All eyes were on the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley, June 22-24 2016, where U.S. President Barack Obama hosted the seventh annual summit at Stanford University – bringing together more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors and other startup champions from around the world. During the opening session of the GES, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized the importance of the Summit and the work needed to encourage new ventures around the world, and President Obama said “entrepreneurs are the glue who can help lead toward a more peaceful and prosperous future that provides opportunity for everybody.” He also affirmed his commitment to entrepreneurship by announcing that the Global Entrepreneurship Summit will continue, and will be held in India in 2017. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg joined President Obama and emerging entrepreneurs from around the world on the main stage. The summit featured an impressive collection of tech giants and unicorns; founders from major startups including Uber, Airbnb, Stripe, LinkedIn, YouTube and others, also shared their experiences with GES participants, discussing the challenges and triumphs of starting a new venture. Also part of GES was the GES+ Emerging Youth and Women Entrepreneurs forum, organized by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and the U.S. State Department. More than 150 entrepreneurs, representing 70 different countries, had the opportunity to gain pitch skills and attend master classes, as well as network with global investors and receive invaluable mentorship.  Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, General Manager of IM Capital, was invited to be part of the Jury in the Tech/Health pitching session. CarPolo, one of the startups in the Speed@BDD accelerator, a portfolio of IM Capital, was also one of the finalists of the Social Impact pitching session. Ms. Gayle Smith, USAID Administrator, was among the panelists showing how U.S. government agencies like OPIC and USAID harness the power of entrepreneurs to drive economic growth, scale development innovations, and combat poverty. The panelists examined how the U.S. government directly supports entrepreneurs to help them test innovations and become investment-ready, how they partner with investors to catalyze investment into entrepreneurs, and how they strengthen the ecosystems in which entrepreneurs operate by tackling the range of market barriers and failures. USAID and 500 Startups announced at the GES that they will be sponsoring a Geeks on a Plane tour of Africa next year – stopping in Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. The tour will culminate in a final stop at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Johannesburg, in March 2017.