COVID-19 might be a formidable enemy but it cannot stop Canadian businesses from celebrating GEW2020.  Among them are several organizations from the Caribbean diaspora who will join business leaders and their supporters in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 to be held November 16-22, confirmed one event partner.

“ This year we will be celebrating the event under the banner BIDEM 2020 GEW Brawta,” said Meegan Scott, founder of  The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs (The CoP), (BIDEM is an acronym for “bridged, high impact diaspora entrepreneurs to efficient diasporic markets.”).

” Our partners and audiences can expect extras (brawta) from BIDEM Conference and Trade Show recently hosted in Toronto, only with a greater focus on the virtual trade show and virtual bazaar,” Scott said.

More than 20 events have been posted by eleven organizations as Canada gets ready to  “connect and celebrate ” the contributions of entrepreneurs to economic growth and job creation.

“This year the coronavirus pandemic forced business leaders to be more deliberate and sharp in bringing economic recovery and solving some of the world’s most “wicked problems to their daily plans and actions”, said  Scott.

Official sponsors of GEW Canada 2020 along with several GEW partners and organizations will host events in cities across Canada for building resilience and entrepreneur capacity in the face of COVID-19.

The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) will lead approximately 180 countries including Canada to host 40,000 events in celebration of GEW and entrepreneurs. The CoP will lead the celebrations for Caribbean diasporic markets with the sponsorship of Magate Wildhorse Consulting (Magate Wildhorse Ltd., Toronto and Magate Wildhorse Inc., New York).

The four official themes for this year’s celebration are ecosystems, policy, education, and inclusion.

Partnering organizations such as Magate Wildhorse Ltd, The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs, The Caribbean Camera, GEN Canada, United Counties of Prescott and Russell Economic Development, Business Community and Partners and academic institutions such as George Brown College will host official GEW Canada events.

Magate Wildhorse and The CoP will heighten our focus on policy.  The discussions and action for “accelerating Caribbean entrepreneurship at home and in the diaspora” will be a major agenda item. Currently there is an online discussion forum  open to interested organizational leaders with Caribbean roots worldwide. The discussions will follow on the Minister’s Panel discussion of the same name in which Canada’s Minister of Small business the Hon. Mary Ng and the Hon. Audley Shaw,  Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce were panelists last month at BIDEM.

In addition, there will be virtual discussions, trade show, bazaar, workshops and media related activities for entrepreneurs during GEW. The Strategy Planning and Evaluation Workshop for Disability Programming; “Views on News”, The Virtual Trade and Chamber of Commerce Summit and “Blinkers Off MSME Fireside Chat” are among the highlights of this year’s event.

“Facilitating collaboration among diaspora and domestic Caribbean entrepreneurs and their peers of African descent, mainstream North America and the UK, indigenous, other immigrant groups and entrepreneurs from other geographical areas will also be a feature of our celebration this”, said Scott.

Organizations with Caribbean roots, Mainstream Canadian and diaspora entities are invited to register to celebrate with us at: https://magatewildhorse.ca/strategy-planning-and-evaluation-for-disability-programming/ invited, Scott..

Futurpreneur is the county host for GEW Canada