* On the17th and 18th of May, over 300 people from East Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia got together for the 7th edition of the Growing SMEs | Connect. Exchange. Invest.| This time: the East Africa edition.

* 36 speakers from Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia shared their knowledge, experiences and lessons learned during the Growing SMEs forum. Topics such as Diaspora Financing Power, Non Collateral Based Lending, Convertible Debt & Equity, and Business financing through Value Chains were some of the topics included in the program.

* 25 entrepreneurs from Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Palestine, Kosovo, Liberia, the Netherlands and India presented their businesses to investors, SME practioners, and to their peers during the Growing SMEs Marketplace at the New Kigali Library.

* 3 successful entrepreneurs; from Kenya, India and Rwanda, spoke out on receiving finance from different types of financiers during a Keynote Dialogue

* 3 experienced Angel investors from Colombia, Mexico and the Netherlands joined their aspiring peers to share their knowledge on Angel Investing, and to help create new (inter)national investor networks.

* 800 live stream viewers from 46 countries worldwide followed the conference through www.bidnetwork.org and www.igihe.com. Find these videos at youtube.com/bidnet

Thanks to all the people who made this possible. Thanks to the over 20 volunteers from JCI Rwanda, to the RDB team for supporting the initiative, to all the supporting partners and national partners from different countries. And thank you very much to all participants for making this conference a success!