06 Aug Global Entrepreneurship Week is here again!
The entire global community comprising of a diversed group of stakeholders including world leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, captains of industries, innovators, job creators and start-ups would collectively celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015 in November. GEW has been identified as the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurship aimed at bringing ideas to life, driving economic growth and expanding human welfare. Founded in 2008 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (USA), Global Entrepreneurship Week, which runs this year from November 16th – 22nd, has provided a platform that creates one global entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to Jonathan Ortmans, President of the Global Entrepreneurship Network “interest in start-ups and entrepreneurship continues to grow in all parts of the world; GEW provides a shot of adrenaline at one concentrated moment, to help provide nascent entrepreneurs with access to research, programs and network they need to maximize their potential.”
An estimated 160 countries are expected to be part of the GEW experience, and here in Trinidad and Tobago, we’re no different, as Youth Business Trinidad and Tobago (YBTT), this country’s GEW Host for the past five (5) years, intend to effectively mobilize the resources of all entrepreneurial players in T&T by strengthening the process of connectivity, for both start-ups and existing entrepreneurs throughout the national landscape.
Over the years, the success and positive results which emanated from GEW activities, were made possible through the tireless efforts and boundless support received from major stakeholders including AMCHAM Trinidad and Tobago, Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, CARIRI, Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, CME Consulting Limited, Conec Marketing and Financial Services Limited, Couva/Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce, Export Centres Limited, Junior Achievement of Trinidad and Tobago, Launch Rockit, Ministry of Labour and Small and Micro Enterprises, Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development, National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited (NEDCO), Republic Bank Limited, The Lily Foundation for Human Development (Tobago), The University of Trinidad and Tobago, The University of the West Indies, We Are Better Youths Say Yes (WABY) and YTEPP.
This year, in collaboration with our Platinum Sponsor, BG Trinidad & Tobago, our fundamental aim is to further strengthen the networking capacity of the national entrepreneurial eco-system, so that both start-ups and existing entrepreneurs would become fully aware of the support services provided by the various stakeholders who have continuously championed the cause for entrepreneurial development in the national community. Our thrust of GEW would evolve beyond the week of November 16th – 22nd, 2015, as the intent is to maintain constant dialogue capable of creating an enabling environment within which our entrepreneurship can flourish.
Over the next few weeks, we would be disseminating information on both GEW 2015 and post-GEW activities, all aimed at solidifying the importance of the entrepreneurial contribution made towards Trinidad and Tobago’s gross domestic product. To become a GEW Partner or Sponsor, be sure to download the YBTT GEW 2015 Promo Pack!
By: Sandrine Rattan
Project Co-ordinator – Stakeholder & Media Relations (YBTT)
Published in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday on Thursday, August 6th, 2015