Know some of you may have sen Ingrid's earlier post on the topic, but I thought there was still room for additional perspective. The Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) is the largest gathering of start-up champions from around the globe and provides a unique opportunity for networking with some of the world’s most successful and innovative entrepreneurs. This year the event came to Britain for the first time and we jumped at the opportunity to be part of a congress dedicated to unleashing potential and inspiring entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions.
The day kicked off for us with a highly interactive breakfast with some of our SMB customers following an opening keynote from our Global President & Chief Commercial Officer, Steve Felice. Steve also took to the stage for a panel session chaired by myself, to exchange ideas and perspectives with our customers who responded positively to several opportunities we’ve added to our SMB pipeline.
In the spirit of GEC’s central themes this year – who dares win; who cares win; who shares wins –Steve Felice spoke on two panel sessions focused on the ‘will to win’ to a full house with 3,000 delegates in attendance. He was in good company with Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco, FT columnist Mike Southon, and Ian Ayer, MD of the Liverpool Football Club, whose panel session provided advice for entrepreneurs from some of the UK’s best known business leaders.
In a separate session focused on supercharging growth through workforce innovation, Steve explored findings from our recent research study which unearths the extent to which employees are driving an evolution in the workplace. The panel, which included the CEOs of Dell customers Jagex and Liverpool Football Club, teased out the significance of the results for budding entrepreneurs and explored how they’ll affect tomorrow’s business leaders.
Throughout the day, our Entrepreneur in Residence, Ingrid Vanderveldt, conducted a roving ‘Power Panel’ discussion, asking delegates for business advice to share with the entrepreneurial community. Ingrid spoke with seasoned entrepreneurs including the likes of Sir Richard Branson, as well as exciting start-ups, including Raj Dey, founder of Enternships & Startup Britain, and Celia Gates of The Global Brainstorm. Have a look at what we got up to in our video on YouTube here and look out for more business advice videos on the EIR site or follow the #DellEIR hashtag.
At Dell, technology has always been about enabling human potential. To coincide with the launch of our first ultrabook – the XPS 13 – we invited the entrepreneurs at GEC to participate in our Ultrabook Experience and get hands-on with our entrepreneur-friendly ultrabook which incorporates the performance and mobility needs of mobile workers and consumers alike. In total, over 200 people took part in the Experience which asked delegates to look at the XPS 13 next to Ultrabooks from other companies and share their feedback. Insight and feedback was resoundingly positive with many participants loving the edge-to-edge screen, small form factor and premium build quality of the XPS 13.
Overwhelmingly, this year’s event showed that, with the vision, inspiration, and tools including the invaluable advice of successful business leaders, entrepreneurs are well-equipped to get started on making their business ambitions a reality. After all, in this game, who dares, wins.
Check out our Flickr page for photos from the event!