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Global Diversity Export Initiative
The U.S. Commercial Service features export solutions for minority-owned businesses and underserved communities leveraging our global network and the export assistance value chain of the International Trade Administration.
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Business Mission to South Africa, Ghana & Nigeria
The GDEI Mission to Africa is focused on building commercial bridges between U.S. owned or led businesses from underserved communities and business communities in South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria.
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Trade Winds
Join us in Bangkok for the largest U.S. government-led trade mission and business development forum featuring meetings with U.S. commercial diplomats from 20+ countries in Asia, conference programming, and networking.
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Building Bridges to Global Markets
Connecting diverse businesses to international opportunities.

Additional programs planned for 2023.
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GDEI Event Recordings

Global Diversity Export Initiative Event Recordings

The U.S. Commercial Service’s Global Diversity Export Initiative (GDEI) is committed to helping underserved communities in the United States, including African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, Native American, veteran and service-disabled veteran, women, LGBTQI+ businesses among others increase their exports.

In addition to providing market intelligence and export counseling assistance, we organize trade events and programs to help exporters with international business development efforts.  If you missed one of our key events, you can view selected recordings below.  

If you are interested in learning more about how we assist underserved communities, please visit the GDEI site.

Explore All GDEI Events

Miss the Event? Watch the Recordings!

Please find recordings from some of our key GDEI events below.

Pride 2021: Get Certified & Grow Internationally 

Download this session to learn about the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) certification process and how to leverage resources of the U.S. Commercial Service and U.S. Export Import Bank to grow your business in international markets.

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Women Empowered Leave Legacies Through Trade & Investment (WELLTI) Summit – Day 1 

Listen to capacity business sessions held at the Trade Winds Business Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in March 2022.  Day 1 focuses on sessions with experts from Google and the Commercial Law Development Program (CDLP) instructing on negotiation intellectual property and commercial property rights as well as a session on women in digital transformation with speakers from American Tower Corporation, Organon, Citi, and Cisco.

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Women Empowered Leave Legacies Through Trade & Investment (WELLTI) Summit – Day 2

Listen to the 2022 International Women’s Day celebration in Dubai, United Arab Emirates that features Under Secretary for ITA, Marisa Lago, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East & Africa Camille Richardson and a host of distinguished speakers from organizations supporting women in international trade, including Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT) and WeConnect International.  Also, listen to engaging conversation about women in tech and innovation, hosted by Women in Tech Dubai.

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Women’s Funding Summit

Listen to recordings from the Women’s Funding Summit, organized in conjunction with The W Marketplace and the Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington.  The sessions are broken down by funding type and each session features a funder, a women-owned business currently utilizing the funding, and a U.S. Commercial Service moderator.  The program features the following types of funding for women-owned businesses: Microlenders, SBA Loans, Crowdfunding, FinTech Lender, Startup Lender, SBA Trade Finance, and Venture Capital.

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