Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011
This year GEW took place between the 14 - 20 November. The campaign reached out to 213,000 participants, through 2,300 events and 914 partner organisations. The week was officially launched at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club where Mark Prisk, Minister for Business and Enterprise and Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League were among the speakers.
Throughout the week, message to aspiring entrepreneurs was, “Don’t be too British to ask for help” - there is plenty of assistance for entrepreneurs in the UK, if you only know where to look. Global Entrepreneurship Week began life as Enterprise Week in the UK back in 2004. When news of the phenomenal success of Enterprise Week in the UK spread the globe, lots of other countries got excited at the potential of running similar initiatives in their own countries. So in 2008, Enterprise UK and the Kauffman Foundation (the world’s largest entrepreneurship foundation based in the US) founded the very first Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is a worldwide movement of entrepreneurial people, with millions unleashing their enterprising talents and turning their ideas into reality
Focus on Newcastle University: GEW Week
This year we focused a bit closer to home and a got a chance to see what one local university was doing during the week.
Newcastle University’s Rise Up team celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week by inviting enterprising students across campus to become more involved in making a big change for a better future. The week was hosted by Prof. Paul Younger, chair of the Global Scientific Committee, and comprised exciting activities and a competition that gave students the chance to win £500 in exchange of the best sustainable idea. One of the most anticipated activities was the World Cafe event, a high-energy, interactive conversation for big thinkers, which got 10 students from a variety of disciplines and nationalities to work in groups and develop realistic solutions to real-world challenges. All of the events were awarded the High Impact badge from the official GEW organisers, in recognition of pushing the boundaries of enterprise to build skills and gain results.
The students also received great advice from Simon Barker from Heatwave, who shared his insight into what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and divulged his top tips for pitching to investors. The groups presented their concepts to Prof. Younger and Phil Pattison, the finance director for Newcastle Science City. Christina Zacharia, who was part of the winning team, shared her enthusiasm for the event: “This is the most exciting activity I have taken part in whilst being at university. I have learned so much and made some good friends. I am looking forward to meeting with the Rise Up team to talk about my idea further.”
The ‘Big Green Idea’ competition also ran throughout the week and a fabulous 270 entries were recorded by the Rise Up team, who chose the best, most innovative business idea for a greener community. Following this success, Rise Up will be launching further campaign weeks in 2012 – to find out more details on how to become involved, visit Rise Up's website http://www.ncl.ac.uk/careers/riseup/