By Linda Dickerson Hartsock | Executive Director, Blackstone Launchpad at Syracuse University
The first-ever campus wide Global Entrepreneurship Week celebration kicks off at Syracuse University with a keynote by its founder, Carl Schramm.
The opening event, “The History of Innovation,” will be Monday, November 14 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons at SU’s Bird Library (222 Waverly Avenue), followed by a networking reception in the Learning Commons.
Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is a celebration of innovators who launch startups and bring ideas to life. For one week each November, the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurship inspires people around the globe to explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. With activities ranging from large-scale competitions, to intimate networking and meetups, lectures and panel discussions, film screens and meetings with investors, aspiring entrepreneurs are introduced to possibilities and exciting opportunities.
World leaders, local communities and colleges and universities around the world have embraced the campaign as a way to fuel ideas by high-growth startups, making GEW a truly global platform for connection and collaboration.
Representatives from 37 countries were on hand when GEW was announced in 2007 by Jonathan Ortmans, president of GEW, Carl Schramm, former president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation and Gordon Brown, former prime minister of the United Kingdom. The event has now grown to 160 countries, 20,000 partners and 10 million people.
The Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University is taking the lead organizing activities at Syracuse University, which include more than two dozen events from November 14 to 18 across campus. The schedule of activities is on-line at: launchpad.syr.edu/gew
All Syracuse University events are open to the community free of charge.
Opening speaker Carl Schramm is University Professor at Syracuse University and former president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. A $2 billion endowment, Kauffman is the world’s largest philanthropy dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship.
Dr. Schramm is recognized internationally as a leading authority on innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth. The Economist has referred to Schramm as the “evangelist of entrepreneurship.” In 2007 Schramm, and then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, created Global Entrepreneurship Week, now observed in 160 countries.
He has authored, coauthored, or edited several books including Better Capitalism; Good Capitalism/Bad Capitalism; Inside Real Innovation; The Entrepreneurial Imperative, and Controlling Healthcare Costs. Burn The Business Plan is forthcoming in 2017.
He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Wisconsin where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow and a New York State Regents Graduate Fellow, and earned his law degree at Georgetown. He held two consecutive Career Scientist Awards from NIH, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Medicine. He holds five honorary degrees and the University of Rochester’s George Eastman Medal. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
