Major sponsors support 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Week
 

With its goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week aims to encourage youth to think big, to turn their ideas into reality and to make their mark.

Last week, the organisers launched Unleash It!, www.unleashingideas.org/unleash, an online community that will connect participating individuals around the world. Anyone can post a challenge — government or business, big or small, global or local — with bright, young minds invited to “unleash” their creative and innovative ideas to find solutions. From November 17th -23rd, 2008, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement which seeks to generate new ideas and to discover better ways of doing things. Thousands of activities are being planned in more than 75 countries around the world. Involve Ernst & Young officially recently launched its global sponsorship of the 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Week with the help of the Week's founding sponsor, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. As a global sponsor, Ernst & Young will provide support and initiate activities designed to engage and encourage young people to pursue entrepreneurial ideas with the support of entrepreneurs, government officials, non-profit leaders and educators. To date, more than seventy organizations in some sixty countries are participating in the Week, which is expected to involve millions of young people around the world. In addition to Ernst & Young, the Week is sponsored globally by NYSE Euronext and IBM.   "Through its position as founder of the prestigious World Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards, Ernst & Young's considerable entrepreneurship leadership and resources in dozens of nations will help put this initiative on the world's stage", said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. Value "We are proud to launch our sponsorship of Global Entrepreneurship Week at an event that honours the world's top entrepreneurs", commented Ernst & Young Global Vice Chair for Strategic Growth Markets, Greg Ericksen. "Educating young people about entrepreneurship and reinforcing the value that entrepreneurs and innovators bring to their respective countries is critical to long-term prosperity - more so now than ever before." Global Entrepreneurship Week is founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the UK's Make Your Mark campaign; sponsored by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young; and supported by JA Worldwide, Endeavor, Entrepreneurs' Organization, DECA, YPO-WPO, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Young Americas Business Trust and YES - the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs.