132 countries celebrate World Business Angel Investors Week: Angel Investors’ Flagship, 20 – 26 June 2022.
World Business Angel Investors Week 2022, coordinated globally by the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) – an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) – is a global platform from which to campaign for solutions to such critical issues and other worldwide concerns at the United Nations, the European Union and in G20 countries and regional and local economies. This year’s global theme is : Business Transformation for Post-Pandemic Economies.
The ultimate aim of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) is to ease access to finance for entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs, promote gender equality, increase financial inclusion and promote the importance of digital inclusion for world economies. With 1,368 partners in 132 countries, WBAF contributes to the development of world economies through its various initiatives, including the WBAF Business School, Global Startup Investment Promotion Agency WIPA, the WBAF Publication House, and the WBAF Angel Investment Fund. It has 8 country and 2 city offices in 8 countries across 4 continents.
The World Business Angel Investors Week 2022 welcomes more than 200,000 entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs, investors, innovators, policymakers and thought leaders from around the world – all online. An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the World Business Angels Investment Forum issues commemorative stamps to memorialize significant events and themes of widespread global appeal and the significance of the Week. You can follow the Week’s events, all free of charge, from here: www.angelsweek.org
The World Business Angel Investors Week, coordinated globally by the World Business Angels Investment Forum, is envisioned as a unique platform where all stakeholders pause to assess their fast-paced journey, to analyse why and how we should leverage angel investment as a must-have financial tool for boosting economies, and to reiterate how entrepreneurial ecosystems can create more jobs, more wealth and more social justice in co-operation with key players in early-stage equity markets. This week-long event is an open platform for connecting, learning, sharing, exhibiting inventions and innovations, and exchanging know-how that promotes entrepreneurship and angel investment ecosystems. It is celebrated every year under a global theme.
Global, Continental, and Country Chairs 2022:
Baybars Altuntas, Executive Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum, has been announced as the Global Chair of the Week 2022. Altuntas says, “World Business Angel Investors Week 2022 will be a great platform from which to campaign for solutions to critical issues and worldwide concerns at the United Nations, the European Union and in G20 countries and regional and local economies,’’ adding that “ The ultimate goal of the Week’s keynotes, discussions, presentations, and workshops is to agree on a common roadmap for entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs that will enable them to emerge from this pandemic period even stronger than they were before.’’
The Continental Chairs of the World Business Angel Investors Week 2022 are: Continental Chair for Europe, Prof. Rudy Aernoudt (Belgium); Continental Chair for Africa, Folashade Ambrose (Nigeria); Continental Chair for Asia, Derik Kim (South Korea); Continental Chair for North America, Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes (United States); Continental Chair for Latin America & the Caribbean, Sandra Glasgow (Jamaica); and Regional Chair for MENA, Feryal Nass (Bahrain).
The complete list of Country Chairs is available here: Country Chairs 2022
Global Theme 2022: Business Transformation for Post-Pandemic Economies
While the world strives to contain the pandemic, entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs do whatever they can to maintain continuity and ensure survival. In the long term, however, such responses will not be enough. Companies need to grow and thrive in the post-pandemic world, so we must move swiftly to create pandemic-proof organisational models.
To survive in ‘the new normal’, that is, in the post-pandemic business environment, entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs, and governments all need to develop competencies in business transformation. Business transformation requires a completely new approach to harmonising the mindset and skills of founders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.
With this in mind, the stakeholders of the World Business Angel Investors Week, scheduled for 20–26 June 2022, have agreed on the theme for this year’s Week: Business Transformation for Post-Pandemic Economies.
World Business Angel Investors Week: Angel Investors’ Flagship
During World Business Angel Investors Week, partners host events and exhibitions related to that year’s theme. These event partners are individuals and organizations from various sectors who volunteer to share their insights on angel investment, the startup economy, financial inclusion, gender equality, entrepreneurship, and innovation to audiences and collaborators in various sectors. To recognise and highlight the global entrepreneurship ecosystem’s multi-lingual and multi-cultural business character, some events and activities are conducted in the local language.