[RECAP] An Emphasis on Women, Tech, and the Future of Entrepreneurship: Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017

1’500 delegates from 150 countries gathered in Hyderabad for this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). The air buzzed with excitement as entrepreneurs, investors, and government officials mingled and connected with one another.
With the theme, “Women First, Prosperity For All,” GES 2017 brought in a variety of inspiring women figures and honed in on women-focused panels. Master classes such as “Success! Keeping and Nurturing Women in STEM” as well as an all-female panel discussing the future of artificial intelligence kept audience members engaged, while speeches from the likes of Ivanka Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi honed in on how investing in women could lead to a positive ripple effect and how India plans to continue as a prime location for innovation.
Meanwhile, the GIST Catalyst Pitch Competition was held throughout the summit, with 24 semifinalists competing for over $400,000 worth of prizes. Indonesian-based startup Humanitree – an app-based platform that improves access to education by connecting those who want to donate to a child’s education with child sponsorship NGOs and providing a secure payment method, updates, and impact dashboard – was among the semifinalists in the digital economy category. An Indian-based startup, Frontier Markets, took the grand prize: Frontier Markets is a last mile distribution solution for energy products with a focus on solar technology that empowers women by giving women in India the tools they need to teach their communities about the benefits of solar power and sell solar products.