Brown, Sarkozy & Schwarzenegger back first Global Entrepreneurship Week
November 17th, 2008 by hbourneSo what’s all the fuss about you may ask? Well, here’s what we sent to the press yesterday:
• UK’s successful Enterprise Week goes global
• 77 countries take part in first Global Entrepreneurship Week
• UK takes lead with around 6,000 events and over half a million participants
• Around the world over 13,000 events will take place in 77 countries
• Big name supporters include Gordon Brown, President Sarkozy, Lord Mandelson & Arnold Schwarzenegger
The UK’s fifth annual Enterprise Week starts today, bigger and bolder than ever at a time of massive economic change.
Recognising the global nature of many of the challenges we face, UK Enterprise Week has inspired – and will run simultaneously with – the first Global Entrepreneurship Week. This aims to connect enterprising young people in the UK with their counterparts in other parts of the world, and ultimately create a global movement of entrepreneurial people.
Created by the UK’s business-led, government-backed Make Your Mark campaign and the US-based Kauffman Foundation, the first Global Entrepreneurship Week will see millions of young people participate. More than 13,000 events are taking place in 77 countries involving an estimated five million people, from Bolivia to Bulgaria and Mexico to Mozambique.
The UK will be leading from the front with around 6,000 registered events coordinated by over 2,000 different organisations. This is a massive increase in events from the first Enterprise Week in 2004, when there were just 1175.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:
“Speaking at the first ever Enterprise Week I said ‘that an idea that started with only a few people and such little financial support should become in just a small time such a big campaign involving thousands across the country is itself a tribute to the spirit of enterprise.’
“That this same idea and people should now, just four years later, have inspired and driven a global campaign involving millions of people in 77 countries is even more remarkable. Global Entrepreneurship Week is a shining example of Britain leading the world in enterprise and innovation. At this time of unprecedented global change, I congratulate everyone involved in Global Entrepreneurship Week for encouraging people and countries to work together to find new ways to succeed.”
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson added: “Enterprise and innovation are the key to the UK’s future economic growth and success in today’s unsettled global market. Through initiatives such as Global Entrepreneurship Week we can inspire the next wave of entrepreneurs to create a ‘can do’ culture.”
Harry Rich, Chief Executive of the Make Your Mark campaign, said today: “Now more than ever we must do all we can to drive up levels of enterprise. In this global economic downturn we rely on enterprising people with new thinking and guts to lead us out of the recession.
“In times like these it might be tempting to adopt a protectionist ‘little Britain’ mentality, batten down the hatches and turn our backs on the world. That would be a disaster and Global Entrepreneurship Week captures the spirit of what we must do. We must re-double our efforts to foster international links, inspire our young entrepreneurs, connect them with each other and to take a global approach to global problems.”
Richard Lambert, CBI Director-General, said: “By encouraging connections and collaborations across borders, Global Entrepreneurship Week will help to excite and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
He added: “It will encourage young people to pursue their enterprising ideas, and help connect them to others who can guide and support them. It is a great way to inspire a generation to be entrepreneurial, and to use their creativity as a force for good.”
Others supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week in the UK include big name entrepreneurs and leading business figures: Richard Branson; Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI; Peter Jones and James Caan of Dragons’ Den; Lord Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer; Penny Newman, the new CEO of social enterprise Fifteen; eco-preneur Jo Wood; Simon Woodroffe, founder of Yo! Sushi; Levi Roots, founder of Reggae Reggae Sauce; Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project; Dan’L Lewin, VP of Start Ups at Microsoft; Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman (co-founders of lastminute.com); Julie Meyer, CEO of Ariadne Capital; Gita Patel of Stargate Capital; and social entrepreneur John Bird, founder of the Big Issue.
Those backing the week in other parts of the world include President Sarkozy, Governor Schwarzenegger and China’s equivalent to Donald Trump, Pan Shiyi.
Today (Monday), some of these business leaders and top entrepreneurs will gather on London’s Southbank to mark the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Part of the Chain Reaction forum on social change, the event will ask: In the current economic climate can entrepreneurs change the world? They will be joined by the Prime Minister’s Global Fellows, a group of 100 school and college leavers who have recently returned from six weeks in the emerging economies of Brazil, India and China.
Highlights in the UK include its biggest event, the Make Your Mark Challenge with more than 55,000 young people taking part – a 45% increase on 2007. Students in nearly 1,000 schools and colleges around the country will be tackling the UK’s biggest ever live enterprise competition today fronted by TV double act, and former Hollyoaks stars, Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries.
And for those not attending events www.enterpriseweek.org.uk has lots of information, advice and inspiration for budding young entrepreneurs. As well as blogs, photos and videos from events, there will also be:
• Daily web chats at 13:00hrs BST (17 – 21 November)
• Video interviews and advice from Fifteen Foundation CEO, Penny Newman; ‘Ideas Man’ Shed Simove; One Water Chief Exec, Duncan Goose; and ‘Risking it all’ Halos and Horns entrepreneur Leila Wilcox
• Video diaries from Make Your Mark ambassadors including Fraser Doherty of SuperJam, Clippykit’s Calypso Rose and Peter Ward of travel network ‘Where Are You Now?’ who will be in San Francisco
• Podcasts from social entrepreneurs (including Tokumbo Ajasa-Oluwa from Catch 22, Lottie Cunningham Streetz Ahead, St Michaels CofE School, Ash Rahman from Pro Touch Soccer academy)
• Mobile photos from events organisers at www.enterpriseweek.org.uk/share
• The debate from the week’s flagship event, taking place on Monday 17 November at www.enterpriseweek.org.uk/debate
Young people can talk to others around the world in the forums at www.unleashingideas.org and answer Unleash It! challenges set by organisations such as IBM, Jelly Belly UK, Shell Livewire and the Federation of City Gardens.
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