We Want Your Ideas: Lead a Session at Global Entrepreneurship Week – Kansas City 2023
Kansas City’s business community is invited to lead and submit sessions for this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week – Kansas City (Nov. 15-17, 2023), a three-day interactive educational experience driven by community members. The community is invited to submit session ideas through Friday, Aug. 25 at gewkc.com.
“Global Entrepreneurship Week – Kansas City is an incredible opportunity for local business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to get the essential skills, valuable connections, and boundless inspiration required to start and scale their ventures — and it’s all free,” said Michael Carmona, network builder at KCSourceLink, which has organized GEWKC since 2008.
“It’s amazing to think that this worldwide event started right here in Kansas City, and as we get ready for the 16th year, we’ve got some great sessions planned that offer something for everyone, no matter if you’ve just got a business idea or you’re looking to conquer that next hurdle. Attendees always tell us what a great slate of sessions we have, and we source our sessions from the community to help entrepreneurs with the biggest pain points they face. If you have any connection to small business, GEWKC is the place to be.”
This year, the event is formatted so that attendees can stay all day and find relevant content every hour. Meeting space and workspace will be available for those who want to network or take a call.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is an international celebration that for the past 16 years has inspired millions of people to explore their potential as entrepreneurs and connect with their local entrepreneurship ecosystems. Founded in Kansas City by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2008, the event has since expanded to more than 170 countries.
“Did you know that Kansas City hosts one of the biggest GEWKC events in the world?” said Chanté Keller, network convenor at KCSourceLink and chair of the GEWKC planning committee. “We’ve been going strong for a decade and a half and pooled our community resources to help current and aspiring small business owners get what they needed to build resiliency and fuel growth. That same enterprising spirit is back this year with a new slate of panels, workshops and sessions that can help anyone start or grow a business and advance entrepreneurship in the Kansas City region.”
To help represent the diversity of Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, this year’s sessions are grouped into three focused tracks:
- Startups
- Scalers
- Marketing
For 2023, core sessions will be curated into rich programming hosted at a centralized base camp at Plexpod Westport Commons at 300 E 39th St. in Midtown Kansas City, Missouri. Other sessions will be hosted at venues – in person or virtually – across the KC metro to help shine the spotlight on local businesses and their impact on and in KC communities.
All ideas are welcome: individual speakers and presenters, headliners, panels, workshops, happy hours, site visits (open houses, coffee crawls), etc. Topics that focus on providing additional knowledge and skill-sharing with the community have the best chance to be selected.
Ideas span the gamut. Here are just a few topics that have been well-attended at past GEWKCs:
- The best business advice I ever got
- How to tell effective stories on social media
- Marketing and sales for artists/makers/creatives
- Solopreneurship 101
- How to fund your business (e.g., with no money, bootstrapping, a small business loan, government contract, first-round of equity funding, first customers)
- Advice on how to start a business with a lawyer and an accountant
- How to scale your business
- What entrepreneurs should know about X (trademarks, copyrights, intellectual property, equity funding, hiring vs. contracting, etc.)
- How X can help entrepreneurs (e.g., communities, cities, states, universities/colleges, banks, corporations)
- How to hire and support a diverse workforce
Interested presenters and session hosts are invited to attend the “How to Apply and Host a GEWKC Session” workshops for tips and guidance to help create a quality proposal:
More information about how to submit a session is on the “Call for Sessions” page on the GEWKC website. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. Submissions will be evaluated by the GEWKC planning committee and accepted presenters will be notified in September. Attendees can register to attend GEWKC in October.
