A gala dinner to develop an action plan about how to position Jordan as the Silicon Valley of the region heralded the beginning of Global Entrepreneurship Week in Jordan on Sunday evening.

The event, titled “Kickoff Reception: Growing an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Jordan” was held at Le Royal Hotel in Amman and featured international and Jordanian speakers and business leaders. It is the first of many events scheduled to take place in Jordan this week focusing on entrepreneurs at all stages of growth and featuring leading entrepreneurs from around the world, the region and the Kingdom.

The Week is organized by Creative Commons, Endeavor Jordan, the Young Entrepreneurs Association, and the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE).

According to the organizers, the launch event is designed to spotlight Jordan’s nascent culture of entrepreneurship, celebrate success stories, and “develop an action plan on how to position Jordan as the entrepreneurial hub of the region through live voting on key questions developed by international experts”.

“This effort falls under the organizers’ contribution to translating into reality the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah for Jordan’s economic development,” said Mohamad Khawaja of the QRCE.

Speakers include inspiring world-class entrepreneurs such as Joi Ito, a Japanese activist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist; Silicon Valley luminaries Reid Hoffman, the founder and CEO of LinkedIn, and Mitchell Baker, Chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation, launcher of the Firefox web-browser; and Arab business innovators such as Habib Haddad the co-founder of Yamli and Sami Shalabi the member of Google’s technical team.

Top business leaders and entrepreneurs from Jordan will also be sharing their experiences with an audience that will include CEOs, entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, innovators and team leaders.

The Global Entrepreneurship Week calendar, available to view at www.unleashingideas.org/jordan, features on November 16th a Global Entrepreneurs Forum, which brings together the business community to hear from and network with five outstanding international entrepreneurs. A Speed Networking Session on November 17 will be an educational event teaching 100-200 professionals to network effectively with each other. On the 21^st, a panel discussion featuring successful Jordanian businesswomen will address the aspirations of women entrepreneurs and the particular challenges they encounter. Another educational opportunity, Entrepreneurship 101 will be offered by UC Berkeley trainer Dr Wissam Rabadi on November 22^nd. All of these events will be held at Princess Sumaya University of Technology.

The 18th and 19th will be dedicated to “Afkar, yes we can!” a series of interactive creative thinking sessions at schools in Amman, Irbid, Ma’an and Zarqa for students to enhance their problem-solving techniques in order to break down the obstacles facing young leaders.

The week of activities concludes with Tijaritna, an entrepreneurs’ marketplace featuring handmade and home-baked products and treats, all day at City Mall on Sunday, November 22^nd.