A NEW event aimed at supporting start-up companies in Ireland is planning to go nationwide, after its Dublin event was deemed a success.
The Bizspark Innovation Accelerator, which was jointly hosted by Microsoft and the Digital Media Forum, is designed to help start-up companies access the help, guidance and information they need to make their businesses a success.
More than 200 entrepreneurs and start-ups attended the event in the Radisson SAS hotel in Dublin city centre on Tuesday, with Irish entrepreneurs such as Iona founder Chris Horn, Havok founder Dr Steve Collins, Telecoms entrepreneur Pat Phelan and Dublin city female entrepreneur 2008 Mary Ryan hosting panel discussions and workshops on their experiences.
The event also included practical advice in areas such as business planning, sales, marketing, financial and legal services.
Ronan Geraghty, Bizspark programme manager for Ireland and Northern Ireland, said there are plans to take the event on the road and bring it to areas such as Galway, Donegal and Sligo in a bid to help entrepreneurs make local contacts. The official launch in the North will be held in Belfast on March 12th. “The aim of the day was to continue with the spirit of the Bizspark programme to provide start-ups with the type of supports they need to grow their business and bring it to market.
“We wanted to try to put something together to help start-ups on the business side, to help them convert what is hopefully an innovative technical idea and bring that forward into something that is a viable company going forward. There are so many pitfalls between having that initial spark of an idea and bringing it to something where you have a valid service or product that people are willing to pay money for.
“A lot of the time we see the start-up venture failing. Just as there is an art in developing the product itself, there is an art in bringing it to market and you can’t neglect that.
“It’s not just about the software. It’s genuinely about trying to help grow a business and turn it into something that has a long-term future.”
Mr Geraghty believes that networking events and programmes such as BizSpark are set to become increasingly important as the recession takes hold.
“There’s a huge amount of focus on innovation in Ireland and, at the end of the day, if manufacturing moves on then what we have left is the people and their skills and ideas.
“We’ve already got more than 100 start-ups signed up. The range of different products and services range from the very technical to the consumer focused, so there is a huge amount of invention and innovation there and it is basically capitalising on that. I think it is getting a lot of attention at the moment because people are looking at what they can do give themselves a bit more control in terms of their own destiny.”
Irene Kavanagh and Sheena Clohessy of e-learning firm I-Cando said the Bizspark programme – and this week’s seminar – had proved invaluable to their start-up.
The company provides e-learning programmes on basic technologies such as webcams, uploading digital images, using Skype and using your computer for lifestyle purposes.
“The general population is getting left behind,” said Ms Clohessy. “The technology is moving so fast, but people don’t really know how to use it. It’s like a tsunami, it’s coming so fast.”
Ms Kavanagh said the company is trying to keep it as simple as possible, taking the fear out of technology, and has received a lot of support from the Bizspark programme.
“For us, it’s about the whole idea of teaching us as a new business how do we get into the mainstream, how do we take this product and make sure we can sell it, get it into a network of people?” said Ms Clohessy. “We want to prove our product in Ireland, and then move out of Ireland. We would never be able to do that on our own.
“The thing about new business is you have to be fast. We can’t afford to hang around for five years developing or building contacts in the US.”
