Major partners, regional coordinators and other leaders who are driving the Global Entrepreneurship Week movement in the US convened recently at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City for the National Partners’ Forum. The gathering gave participants the chance to learn more about the slate of featured events for GEW 2011 while sharing ideas on how to broaden their reach.

Four of the activities announced at the Forum are being recognized globally by 112 official GEW countries—Startup Open, Startup Weekend, Your Big Year, and the Cleantech Open Global Ideas Competition.

In the US, several additional activities have been tabbed as the ones to watch in GEW/USA—including:

·         World Series of Innovation: Middle school and high school classrooms pick from five innovation challenges in this competition, run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

·         YEC Live!: Up-and-coming young entrepreneurs will answer questions from aspiring innovators across the country during a webcast from the Young Entrepreneur Council.

·         Future of Entrepreneurship Education Summit: The most innovative entrepreneurship education initiatives will be center stage at this summit, hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC.

·         Global Student Entrepreneur Awards: GSEA is a business competition for students who own and run a business while attending high school, college or university.

·         Global Innovation Game: GiG is a Facebook game that is a competitive marketplace of ideas where a player can buy, sell and create solutions to the world’s challenges.

In addition to hearing these announcements, participants at the Forum took part in a breakout session to discuss upcoming plans and improve coordination and communication between partners. In one session, Regional Coordinators and national partners, such as DECA, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Startup Digest, and Startup Weekend, met to address the growing national and regional movement. New resources provided by the national planning team, successful strategies used in regional campaigns, event ideas, and ways to expand the reach and impact of GEW were the primary topics discussed. The discussion generated many great ideas and strategies or GEW 2011. A few examples:

·         Hugo Gonzales, the regional coordinator for Los Angeles and the president of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Institute, shared his success with securing support from locally elected officials through town hall meetings and networking with members of city councils.

·         Kristin Bergmann, a member of the regional coordinating team for Tulsa GEW, mentioned how her team secured a media partner to help promote GEW in Tulsa, which brought more visibility to their activities.

In another breakout session, regional Kansas City partners met to go over similar topics and to work out the logistics of planned events along with ways to collaborate on larger events and activities.

An overview of tools, tactics and resources available to GEW/USA partners provided participants with even more ideas on how to run successful GEW events and led to productive discussions that carried on throughout the conference. As a whole, this year’s GEW/USA National Forum was a great way to kickoff the planning phase for November and coordinate efforts. Participating partners left better equipped to effectively handle the preparations for GEW 2011.

tags: gew, gew usa, kansas city, national forum