The eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) was held in Hyderabad, from 28-30 November, 2017 at the HICC. This year’s Summit highlighted the theme Women First, Prosperity for All, and focussed on supporting women entrepreneurs and fostering economic growth globally. Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump headed the United States delegation to the Summit.
GES is the preeminent annual entrepreneurship gathering that convenes emerging entrepreneurs, investors and supporters from around the world. GES 2017 will create an environment that
empowers innovators, particularly women, to take their ideas to the next level. Through two and a half days of networking, mentoring, and workshops, GES empowers
entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas,
build partnerships, secure funding,
innovate, and find their target customers — creating new goods
and services that will transform societies.
Hyderabad now has a chip on its shoulder because it bagged this prestigious event that any other city in India would have loved to host. Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog went on record to say that three cities including Hyderabad were in the race to host GES 2017. “In the end, on all parameters, Hyderabad was way ahead of the other two cities and that is why it was chosen as the host,” said Kant. The inside story of how Hyderabad won the race, received a further endorsement when Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural speech spoke of the summit as a connection between Silicon Valley and Hyderabad. That won’t be music to Bengaluru’s ears because India’s IT capital has worn the unofficial tag of being India’s
Silicon Valley for a long time.
What GES 2017 does is to give a fillip to Hyderabad and India’s youngest state that is also joint number one with Andhra Pradesh in the Ease of Doing Business rankings. Showcasing its T-Hub — that is an ecosystem that mentors start-ups, Hyderabad has gained the reputation of being an innovation hub. And the city got a thumbs up from Ivanka Trump herself when she said that Hyderabad’s tech centres may even
outshine the city’s world famous biryani. That was after Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, as the host, asked everyone to relish the Hyderabadi biryani during their visit.
