Union Station tapped for GEWKC base camp; training for treps arrives Nov. 19-21 in KC

When GEWKC pulls into Kansas City this fall, the metro’s largest educational entrepreneurship event will be stationed within one of the community’s crown jewels — a link to the past that points to a brighter future for the regions’ innovators, said Chante Keller.

Union Station, Kansas City; photo courtesy of KCSourceLink

KCSourceLink on Thursday formally announced Union Station as the 2024 base camp for Global Entrepreneurship Week – Kansas City, a multiday event series expected to draw thousands to network, learn and grow Nov. 19-21.

“We’re excited to help entrepreneurs get what they need to move their business and business ideas forward in a place that has a rich history of bringing innovators, pioneers, doers, dreamers and makers together,” said Keller, senior program manager at KCSourceLink, which organizes the annual GEW festivities in Kansas City.

Anchored by input from the community, GEWKC sessions are crowdsourced from entrepreneurs, service providers, policymakers and champions of entrepreneurship. The event series is 100-percent free and open to anyone.

Union Station Kansas City — 30 W. Pershing Road in Kansas City, Missouri — is a centralized location for all in-person sessions, Keller said. The popular tourist attraction boasts ample meeting spaces for the event, as well as exhibit spaces for touring exhibits produced by the Smithsonian, National Geographic and other international organizations; a planetarium; an interactive science center Science City; and a vibrant theater district featuring giant-screen movies, live performances, and restaurants.

Editor’s note: Visitors to the GEWKC base camp at Union Station will have an opportunity to explore the final weeks of the Disney100 exhibit, which wraps Nov. 30. Click here to buy tickets to Disney100.

Max Sheffield-Baird, Max Wilde Stories, center, speaks at Global Entrepreneurship Week-Kansas City in 2023 alongside fellow panelists Chancellor Adams, Chancellor’s Promise, and Vu Radley, MADE MOBB; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Past base camps have included sites in the 18th and Vine District, downtown North Kansas City, and the former Plexpod Westport Commons campus — all historic hotbeds of arts, community and culture, Keller said.

“KCSourceLink has held GEWKC at base camps across Kansas City that have thriving communities with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and we’re happy to bring the event this year to the iconic Union Station Kansas City, a place that offers a lot for attendees and is easily accessible,” she added.

Click here to apply to exhibit at GEWKC as a maker, food business or other type of product or service vendor.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is an international celebration of the dreamers, innovators and job creators who launch startups, bring ideas to life and advance entrepreneurship. Founded in Kansas City by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2008, the event has since expanded to more than 170 countries.