About the OECD-ICSB Conference on SMEs and Entrepreneurship
A global stage for small business
The OECD-ICSB Forum on SMEs and Entrepreneurship - Exploring New Frontiers is a global, annual gathering of entrepreneurs, small business owners, policymakers, researchers, educators, investors, and community leaders committed to advancing the growth and resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide. The conference is organized by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), the world's oldest and largest organization dedicated to SMEs and entrepreneurship, in partnership with the OECD. It was created on a simple conviction: that the enterprises representing more than 90 percent of all businesses and the majority of employment worldwide deserve a global stage of their own.
Small business at the center
Unlike gatherings built around large corporations or governments alone, the conference places the small business owner and the entrepreneur at the center of the conversation. Each edition convenes in a different host country, partnering with government agencies, universities, development institutions, and the private sector to address the most pressing issues facing SMEs.
Six research themes
The Paris 2026 edition focuses on six research themes: SMEs and AI, Deeptech Entrepreneurship and Incubation, Scale-Up Finance, Women and Youth Entrepreneurship, Human-Centered Entrepreneurship, and New and Emerging Topics. Four of these themes are also the subject of policy roundtables at the OECD on Day 2, connecting research directly to policymaking.
Inclusive and human-centered
Every edition dedicates special sessions to women and youth entrepreneurship, reflecting the conference's core commitment to inclusive economic growth and to Human-Centered Entrepreneurship that puts people at the heart of enterprise. The conference also carries forward the spirit of the United Nations International Day for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (June 27), which ICSB helped establish in 2017, extending that global recognition into a working platform where ideas become policy and policy becomes practice.
A global journey
From Macao to Paris, six editions across five continents.
Macao, China
"SMEs and Entrepreneurship: Leading the Way Forward"
The Forum launched under the theme "SMEs and Entrepreneurship: Leading the Way Forward," positioning SME-led creativity and innovation as the pathway for the Greater Bay Area, China's ambitious initiative to link Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and seven neighboring cities into a single integrated economic and business hub serving more than 70 million people. Against this backdrop, the inaugural Forum connected small enterprises to the region's deep reserves of talent, capital, and innovation, with focused attention on the industries where SMEs drive regional competitiveness: fashion, environmental management, information and communication technologies, and tourism. Macao demonstrated the Forum's founding premise, that when SMEs are connected to major urban innovation networks, both the enterprises and the regions around them grow stronger.
Rosario, Argentina
"SMEs Must Choose Change"
Reconvening after the pandemic under the banner "SMEs Must Choose Change," the Forum arrived in Latin America at a moment when small businesses everywhere were rebuilding, rethinking, and reinventing. The message was direct: the post-pandemic economy would not reward those who waited for conditions to return to normal, but those who chose transformation. Hosted by the National University of Rafaela and the National University of Rosario, with the support of the Provincial Government of Santa Fe, the Forum brought together business owners, legislators, researchers, and educators from across the region and beyond. The Argentine edition anchored the Forum in the academic and productive sectors simultaneously, a pairing that has remained part of its identity ever since, and underscored Argentina's historic role as co-founder, alongside ICSB, of the UN's global MSME agenda.
Baku, Azerbaijan
"Crossroads of Europe and Asia"
Hosted by the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (KOBIA), this edition marked the Forum's first government-agency-led hosting model and its arrival at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Over four days, the Forum targeted five key segments, spanning private sector companies, startups, policymakers, academia, education, and tourism and hospitality, with dedicated sessions on women and youth entrepreneurship. Baku demonstrated how a national SME agency can serve as the engine of an entire entrepreneurial ecosystem, and it extended the Forum's reach across the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the wider Turkic world, regions where small enterprise is central to economic diversification beyond natural resources.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
"Sustainable Growth in a Climate & Tech Transition"
Hosted by ICSB Malaysia Networks with the support of the Malaysian government and partners, the Forum took on the defining challenge of the decade: how SMEs achieve sustainable growth in an era of climate transition and technological disruption. The agenda spanned ESG, energy transition, sustainability, innovation, digitalization, and AI, with dedicated programming for the oil, gas, and energy sector alongside startups, policymakers, and academia. The Malaysian edition reflected the country's position at the crossroads of Southeast Asia's energy and digital economies, and it pressed a question that resonated far beyond the region: how do small enterprises, with limited resources but unmatched agility, lead rather than follow in the transitions reshaping the global economy?
Cairo, Egypt
"Innovation Unleashed"
The Forum convened in Cairo at the heart of ICSB's 70th anniversary celebration, joining the ICSB World Congress, ICSB Academy, Women CEO Forum, and Marketplace in a five-part global gathering under the theme "Innovation Unleashed." With the support of Egypt's Ministry of International Cooperation, which has placed MSMEs at the center of its national development strategy and mobilized international partnerships to finance youth-led and women-led enterprises, the Cairo edition spotlighted finance mobilization, digital transformation, and inclusive growth across Africa and the Middle East. Hosted on the campus of the American University in Cairo, the Forum gathered entrepreneurs, ministers, researchers, and students in one of the world's oldest centers of commerce and learning, a fitting setting for an anniversary dedicated to the future of enterprise.
Paris, France
Upcoming"SME AI Adoption · Deeptech · Scale-up Finance"
The OECD-ICSB Forum on SMEs and Entrepreneurship - Exploring New Frontiers continues its journey in 2026 in Paris, where ICSB and the OECD are joining forces to convene global leaders around the themes shaping the next decade of small business: SMEs and AI, deeptech entrepreneurship, scale-up finance, women and youth entrepreneurship, human-centered entrepreneurship, and new and emerging topics.
The road ahead
The OECD-ICSB Forum on SMEs and Entrepreneurship - Exploring New Frontiers continues its journey in 2026 in Paris, where ICSB and the OECD are joining forces to convene global leaders around the themes shaping the next decade of small business: SMEs and AI, deeptech entrepreneurship, scale-up finance, women and youth entrepreneurship, human-centered entrepreneurship, and new and emerging topics. From Macao to Paris, the conference has grown from a regional conversation into a global movement, carrying a single conviction across every continent it visits: that small and medium-sized enterprises are not a footnote to the global economy. They are its foundation, its future, and its most human expression.
October 21 to 23, 2026 across two iconic Paris venues: OECD Headquarters and Station F.