As Global Entrepreneurship Week – a celebration of entrepreneurship held simultaneously in more than 160 countries around the world – quickly approaches this November, Tulsa startup champions are assembling to help Oklahoma entrepreneurs learn how to make their business dreams a reality.
Tulsa has celebrated GEW for more than seven years, and organizer Dustin Curzon, executive director of Tulsa incubator 36 Degrees North, said that he hopes this will be on of the best years yet for GEW, held November 14 – 20.
“We participated in Global Entrepreneurship Week last year as part of the way to let people know that we were getting started and coming in the new year,” said Curzon. “Part of the role that we take is that we are very much a community convener, the central gathering point for entrepreneurship in Tulsa. We thought it was really a natural fit for us to take on some of the organizing responsibility for GEW.”
The hub 36 Degrees North recently opened this past January, and has hit the ground running to mobilize the local entrepreneurial community in collaboration. He said the goal is to keep the progress of GEW moving forward, and through feedback from partner organizations and community members, the week’s programs and activities began to take shape.
During GEW, Curzon said there will be a wide range of activities, from the Tulsa Startup Series pitch competition and an exciting new food entrepreneurship marketplace that will kick-off the celebrations in Tulsa, to a Tulsa State of Entrepreneurship report released during the week.
The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation will produce the State of Entrepreneurship Report in partnership with 36 Degrees North, and it will be released during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The State of Entrepreneurship 2016 is an update to the 2015 report, as a way to reflect on the progress and goals of Tulsa.
Kitchen 66 is also a new hub in Tulsa that helps kick-start Tulsa-based food venture concepts into real businesses by providing mentorship, commercial kitchen space and business training. Kictchen 66 will be sponsoring the November Market Day during GEW, with their companies present to explain what their business is and share some delicious food.
36 Degress North is also a host for the Kauffman Foundations’ 1 Million Cups, and will hold a meet-up event during the week as well. There will be a number of other networking and peer-to-peer activities in the community, culminating in the GEW celebration dinner, held by Oklahoma State University and the Forge. The keynote speaker for the celebration dinner is Andrew Stroup, a former White House Innovation Fellow and native Oklahoman entrepreneur.
Curzon said Global Entrepreneurship Week is a great way for Tulsa to share its community experiences with others, as well as to learn from other cities around the world. GEW is a tool to continue to fuel awareness and excitement about entrepreneurship in the community.
Oklahoma has a long history of entrepreneurship – the culture of “creating something out of nothing,” Curzon said. “Entrepreneurship is built into our community DNA, but it often lacked organization.”
And that’s where Global Entrepreneurship Week has had an impact on the community.
“As a community we decided that GEW is for us, it’s helping people be aware of entrepreneurship and what they can do. You take the circle of people who know what’s going and explode it – make it a lot bigger and better.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting that person who says, ‘I didn’t know any of this was going on [in Tulsa],’” Curzon said. “Hearing those stories either during the week or after, who decided that, ‘I’m going to make this leap, and I’m going to go do it,’ that is really exciting to me.”
Follow GEW Tulsa and 36 Degrees North with #GEW2016 and on Twitter @36DegreesN.