GEN UK

Entrepreneurs are the life blood of the economy. They are the innovators, job creators, export drivers and the nation’s wealth creators. This November we will be hosting Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) to encourage, showcase, and celebrate the wannabees, startups and scaleups. GEW was created by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Kauffman Foundation in 2008. 16 years later it is active in 200 countries, with around 10 million people expected to participate in 40,000 events, a remarkable achievement the UK should be proud of. Now in 2024 we have a new government with a mission to grow the economy. Expanding and speeding up the economy can only effectively be done once the government implements its Industrial Strategy, creating a roadmap and incentives for investment, skills, employment, exports and much more. The Chancellor made a welcome announcement yesterday that following next month’s green paper and consultation with business, the new Industrial Strategy will be published in the Spring, 8 years after the previous one. Meanwhile, last week the German government held their Startup Summit as they position Germany as a leading centre for innovation and entrepreneurial growth in Europe. Olaf Scholz and his ministers announced a 12 billion euros fund for growth financing of startups, part of a startup strategy with no less than 130 measures from access to data to expansion of the de:hub network. Plenty of initiatives to inspire UK’s strategists to put entrepreneurs front and centre. In anticipation, and with the GEW theme ‘Entrepreneurs Thrive Here’, we are inviting towns, cities and regions across the UK to champion their entrepreneurs and strengthen their ecosystems ability to innovate and grow. If you would like your town, city or region to be a GEW Champion please get in touch. Global Entrepreneurship Week is open to everyone to take part - hope to see you in November. #entrepreneurship #gew2024 #startup #scaleup #gewuk #founder #innovation #champion #gordonbrown

Thursday was World Business Women Day. GEN UK's Marc Ortmans joined a special event hosted by @Savvitas with a series of global conversations with inspiring leaders to launch 1 Million Business Women held at the House of Lords. Savvitas unveiled the #1MBW movement, with a bold commitment to empower one million women in business globally with a focus on investment into women’s business. Watch this space! Speakers included Kevin Hollinrake MP Shadow Business Secretary Noreen Burroughes Cesareo FRSA President OWIT UK Brenda VanHorn Commercial Counselor, Department of Commerce International Trade Administration, US Embassy Dr. Ama Onyerinma Chair, Africa British Business Group; UK Department of Business & Trade  Baroness Manzila Uddin Yvonne G. Director, Women in Business, NatWest Rina Newton Founder, Code Clarity Catherine Wright HSBC Innovation Banking Karina Govindji, Google Angelique Mohring GainX Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach Maggie Berry OBE Baroness Lorely Burt Jill Pay first Female Sergeant at Arms Helen Pankhurst Chair, Centenary Action Kim Overall Sony Pictures Entertainment @The Earl of Erroll, Baroness Verma Helene Martin Gee Sue Lawton MBE and Savvitas Global Ambassadors:  Donnetta Campbell (USA) Paula Bekinschtein (S.America) Despina Anastasiou (Australia) Aisha Izzet FRSA (Saudi) Sheetal Mehta (Canada) Runa Magnusdottir(Iceland) Rudo Nondo (Africa) Vena Ramphal (India) Nicola Whitehead (EU) Insiyah R. (Dubai) #WBWDay #investinwomen #equity #growtheeconomy #womeninbusiness #femalefounders #innovation #maleallies

It’s 5 weeks until Global Entrepreneurship Week UK kicks off with 40,000 events and activities expected to take place across 200 countries. GEN UK is hosting GEW UK, 18-24 November, with our colleagues at Centre for Entrepreneurs. This year we are focusing on place with the theme, Entrepreneurs Thrive Here. We are inviting towns, cities and regions across the UK to champion their entrepreneurs and strengthen their ecosystems ability to innovate and grow. Being a GEW Champion provides the catalyst to discover a community’s hidden potential, and support startup and scaling businesses to thrive, create jobs and attract inward investment. Through building closer, more integrated relationships helps reveal the strengths and challenges of an ecosystem - the first step to a better understanding of the targeted support needed - from training to funding required to grow. With a comprehensive map of the ecosystem enables communities to achieve more informed and effective marketing and promotion. GEW is the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurship and open to everyone from the wannapreneurs to the founders of startups and scaleups, all ages, all stages, all sectors. We would love to promote your events so please get in touch or post at gew.co What are you planning?

