GEW UK 2020 will be inspiring entrepreneurs to drive growth by focusing on innovation and job creation

Worldlabs GEW

Global Entrepreneurship Week goes live 16-22 November and will be celebrated across the UK and in over 170 countries. GEW UK will be packed with panels, talks, workshops, competitions and awards ceremonies.

GEW UK is hosted by GEN UK (Global Entrepreneurship Network UK). For the first time GEW UK will be delivered almost entirely online and coordinated through GEN UK’s new virtual HUB which will launch on Monday 5th October 2020. GEW UK 2020 will be our most ambitious campaign to date, with events taking place across the nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

Any organisation can create an event and be part of the GEW UK campaign.

GEW UK 2020’s overarching theme is ‘Reset for Growth’ and the events across the Week will cover related topics through a series of webinars, panels, and talks delivered by GEN UK and a range of partner organisations. Daily themes are as follows:

Monday: Community – Cities, hubs, teams and social enterprise

Tuesday: Reset – Covid19 response, innovation, technology – new normal

Wednesday: Inclusion – Female founders, diversity, equality, access

Thursday: Growth – Investment, funding, support, policy 

Friday: Resilience – Founder wellbeing, agile working, mentoring 

Saturday: Education Entrepreneurship education, re-skilling 

Sunday: Action – Next steps, strategies for 2021

Entrepreneurship’s rock stars and gurus will offer insights and tell their stories throughout the Week. Our advance line-up includes Rob Stephenson CEO InsideOut, Ben Brabyn Founder Genie Shares, Jonny Jacobs Director of Finance Starbucks, Mark Rowland CEO The Mental Health Foundation, Jacqui Taylor CEO Flying Binary, Judge Kameel Khan Founder Project ReMake, Rafael dos Santos Founder GuidedPR, and Sharath Jeevan Founder Intrinsic Labs.

Partner events include the Tata Varsity Pitch 2020 Grand Final, Great British Entrepreneur National Awards, 2020 Super Connect Series Finals, Pink Shoe Finals, YBI – Global Youth Entrepreneurship Festival, Young Enterprise & Empact Ventures Company Programme.

Participation is free and open to all. Participants need to join the GEN UK HUB and select the events they wish to attend, at which point they will receive an automatic calendar invite with joining instructions. Through the HUB, participants can also join group discussions, connect with speakers and other attendees, and showcase their ideas and startups to the community. GEW UK 2020 event recordings and media will be accessible through the HUB’s Resources area.

Jonathan Ortmans, President of GEN Global and Founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week said,

“The pandemic of 2020 was tailor made for a global response, but never got one. Global Entrepreneurship Week, which was born and inspired by the British entrepreneurial spirit will now challenge the citizens of all nations to work together in building back our economies, stronger than ever.”

Ortmans added, “Entrepreneurs not only thrive on change and disruption, they generate almost all the net new jobs in our economies. The UK needs more entrepreneurs and GEW invites everyone to rise to the challenge, look at the doers, dreamers and risk takers around them, and then ask themselves whether they can see themselves too as a starter figuring out new ways of doing things.”

Elaine Gold, Director of GEW UK 2020 commented,

“I think our programme for GEW UK 2020 is our most exciting yet.  We have some of the UK’s leading thinkers and change-makers sharing their insights and practical advice for all those committed to being part of resetting our economy post Covid-19.  We value inclusivity and community, and our plans for GEW include an invitation for you to get involved before and after the week via our new GEN UK HUB platform.  We hope many of you will take us up on this!” #RESET

Learn more about Global Entrepreneurship Week.


Bekki Barnes

With 5 years’ experience in marketing, Bekki has knowledge in both B2B and B2C marketing. Bekki has worked with a wide range of brands, including local and national organisations.

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