A New Beginning? The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship Gets Underway

President Obama's first speech delivered abroad after taking the White House was a June 2009 speech in Cairo titled "A New Beginning." In it, he committed to a new type of US engagement with the Muslim world, and indeed, the world at large. Part of that commitment involved ensuring that the US was an active partner in unleashing the talent and economic opportunity of a new global generation. That commitment gets underway today with the launch of the first Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.

The event is co-hosted by the Departments of Commerce and State, and will bring together around 275 delegates from upwards of 60 countries. The event is spread over two days, and anchored by topics that range across the entrepreneurship spectrum. As opposed to other government events that focus on convening government officials, most of the folks attending this event are from the private sector, nonprofits or academia. The particular focus is entrepreneurship in the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries, but the conversations are meant to be broadly applicable.

Listening to the Press Briefing on Friday, there were two things that I was impressed with. The first was how well the planners of the event have identified key discussion areas. The topics range from meta-conversations like how to build cultures of entrepreneurship (in other words, societal tolerance and support for risk taking) to conversations about how to support the entrepreneurship of historically disenfranchised groups like women and youth to pragmatic conversations about the challenges of accessing entrepreneurial capital. Overall, there seems to be more substance than fluff.

The second thing that impressed me is the breadth of involvement from US government offices in the event. Representatives from the White House, Department of Commerce, Department of Labor, State Department, Small Business Administration, Department of Education, and more will all participate in the conversation. This is exactly how it should be. Entrepreneurship intersects with every area of public and private life, and to really support its potential to be a driver of economic growth, the conversation needs that sort of breadth.

That said, there is one glaring reality that mars the event a bit for me. There is a conspicuous absence of youth voices. There are one or two young speakers sprinkled through out, but even on the youth panel, only one of the five participants is under 30. Contrast this with the fact that 30% of the population of the Middle East is between 15-29 and 25% of youth are unemployed.

If this summit is really meant to be a "new beginning," and the focus on entrepreneurship is about building the long term capacity of partner countries to thrive economically, then it is a huge problem that the event is neglecting the voices of those who are by necessity building that long-term capacity. What's more, for young people to feel like government is actually a partner in their work, it has to show that it doesn't just recognize traditional positions and expensive suits and ties.

By all accounts, this is the first step of many, and as a first step, it seems like a likely success. But going forward, there has to be more space carved out for the young voices that must be at the center of the conversation.

Watch the event live on Facebook here.

Photo credit: Atilla1000