Connecting Global Innovators
The Global Innovation Forum is a nonprofit startup that connects entrepreneur, small business, corporate, development, and university communities with policymakers to explore the opportunities and challenges of engaging in the global marketplace.
Unlocking Opportunities Through Trade
Our Objectives
Elevate the global opportunity
that exists for a diverse set of startup, business and nonprofit stakeholders.
Improve the public policy landscape
on critical global issues surrounding trade, innovation and regulation of the digital economy.
Articulate the policy challenges
that startups, nonprofits and small businesses face.
Enable more effective participation in global markets
through programming, guidance and public and private partnerships.
@NFTC
The National Foreign Trade Council Foundation launched the Global Innovation Forum to create a greater understanding of the importance of the policy foundations that underpin the ability of startups, researchers, universities and companies of all sizes to innovate globally.
Elevating Small Business voices
Meet the entrepreneurs making global impact
Small businesses everywhere are leverage the opportunity to be global from Day One. Discover the challenges entrepreneurs face along the way and the role of the digital economy and government policies in enabling access to the international marketplace.
“The Global Innovation Forum is a valuable partner to the International Trade Administration in helping to connect a range of private sector stakeholders to the Startup Global pilot initiative and improve startups’ understanding of how to participate effectively in global markets.”
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker
News
Global Innovation Forum Releases New Report on Digital Payments Powering Small Business Growth
New research and survey data highlight how digital payment systems unlock opportunity, and what’s needed from policymakers to support small...
New Polling Shows Digital Payments Critical to Small Businesses
WASHINGTON, DC – The National Foreign Trade Council Foundation’s Global Innovation Forum (GIF) today released new polling conducted by Morning...
Global Innovation Forum Hosts Transatlantic AI Policy Panel at TechCrunch
Berkeley, CA — June 5, 2025 — The Global Innovation Forum convened a conversation on the future of artificial intelligence policy at this year’s...
Global Innovation Forum Highlighted in APEC Report on Sustainable Cities Development
Washington, D.C. — The Global Innovation Forum is featured in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) report, Sustainable Cities Development...
Supporting Women through Global E-Commerce in ASEAN
Women entrepreneurs and small businesses are powerful engines of growth for the ASEAN region. GIF interviewed 10 women running businesses across all of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam -- who are going global through e-commerce.
Our partners
The Global Innovation Forum works with select partners to collaborate on programming, research and thought leadership, integrate our respective networks, and build a community of globally-engaged, policy-aware entrepreneurs, innovators and officials.
