Right now, all over the world, there are hundreds of millions of people actively trying to start a new business – some out of necessity, some to escape poverty, and others to fulfil a lifetime's ambition. Whatever their motivation, these entrepreneurs are making a dramatic contribution to our world: creating jobs, fostering innovation, and acting as catalysts for economic growth and development.

Discussing the increasingly vital importance of entrepreneurship to the global economy will be two distinguished speakers, Dr Carl J Schramm, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Doug Richard, Co-founder of Library House, serial entrepreneur and star of the hit BBC series, Dragons' Den.

Carl Schramm joined the Kauffman Foundation having been an academic, an entrepreneur, and an executive in the health insurance industry. Speaking from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carl Schramm will share some key insights from his forthcoming book, ‘The Entrepreneurial Imperative’. In his book, Carl explains that entrepreneurship is in America's DNA, and that by exporting it, the US can foster greater democracy and freedom. Carl will argue that to ensure long-term prosperity, nations must support the entrepreneurial process, while questioning why it is that even in the US, the most entrepreneurial country in the world, there is no good economic model to describe how entrepreneurship fits into the economy at large.

Speaking from Cambridge University, Doug Richard will share his own wealth of experience as a serial entrepreneur in both the UK and the US. As co-founder of Library House, a research and data services company that monitors innovative start-ups from initial investment to IPO or trade sale, Doug has a unique overview of high-tech entrepreneurship in the UK. In his presentation, Doug will identify some of the existing barriers to enterprise, and compare the entrepreneurial climate in the UK to that in the US.

Facilitating the lecture will be Dr Shai Vyakarnam, Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and Professor Ed Crawley, Executive Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute at MIT.

The lecture will take place in the Robinson College auditorium, Cambridge, England on Friday 4th November 2005 from 2.30pm (UK time). The event is free to attend, and we expect significant demand for places so please register online. Following the lecture, there will be a drinks reception where delegates will have the chance to network with the speakers and other guests.

Alternatively, you can join the event via the online webcast.

For more information, please contact Mary Phenna on 44 (1223) 327207

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