Being days away from entering 2013, we couldn’t let 2012 pass without a look back at where the GAN and its accelerators have come this year. We were witnesses to so many incredible things in 2012, it was hard to narrow the list to just 12, but Sarah Jane said I did because it would make for a better blog title. So here they are – the top 12 GAN moments of 2012.

12. The Venice Managing Director’s trip. Few trips surpass this one which included drinking wine, eating incredible food and basking in the beauty of the H-Farm campus during this meeting of MDs from around the world. Aziz Gilani’s “Werewolf” skills will not be forgotten anytime soon.

11. Our makeover including the new logo and website. Now the GAN has a site that not only looks amazing, but also includes functionality for founders to search GAN accelerators and apply to the program best for them, the public to find data about GAN accelerators and the GAN and its accelerators to share their successes.

10. Growing the GAN team to a party of four with the addition of Sarah Jane Coffey as Community Development and Operations Manager.

9. Accepting our 50th member, the Gener8tor accelerator in Milwaukee, into the Network.

8. Gathering 40 MDs and staff from the accelerators in the new 1871 space in Chicago for our annual Managing Directors’ Conference.

7. Compiling the first set of comprehensive GAN data: $328M in funding raised for the almost 700 companies that have gone through our Network. Those companies raised an average of $483K in funding and created over 1700 jobs.

6. Welcoming Doug Rand, Senior Policy Advisory at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology, to speak with Managing Directors to the network twice this year. First, on a call with over 100 CEOs from the Network and second in person at the fall Founders’ conference. Doug spoke with network members about immigration, gaining access to capital and how President Obama is working to support entrepreneurs.

5. Watching Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, visit GAN member Flat 6 Labs. During her trip to Cairo, she only visited the Egyptian President, a women’s-rights group and Flat6Labs.

4. Cohosting our first SXSW party with Venture Asheville on Austin’s famous 6th street, complete with a MOOG Synthesizer on display.

3. Packing in over 300 founders to hear Seth Godin, Saul Colt, Troy Henikoff, David Cohen and almost 20 more speakers at the Founders’ Conference in Boston.

2. Hosting the first set of GAN Managing Director peer-to-peer calls, as accelerator MDs and staff collaborated on issues, challenges and how to share tools and tactics with each other.

1. Working alongside some of the coolest, smartest, most interesting, genuine people on the planet. Seriously. We come to work energized and enthused by our members everyday and love the continued positive news coming out of our accelerators. We count ourselves lucky to get to do what we do.

What a year! From the entire Global Accelerator Network team, cheers to an incredible 2012 and an even more amazing 2013 on the horizon!

Party Decor photo credit: Lisa Sjolund