The 2011Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is underway, with Massey University's ecentre holding a series of events at the University's Albany campus in Auckland.

The series kicked off yesterday with business case challenge in which participants worked on a case relating to a startup business, as opposed to a more established business in traditional case study competitions.

”It is a great way of giving participants a better understanding of what it means to start your own business,” says Sabrina Nagel, Business Strategist at ecentre, "as it will require the teams to put themselves into the shoes of a start up entrepreneur.”

The challenge was judged by Nagel, Chris Lock from Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), and Enrico de Klerk, CEO of Hub9, the startup on which the challenge was based.

GEW kicked off on Monday morning in Wellington and runs from November 14-20. GEW is a global movement that runs events all year round, culminating in a one-week event that more than 100 countries participate in to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. The event is globally sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, and sponsored here in New Zealand by Massey University.

As part of GEW, ecentre is also hosting a business idea workshop on Friday. The free two-hour workshop will focus on giving entrepreneurs direction on what to do when they have a business idea, why market validation is important, and tools and methodologies to validate their business idea, and develop a business model for growth and success.

Steve Corbett, CEO of ecentre, encourages people to ‘get involved'.

"We are very excited about this week,” Corbett says, "as it is so important for the future of New Zealand to promote entrepreneurship as a career.