A group of 22 Australian entrepreneurs under the age of forty will fly to Moscow this June for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit, including 10 women representing businesses ranging from finance to consulting, marketing and thermo-solar hot water technology.
The group, supported by the Enterprise Network for Young Australians, is largely self-funding themselves on the trip. However, a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign will be developed in order to help ten of the younger members of the delegation with flights and accommodation.
Australian president of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance and ENYA CEO Jeremy Liddle told Women’s Agenda Australia has one of the highest proportions of female representatives than any of the other delegations. This is despite two thirds of all applications to be part of the local delegation usually coming from men.
“I think this year we have a really good representation of the small business stakeholders in the ecosystem,” he said. “We’ve got three CEOs of incubators, through to huge businesses and someone who’s 22 who’s just launched a solo business. It’s diverse across industry.”
He said members of the delegation usually explore impediments, threats and opportunities for starting their own businesses before heading overseas, and gender issues have not come up previously as a serious problem. Rather, it’s regulation and access to funding that tends to hold young entrepreneurs back, barriers that governments could work to remove in order to better promote the innovative thinking of young people.
Now in its fourth year, the G20 summit allows delegates from all over the world to learn and share from best practices, and develop strategies and policies to bring home for promoting the work of young entrepreneurs within their own countries.
The 10 women traveling to Moscow include Job Capital founder Jo Burston, Loving it UP founder Marion Di Benedetto, School for Life Australian founder Annabelle Chauncy, SAMMWAY Brand & Strategy founder Samantha Dybac, Impact Leaders founder Emily Haigh, Wealth Enhancers founder Sarah Riegelhuth, Elevents founder Elisa Limburg, Francesca Collections founder Hannah Vasicek, Energie Australia founder Dhevaksha Naidoo and Holly Ransom.