TEACHINGS FROM THE GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURIAL SUMMIT

Things you should know about the Global Entrepreneurship Summit

Obama Mania has struck and conversations are buzzing with the details of US President Barack Obama’s visit.
From last minute beautification projects to the closing of roads, Kenyans are obsessing about the return of Kogelo’s greatest son.

It seems that the focus has been more on Obama’s return than on the function that has occasioned his trip, the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES).
The summit, which will be co-hosted by Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Barack Obama, will take place on Saturday and Sunday in Nairobi.
Here are four things that you should know about the GES:
GES was initially intended for Islamic states
Just seven months after he took office, US President Barack Obama visited Al-Azhar University in Cairo where delivered a speech titled ‘New Beginnings’.
In his address, Obama outlined his government’s new foreign policy objectives for Islamic nations where he mentioned the establishment of an annual entrepreneurship forum.
“On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries.
And I will host a summit on entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world,” said Obama.
Kenya will be the first sub-Saharan Africa host
The 6th GES will be hosted at the United Nations office in Gigiri, and this will be the first time that the function has been hosted in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The first summit took place in 2010 and was held in Washington DC, USA.
The subsequent ones were held in Turkey, Dubai, Malaysia and Morocco respectively.
‘Sharks’ and other top business leaders will be present
Three billionaire businessmen from The Shark Tank are among the 5,000 delegates expected to attend the summit.
The three ‘sharks’ who are scheduled to attend the summit are: Daymond John, founder and President of FUBU fashion line; Barbara Corcoran, founder of Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners; and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
According to the GES 2015 website, entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, business leaders, mentors, and high-level government officials will also attend the summit.
Registration closed over a month ago                                          
If you are itching to attend this high power summit, you are out of luck as registration closed well over a month ago.
Online applications were made in advance and the GES team has selected the delegates that will attend the function.
Though the list of attendees is not out, Industrialisation CS Aden Mohammed has revealed that 20 per cent of the delegates are from Kenya and over 50 per cent are from Africa.