As the sun rose over Wellington this morning Global Entrepreneurship Week got underway with a great turnout at the New Zealand launch event and Speed Networking session.

A mayoral reception in Wellington’s Council Chambers saw a variety of speakers talk about entrepreneurial and innovation activity as one of the key drivers of economic activity. The New Zealand launch was attended by upward of 100 entrepreneurs, business people, local politicians and others in Wellington.  Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast spoke about the importance of entrepreneurs in the country’s capital, the home of such household name entrepreneurs as Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Global Entrepreneurship Week New Zealand patron and TradeMe founder Sam Morgan.

Sam Morgan spoke of the need for entrepreneurs to seize the time in their lives when they could make the choice to develop their entrepreneurial activity, something that only happens on a few occasions.  He also spoke about entrepreneurs seizing the “platform” upon which to base their ventures, such as the Internet and other developments.

The speed networking topic for the opening event was ‘what should replace the no. 8 icon so often used to describe innovation in New Zealand?’

One minute after Wellington’s launch a second Speed Networking event got underway in New Plymouth, officiated by New Plymouth mayor Peter Tennent.

A video of highlights of the event can be found here.