A New Beginning: Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship Now Accepting Nominations for Delegates

Making good on the President’s pledge in Cairo

In his June “A New Beginning” speech in Cairo, President Obama announced that the U.S. will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between those focused on advancing entrepreneurship in Muslim communities around the world.

Today, the Commerce Department’s new Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship begins accepting nominations for delegates to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship on its Web site, http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit.

Nearly 150 delegates focused on entrepreneurship in Muslim communities around the world, including minority communities in Muslim-majority countries, will be selected from nominations submitted to the Summit Web site, through our embassies and other sources. These delegates will represent their home countries, regions, sectors and communities at the Summit and help highlight successes, challenges and opportunities while working to identify personal, national and regional goals for entrepreneurship development.

Goals for the 2010 Summit include:

• Highlighting successful entrepreneurs;
• New and strengthened global networks of business and social entrepreneurs;
• Enhanced partnerships that link capital, business development services, and market access that enable entrepreneurs to build high-growth and high-impact ventures;
• Increased support for social entrepreneurs who fill the gaps between government and the private sector;
• Recommendations for how Americans can partner with those focused on entrepreneurship development in Muslim communities worldwide; and
• A plan for ways of sustaining focus on entrepreneurship and support for small- and medium-sized enterprises—especially at the local and regional level.

Delegate invitations will be issued on January 11, 2010, and invitees will be required to confirm acceptance of their invitation by January 25, 2010.

For more information about the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship or to nominate a delegate, please visit http://www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit.