Startup gathering to showcase sector to 15,000 people

Entrepreneurs and startups across the country are being asked to come up with event ideas for the first-ever StartUp Gathering to be held during the week starting October 5th 2015.

The weeklong gathering will feature over 50 events in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, promoting entrepreneurship and showcasing Ireland's startup sector to more than 15,000 people. The theme of the gathering is "Start, Scale, Succeed from Ireland" and it is being held in conjunction with the not-for-profit representative body for Ireland's startup sector, Startup Ireland, and Bank of Ireland. The initiative forms part of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs.

Among the events already planned in October are hackers and founders team building events, diaspora networking events, entrepreneur career fairs, and a national ‘Startup Demo Day’, where entrepreneurs can pitch to top accelerators, investors, mentors and corporates, both national and international.

Stakeholders can either create new initiatives or move existing events, programme launch dates, accelerator recruitment dates and conferences to the week of October 5th. If you’re interested in submitting a proposal you can do so here.

The gathering will kick off with the first ever national conference for Ireland’s startup sector on October 5th, and will finish with a State dinner on the theme of ‘Why invest in Ireland’s startup sector’ hosted by Minister Bruton. Invitees will include senior decision makers from venture funding, corporate venturing and corporate backed accelerators from around the world as well as representatives from the startup community in Ireland.

The initiative will be organised by a national steering group composed of senior representatives of key stakeholders and chaired by Minister of State for Business and Employment, Ged Nash. In each city, a Startup Gathering steering group will be formed and led by a startup gathering city co-ordinator.

Launching the initiative Minister Bruton said: “In Ireland we have great start-ups - we just don’t have enough of them. Two thirds of all new jobs are created by start-ups in their first five years of existence - that is why we are taking action, as part of our plan, to support more businesses to start-up, expand, and create those jobs that we need. We are putting in place more mentoring and incubation facilities, we held Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition to encourage start-up as a career choice, and today we are launching the Startup Gathering. Importantly, we want this to happen not just in Dublin but also in every region of the country. This is a great initiative which will build on our existing strengths to encourage more people to start a business in Ireland, and ultimately help create the jobs we need right around the country”.