Congratulations to Indonesia, winners of the Global Enterprise Challenge 2009!

Also to Korea, winners of the Creativity Award.

Our thanks to all participants for making this a fantastic event.

Previously called the Enterprise Olympics, the inaugural event was launched from the International Space Station in 2002, and the following year the then Chancellor and now Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced the challenge in a live web stream.  As many as 5000 young people from 200 schools and colleges around the world now take part each year.

GEC was hosted by Careers Scotland for the first five years, by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2007 and by Australian Business Week in 2008.  In 2009 it was hosted once again in its country of origin, at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, which is appropriate in the year of Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrating not only the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, but also some of Scotland’s great contributions to the world: golf, whisky, great minds and innovations and Scotland’s rich culture and heritage.

GEC enjoys the support of NASA and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), with the latter awarding a gold medal to the winning team and individual certificates to each team member. 

We were also delighted that Jim Mather, MSP, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, The Scottish Government, opened GEC 2009.

Fifteen countries from five continents took part in this year’s Challenge:

England, Wales, Germany and Norway joined Team Scotland at the University of Strathclyde, with the remaining ten countries competing remotely. 

Gordon McVie, GEC Creator & Convener