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Great news on the WES Front

posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 03:05 PM

I am pleased to report successful outcomes from the recent World Entrepreneur Summit which took place at Goodenough College, London on March 20th, 2009.

What was successful about it?

1. An open ended agenda which spoke to what primarily concerns entrepreneurs, it having been recognised that entrepreneurs’ concerns are probably some of the most pressing if we as a world community are going to address serious structural problems in the economy anytime soon. Thus the theme of the conference ‘What is keeping entrepreneurs up at night?’ was both timely and effective!

2. The intermix of nationalities, experiences and backgrounds which made up the presenters and discussion groups for the full event was well done. Getting to discuss real solutions to drive innovation and foster creativity with Europeans, Africans and Asians, all interested in better lives for all people was, from my understanding, relatively unprecedented. The openmindedness of all participants was extremely encouraging!


i-geniuses Dave McQueen [UK/Caribbean] and Uzma Ahmed [Pakistan]

3. An embracing of the modern, especially social network technologies, as a vehicle to enforce this emerging community of entrepreneurs and social innovators with the launch of the World Entrepreneur Society and its associated social networking site (which can be found at http://wes2009.crowdvine.com/) was also a positive development.

4. An integration of Enterprise as well as Personal development activities within the agenda was quite innovative and an indication of the progressive thinking of the organisers.

My high points included the Workshop entitled ‘Steady as she grows’ which centred on high growth women’s businesses and very interestingly dispelled a range of the myths attached to female entrepreneurship and their relative successes to male enterprises. It statistically confirmed the high contribution of female entrepreneurs in sustainable business development and the capability of women to weather change such as the present economic recession successfully. (Full report at this link: http://www.deltaeconomics.com/media/COGS2008Women.pdf)

Specific female issues were raised in the discussions and merit further forums for elaboration and addressing. Hopefully this will be one of the activities which will come out from this occasion of WES.

Another high point was the presentation by John Elkington of SustainAbility, which among other things took a very realistic look at unlocking human potential. The quote which left the greatest impact on me from the morning session said: ‘The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn’ – Alvin Toffler. It spoke volumes about the path that our world is taking and is in fact very encouraging to people who wish to see a more healthy and sustainable distribution of ‘wealth’ across humanity.

Kudos again to brainchild Dr. Rebecca Harding, who also led the Women’s Enterprise research effort and remains an inspiration to other female entrepreneurs across different nationalities. Indeed kudos go out to Delta Economics generally for its thought leadership and action in this critically important area.

Again I thank the British High Commission for its support of hq2’s development activities in Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Economic Development and I look forward to a continued good relationship with them. Please look out for more information on initiatives in this area and in Human Capital Development generally.

With sincere regards,

Sherrilene M. Collymore

The Human Quality Headquarters

Comments

I-Genius Team

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 01:15 PM

Fantastic report Sherrilene, and I am delighted that many of the outcomes were successful and beneficial. Thanks for sharing!