Featured Events

Mentoring Madness
November 16
New York, New York

Mentoring Madness offers aspiring entrepreneurs a change to get advice that makes a difference. This year’s panel of experts includes rapper Snoop Dogg, Blake Mycoskie, Chief Shoe Giver of TOMs Shoes; Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital; and, Stephen P. Hanson, founder and president of B.R. Guest Restaurants. The panel will offer advice to a group of university students gathered at the New York Stock Exchange November 16, which will be available for Webcast during Global Entrepreneurship Week events around the world. The event will also feature three finalists from Movers & Changers, a nationwide business plan competition run by mtvU and NYSE Euronext to uncover creative capitalists who will do create a profitable and sustainable venture that also provides something positive for a community, the country, or the world. These finalists will give their business pitches to the panel, with the top idea awarded $25,000 in startup funds.

Global Cleantech Open Ideas Competition
November 17
San Francisco, California

The boldest cleantech ideas, the most ambitious entrepreneurs and the brightest, most engaged investors will join together during Global Entrepreneurship Week for the Cleantech Open Ideas Competition – the world’s largest clean technology business competition. Twenty-two countries have held regional competitions, with young people sharing business plans for everything from revolutionary ways to generate clean energy, to better ways to filter water, to ideas about how governmental policies around climate change can foster new businesses. On November 17 the top idea from each country will be presented as part of the Cleantech Open Awards Gala in San Francisco, for a chance to win a $250,000 prize package. All of these ideas will be presented for the chance to win startup funding and development services at the Global Finals Gala, held in San Francisco on November 17. Several leading entrepreneurs will also speak at the event, including Bill Weihl, Google Green Energy Czar; Steve Westly, Westly Group; Mayor Chuck Reed, City of San Jose; and, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, State of California.

Global Innovation Tournament

The Global Innovation Tournament is a fast-paced competition that will challenge student teams to solve a common, global problem in about eight days, creating as much value as possible. The “global problem” will be revealed November 4, with more than 60 teams from 15 countries working to develop a solution and document it in a YouTube video, due by November 13. In the past, the tournament has yielded truly innovative products and services. What will be developed this year?

Speednetwork the Globe
November 16 - 22

Speednetwork the Globe aims to bring together entrepreneurs of all backgrounds to unleash energy, share ideas and make connections – fast. The event is simple: all you need is a whistle and a group of people wanting to network. Participants are given about five minutes to Speednetwork with another person. When time is up, a whistle is blown and everyone has to find someone new to talk to. Discussions can be about anything, but this is an opportunity to pose your burning entrepreneurial questions to a variety of people – including potential collaborators, mentors and investors. In 2008, more than 500 Speednetworking events took place in 31 countries, connecting approximately 25,000 people.

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
November 17
Kansas City, Missouri

Student entrepreneurs from up to 10 countries will compete in the finals of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, with more than $150,000 in prizes at stake. The GSEA is unique because all competitors have viable businesses with revenue ranging from US$100,000 to US$5.5 million and these competitors are full-time students. The top three winners of the competition will travel to compete at the 2009 GSEA Global Finals competition at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri on November 18-20, where they will present their companies to a panel of judges and world-class entrepreneurs.

“Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon” Screenings
November 16 - 22

In America, a kid drops out of high school every nine seconds ... imagine if they didn't. That's the question asked in a new film from award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio. Hailed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as "wonderful and inspirational," this compelling new documentary chronicles the remarkable stories of several inner-city teens who learn to become entrepreneurs. What they learn in the process profoundly changes their lives and destinies. The film will premiere during Global Entrepreneurship Week, with large-scale screenings at University of Miami, Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and one in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian's Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Additionally, a number of theaters around the country will show the film.

Startup Weekend
November 13-15 & November 20-22
9 U.S. cities & London

What can you accomplish in a weekend? With the help of StartupWeekend and Global Entrepreneurship Week, the answer is turning a business idea into reality. In ten cities, intensive, 54-hour marathons will be held in conjunction with the Week, providing networking, resources and incentives all designed to help entrepreneurs go from idea to launch. A highly-motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more will join together for the weekend to help entrepreneurs stop talking about their idea and start acting on it. They help build communities. They start companies. And, they get it all done by Monday morning. These events are scheduled in Boise, Tulsa, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Dallas, London, Silicon Valley and Lexington, Kentucky.

Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour
October 13 - November 18
California

The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour is a high-energy tour making stops on university campuses across the US. Unlike the typical entrepreneurship event these stops encourage text messaging, checking Facebook updates and listening to music. Of course there’s also a serious message of turning ideas into businesses, coming from young entrepreneurs who take the stage to share their stories and offer advice. The strategy has worked, inspiring 93 percent of attendees to take action towards a career in entrepreneurship. As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week this action will be tracked, asking students on 16 campuses to sign an official pledge to start a business within the next year.

Speednetwork the Globe: New York Experience
November 19-20
New York, New York

New York City will serve as a networking hub for DECA members from across the United States, as hundreds of students take part in DECA's New York Experience. High school and college students will kick off the event with a large-scale Speednetworking session, before hitting the bustling streets for educational activities with Madame Alexander Doll Company, Young Designers' Warehouse, Madison Square Garden, NBC Studios and more.

Angel Capital Summit: Igniting Innovation
November 17
Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado

The goal of the Angel Capital Summit is to bring entrepreneurs together with investors, but that meeting is just the beginning of the interaction the Summit can lead to for aspiring business leaders. It starts with hundreds of entrepreneurs submitting their business plans. Next, Summit Investor Partners from around the world weigh in on the plans with critiques and compliments, in an interactive, online forum. The top 40 ideas are then invited to go through a structured critique process with business experts and present their final pitch at the Angel Capital Summit, held in Denver, Colorado.
This year, the Summit will include a keynote address from Jack Zufelt, the author of The DNA of Success. Industry-specific investor presentations, broken out by stage of deal, will also be happening throughout the day, and streamed live online. Everyone attending the Summit will also get the chance for a once-in-a-lifetime interaction: to engage in a town hall meeting with Benjamin Franklin. The world-class inventor and innovator will end this year’s event with a presentation not to be missed.

Achieving Scale in Entrepreneurship
November 16
IFC World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC

Exciting things are happening around the world to advance entrepreneurship and the IFC World Bank is using Global Entrepreneurship Week as an opportunity to share these ideas and trends. They will host a workshop in Washington D.C. that will bring together development partners, foundations, research institutions, IFC clients and practitioners to highlight the efforts in supporting entrepreneurship in emerging markets and frontier countries, share best prac­tices on governance, explore challenges to ‘scaling-up’ successful enterprises in emerging markets, and identify solutions for entrepreneurs. Featured speakers include Iqbal Quadir of the MIT Legatum Center, Bob Litan of the Kauffman Foundation and Rachel Robbins of the IFC.

MIT Enterprise Forum
November 16
MIT Campus, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The MIT Enterprise Forum will answer the question many entrepreneurs have been posing to themselves the past few months, with a panel called “How To Succeed in a Down Economy.” The event will feature several successful entrepreneurs and business leaders discussing how companies can operate strategically and position their businesses for success in the current economic landscape, how to find alternative financing, how to add talent to a team, and the critical ideas all business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs should be focusing on. Moderated by Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the event will take place live from the MIT Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and will be available for a global audience both during and after the event, via streaming video on the Web.

Destination Imagination: Creative Spark Challenge

The “Creative Spark Challenge” encourages students to go beyond the selection in the toy aisle and create their own game to play. Teams are asked to design a new, interactive game that will teach and motivate its players to communicate, create, problem solve and improve the world. The challenge also explores real-world issues, with contestants assigning price points, soliciting sponsors, and creating a commercial to post on YouTube. A public voting forum will determine the winner of the activity during Global Entrepreneurship Week, with a representative from the winning team awarded an all-expense-paid trip to Destination ImagiNation’s Global Finals to present the team’s product to 16,000 students and supporters. Destination ImagiNation, Inc. will then develop the product and offer it for sale from its Web site.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

A. Richard Newton Global Technology Leaders Conference: “Translating Technology into Cost Effective Healthcare
November 18
University of California, San Francisco

Our nation’s biggest health challenge today is curing the healthcare system itself, and only by combining the expertise of medicine and engineering can we solve the problem. That’s why the A. Richard Newton Global Technology Leaders Conference will focus on how new technologies and low-cost products and services could reduce hospital stays and give patients greater control over their own health. Andy Grove, the former chairman and CEO of Intel, will headline an accomplished list of speakers for the second A. Richard Newton Global Technology Leaders Conference. The insights from this event will be useful to healthcare industry innovators as well as policymakers.

