The second installation of the Global Entrepreneurship Community (GECommunity) Summit 2017 is expected to gather over 15,000 international and local aspiring entrepreneurs, experienced entrepreneurs, corporates, investors and policymakers in a two-day summit at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).
The summit, is aimed at catalysing the growth and development of the global entrepreneurship movement, from the ecosystem to broader policy frameworks, right through to funding and deep exchange of global experiences.
It sports the theme ‘Designing the Future’ and focuses the different stakeholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem on creating a new path to accelerate the development of entrepreneurs, especially against the backdrop of disruptive technology and global changes to help spur strong economic growth.
In his speech, Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia says: “The GECommunity Summit is not just a meeting of minds, exchange of ideas and sharing of deep experiences. It has deep, relevant and immediate commercial impact that will continue to drive our economy forward and provide meaningful disruption – in a way that not only benefits Malaysia but drives the broader global entrepreneurship agenda.”
One of the key highlights of GECommunity Summit 2017 is the inaugural Global Blue Ocean Shift Awards, recognising the outstanding achievements across the public, private and social sectors around the world. These award winners are being recognised for creating their own blue oceans, opening up new frontiers of opportunity and growth, creating a new pipeline for economic expansion.
Coming from diverse countries like Brazil and Iraq to Malaysia, the winners represent a cross-section of industries, including property development and personal hygiene to music and are meant to inspire more organisations and individuals across the globe to make the blue ocean shift.
In a recent poll of the entrepreneurship community conducted by GECommunity Summit, over a third of the respondents felt that favourable policies and legislation were the most critical help that governments can offer to build up the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
To this end, one of the most unique highlights of the GECommunity Summit is the knowledge exchange of the entrepreneurship communities, corporates and policymakers across 89 countries to collaborate and find new innovative approaches to solve real-world problems and chart the way forward for entrepreneurs.
Focusing on bringing together the right partners in the ecosystem to chart the future of entrepreneurship, Ashran Dato’ Ghazi, CEO of Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) said: “GECommunity Summit is aimed at accelerating the development of our entrepreneurship ecosystem by designing the fundamentals to tap on future developments and growth opportunities.
We want to challenge all the different stakeholders involved in the ecosystem to build on best practices garnered globally to drive far-reaching impact. Our entrepreneurs should not only be focused on delivering new services or changing up traditional ways of working, but to also explore emerging areas like social innovation, and re-design the way they approach different industry verticals.”
The programmes hosted during the two-day summit reflect the five crucial pillars to unlocking entrepreneurial success: Inspire, Educate, Fund, Connect and Accelerate. Cutting across these pillars is the key highlight of the GEC Labs.
It is a collective round of sessions where a select group of industry and corporate players, ecosystem influencers, policymakers and entrepreneurs from around the world deliberate on 15 key focus areas, and ultimately use these ideas and initiatives to transform and create value across different industries. This is part of GECommunity’s on-going two-year goal of achieving RM100 million value creation across the initiatives from the GEC Labs.
In addition to the GEC Labs, the Summit will host its first-ever ASEAN Roundtable Dialogue, bringing together policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs, community builders and key ecosystem players from all 10 ASEAN countries to connect, collaborate and align on critical pressures and opportunities in the entrepreneurial space across the region.
This directly addresses the concerns that some 40% of entrepreneurs highlighted in the recent poll by GECommunity Summit: that the changing political landscape and continued shifts in demographics form some of the key disruptive changes in ASEAN affecting the startup marketplace.
