Who attends GEC?

The Global Entrepreneurship Congress is open to all members of entrepreneurship ecosystems from everywhere in the world.

It is a global sharing, learning and networking vehicle for entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, researchers, corporate executives, entrepreneurship support organisations and other thought leaders who have an interest in building stronger local ecosystems and expanding their global reach.

attendees
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Entrepreneurs

The GEC welcomes entrepreneurs who are actively engaged in building and strengthening your local and national ecosystems. While many entrepreneurship events are built for founders looking to promote their startup, the GEC attracts community leaders dedicated to collaborating with other ecosystem stakeholders to maximize impact.

Investors

The GEC welcomes influential investors working to identify and nurture promising start-ups so that they can scale globally. This includes members of the Global Business Angels Network, an inclusive global community of early-stage investor networks seeking to increase access to early-stage capital by developing angel investor capacity in burgeoning entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Media

The GEC will invite media outlets and reporters who are at the forefront of entrepreneurship coverage around the world. These are institutions with broad national reach as well as those start-up / entrepreneurship-focused “industry” outlets or reporters providing regular in-depth coverage of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Government / Policymakers

National-level

The GEC invites government agencies and individuals who are responsible for leading efforts to create the proper policy environment for entrepreneurs in their countries. These can help guide GEN efforts around government and policy – and potentially lead to government support of those efforts.

GEN Global, the OECD, regional World Bank offices, UNCTAD and representation. from Governments from across the globe, will be inviting relevant national authorities to participate in the Start-up Nations Ministerial on the first day of the GEC. Please note that the Ministerial is only open to Ministers and their official delegations as formally communicated by the authorities‘ respective offices.

Ecosystem Leaders

The GEC welcomes entrepreneurial support organizations and individuals, both those that are already involved with GEN and those that are learning about GEN for the first time. GEN is partnered with ecosystem leaders from 200 countries and leaders from GEN affiliates will be building robust delegations of entrepreneurial support actors from within their local ecosystem.

Corporate Leaders

The GEC welcomes established companies are prominently active in the startup or entrepreneurship space. These are companies that offer substantive programs to engage with and provide direct support to entrepreneurs.

Government / Policymakers

Local- and sub-national level

The GEC also welcomes individuals inside city governments or offices with jurisdictions different from that of Ministerial guests. While they may not have access to the Ministerial, there will be plenty of policy dialogues at the GEC where they can weigh in, and if they like the GEN Community, it may open an opportunity to join the Start-up Nations policymaker network.

Researchers / Academics

The GEC welcomes entities that are conducting entrepreneurial research and gathering data about their local ecosystem. This includes members of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network, a community of institutions serving the field of practitioners in entrepreneurship ecosystem building, with data collection, rigorous analysis and actionable insights to achieve greater impact.

Creative Industries

Education

Fintech & Financial Services

Food & Agriculture

Tourism

Government

Health & Life Sciences

Mining, Resources & Energy

Space & Defense

Sports

Target Sectors