Rio de Janeiro to host 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Congress

Nisthar Cassim in Liverpool, UK

Brazil’s enterprising city Rio de Janeiro was selected this week to host the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), the world’s largest gathering of start-up champions.

The announcement was made in Liverpool, UK, which hosted the 2012 edition of the GEC this week with around 3,000 in attendance.

Next year’s GEC will be the fifth in the series with the first one held in 2009 in Kansas City, the hometown of the US-based Kauffman Foundation, which spearheads the global initiative. Shanghai, China and Dubai of United Arab Emirates were the other hosts, whilst the latter is also the host country for the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2012.

Sri Lanka also annually celebrates Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), with Young Entrepreneur Sri Lanka (YESL) founded by senior business leader Patrick Amarasinghe as the host. YESL covers around 10,000 school children and 2,000 university students with entrepreneurship education.

The Congress, which includes weeklong activities in Liverpool celebrating entrepreneurship and nurturing young entrepreneurships and start-ups, concludes today (16 March).

On Tuesday the Congress was keynoted by Virgin founder and global icon Sir Richard Branson and among other over 20 speakers were Tesco’s former CEO Sir Terry Leahy, UK’s former Deputy Premier and founder of Haymarket Publishing Group Lord Michael Heseltine and Lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox.

Amid the most challenging economic downturn in post-war history, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress this year highlighted business brilliance, showcasing the crucial role of entrepreneurs around the world in spearheading the economic fight-back. This year’s event drew over 3,000 participants from 120 countries including Sri Lanka.

The strongest message that came out of the Congress was that entrepreneurs are not just businessmen but leaders making a positive impact and sustainable success comes when they make a real difference in other people’s lives.

The Congress aims to celebrate enterprise and inspire those with the ‘can-do’ spirit to turn their dreams into an ambitious reality. Entrepreneurs, aspiring business leaders and those engaged in supporting start-ups and entrepreneurship at the Congress through sessions of speeches, panel discussions and debates focused on three themes that explore the concept of winning in business: Who Dares Wins – a celebration of the best in the business; Who Cares Wins – nurturing talent to unleash ideas and Who Shares Wins – inspiration to accelerate your business.

It was the first time the Congress is being held in a European city whilst Liverpool is famous as the birthplace of world famous Beatles as well as the global sports brand Liverpool. Host was Liverpool Vision, the city’s economic development company.

“In today’s tough economic climate, entrepreneurs have never been more important in creating jobs and driving economic growth. The Global Entrepreneurship Congress provides insights into how to inspire more of us to unleash our winning spirit now – just when our nations need it most,” GEC Chairman and President of Global Entrepreneurship Week Jonathan Ortmans said.