Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 happened during November 16 – 22, 2020 with 40,000 events in 180 countries all around the world. Connect Ventures team organized multiple events during #GEW2020 in collaboration with Digital Faisalabad, Startup Grind Faisalabad, AWS Scouts, SEED Limited, DigitalSofts, WebSolUK, and Innovation Lab.

This is 1st time, GEW has been celebrated in Faisalabad. According to official website (https://www.genglobal.org/gew) we organized 4 events in this week.

1- GEW Talk with Adnan Faisal (Event Details)
Guest: Mr. Adnan Faisal, Founder ScaleX Accelerator

2- Entrepreneurship Sangat 2020 – (in Partnership with Askolay) (Event Details)

Panelists:
Haider Mairaj, CEO – Askolay (Moderator)
Iftikhar Hussain, Startup Grind Lahore
Altaf Hussain, Partner – Connect Ventures
Mahrukh Qadeer, Founder – Co-Wired, Lahore
Azizullah Bangash – Peshawer
Syed Azfar Hussain, NIC – Karachi
Muhammad Bilal, Director – Startup Grind Faisalabad

3- Cross Border E-Commerce – Progress, Opportunities and Challenges (Event Details)

Panelists: Syed Awais Zaidi, Umair Ahmed, Arbaz Abid

4- IoT in Pakistan – Opportunities, Challenges and way Forward (Event Details)

Panelists:
Altaf Hussain – Partner, Connect Ventures
Zulfiqar Ahmed – Founder, Innovation Lab
Amir Zahoor, FAST-NU CFD Campus

All the events were broadcasted LIVE on Facebook, and viewed by more than 2000 people during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020. Due to COVID-19 we could not arrange physical events this year, but we hope the situation will be better next time and we will be able to do more events offline and online in collaboration with local Tech Industry and Academia.

Connect Ventures team is always keen to bring opportunities for Faisalabad based Entrepreneurs, Startups, Founders and Professionals to help them prepare better for global competition by Inspiring, educating and connecting them through events.

2019 has been full of activities for Connect Ventures Team, we tried our best to keep working on foundation of our local Entrepreneurial Ecosystem as well as bringing new opportunities to our city Faisalabad to promote Startup Culture. Here is a recap of our activities during 2019.

TechStars Startup Weekend Faisalabad 2019 held on 29th November till 01 December, 2019 at FAST National University – Chiniot Faisalabad Campus (CFD). Over 140+ individuals registered, around 100 appeared for registration and 74 individuals showed courage to participate in 54 hours activity to form teams and build 12 best ideas into presentable prototypes and business model.

Official Website: http://communities.techstars.com/pakistan/faisalabad-punjab-pakistan/startup-weekend/13807

Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/StartupWeekendFaisalabad/

What is Startup Weekend?

In just 54 hours, you experience the highs, lows, fun, and pressure that make up life at a startup. As you learn how to create a real company, you’ll meet the very best mentors, investors, co-founders, and sponsors who are ready to help you get started. Your community is there to help you.

Background

Connect Ventures team started working on bringing TechStars Startup Weekend to Faisalabad in late 2018, due to certain reasons or circumstances we could not form a team good enough to execute, after a delay of over an year, we finally got people to join us, and successfully organised 1st Tech Stars Startup Weekend event in collaboration with FAST National University – CFD Campus.

A 4 Member Delegation from City if Austing, Texas, USA along with guests from Innovation District 92, Lahore visited Faisalabad on November 13th, 2019 to explore bileteral opportunities for Fashion Forward Initiative under ATX-Pak Advance (ATX+PAK Entrepreneurship Program by US Department of State).

Delgation visited Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and had a detailed meeting with Textile manufacturers interested to learn about the ATX-Pak Advance program and its intiatives, specially in Fashion Industry. Delegates from City of Austin discussed and answered the queries of meeting participents.

After the meeting at Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the delegates took a facility tour of one of well known garments manufacturing unit in Faisalabad, Fashion & Trends Private Limited. F&T is one of largest manufacturers and suppliers of American Eagle, which is a well known US fashion brand.

Last visit of the day was to meet Rector of National Textile University, Faisalabad and have a tour of University Labs and training facilities. Delegates met with honourable Rector, Dr. Tanveer Hussain, and discussed about possible opportunities between NTU and University of Texas.