What: Visiting Entrepreneur Program
When: November 20-30
Where: Various locations around Sydney, Australia
For details and booking seats, click here.

Global leaders in tech innovation have been invited to Sydney to help grow local businesses in a two-week ‘visiting entrepreneur program’ between November 20-30. The launch program will see three influential international experts share their knowledge and provide one-on-one mentoring for local startups, and will also include more than 35 events hosted by the City of Sydney.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the program, which is co-sponsored by the NSW Government, would increase the global standing of Sydney’s flourishing tech startup sector.

“This program will strengthen our culture of entrepreneurship and innovation by providing links with overseas ecosystems and mentoring for local entrepreneurs to help accelerate the growth of local startups,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Our tech innovators will learn firsthand from experienced global business leaders how to launch and grow their businesses, they’ll get to participate in a wide range of events and connect with the people growing Sydney’s tech innovation hubs.

“Key to this program is our collaboration with Sydney’s tech startup industry leaders, investors and universities that will further strengthen the local startup network and connect it with the global industry.”

The starting event will be a public speaking event called ‘The Future is Female: why women entrepreneurs are changing the world’ and will be held on Monday, November 20 at Customs House. This event will be headlined by visiting entrepreneur Vicki Saunders, who co-founded and staged ventures in Silicon Valley, Europe and Canada.

Vicki Saunders speaks at a seminar on business. Image: Supplied

Ms Saunders will be joined by a panel of entrepreneurial trailblazers, including Lucy Perry of Inspiring Rare Birds, Mikaela Jade of Indigital and Natalie Nguyen of Hyper Anna in conversation with hostess Naomi Simson from Shark Tank and the founding director of RedBalloon.

Now based in Toronto, Ms Saunders is an award-winning mentor and founder of SheEO, a model for investing in women-led enterprises. She says the Sydney program is ideal for connecting global innovators.

“Sharing our experiences and our unique approaches to economic development is critical to building more inclusive ecosystems,” Ms Saunders said.

“In my experience, putting entrepreneurs and innovators in a room together and setting them free to connect and collaborate is the only path for changing the world. Sydney’s visiting entrepreneur program is a highly innovative model that I hope other communities will replicate.”

Joining Ms Saunders as visiting entrepreneurs will be Jager McConnell, CEO of Crunchbase, a leading data search platform used by millions of entrepreneurs and investors, and Marcus Segal, general partner at Upshift Capital and former senior vice president of operations of global gaming platform Zynga.

Marcus Segal (pictured) will headline another seminar. Image: Supplied

Mr Segal believes the City’s program will inspire many future startup entrepreneurs.

“The women and men who go through this program will go on to start and lead exciting companies both in Australia and abroad,” Mr Segal said.

“Each success story will inspire another 100 or more would-be entrepreneurs to chase their dreams.”

Spaces are limited and bookings are essential.