News
YBI Network supports Global Entrepreneurship Week
1 December 2009
Youth Business International is proud to be a
global partner of Global Entrepreneurship Week – an initiative to
inspire young people to think about entrepreneurship and explore
their potential as self-starters and innovators. An annual
event, next year's Global Entrepreneurship Week will run from 15-21
November 2010.
This year's week ran from 16-22 November
2009. It comprised a range of activities – from large-scale
competitions to networking events – that hoped to inspire young
people to embrace innovation and creativity and to connect them to
the people that can help kick-start their business.
Youth Business International supported
the Week through:
- The launch of a set of recommendations for
local and national governments and businesses on practical ways to
support young entrepreneurs.
- Using our Entrepreneur of the Year
competition to showcase the best of youth entrepreneurship around
the world. During the week before Global Entrepreneurship Week, we
asked the general public to vote online for their favourite
entrepreneur, who then was awarded the People’s Choice
award.
- In addition, YBI marked the start of the week
with a dinner hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales, where the winner
of the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year Award was announced.
Here are just some of the many things that
members of YBI’s global network did to support the
Week:
Barbados Youth Business
Trust
- In conjunction with its
partners – which include USAID, the Chamber of Commerce and the US
embassy - BYBT held various panel discussions on a diverse set
of topics, ranging from “reviving the Barbadian entrepreneurial
spirit” to the impact of climate change on youth businesses.
- The BYBT Bi-annual Arts
& Craft Exhibition was held during Global Entrepreneurship Week
– an event which allowed 15 young artist entrepreneurs to showcase
and promote their businesses.
Youth Business Bulgaria
- Young students from grades 3 and 4 at the
119th school in Sofia formed “mini-companies,” devising product
ideas and delegating themselves into different departments, which
they presented before a jury and audience of VIP guests from the
private sector as well as state and municipal institutions.
Canadian Youth Business
Foundation
- CYBF partnered up with media relations agency cg6 to
set up ONCONTACT withanEntrepreneur, an open-mic event that showcased 12
industry-experienced entrepreneurs. Travelling across two
cities over three nights, the entrepreneurs spoke candidly on
the hardships and perks, the highs and the lows of running a
business.
- Three entrepreneurs faced up
against judges from popular TV show Dragon’s Den to win a
PropertyGuys.com franchise, worth an estimated $100,000. Held
at the Canadian Broadcast Centre in Toronto, the event was open to
the public and encouraged everyone to “come down to experience what
will be an intense showdown.”
Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust
(India)
- Each BYST chapter that
comprises of over 50 mentors and entrepreneurs met during the month
of November to “speed network” on issues of energy consumption and
savings. Their collective ideas went into a think tank on BYST’s
portal, to be made available for network members.
- Over 1,000 entrepreneurs of
small and medium-sized enterprises, along with their mentors on the
BYST network, took a public oath to help support one another
in their entrepreneurial endeavours.
The Centennial Fund (Saudi
Arabia)
- The Centennial Fund was pivotal
in driving the 16,000 votes which gave Saudi entrepreneur
Ghadah Baaqil a landslide victory in the People’s Choice
Award. In addition to creating a website in support of their
entrepreneur (http://www.vote4ghada.com), they
also reached out to their network members about the competition
through a variety of other online and face-to-face mediums.
Their outreach was infectious: A group of 12 young IT students also
volunteered to spread the word on Global Entrepreneurship Week
throughout the web, and other social groups dispersed information
to Saudi societies that are based as far as
Melbourne.
For more information
on Global Entrepreneurship Week visit http://www.unleashingideas.org/.