#StartupNations supporting the entrepreneurial spirit!

Over the past few months I’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with Startup Britain, Startup Canada, Startup America, the Kauffman Foundation and the Canadian High Commission in London to plan a Startup Nations event to be held in the margins of the Global Entrepreneurs Congress, taking place (now) in Liverpool UK!  Well, over the past couple of days, all our work organising has come to fruition!

Yesterday (Sunday, March 11, 2012) was our first day’s events – featuring a closed session with Startup Britain (Jamie Williams & Farid Haque), Startup Canada (Lanis Anthony and Rivers Corbett) and Startup America (who due to unforeseen circumstances were represented by Dane Stangler of the Kauffman Foundation).

It started off simply enough with each group sharing their stories with one another – business models, funding, priorities for this and following financial years, successes and challenges. Although there was an amazing amount of learning and information sharing in this part of the event (you saw people furiously scratching down notes as interesting ideas/plans/events were discussed), from my perspective, the best part was the portion of the day that looked at how the Startup Nations could work together!

I have to say that the energy in the room was simply amazing! My favourite part of working with entrepreneurs is that it’s never about what they can’t do, always about what they can do!  Ideas were flying all over the room, and participants from all sides were eagerly joining in!  Startup Canada’s Board member, Rivers Corbett, reported on the meeting for Startup Canada here.

The second day of our Startup Nations event involved an open session to which we invited other Startup Nations (Spain, Malaysia and Chile) as well as conference participants to participate in discussions. The session was chaired by Farid of Startup Britain, and opened by Jonathan Ortmans of the Kauffman Foundation.

In some ways there were similarities to the previous day’s proceedings – in the abridged introductions of the respective Startup Nations – but in most ways it was its own entity!  The fantastic energy of the first day was just as palpable on the second day, but with the addition of more organisations who’s goal was to promote the entrepreneurial spirit in their nations – and internationally!

In addition to the official “Startup” Nations in the room, there was international representation from various other countries, who were encouraged to join the movement and create Startup groups in their own countries (or to help identify and mobilise people to do so). Each participant left the event with a lot of new contacts, and a list of follow-up activities – one of which: Work towards ensuring that your countries are represented in the UK’s upcoming Startup Games!  Watch this space…

Startup Nations that participated in Day 2 of Startup Nations: (left to right) Lanis Anthony and Rivers Corbett (Startup Canada), Luis Rivera (Startup Spain), Horatio Melo (Startup Chile), Jonathan Ortmans (Kauffman Foundation), Dash Dhakshinamoorthy (Startup Malaysia), Farid Haque and Jamie Williams (Startup Britain), and Erin Wiley (Kauffman Foundation)

Also to note, Startup Canada’s News Release on our Startup Nations events!

For those tweeters out there, most of these people can be found on twitter – and if you look soon you may even be able to find our conversations at #startupnations! Twitter handles are as follows (many others were also present and joined the conversation, only those identified by name or in photos are listed below):

• Nicole Arbour: @narbour
• British High Commission, Ottawa: @UKinCanada
• Startup Britain: @startupbritain
• Startup Canada: @Startup_Canada
• Startup America:@StartupAmerica
• Kauffman Foundation: @KauffmanFDN
• Farid Haque: @Faridhaque
• Jamie Williams: @Jamiewilliams
• Lanis Anthony: @Lanisanthony
• Rivers Corbett: @Riverscorbett
• Dane Strangler: @danestrangler
• Startup Spain: @Startspain
• Startup Chile: @Startupchile
• Startup Malaysia: @Startupmalaysia
• Luis Rivera: @luisriverag
• Horatio Melo: @hora8