Want an event where you take part instead of just listen? Do yourselves a favour by heading out west to Bizcamp 2011, which takes place on Saturday September 10, in the NUI Galway. This is the latest in the series of Bizcamp events which have been held around Ireland.

Organised by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, Bizcamp 2011 ups the ante while taking down the formality a notch or two, and while it’s going to be packed with innovators and people with creative ideas (and, of course, entrepreneurs!), the event is deliberately not about sales pitches.

Ultimately, what happens is that speakers will give a short presentation (usually no longer than 20 minutes), with 10 minutes for open discussion, on a topic of their choice. The great thing about Bizcamp is that the topics vary from adapting your business, innovative marketing, product design and pricing to sourcing finance, engaging with web and social networking and evaluating stress management.

Bizcamp co-organiser and founder of xap.ie, Michael Fitzgerald, reckons that Bizcamp is all about encouraging, mentoring and supporting innovative and ambitious business ventures.

“There’s so much going on in the areas of technology, medical devices and industry in general in the West of Ireland right now. It’s a really exciting time, and we wanted to provide a platform for entrepreneurs to meet with new people outside their main circles to share and learn from each other.”

If you’re around on the day before the event (Friday September 9) , you’ll be pleased to know that a Demobar event takes place in The Oslo, Salthill, at 9pm.This is an informal event where you can view demonstrations of web-based applications, iPhone, iPad & mobile apps, and have a beer (free!) with the people behind these local companies. Demonstrations are on laptops and mobile devices – the guys promise no Powerpoint presentations!

If you’re interested in speaking , or just coming along, add your name to the Bizcamp list here.

To follow on from my post of 18th May, the Bizcamp Team is delighted to introduce the list of speakers for the panel discussion titled “You’re never too young to start a business” which will be discussed at Bizcamp The panel discussion will take place at 2pm on the 29th May (The Guinness Storehouse) and will prove to be an interesting session.

Details as follows:

Moderator: Gavin O’Flaherty – Mason, Hayes + Curran

Helen Treacy, P.G.Dip. B.D., CEO & Founder of Cognitive Science Partners.

Helen Treacy is the founder and CEO of Cognitive Science Partners. CSP was formed in November 2009 to bring science to life. CSP has engaged with a leading psychology researcher and president of the European ABA Association to develop an evidence based, online teaching application for children and adults with autism. Since incorporation, CSP have secured first round investment and are currently working with their DA in Enterprise Ireland HPSU to maximise funding opportunities.  C.S.P. currently employs 5 full-time and one part-time employee and are busy recruiting two more full-time developers to ensure our September 1st product launch. Cognitive Science Partners’ mission is to launch three evidence based products successfully in the market in five years with an estimated turnover of 10 million by 2015.

John Matthew Holt, (29) CEO Waratek Ltd.

John Matthew Holt is the Co-Founder and CEO of Waratek Ltd (www.waratek.com) and principal inventor of Waratek’s RAIS technology. He founded Waratek in Sydney, Australia in 2002 to research a radical new design for high-performance computing (HPC) systems, opening a Silicon Valley research and testing office in 2006. Through 2002 to 2007 the company invented and prototyped a radical high- performance computing architecture called Redundant Array of Inexpensive Servers (RAIS), which it tested around the world with leading IT vendors, analysts, and academics. In 2008 Waratek closed a Series A investment round with Mangrove Capital Partners of Luxembourg and in December 2008 re-incorporated Waratek from Australia to Ireland to drive the world-wide commercialization of Waratek’s RAIS technology. Today Waratek Ltd operates with staff and associates in Dublin, London and Sydney, and will be shipping its first RAIS computing systems to early-adopter customers in Q1 2011.

Rob Ryan (26), LadyUmbrella Ltd.

Rob is the co owner and director of LadyUmbrella ladies t-shirts (http://www.ladyumbrella.com) which launched in January 2010. He has been involved in every aspect of the business and is an advocate for social media as a marketing tool. Using social media Rob has been able to get the word out about LadyUmbrella and has resulted in LadyUmbrella being mentioned in national papers both here and abroad. Outside of his work with LadyUmbrella he blogs about social media and is also a member of an international podcasting group which discusses effective use of social media.

