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Countries all around the world are joining together to carry the banner of Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative aimed at young people everywhere. For one packed week from November 17-23, 2008, a range of activities - from panel speakers of entrepreneurs, workshops, innovation expo, to competitions will inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs.
The Week is a worldwide initiative that is linking all those willing to embrace it. Host organizations in each participating country are recruiting partners and coordinating related activities. The exact type of these activities, whether online or face-to-face, is limited only by the imaginations of the partners and the participants. And while a list of suggested activities such as invention competitions, entrepreneurship film festivals, networking events, school-based activities, and local entrepreneurship summits - will be available on the website, the actual activities conducted by partners will vary greatly.
And while it may be global in scope, at its heart, the Week is a local initiative that reflects the customs and entrepreneurial culture of each community. After all, what works in Boise, Idaho might be quite different from what works in Bangalore, India.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is a combination and expansion of two successful initiatives, the debut of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA in 2007 and the inspiration behind it, Enterprise Week in the UK which was kicked off in 2004 by now-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
During the last year, these two efforts - led by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the US and the Make Your Mark campaign in the UK - combined to engage 2,720 partner organizations planning 6,891 activities that directly involved 929,449 individuals.
For one week, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Dozens of countries are coming together for the first time to host Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.
Today, entrepreneurial individuals appear from all walks of life to exploit business opportunities for both economic and social gains. From November 17 - 23, 2008, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities - online and face-to-face - to harness the energy of social networking, to connect people taking action in their local and global communities and to celebrate entrepreneurship across the globe.
Global Entrepreneurship Week seeks to:
Inspire: Introduce the notion of enterprising behavior to as many young people under the age of 30 who otherwise might not have considered it as a path in their life
Connect: Network young people across national boundaries in a global effort to find new ideas at the intersection of cultures and disciplines
Inform: Demonstrate that the drive to nurture enterprising talent needs business, education, government, voluntary organizations and the media to work together no single sector or organization working in isolation can create opportunities on this ambitious scale
Mentor: Enlist active and inspirational entrepreneurs around the world to coach and mentor the next generation of enterprise talent as they pursue their entrepreneurial dreams
Engage: To inform opinion leaders and policy makers that entrepreneurship is central to a nation's economic health and culture and to provide different nations with the opportunity to learn from each other on entrepreneurial policy and practice
