77 NATIONS JOIN GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK
77 countries take part in first Global Entrepreneurship Week
More than 11,000 events worldwide and over 5 million participants
Young people get enterprising at a time of global economic crisis
Big name supporters include UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Singaporean President S.R. Nathan, United Nations Development Programme administrator Kemal Dervis, Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Rwandan President Paul Kagame
Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world's first-ever celebration of enterprising behaviour, comes at a time of massive economic change.

Recognising the global nature of many of the challenges we face, Global Entrepreneurship Week aims to connect enterprising young people with their counterparts all over the world, and ultimately create a global movement of entrepreneurial people.

Created by the UK's business-led, government-backed Make Your Mark campaign and the US-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the first Global Entrepreneurship Week will see millions of young people participate. Globally more than 11,000 events are taking place in 77 countries involving an estimated five million people, from Bolivia to Bulgaria and Mexico to Mozambique.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who launched Enterprise Week in the UK – the model taken for Global Entrepreneurship Week, said:

"Global Entrepreneurship Week brings young people together across national borders, taking enterprise to the classroom and giving young people the confidence and self-belief not only to develop tomorrow's big ideas but to put them into practice.

“And Global Entrepreneurship Week will reach millions of young people – half a million in Britain alone, and to each one of them my challenge is this: Believe in your ideas and make them happen. Because entrepreneurial spirit changes the world and it changes it for good.

“You can be making a difference, so be bold, be imaginative, be brilliant. That’s really what this week is all about. Enjoy it.”

Carl Schramm, President and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation said: “For seven days, millions of young people around the world will be introduced to entrepreneurship and encouraged to think about how innovation can take them anywhere, no matter their location on the map.

“Now more than ever it is imperative that we do everything we can to promote enterprise. As the world global economic downturn deepens, we are relying on entrepreneurial people with new thinking to lead us out of the recession.”

Those supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week include big name entrepreneurs and leading business figures: Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; Pan Shiyi, founder of SOHO China; Russell Simmons, US hip hop pioneer; Lord Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer; Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple; Sir Alan Sugar, founder of Amstrad and star of UK The Apprentice.

Global businesses supporting the Week include global sponsors Ernst & Young, IBM and NYSE Euronext, as well as Honda, Dell, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Intel.

Event highlights around the world include a debate with social leaders and entrepreneurs in the UK titled: 'In the Current Economic Climate Can Entrepreneurs Change The World?' which will include a video address from Sir Richard Branson. In the US, hip-hop pioneer and entrepreneur Russell Simmons will launch Race to BE, an entrepreneurial film competition. Speednetworking events will take place all over the world as part of Speednetwork the Globe: New Zealand will hold the first event of the week in Gisborne - the country's easternmost point and the first place the sun rises on earth and in Mexico City at the tallest building in South America.

The Netherlands will be holding the ‘90 seconds to Glory’ Euromast Pitch Competition - an 'elevator pitch' competition in the actual elevator of the 101 metre Euromast in Rotterdam. Young female entrepreneurs in Nigeria will receive mentoring and business advice at an event specially for women in Lagos and the Creativity World Forum kicks off in Belgium, with speakers John Cleese and Steve Wozniak of Apple.

Young people can talk to others around the world in the forums at www.unleashingideas.org and answer Unleash It! challenges set by organisations such as IBM, Shell Livewire, Jelly Belly and the UK’s Federation of City Gardens.