Global Entrepreneurship Week North Texas 2022
It is hard to believe that 1 month ago we were fully engaged in the largest celebration of Entrepreneurship around the world. We are particularly excited about our participation in this year’s event because it was led by a local Entrepreneur, Darlisa Diltz, who started North Texas Entrepreneur Education and Training, LLC as the first for profit, woman owned, black owned business service organization in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Historically led by the UNT Health Science Center out of Fort Worth Texas, in 2022, Global Entrepreneurship Week was expanded to 4 Counties to include: Tarrant, Dallas, Denton and Collin. This year’s celebration of Entrepreneurship gleamed of diversification, inclusion and entrepreneurship engagement. #GEW2022 in North Texas represented the true essence of support for all those included.
Significant highlights for #GEW2022 in North Texas (In addition to the notoriety mentioned above:
- Sponsored in by Dell for Startups, Toyota Strategic Innovation, North Texas Entrepreneur Education and Training, LLC
- 21 local community stakeholders served as organizers (All volunteers)
- 1st year we were able to conduct a unified effort across 4 counties: Tarrant, Denton, Collin and Dallas (Inclusive of 45 potential Cities)
- 140 + registered events
- Several municipalities, economic development departments collages and locally owned coworking spaces came together to host free networking events each night of the week to provide an environment of networking and engagement for GEW NTX attendees. (City of Hurst, City of Denton Economic Development Partnership, City of North Richland Hills Economic Development, TWU-Center for Women Entrepreneurship, Tarrant County College-Trinity River, The Center NTX, Connected Coworking and Stoke Denton)
- 8 Pitch Competitions totaling over $150k in grant funding: (Toyota’s Strategic Innovations: Big Pitch, CodeLaunch Dallas, Iconiq Elevator Pitches, EO Fort Worth Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards, Eosera Inc.: EmpoHERment Pitch, Stoke Denton: Big Ideas - Creative Mixer for Lil D, Not Another Pitch Competition, Startup Weekend Fort Worth)
- Hosted a community prayer breakfast for the 1st time at Momma Gina’s Restaurant and Catering, a local restaurant in Fort Worth Texas.
- A focused Youth Entrepreneurship Track facilitated by Fort Worth ISD, Arlington ISD and Junior Achievement of Chisolm Trail. 10+ events specific to Youth Entrepreneurship to include panel discussions, Youth Entrepreneurship Pitch Day, Youth Entrepreneurship & Innovation Academy Conference. Fort Worth ISD Career and Technical media production team provided the photography and videography for the annual State of Entrepreneurship event with guest speaker Victor Hwang of Right to Start.
- 30+ local organizations/companies were able to be vendors for this event (meaning, they were paid to provide a service as part of GEW NTX) - We were able to showcase Afroperuvian dance culture with a performance by Academia Folklorico Musica y Danza Asi es mi Peru at the Wrap Up Celebration.
-2700 registered attendees and 1500 confirmed attendees! It is safe to say that North Texas did it BIG! Special thank you to all of the volunteers, Entrepreneurs, City stakeholders, attendees and supporters of this year’s event.
We would also like to say a special thank you to Darlisa Diltz for her leadership and vision to invoke the true meaning of inclusion and ecosystem connectivity in North Texas.
Video recap of GEW NTX 2022: https://youtu.be/KqeIN5PuHjk
