Courtesy of GEW Fort Worth
The GEW Fort Worth opening party in 2019
When Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) relaunched in Fort Worth three years ago, the event hosted 17 sessions, attracting about 1,000 participants.
This year, GEW Fort Worth's session lineup is reaching 130. Attendance is yet to be seen, but a big turnout is likely — according to the GEW Leaderboard, which lists the most active participating cities around the globe, Fort Worth snags the top spot over Kansas City, San Juan, Sacramento, New York and, well, everybody else.
So, based on total number of activities as of today, Fort Worth is set to host the largest GEW event in the world.
For the second year in a row, too.
"There is an appetite in Fort Worth for this kind of content," says Walker Lutringer, a business strategist and one of several organizers behind GEW Fort Worth. "There's a lot of people who feel like they have to drive to Dallas to do some of these things ... we're totally happy to step up and bring these sessions to Fort Worth because we're really filling a need."
GEW Fort Worth takes place Sunday through Friday, with sessions spread out everywhere from a UNTHSC-hosted Basecamp on Bailey Avenue to the Legal Cafe downtown. GEW takes place during the same week around the world, with each city hosting various activities focused on networking, startups, business growth, and all things entrepreneurship.
Fort Worth's event kicks off with an opening party Sunday at Tarrant County College's Trinity River Campus. Also of note is Tuesday's State of Entrepreneurship luncheon, featuring familiar local faces like Mattie Parker, Cameron Cushman, and EJ Carrion — along with a celebrity guest, Ian Hathaway, Techstars' vice president of capital.
Other sessions range in topic from cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence to investment and marketing. There's even a Startup Funeral Series addressing the topic of failure, as well as a virtual event during which U.S. investors will get to hear pitches from 10 startups in Korea.
"One of the biggest benefits of having an event like Global Entrepreneurship Week Fort Worth is to get exposure to what's happening outside of Dallas-Fort Worth," Lutringer says. "That's really important to us. This is a great opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs around the world and get a glimpse of what they're working on."
If 130 events sound overwhelming, GEW Fort Worth has outlined various tracks on the Sessions page of its website to help participants plan their weeks based on what interests them the most.
What participants should realize, Cushman says, is that GEW Fort Worth is for all entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey — whether longtime business owners or those simply looking to get an idea off the ground.
"Starting a company is one of the hardest things most people do in their entire lives — and also one of the loneliest," Cushman says. "Global Entrepreneurship Week addresses those two things very directly. We give entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors the ability to connect and learn from each other."
More information is available at gewfortworth.org.