EDC Background

The Entrepreneurship Development Conference (EDC) was first launched 5 years ago as a Youth Entrepreneurship Conference (YEC). It was conceptualised within the framework of honouring and celebrating the critical role that our young people played in bringing our society to where it is today.

Thus, it was positioned as part of the June Youth Month Events, but it was also meant to galvanise young people to focus their energies in the new terrain of struggle - Economic Emancipation. So, it was to act as a catalyst in developing a culture of entrepreneurship among the young people. In order to maximise the impact of this imperative, the conference was targeted at entrepreneurship practitioners who could then mobilise the youth in their respective sectors.

The conference has matured into a more comprehensive product - an Entrepreneurship Development Conference. Instead of an event narrowly focused on the need to improve entrepreneurship practice and policy, the EDC aims to address the needs of the actual entrepreneurs. Thus, the conference has a dual target market of entrepreneurship practitioners and established young entrepreneurs.

The conference has grown from strength to strength, from the humble beginnings of about 350 delegates in the first year to over 700 delegates in the fifth year, from about 12 content speakers to over 50 in 2008.