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G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance: 2018

G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance logo.

2018 G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20YEA) Buenos Aires Summit

Futurpreneur Canada is proud to facilitate international opportunities for young entrepreneurs. This year, 27 diverse and growth-oriented young Canadian entrepreneurs were selected by Futurpreneur Canada to represent Canada at the 2018 G20 YEA Summit in Buenos Aires in 2018. See the Canadian delegation at www.futurpreneur.ca/delegates.

2018 G20 YEA Buenos Aires Summit

At the 2018 G20 YEA Summit, “Entrepreneurship, Education and the Business of the Future”, nearly 300 young entrepreneurs met in Buenos Aires to share innovative ideas, make valuable connections and discuss how to advance youth entrepreneurship across the G20 nations.

2018 G20 YEA Communiqué 

Supported by global consultations with young entrepreneurs and expert knowledge partners Accenture, EY, and Dentons, the newly-released 2018 G20 YEA Communiqué is a call to action for G20 governments to focus upon entrepreneurship to address job creation and youth employment. The Communiqué here made recommendations to G20 leaders in the following areas, as voted by entrepreneurs:

  • Quality education
  • International mobility
  • Taxation
  • Sustainable development
  • Inclusive entrepreneurship
  • Promoting networks

Contributions from Canadian Delegation

Canadian delegates showed considerable leadership during the 2018 G20 YEA Summit, including six Canadians appearing on panels and breakout sessions. With delegates Cierra Bray, Frank Collins and Lina Alvarez taking over the @Futurpreneur social media accounts, the delegation shared real time updates and inspiration with Canadian entrepreneurs back home in Canada.

Canadian Delegation Activities

In addition to the official Summit (see agenda here), the 27 Canadian entrepreneurs participated in a variety of business-building activities, with support from Global Affairs Canada and others, including:

  • Visits and presentations from partners:
    • Canadian Trade Commissioner Service
    • Enablis
    • Argentine Association of Private Equity, Venture and Seed Capital (ARCAP)
    • VC funds/accelerators Waayra and Cygnus
    • Argentina Investment and Trade Promotion Agency
    • InvestBA
    • Government of Argentina, Ministry of Production
    • Government of Buenos Aires Province, Entrepreneurship Directorate
    • Metropolitan Design Centre
  • Individual B2B meetings with Argentine entrepreneurs, including presentations from Globant and Mobi724
  • Bilateral meetings with other G20 YEA country delegations, including at the UK Ambassador’s Residence

Next Steps

Following the Summit, the delegates will continue to advance their businesses, and will work with government and corporate leaders to implement the Summit recommendations to support youth entrepreneurship at home in Canada. Applications to be part of the 2019 G20 YEA Canadian delegation to Fukuoka, Japan in May 2019 will open in December. To receive an alert when applications open, please email fwilson@futurpreneur.ca.

About the G20YEA

Futurpreneur Canada is proud to be a founding member of the G20YEA, a global network of more than 500,000 young entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them. In advance of every G20 Leaders’ Summit, the G20YEA brings together hundreds of the world’s top young entrepreneurs to advance youth entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth, innovation and social change.

The Summit is an important opportunity for young entrepreneurs to become part of a network of champions for youth entrepreneurship, advising on issues of importance, sharing ideas and proposing solutions. It is also a critical opportunity for young entrepreneurs to advance their businesses, make international connections and pursue international growth.

G20 YEA Canadian Delegate Testimonial

Peter Francis


Founder, HelpMeOrder (NL)
2018 Buenos Aires Delegate

My experience in Buenos Aires was nothing short of outstanding.  I was initially nervous about the journey as I’ve never travelled somewhere where I didn’t know any of my companions beforehand.  I joked that it’s not every day that you can make over 30 new close friendships in one day. To my pleasant surprise, our Canadian delegation was easily the friendliest, largest and most impressive collection of young entrepreneurs at the summit.  It was invigorating to learn about some of the incredible businesses being led by young Canadian talent. Our delegates were leading companies that are changing our world for the better by transforming the way internet browsing works, taking the lead on cybersecurity  and adding a social spin to working remotely just to name a few.

Before the Summit kicked off, Futurpreneur had organized for our delegation 2 full days of programming where we learned about the new and emerging opportunities for expanding business in Argentina.  One of those visits was to the Metropolitan Design Centre, this impressive complex used to operate as an old fish market and has been totally transformed into a state of the art design facility that provides guidance, resources and tools to Argentinian entrepreneurs to pursue all aspects of modern design.  It included a large workshop that provides training in 3D printing, augmented and virtual reality. Using a simple mobile app, the instructors demonstrated how augmented reality can be used to scan complicated devices and add interactive instructions and levers that are overlaid on the image of the physical object in real time.  This impressive technology immediately made me envision a future where HelpMeOrder can be used to augment traditional restaurant menus. With a simple scan of a smartphone camera, we can augment the menu with images, ratings, nutritional information and so much more. I’m certainly glad that I got to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m looking forward to harvesting the fruits of these ideas and relationships in the coming months.”