News Release: Hamilton, Bermuda – It is officially Global Entrepreneurship Week.  This week, Bermuda along with 170 countries around the world are celebrating entrepreneurship.  The Bermuda Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) in partnership with the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation and Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative have collectively worked to bring to Bermuda entrepreneurs a series of events, competitions and celebrations.
Monday, November 18th is the official start of Global Entrepreneurship Week, with students up to the age of 18 competing in the Youth Pitch Preliminaries at the Bermuda College starting at 5:30 pm.  This category of the Rocket Pitch Competition will allow Bermuda youth to pitch their ideas for a chance to win a spot to compete in the Rocket Pitch Finals which will take place this Wednesday, November 20th at AXA XL.
Raymond Lambert, BEDC Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise Director stated: “The finals of the Rocket Pitch Competition are always an exciting time with entrepreneurs from five categories, including Pitch Pink, Pitch Town, Pitch Tech, Pitch Green and Youth Pitch battling out to see whose idea will come out on top and take home the $5,000 cash award and a start-up package of services to help them launch their business.
Tuesday, November 19th will be all about Women in Entrepreneurship.  The 2nd Annual Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Conference will be a day-long event at Hamilton Princess featuring marketing and development strategist, Tameka Vasquez, AVP of Global Marketing for the High-Tech and Manufacturing division of Genpact.
Tugce Ergul co-founder at Angel Labs, a global investment firm based in Silicon Valley will be the 2nd international keynote speaker for the seasoned entrepreneur track. There are a few seats left, so we are encouraging women to find their “Pow[Her]” at this exciting event that will be sure to inspire, empower and elevate. The pre event, The Women’s Side Hustler’s Brunch at Marcus was a great prelude which included an inspirational presentation from Gaynette Jones, who encouraged women to take hold of their own destinies and “Make the pie, then share it.”
The Bermuda Entrepreneurship Summit will be held on Thursday, November 21st at the Hamilton Princess.  Through the BEDC’s partnership with Jared Kleinert, founder of Meeting of the Minds, local Bermuda Entrepreneurs will spend the day hearing from industry experts, successful local and international entrepreneurs.
Rounding out the day starting at 6pm at the Hamilton Princess, BEDC will be hosting a Fireside Chat with the Premier, the Hon.  David Burt JP, MP.  Joining the Premier will be a panel of entrepreneurs including, Nhuri Bashir of Into Bermuda, Tulani Bulford, of Portland Lane Capital, Marico Thomas of FourStar Pizza and others. This discussion will focus on how to identify and take advantage of business opportunities in Bermuda as well as what is being established to support the development of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bermuda.
On Saturday, November 23rd at The Hamilton Princess the winners of the 2019 Small Business Awards will be revealed at a gala event.  This 3rd annual event celebrates the island’s small businesses and entrepreneurs in seven categories including: Business of the Year, New Startup of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Family Business of the Year, Most Enterprising Young Entrepreneur, Vendor of the Year and People’s Choice.
Although November 18th is the official start of GEW, celebrations started early with a kick-off event, Cocktails with Creatives on Saturday, November 2nd that saw 80 plus entrepreneurs and industry experts come together at the Birdcage to network, establish partnerships and connect.  The Premier, the Hon.  David Burt, JP, MP welcomed attendees stating “I encourage you to make a new connection and find out more about the range of products that the BEDC has to help you take your business to the next level.  He continued, “This Government is committed to working with the BEDC to ensure that the support you receive is solution oriented and focused on removing barriers so that you can do what you do best.”
On Friday, November 8th hundreds of people came out to support local vendors at the Inspire Bermuda Marketplace.  This partnership with Driven Society allowed some of the hottest influencers from the US to join local and international artists and entrepreneurs to network and form partnerships.
Continuing from the successful Marketplace, on the Saturday, November 9th, nine panellists which include international influencer Alex Wolf and co-founder of Blavity, Jonathan Jackson among others inspired Bermuda entrepreneurs with their stories success.  One Berkeley student that attended remarked: “Yes, yes, and yes!  This was awesome and we need more of this in Bermuda.”
The event which started with a mediation sequence led by Driven Society’s Kenji Summers-Lewis provided an open dialogue for entrepreneurs to engage with attendees and provide helpful tips on how to pursue the hard road of entrepreneurship.  This is the first event of this kind specifically targeted to up and coming entrepreneurs but hopefully not the last.
Jamillah Lodge, Director of Communication & Development for BEDC and GEW Project Manager, said: “GEW has kicked off with a bang this year.  The feedback so far has been awesome and encouraging.  We know that there are many opportunities throughout the year to showcase and support entrepreneurs, but we use November as the month to really flood Bermuda with opportunities to get engaged.”
For more information and to purchase tickets for events, visit www.gew.bm<http://www.gew.bm> email info@bedc.bm<mailto:info@bedc.bm> or call 292-5570.