Innovate Charlotte is gearing up to host a weeklong entrepreneurship event in the Queen City next month.
Global Entrepreneurship Week was launched in 2008 by Global Entrepreneurship Network to help people across the world cultivate their ideas and scale their businesses. It runs from Nov. 8-14. More than 40,000 events will take place in 180-plus countries, impacting millions of entrepreneurs.
Juan Garzon, executive director of Innovate Charlotte, said the organization is hosting the city's GEW this year. It's partnering with local coworking spaces, tech organizations and ecosystem leaders on a variety of speakers, workshops and networking events.
"There are programs for anybody at any stage ... something for everyone. The idea is, you look at the schedule and decide what fits your needs," Garzon said. "From a 'Getting Started' workshop, if you have an idea and don’t know how to get started, that’s going to give you the basic tools and information to turn your idea into something."
He added, "Or maybe you’re an established business struggling with how to scale it up, the EO panel on Tuesday is going to be a great thing to check out."
Global Entrepreneurship Week Charlotte will be a mix of free in-person, virtual and hybrid events. Masks are required for all in-person indoor events, and a Covid-19 vaccination is recommended but not required.
Garzon said he's most looking forward to the Ignite Grant Pitch Competition on Nov. 8 to kick off the week. The Ignite Grant will provide four underrepresented founders with $5,000 each. Applications are open through Oct. 25, and finalists will be announced Nov. 1.
"Being able to award those grants and inviting everyone to our Founders and Funders happy hour afterwards, I'm very excited about that," he said. "That's where we'll have a chance for the investor and entrepreneurial community to come together to celebrate."
Other highlights include two virtual offerings — A STEM and Entrepreneurship Panel on Nov. 10, featuring five of Charlotte's leaders in STEM learning, and an Intro to the Startup Community event on Nov. 11. Garzon said the intro event will also serve as a resource fair.
"We’re going to have representatives from a bunch of different ecosystem support organizations like Ventureprise and RevTech Labs," he said. "You’ll be able to go into breakout rooms and talk to someone immediately ... Being able to actually talk to some of these resource providers is something we haven’t done before."
Garzon said the time is right to bring this type of robust offering to the Charlotte startup community.
"There is a lot of interest in the entrepreneurial ecosystem right now, especially because of AvidXchange going public. It's caused a lot of conversations about how this lights a fire under innovation," he said. "The pandemic has also resulted in a lot of people looking at entrepreneurship as an option to employment."
Garzon added, "As a result, this is a big time for entrepreneurs, and the biggest challenge we hear constantly is I’m not aware of all the resources that exist. Events like Global Entrepreneurship Week help to break that obstacle down."
