Entrepreneurs and business people from the west region will gather at GMIT Mayo in Castlebar on Tuesday, 29 September, to participate in the ninth annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship evening hosted by the Innovation Hub (iHub ), formerly known as the Innovation in Business Centre (IiBC ).
The event kicks off with a one-to-one mentoring (booking essential )from business experts which will run from 2pm to 4.30pm, funded by the Mayo Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland.
The full event, which is open to the public, commences at 4.30pm and is sponsored by Lionbridge. Karen Coleman, journalist and broadcaster will be the MC for he evening, hosting discussions with two prominent Irish entrepreneurs, Colm Lyon and John McGuire.
Colm Lyon is founder and CEO of Fire Financial Services Ltd, and founder and former CEO of Realex Payments. John McGuire is founder of Active Mind Technology and creator of Game Golf. They will talk on the topic “Building & Scaling a Business’.
At 6pm, the PitchComp Challenge will take place with three early-stagecompanies making a pitch for investment. Each pitch will be four minutes with the best receiving €1,500 funding and mentoring from Westbic. The companies pitching are all participants on the New Frontier programmewhich is delivered in GMIT’s two iHubs at the Mayo and Galway campuses.
A panel discussion on ‘Innovation, Investment and Finance’, will take place at 6.30pm, hosted again by Karen Coleman. On this panel are Pat Walsh, MD of Ballinrobe-based PanelDuct (Irish Times/IntertradeIreland Most Innovative company 2015 ), Mark Ganly, Contego Sports, OrlaNolan, WxNW, new Western Angel Investment Syndicate (invests instart-ups in the west and north west region ), and Sarah Nic Lochlainn, aserial entrepreneur, participant on RTE’s Dragons’ Den and founder ofAruna Sauces.
