor Dyer Narinesingh, President, University of Trinidad and Tobago.
Chairman of YBTT Mr. Richard P. Young spoke at the official launch of GEW on the islands
GEW 2013 also saw the first ever Startup Weekend take place on Trinidad and Tobago. Startup Weekend is a 54 hour event that connects experts with entrepreneurs and aims to take an idea from concept to product or business in just one weekend. Visit the website to find out which idea got the Startup Weekend treatment.
Participants in the first ever Startup Weekend T&T
Uganda
Enterprise Uganda continued their excellent hosting of the campaign, bringing entrepreneurial experiences to people across the country. The organisation participated in a range of pan-African Venture Capital for Africa tech meetups, hosting an event in Kampala, and the organisation also hosted a 2-day conference at the Imperial Royale Hotel, with a focus on ‘being proactive’ in pursuit of your entrepreneurial targets.
A entrepreneurship showcase that took place in Uganda as part of GEW
United Kingdom
YBI is the host of the campaign in the UK, where GEW started life as Enterprise Week. This year the campaign was one of the biggest on record, with over 340,000 people taking part in 3,000 events. You can find out a lot more about the UK campaign on the on thewww.gew.org.uk website or in theYBI news pages.
Students from Southfields Academy played a big role in the launch of GEW, posing questions to a panel of entrepreneurs
Worldwide
Globally YBI also worked to bring members and entrepreneurs together using our free ‘map your business’ technology. The tool allows entrepreneurs to promote their work with a short film or photograph and a description of their business, mapped across the globe. Entrepreneurs from all over the YBI network took the opportunity to participate. The competition, is open until the 29th of November, so there is still a chance to take part.
