Global Entrepreneur Week Launches First In New Zealand

Mayoral Launch Of Global Initiative

Wellington, 12 November 2009 – The launch of the international Global Entrepreneur Week starts first in the world in Wellington next Monday with an ‘innovation breakfast’ at the Wellington mayoral chambers lead by GEW patron and TradeMe founder Sam Morgan and Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast.

Global Entrepreneur Week was launched by Prime Minister John Key and Sam Morgan last month. With the goal of inspiring young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week is designed encourage young people to think about creative ideas that can create business opportunities.

The emphasis this year is upon environmentally-friendly innovation and ‘green’ business ideas, but the range of initiatives from the organization worldwide is huge and involves thousands of participants worldwide.

GEW-NZ flagship program Unleash It! In the Workplace, focuses on stimulating an innovative and entrepreneurial culture within workplaces with the idea of stimulating workers to produce ideas that will increase productivity in their workplaces and to develop workplace team building at the same time.

Officially launched on the 8th of October, this program has already grown prior to the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Already, New Zealand Post, Business New Zealand, and Mojo Coffee endorse this effort and will run events through their companies.

A ‘Speed networking’ event is occurring in New Plymouth, on 16 November, at 8 A.M., a speednetworking event on the GEW initiative, lead by New Plymouth mayor Peter Tenant and Stuart Trundall of Venture Taranaki. Sam Morgan, patron of GEW NZ will announce the speed networking topic and speak to the audience about entrepreneurship from the mayoral launch in Wellington

Other GEW events include the ‘Clean Tech Challenge’ which is a worldwide call to action to create new products and innovations to address climate change, the ‘e pitch challenge’ and other events commemorating the global initiative.

About Global Entrepreneurship Week

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.

ENDS

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