Last month, more than two thousand delegates met in Moscow for the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC)—an inter-disciplinary gathering of startup champions from more than 140 countries. Above all else, they are interested in sharing ideas with one another on how best to help startups flourish in their countries.
Representing Antigua and Barbuda, and the GARD Center at the congress was Johan Oliver, Business Development Officer. The GARD Center is also the local representative for Global Entrepreneurship Week, and their corresponding events.
(Johan Oliver; far right, with Jonathan Ortmans; President of GEW, & Award winning startup Founders for Teddy the Guardian; Josipa Majic & Ana Burica of Croatia.)
The entire week of the Congress offered an impressive range of interesting activities. The Opening Ceremony commenced with a global Research+Policy Summit, and an entrepreneurs’ Peer to Peer event. Official fringe events, conducted by leading practitioners and entrepreneurial support organizations, took place on the days surrounding this Forum—providing educational and networking opportunities as well as a unique window into successful Russian models with potential for being replicated.
The Congress pulls together a broad collection of voices from across the entrepreneurial spectrum—with previous participation from celebrity entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Marc Ecko, startup community champions like Brad Feld of TechStars and Dave McClure of 500 Startups, as well as an increasing number of government officials interested in getting smarter about how to more effectively help entrepreneur led startup communities.
However, the real driving force at the Congress was an expanding community of delegates—entrepreneurs, researchers and supporters who have partnered with their national leaders in more than 140 countries—working tirelessly to advance startups and position entrepreneurship as the cornerstone of global prosperity and stability. It includes the teams from all 140 countries who run Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)—the annual collection of national startup campaigns that attracts 7.5 million participants to roughly 20,000 events, activities and competitions during one week each November. In Moscow, they gathered to exchange ideas for GEW 2014 and strengthen the connections that fuel a burgeoning global entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The 2014 Congress was a joint effort by Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Moscow City Government and the Kauffman Foundation.
Nature Center and Trail Launched
The GARD Center officially opened its Nature Center and Nature Trail on Thursday, 24 April 2014, to its Board Members and Staff.
The brief Ceremony was opened in prayer by Rev. Patmore Henry, Secretary, Methodist Conference and the blessing of the site offered by Rev. Otto Wade, President, Methodist Conference and GARD Center’s Chairman of the Board.
Following, those present were taken on a tour of the Discovery Corner and then walked the shorter part of the three mile trail. The journey of the one-mile trail was quite refreshing in the morning as we observed various plant species and a functioning water tower built during the 1800s.
At left, is a collage of some of the interesting discoveries to be made when guests visit the Nature Center and Trail.
Mentors and Tutors Trained in Gender Sensitization
GARD Center recruits and trains eleven Mentors and Tutors on Gender Sensitization
In an effort to continue providing young women and men between the ages of 16- 35 with professional training and nurturing, the GARD Center recently recruited and trained eleven mentors and tutors who will be working along with these young persons.
The training was conducted at the Directorate of Youth Affairs by the Director, Ms. Cleon Athill, see photo at right. The topics covered in the training prepared the mentors and tutors for the challenges and situations they would most likely be faced with when working along with these youths, such as, differentiating between gender and sex, and gender biases. It is expected that the mentors would be assigned to these youth and potential entrepreneurs for a period of 3 years, during which time they would be evaluated on a quarterly basis.
The GARD Center continues to attract young persons aspiring to become entrepreneurs to contact the Business Development Unit. We can be contacted at 463-4121 or 734-0084.
USAID Team Visits GARD Center
The Director for the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, Mr. Jene Thomas visited Antigua and the GARD Center on Thursday, 10 April, to get an understanding of the local situation and to see some of the programs that USAID supports (or supported). Although the Caribbean Youth Empowerment Project (CYEP) has ended the team was very interested to hear about the work with vulnerable youth which was carried out by the Center He was accompanied by the Acting Mission Director Debra Banks and the General Development Officer Walter Doetsch.
(2nd from left: Roberta Williams, Executive Director, GARD Center; Debra Banks, Jene Thomas, USAID team members; surrounded by GARD Center staff.) Photo taken by Walter Doetsch, third member of the USAID team.
The team engaged in very fruitful discussions with the Executive Director and staff. They were also able to observe youth in training and viewed some of the facilities that support our training programs. Hopefully, this would allow the broader USAID team to get an understanding of the extremely important role the GARD Center plays working with vulnerable youth. The team also heard some of the issues faced by youth.
