WASHINGTON, DC, Nov 05 (MARKET WIRE) --
More than 1,000 partners -- including top universities, non-profit
organizations, successful entrepreneurs, government agencies and
corporate sponsors -- have currently signed up to support and initiate
activities for Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA 2009, Nov. 16 - 22. The
Week will engage young people in 87 countries around the world and
encourage them to pursue entrepreneurial ideas through local, national
and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as
self-starters and innovators.
Those interested in participating can identify a host of activities,
including virtual and face-to-face events, large-scale competitions and
intimate networking gatherings through the interactive Global
Entrepreneurship Week activities calendar
(http://www.unleashingideas.org/usa/activities_calendar). The activities
calendar, which lists hundreds of events across the United States, can be
searched by key word or sorted by location to help participants access the
Week's many resources and events.
Among the notable activities included in the calendar is NYSE Euronext
Mentoring Madness, which brings together well-known entrepreneurs -- like
Snoop Dogg and Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes -- with more than 200 local
college students and aspiring entrepreneurs to create an open dialogue
about successful entrepreneurship. Also included on the calendar are movie
screenings for "Ten9Eight," a documentary that chronicles the stories of
the teenage entrepreneurs who arrive in New York City for a grueling day
of presentations in a national business plan competition organized by the
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). For more information on
these and other featured activities, please visit here
http://www.unleashingideas.org/usa/featured.
Co-founded in 2008 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the United
States and Make Your Mark, a business-led, government-backed campaign in
the United Kingdom, Global Entrepreneurship Week is designed to inspire
the next generation of entrepreneurs.
"During last year's inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week, we engaged
more than 3 million people in more than 75 countries around the globe,"
said Carl Schramm, president and chief executive officer of the Kauffman
Foundation. "With the support generated so far in 2009, we're set to reach
even more young people, inspiring them to acquire the knowledge, skills
and networks needed to grow innovative, sustainable enterprises that have
a positive impact on their lives and communities."
States with the highest number of partner organizations to date include:
Michigan (93 partners); California (90 partners); Pennsylvania (53
partners); New York (49 partners); Massachusetts (44 partners); Tennessee
(44 partners); Texas (38 partners); Virginia (37 partners) Missouri (36
partners); Ohio (29 partners).
States with highest number of confirmed activities to date include:
Tennessee (52 events); California (41 events); Michigan (40 events);
Florida (37 events); New Jersey (31 events); New York (29 events);
Massachusetts (25 events); Oklahoma (22 events); Pennsylvania (20 events);
Wisconsin (19 events).
Organizations supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week include Global
Sponsor NYSE Euronext; Global Partners Endeavor, Junior Achievement
Worldwide (JA), Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), DECA, the Prince's Youth
Business International, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), UK
Department for Business Innovation and Skills, MIT Enterprise Forum, the
European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, and Youth Enterprise and
Sustainability.
To view a complete list of participating countries and organizations, or
to learn more about the Week, visit www.unleashingideas.org.
About Global Entrepreneurship Week
With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination
and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think
big, turn their ideas into reality, and make their mark. From Nov. 16-22,
2009, millions of young people around the world will join a growing
movement to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things. Tens
of thousands of activities are being planned in dozens of countries.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign. For more information, visit
www.unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.
Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation
that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow
economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other
initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to
the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education,
raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find
alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and
technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators,
entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through
initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science
and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing
Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has
approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit
www.kauffman.org, and follow @kauffmanfdn on Twitter.
Make Your Mark
Make Your Mark is a national campaign to create an enterprise culture
among young people in the UK. It does this by giving people in their
teens and 20s the inspiration and opportunity to turn their ideas into
reality, whether through starting businesses or social enterprises or by
making an idea happen at work. It is funded by the Department for
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and was founded by the four
main UK business organizations -- the British Chambers of Commerce, CBI,
Federation of Small Businesses and Institute of Directors. Make Your Mark
leads a campaign coalition of 25 national organizations from education,
the voluntary sector, business and government.
Contact:
Barbara Pruitt
The Kauffman Foundation
(816) 932-1288
bpruitt@kauffman.org
Nova Halliwell
M Booth & Associates
(212) 481-7000
novah@mbooth.com
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