Countdown to Global Entrepreneurship Week
November 16
Orange, California

Chapman University becomes the Times Square of Global Entrepreneurship Week in the US as engineering students from the University once again develop a way to host the Orange Ball Drop, counting down to midnight on the eve of the Week. Over 200 people are expected to attend the celebration, which will include music, videos and representatives from a number of international organizations.

Entrepreneurs’ Organization California events
November 16-17
San Francisco, California

Five of the West Coast chapters of Entrepreneurs’ Organization will join together in San Francisco during Global Entrepreneurship Week with one goal: Think Globally, Act Locally. The two-day event will include speeches from gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a fashion show featuring local designers, a “Taste of San Francisco” highlighting local and sustainable culinary offerings, and a formal gala celebrating the power of entrepreneurship.

Junior Achievement’s Titan Competition
November 20
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan

Over 250 students will compete in a business competition at Eastern Michigan University that incorporates basic business skills, computer simulation and a little bit of sports strategy. The Titan Competition, hosted by Junior Achievement, teaches students hands-on business skills through a computer program that tracks a hypothetical start-up business—determining performance index, productivity, market share and more. To add an extra element of competition, the event will be formatted similar to the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, with teams of students advancing through rounds of play. The “sweet 16” round will be highlighted on campus during the Week.

Will This Float?
November 19
Kingsport, Tennessee

The “Will This Float?” business pitch competition is much more than a man in a suit clicking through Powerpoint slides. Using lights, music and more, the event will invite top entrants to give a five-minute pitch of their idea to a panel of experts and a crowd of more than 100 people. The winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize, along with one-on-one time with experts at the ETSU Innovation Lab and the Tennessee Small Business Development Center.

Arts and Entrepreneurship Day: University of Miami
November 17
Miami, Florida

At the University of Miami entrepreneurship is an option for everyone, and the events planned for Global Entrepreneurship Week show just this by highlighting different themes each day—from women entrepreneurship, to arts and entertainment entrepreneurship, to sports entrepreneurship. On Tuesday, Arts and Entrepreneurship Day, an afternoon session will highlight Laurie Silver, founder of the SciFi Channel. That night, “An Evening with Fashion Entrepreneurs” will feature Donald J. Pliner, a successful entrepreneur who started his own line of men’s and women’s footwear bearing his name.

Women in Entrepreneurship Day: University of Miami
November 18
Miami, Florida

For the first time, all of the women’s groups in South Florida will partner together for Women in Entrepreneurship Day on November 18. Events will focus on creating a dialogue to address specific problems female entrepreneurs face, including a panel on accessing capital, a workshop assembling a team for growth, and a workshop teaching participants how to present a business for maximum results. Finally, Suzy Welch, a business journalist and author who is regularly featured in BusinessWeek and O magazine, will discuss leadership and goal-setting. The day will engage over 350 women from the community, over 50 female students and several organizations, including the Commonwealth Institute, Women in Executive Leadership, the Women's Chamber of Commerce and IT Women.

University of Wisconsin & Wageningen University Exchange Program
November 16 - 22

The University of Wisconsin is taking Global Entrepreneurship Week to a truly global scale with an interactive, international educational experience. Throughout the semester Wisconsin PhD students have been working with students from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. During the Week, the two groups will meet at Wageningen for five days of “Entrepreneurship Bootcamp”, centered around the theme of sustainable entrepreneurship. Students will form teams to work on business cases, supported by theoretical lectures from leading entrepreneurship experts. A Forum will highlight sustainable technologies in the works from students, researchers and more and allow developers to share ideas about how to take the products to market. The Week will end with a sustainable entrepreneurship party, incorporating what they’ve learned right into the event, with products like a dance floor that produces electricity from the very people dancing on it.

Confessions of a Bleacher Creature
November 17
Madison, Wisconsin

Sports and entrepreneurship will merge on the University of Wisconsin campus with an event featuring Kenny Dichter, founder and CEO of Marquis Jets, originator of Bucky’s Bleacher Creatures and business partner of Warren Buffet. The alumnus will offer his inspiring and entrepreneurial story, followed by a question and answer session and networking reception.