GEN UK was delighted to support our colleagues at 22 ON SLOANE and their delegation of startups on their visit to the UK from South Africa. Following a dinner held at the Savoy with the Deputy President of South Africa, His Excellency Paul Mashatile, the entrepreneurs had an opportunity to visit leading players in the UK innovation ecosystem, including a session at UCL Innovation & Enterprise BaseKX hosted by Director for Entrepreneurship Jerry Allen. BaseKX has created 500 graduate startups and is one of the world’s leading incubators. Over at the Estonia Embassy Oxentia and Accelerate Estonia hosted a Pitch Day to discover the most promising UK startups facing regulatory barriers to growth. Excited to see some extraordinary innovative startups in the room. Estonia’s fast and agile regulatory environment is helping move UK business and product development forward by suspending regulation while innovative solutions are trialed. This is a model the UK government could adopt. October will see Savvitas launch the 1-Million Business Women Movement #1MBW on World Business Women Day 2024 #WBWDay. Later this month The Jobs Foundation will be launching their report - Two Million Jobs: How businesses play a crucial role in helping people from welfare into work. At the same time they will be advocating for a conducive business environment, so entrepreneurs can do even more for their local communities. And coming up next month we will be hosting Global Entrepreneurship Week, 18-24 November, with our colleagues at Centre for Entrepreneurs. We will be focusing on place with this year’s theme, #EntrepreneursThriveHere. We are inviting towns, cities and regions across the UK to champion their entrepreneurs and strengthen their ecosystems ability to innovate and grow. Whether you want to host or attend an event, #GEWUK2024 is open to everyone. We would love to promote your events so please get in touch or post at gew.co

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Which one are you? 😂

June was certainly a month of weeks. It was hard to miss the influx of international leaders from the worlds of tech, fintech and climate action as they gathered in London last month. London Climate Action Week saw 45,000 people join 300 events across the capital - a wealth of workshops, receptions, breakfasts, roundtables, meet-ups, dinners, policy discussions, launches, hangouts, forums, webinars, programmes and clinics. Secretary John Kerry, Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE, and Baroness Scotland all gave stirring presentations at the Climate Innovation Forum focusing on the urgency to walk the talk. Kerry pointed out passing 1.5 will lead to unprecedented mass migration as food and water become scarce. A similar number of entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and business leaders from 150 countries also London Tech Week. At Olympia and at scores of side events, London’s tech ecosystem showed by example why it is simply the best city to set up and grow a tech business. Over at the Park Plaza in Victoria, 1,000 leaders from banking, investment firms and regulators focused on innovation and inclusivity at Fintech Week London. London Tech Week finished for GEN UK with presentations and networking hosted by JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization expanding open innovation with the UK following last year’s Hiroshima Accord. As well as all that, we celebrated National Women’s Enterprise Week with female entrepreneurs at the The The British Library and at Business & IP Centres across the UK. Founder Alison Cork MBE announced winners of the Women’s Launch Lab, an incubator designed to help female founders scale. And as we wrap up the last week of the UK Elections, soon we'll be celebrating another week 18-24 November. Join us for Global Entrepreneurship Week UK 2024!

GEN and Startup Genome presented the 2024 edition of the Global Startup Ecosystem Report at London Tech Week. Now in its 12th year, the GSER provides insights into the world’s leading startup ecosystems, emerging trends, and key challenges facing entrepreneurs. It is based on extensive research and analysis of data from 4.5 million startups across 300 global ecosystems and over a decade of independent research and providing policy advice to more than 160 economic and innovation ministries and public/private agencies in over 55 countries. Download it here. https://lnkd.in/dSCU7g9V GEN UK Ambassador, Arif Z., hosted a London Tech Week special edition of his Business Show on Bloomsbury Radio. Guesting on the show is serial entrepreneur and investor, Zahra Shah. Among her many hats Zahra is President of the newly opened Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) London Chapter. Also joining Zahra and GEN UK Chair, Marc Ortmans, on the Business Show is the amazing 26 year old Zubair Junjunia, founder and CEO of ZNotes, a youth-led tech platform providing free access to learning resources and peer-learning support for secondary school exams. Zubair started ZNotes at just 16 which now reaches over 5 million students in 190+ countries. You can listen on Spotify here. https://lnkd.in/etAe_Zkj Meanwhile at Olympia, London Tech Week’s new home, its buzzing - packed with exhibitors and concurrent sessions. The Climate Tech Pitch Showcase provided a glimpse of high impact ones to watch - Kestrix, Greenworkx, ENSO, Materials Nexus, twig and CLUBZERØ. Having outgrown the QE2 Conference Centre, LTW’s expansion is evidence of London’s tech sectors importance on the world stage.

Delighted to attend the annual afternoon tea at the House of Lords hosted by Merlin Erroll and Savitaas to celebrate the achievements of #WomenLeaders, #WomenEntrepreneurs and the support of #MaleAllies. Guest of Honour, Baroness @Floella Benjamin of Beckenham took us through the stone mullioned window and talked about the importance Consideration, Contentment, Confidence and Courage. Special thanks to Helene Martin Gee founder of Savitaas. Jill Pay Catherine Wright Rina Newton Suki Kaur Chartered FCIPD Jean O'Hara Sue Lawton MBE Yvonne G. Brenda King MBE FRSA