Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2021 with HES

a week of activity to celebrate GEW2021

A lot has happened in the 12 months since we launched the Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society in GEW 2020. Not only have we published the conceptual article on which the Society is based but we have produced 50+ exemplary case studies and an educational MOOC, with more journal articles and book chapters accepted for publication. We have also given guest lectures, webinars, and presentations at conferences, usually online. As a consequence, we have gathered followers from more than 140 countries.

Additionally, and importantly, there has been a number of external initiatives reinforcing our approach, most notably the Terra Carta launched by HRH The Prince of Wales at the One Planet Summit in Paris in January 2021, and, more recently (in October 2021), the Earthshot Prize launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. This featured one of our case study enterprises, Sanergy, which was shortlisted for the Build a Waste Free World Award. In between, in June 2021, there was the G7 Summit in Cornwall that focused on the sustainability challenge, and now, from October 31-November 12th, 2021, there is COP26. Let us hope that the World’s leaders heed the call to action made by two remarkable women, HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Indian schoolgirl entrepreneur Vinisha Umashanker, also a finalist in the Earthshot Prize.

On a personal note, I was appointed recently to the Honorary Post of Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity St. David (UWTSD). This enables me to focus on the part of the world, Wales, where I started my entrepreneurship education career, training small businesses, the unemployed, women and students. Meanwhile, Felicity, a doctoral student and part-time Entrepreneurial Learning Champion at UWTSD working alongside Dr Kathryn Penaluna, has been promoting value creation through the SDGs and entrepreneurship competence to 50+ countries through the EntreCompEdu programme, even taking one whole school, Dafen Primary in Llanelli, South Wales, to a Global EntreCompEdu Pioneer Status.

During the year we are delighted to have added 3 additional advisers to our original panel of Kath, Nick, David, and Paul. They are Mrs Beverley Pold (Holder of The Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion), Professor Nigel Adams, and Kay Luan Tay (former Vice Chancellor University of Malaya-Wales). Their  advice and support on local, national and international perspectives will be invaluable

This GEW2021, our Global Pioneers, Dafen Primary School in Llanelli, will be honing their entrepreneurial skills to make Christmas sustainable. Pupils are set to work on an array of projects using naturally sourced or recycled materials to make gifts to promote and sell to family, friends and the local community. The infants are also repurposing natural materials and waste to produce ethical and sustainable decorations for sale, making use of their own grown willow off-cuts and beeswax. Linked to a recycling project, juniors will create a Remembrance Garden. The very youngest of the school are also gearing up to draw on their curiosity, experimentation, innovation and resilience, setting their sights on keeping the Gingerbread Man dry, building bridges/boats reusing junk materials and loose parts. The nursery children will be testing their creations to see what works and what fails. What a hive of entrepreneurial activity, I look forward to seeing the outcomes.

To acknowledge our first year anniversary, the Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society will be focusing the next six six days on Wales and the excellent contributions that are being made by Harmonious Entrepreneurs and also our supporters. On Friday, we will be announcing what we believe will be an exciting educational initiative intended not just to promote the concept of Harmonious Entrepreneurship but to catalyse its implementation.

So, keep watching, have a great GEW 2021 and remember, “Thought and theory must precede all action that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory” (William Wordsworth, 1770-1850).

Professor David A Kirby
Mrs Felicity Healey-Benson
Co-Founders HES

© Harmonious-Entrepreneurship.org (2021). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Harmonious-Entrepreneurship.org with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.


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