MIT Global Startup Workshop 2009

The MIT Global Startup Workshop (GSW) will be held in **Cape Town, South Africa **on March 25-27. The GSW is a conference focused on fostering entrepreneurship through the support of the MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Each year, about 30 MIT students organize the 3 day conference in close collaboration with partners from a different host country in order to discuss practical steps that can be taken by students, academic faculty, venture capitalists, government leaders, entrepreneurs, and top business leaders. Since its inaugural conference at MIT in 1998, the MIT GSW has been hosted in Singapore, Spain, Australia, Italy, China, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, and Norway.

The conference will feature keynote speakers such as Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Public Forum Institute, Jessica Flannery is a co-founder of Kiva.org and Kenneth P. Morse, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. There will also be panels, discussion forums and networking sessions.

One of the aims of the conference is to share practices in running entrepreneurial support organizations and to form a global networks of leaders in venture creation. One of the ways of achieving it is through the Elevator Pitch Competition, a contest created for students and innovators from around the world to have an opportunity to pitch their ideas, and collect feedback in front of a leading network of venture capitalists and investment communities. There will be an instance during the conference in which participants can present a brief overview (no more than 60 seconds) of an idea for a product, service, or project. The presentation will be judged on different aspects, and the winners will receive prizes of up to US$ 1000.

If you are interested in participating of this year’s Workshop, you can register until February 28 and qualify for the early bird fee of $400 which covers attendance to the workshop and conference materials. You can also get special hotel deals for participating in the conference. We hope you are able to take advantage of this unique opportunity!