Minister On Global Entrepreneurship Congress

Madam President, I am pleased to report on Bermuda’s local entrepreneurial progress and how we are building Bermuda’s entrepreneurial reputation internationally.

Last week Bermuda had a formal delegation from the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation [BEDC] attend the 7th Annual Global Entrepreneurship Congress [GEC] which took place in Milan, Italy.

Thanks in part to Global Entrepreneurship Week [GEW] held annually in November in over 150 countries and the formation of the Global Entrepreneurship Network [GEN], an entrepreneurial mindset and ecosystem has started to take shape around the world, connecting people across borders to unleash their ideas and transform innovation into reality, which in turn is growing economies and expanding human welfare.

In response to the rapid growth of GEW, the Kauffman Foundation brought together the host organisations from nearly 60 nations to create the first ever GEC in March 2009. Since then, the GEC has been hosted annually.

The 7 cities that have hosted to date are: Kansas City, United States; Dubai, UAE; Shanghai, China; Liverpool, UK; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; and last week Milan, Italy.

By traveling to so many different parts of the world, the Congress has become an opportunity for international delegates, from the over 150 GEN/GEW countries, to better understand each host country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and foster opportunities for the future. Milan had over 5,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and policy makers converge.

Madam President, the main objectives of Bermuda’s trip were three-fold. Firstly, to represent Bermuda and report on its entrepreneurial activities at the GEN/GEW Annual General Meeting.

Bermuda, through the BEDC, has a Memorandum of Understanding as the host organisation to facilitate Global Entrepreneurship Week [GEW] activities annually each November in Bermuda.

As host organisation, one member of the BEDC’s staff is flown out every year to attend the GEC and GEW AGM free of charge as the delegate for Bermuda.

This year the Business Development Officer that leads Bermuda’s GEW organization, Mrs. Jamillah Lodge, was joined by the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Nicholas Kempe; the Board Entrepreneurship Sub-committee Chair, Mr. Nhuri Bashir; and the Executive Director, Mrs. Erica Smith.

The BEDC reported on its ongoing actions to grow Bermuda’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. To highlight a few actions, the BEDC achieved its goal to create opportunities for Bermudian entrepreneurs to participate in global activities.

With the introduction of the Future Agro Challenge to Bermuda in October 2014, Bermudians Connor Burns and E.J. Burrows of Bermuda Aerial Media and its subsidiary company Skymatics were able to compete and take home the top prize for the International Future Agro Challenge at Industry Disruptors 2014 in Athens, Greece, instantly raising the global profile of their business and Bermuda as a hub for entrepreneurship.

The BEDC has progressively grown its local partnerships and events for GEW. Having been involved with GEW since inception and grown it each year, in 2014 the BEDC pushed the envelope with the number of events, partners, and participants involved.

GEW 2014 saw Bermuda hold a staggering 38 events with 21 partners and 2,750 participants compared to 3 events, 3 partners, and 120 participants in 2009. It would be remiss to not acknowledge Ms. Jamillah Lodge of the BEDC at this time, who has done a stellar job in raising the profile of GEW in Bermuda over the last 7 years.

Additionally, committed to cultivating Bermuda’s micro entrepreneurial ecosystem, the BEDC partnered with the Department of eCommerce to host Bermuda’s first Startup Weekend a few weeks ago. The intensive weekend involved 42 entrepreneurs participating, 22 pitches made, and 9 businesses being developed over 54 hours.

This event has allowed Bermuda to become part of a global network. Over 45,000 Startup Weekends have been held in countries all over the world and increases the exposure of Bermuda and the BEDC as a jurisdiction that supports entrepreneurs.

Bermuda’s actions have not gone unnoticed. Just a few weeks ago the Government of Turks And Caicos reached out to the BEDC to obtain information on what programmes it offered to small and medium-size enterprises [SMEs] which could assist them in re-establishing their Small Business Center which was closed in 2012.

In addition, there was also a chance to celebrate on this trip when Bermuda was recognised for its hard work as a host country on the international level at the GEC last week. We were honoured to win two Champion Catalyzer Awards out of 157 countries present at the Gala presentation and receive them from GEN President Mr. Jonathan Ortmans.

Madam President, the second reason to attend the Congress was to gather the most current information as to how best to foster and grow Bermuda’s entrepreneurial eco-system.

The three days of the Congress strongly aligned with core elements of BEDC’s 2015/2016 strategic objectives, especially as relates to cultivating an entrepreneurial ecosystem for SME creation; research and policy development; and establishment of a private equity/angel investor framework that provides options for access to capital outside of traditional bank lending.

Mr. Kempe and Mr. Bashir attended the first ever SME Ministerial held at the GEC on my behalf. Inspired by the efforts of various governments to stimulate new enterprise formation and to help small businesses grow to scale, the U.S. Small Business Administration collaborated with the GEC to organize the first annual Ministerial gathering.

Side discussions took place with the Deputy Director of Department for Business Innovation and Skills at the Ministerial meetings on the UK’s new Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill and there’s a belief that two sections of the legislation should be implemented in Bermuda.

Other preliminary discussions were had with the Kaufmann Foundation around implementing their FastTrac entrepreneurial curriculum in Bermuda; the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute about including Bermuda in the Global Entrepreneurship Index; the Global Accelerator Network about the feasibility of creating an entrepreneur accelerator in Bermuda; and private investors around what they look for in supporting entrepreneurs and the framework for angel investors or venture capital.

Madam President, the third reason for attending the Congress was to determine the potential for Bermuda to host the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in 2018 bringing thousands of entrepreneurial advocates to the Island.

The bid package to host the 2018 GEC will be released in April of this year and it is yet to be determined whether it is in Bermuda’s best interest to enter in a bid hosting arrangement as the financial requirements will not be known until then.
South Africa won the bid for 2017 and was announced at this year’s GEC.

Contacts have already been made with the key individuals that prepared the South African bid and we expect to be able to review their bid package early this week to use as a baseline for responding to the 2018 package.

Initial discussions with senior GEN staff and Mr. Jonathan Ortmans, GEN’s President, provided the impression that scale was not the primary concern, but rather the ability to provide keynote speakers and the financial support for the event.

We believe that this bodes well for Bermuda’s chances as mere hours after having that conversation, the news of Michael Bloomberg speaking for a local organisation’s much smaller event was announced providing much needed credibility in subsequent follow-up meetings on the matter later the week.

The 2018 GEC would occur in March, which is a perfect chance to showcase arts and culture season in Bermuda as well as to aggressively push hotel and airline group discounts.

We must remember that even though BEDC hosts the Global Entrepreneurship Week annually in Bermuda, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress focuses on broader levels of entrepreneurship – SMEs as well as large and multi-national enterprises.

We believe that Bermuda is a global leader in entrepreneurship in many sectors and that the GEC would be the perfect event to showcase our capabilities in the months following the 2017 America’s Cup.

In closing Madam President, the trip to the Congress was considered a success, validating the work currently taking place in Bermuda to build an entrepreneurial eco-system; facilitating access to future entrepreneurial opportunities for our Island’s entrepreneurs; and further exposing the GEN to Bermuda and all it offers as an entrepreneurial hub.

Thank you, Madam President.

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