Indy to host 2025 Global Entrepreneurship Congress
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The Virginia-based Global Entrepreneurship Network is bringing its annual Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) event to Indianapolis in 2025, the not-for-profit announced Thursday.
It will be only the second time the event, which attracts about 2,500 entrepreneurs, investors and startup ecosystem builders from around the world, has been held in the U.S. since 2009.
The announcement of the Indianapolis event, which is set for June 1-5, 2025 at the Indiana Convention Center, was made during this year’s GEC in Melbourne, Australia.
“We are thrilled to bring the Global Entrepreneurship Congress back to the United States for the first time since it started,” GEN founder and President Jonathan Ortmans said in a news release. “Indiana is home to thriving, resilient and collaborative communities driven by creative and innovative entrepreneurs who are transforming our world.”
The 2025 GEC will be hosted by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. The event is hosted in a different city each year with the goal of bringing together “thousands of voices to participate in creating one inclusive global ecosystem by networking, learning and sharing.”
“Since its inception in 2009 at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, GEC has created opportunities for founders to share new business models and connect with mentors and investors, and has hosted notable thought leaders challenging the status quo, policymakers focus on incentivizing entrepreneurs and removing barriers to growth, and academics exploring new ways of working and new sources of data,” the IEDC said.
In its announcement Thursday, the IEDC touted Indiana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, with the state being named the No. 1 state to start a business by Forbes, and Indianapolis being named the No. 3 city in the Midwest for startups for the second consecutive year.
The state said GEC Indiana will build on other major events hosted in Indianapolis, such as the IEDC’s Global Economic Summit, which was first held last year and is set for a second iteration in 2024.