Stephen O’Leary (26), O’Leary Analytics

Stephen O’Leary is the 26 year old owner of O’Leary Analytics, an online media and social media monitoring and analysis company. Having gained a degree in Journalism and Media Communications from Griffith College Dublin, Stephen spent a year working with The Irish Examiner in Cork, before returning to Dublin to take up a role with Meltwater News, a Scandinavian Media company. He worked in London and Amsterdam, and returned to Dublin to join Green 17, as a sports agent. In November 2009 he set up O’Leary Analytics, an online media and social media monitoring and analysis company. Using a range of monitoring and analytical tools, they track and report on coverage from over 120,000 online news-producing sources, and over 220 million social media sources – including Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Message Forums.

John O’Dea, Manager of Enterprise Ireland’s Start-up Division

John O’Dea is manager in the Start-up Division of Enterprise Ireland, with responsibility for early stage projects in various industrial sectors. Enterprise Ireland promotes entrepreneurship and provides advisory and financial support to High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) businesses. EI has supported and invested in a wide range of new businesses and believe Ireland has huge further potential to generate significant numbers of new, world class, start-ups. As an engineer with an MBA, John has worked in a wide range of sectors, mainly in early stage companies.

Bizcamp is back! After 2 successful Bizcamps held in Dublin in 2009, the 3rd Dublin Bizcamp will take place on Saturday May 29th in the Guiness Storehouse Dublin.

The event is aimed at entrepreneurs and individuals aspiring to take that entrpreneurial step, but are not quite sure where to begin.

This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs and innovators to come together, share experiences and for others to hear their stories.



(more…)

Really looking forward to Bizcamp tomorrow in the Guinness Storehouse Dublin. 5 Streams of 8 Sessions each = 40 Top speakers, not to mention the buzz of meeting 500 people in the business and technology areas. And it’s free (thanks to a word from the sponsors … )

Bizcamp

Want to say a big thank you for the guys who did all the hard work in putting the camp together. Keith, Emily, Alan and Jason, do ye not have a business to run as well?!

Key people that I’m looking forward to hearing are the two EI guys (David is talking at 11.30 about Business plan mistakes and Gerard’s on at 15.30 about how your startup should approach EI for the first time). I’m also looking forward to seeing Ciara talk about personal productivity (10am), Ronan about Microsoft Bizspark (10.45), Justin talking about Service (14.45) and Steve talking about Software as a Service (16.15).

Talk to you there!

Bizcamp is a conference (un-conference) for start-up companies and entrepreneurs. The conference will be held in Dublin, on 7 March with another event in Limerick on the 21st March.

BizCamp is an opportunity for entrepreneurs and innovators to come together, share experiences, and possibly create new value out of the day. It’ll be a chance to meet up with people who’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt – members of the business community, VCs and investors, and representatives from the relevant state agencies. Lost your job or finding current market conditions tough? Come along to BizCamp, who knows what new opportunities might turn up?

People tend to associate *Camps with the Web and the tech start-ups, but our aim is to try and embrace as much of the Irish business community as possible. We want to see people from all streams – finance, operations, HR, legal, delivery specialists, R&D, marketing – and yes, even tech! Ireland Inc. has a wealth of knowledge and acumen, more than enough to help us out of these troubled times. By attending (and, more importantly, contributing!) you can help make BizCamp the first “good news story” of the recession.

A full list of people already signed up to attend is available at

http://www.bizcamp.ie/whos-attending/

Eircom, Bank of Ireland and other key digital companies will be sponsoring the event. The Bizcamp is being organised by a number of entrepreneurs who have businesses in the Leinster region, along with people active in the web from business and public sectors.

While most of the speaking slots are informal we are looking key business speakers for two panels on the day; Speakers should be recognizable figures, all with a good story to share. Suggested panel topics are raising funding and supports available for your business. A list of people already speaking at the event is online at http://www.bizcamp.ie/2009/01/speakers-sessions/

Aside from the business networking available at the event, Speakers will have an opportunity to promote themselves and their business in a friendly Q&A type session. If you think you’d have something to contribute to the panel, please contact me (Paul) via the comment form on this blog.

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