Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009 Update

The World's Most Innovative Week!

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009
View an overview of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009 
During Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 16-22, 2009, 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. Countries across six continents are coming together during Global Entrepreneurship Week to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.

Featured Events

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
Live Webcast Nov 19

2009 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards Watch the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) ground-breaking business competition live on Thursday, Nov. 19, as 30 undergraduate student entrepreneurs compete for $150,000 in cash and prizes. The GSEA program is the premier award for students who own and run businesses while attending a college or university. 

To watch the competition and the evening gala live, go to:
http://www.gsea.org/Pages/GlobalFinalsWebcast.aspx  

Tune in to see which country, which school and which business wins it all, this Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009. Streaming begins at 1:30 p.m. CST/ 2:30 p.m. EST.

More Featured Events

CleanTech Open 2009 Winner

The winner of the Cleantech Open competition was announced November 17. Selected from seven finalists Replenish Energy from Puerto Rico is a company that has the capacity to provide a renewable, carbon-negative fuel in the form of microalgae, to either substitute or blend with fuel oil or diesel, at well below current petroleum prices. 

View pitch videos of all finalists


Countdown to Entrepreneurship

Ten9Eight, a new project by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio with support from the Kauffman Foundation, tells the story of several inner city teens from Harlem to Compton as they enter an annual business plan competition run by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

Region Spotlight

South America

  • Argentina - Juan Ramón Nuñez, owner of an sound and lighting company operating in a deprived area of Buenos Aires, has been named the winner of Youth Business International’s Entrepreneur of the Year competition.
  • Bolivia's Celebrating Women’s Enterprise Day yesterday Bolivia recognized the contribution of female entrepreneurs, highlighting the work of 9 prominent Bolivian women including Clementina Aaron for her work with indigenous women in the towns of Potosi, Sucre and Oruro, and Antonia Rodriguez, for her work in export growth, benefiting over 15,000 families from La Paz and El Alto.
  • Brazil hosted the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Connection 2009, in which college students proposed business plans and test those plans in a workshop. Inova Unicamp allowed 10 companies to present their innovative products to a bank examiner. The Brazil Entrepreneurial Education Award recognized the best entrepreneurship education in Brazil. .
  • Chile - Thousands of students and young people are due to attend the Entrepreneurship and Innovation party on Friday which seeks to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. The evening will see the final of the ‘Elevator Pitch’ technology competition as well as lectures and awards. 

More regional activities

Research Highlight

Timely Entrepreneurship Indicators

Timely Entrepreneurship Indicators As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today unveiled the first indications of how the economic slump has impacted entrepreneurship in the United States and 11 other countries in 2008 and most of 2009. The report, Timely Entrepreneurship Indicators, shows that firm formation declined and exits increased, which economists say could have significant implications for job creation.

Read Timely Entrepreneurship Indicators (PDF)