The International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF), based in the UK, has renewed a vital partnership with the University of Western Cape, South Africa to host the 21st IEF conference in the enchanting surroundings of Cape Town in South Africa. We do so with a sense of purpose, a review of what has been achieved and a strong motivation to engage in new discourse in education, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem value creation, through entrepreneurial learning for people, organisations and in the wider environment.

The act of creating a new venture can be construed as a learning process, suggesting a movement from an antecedent characterized by an accumulated stock of knowledge, experience, and ideas to another level identifiable by a marked difference in that position. Such a movement confers some advantages, some gain and fresh insight. Entrepreneurs with scarce or inimitable knowledge and skills, their human capital, are best able to recognize opportunities and generate creative outcomes. But this knowledge and skills set that constitute human capital can be acquired through both formal and informal modes of learning which are obtained in the economic and social environment and in the conditions, institutions and systems that characterize such environments. Entrepreneurs’ ability to use these conditions productively relies on four critical factors – the ecosystem in which these conditions obtain, the human capital they are able to accumulate, the social capital which they are able to draw on, and the wellbeing they are able to generate as outputs alongside new products and services.

Ecosystems, institutions, and their people are now subject to an onslaught of technological development, notably with the advent of generations of artificial intelligence (AI). AI’s growing power to allegedly impugn human creativity and reasoning unleashes prospects of a new apparatus of learning to transform the way we live and work. It questions how we could live and ambidextrously in the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ world, how we make and use goods and services in both worlds, how we manage or mitigate the problems associated with climate change or even the fragmented world order. Crucially, and in our context, it questions the meaning and scope of entrepreneurship, and for education and learning for change.

At the end of the day, we value entrepreneurs for the products, services, and organisations they create. Policy makers yearn for job creation and the improvement of the stock of assets in an economy, businesses look for fertile economic conditions, consumers seek efficient and economically satisfying goods and services. Citizens seek a fair, clean and nurturing environment, and increasingly an engagement with the values that drive the places we live in. Each of these potential outcomes embody an understanding of society where wellbeing matters as much as GDP. They enjoin our institutions to seek a continuous and adaptable approach to entrepreneurship, education, value creation and wellbeing in society.

We warmly welcome you to submit research papers, reflective essays, posters at our 21st IEF + event. Or you can simply attend and share your ideas and thoughts. Join us to further all our learning for a transforming world of education and entrepreneurship.

Key information:

• Dates: 18-20 September 2025

• Venue: UWC (University of the Western Cape), South Africa & Online

Register Now: https://lnkd.in/gaann-6Z

Further details and updates are available on: https://iefconference.org

The 21st International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF)