Global Entrepreneurship Week turned 18 last month – and how it’s grown – since 2008 it has evolved from a campaign to an annual global festival. GEW was the brainchild of Gordon Brown with his vision to increase opportunities for young people everywhere through the meritocracy of entrepreneurship – make a job don’t take a job. GEW is now celebrated in 200 countries.
Here in the UK we launched GEW with the Market Opening Ceremony streamed live from the London Stock Exchange. Alpesh Patel OBE (Entrepreneur and Global Entrepreneurs Programme, Department for Business and Trade) followed with an energising keynote at the Enterprise Summit ahead of conversations with entrepreneur stars Deborah Meaden, Greg Jackson CBE, Anne Boden MBE, Grace Graham, Larry Sullivan, and Paul Lindley OBE. Over at the British Library they held a packed Start-Up Day conference which was being streamed to the Business and IP Centre national network that supports over 40,000 people start and grow their business every year.
The next day there were roundtables at Marlborough House, Commonwealth Secretariat HQ. During the discussions around Diaspora Entrepreneurship and Economic Resilience, the first Commonwealth Innovation Week was announced to run in parallel with GEW.
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day was celebrated at the House of Lords. Lord Errol, Helene Martin Gee and GEN UK hosted a special GEW Business & Parliament Forum exploring key outcomes from Savvitas’ new White Paper, Rethinking Capital: The Systems, Behaviour and Momentum Driving a New Economic Architecture.
Later the MP HERoes GEW Autumn Summit was held which featured compelling personal stories resulting from linking MPs with a successful woman entrepreneur in their constituency.
The week ended at the NatWest conference centre where NatWest hosted a celebration of inclusive entrepreneurship with a series of business experts offering practical advice. Across the week we shared insights and ideas from 30 of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs on their success and what they think is needed to help entrepreneurs thrive. Wherever you were celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week it is clear that entrepreneurship in the UK is very much alive and kicking.