The best of Ireland, including major events like the Galway Races, is currently being showcased to a group of 30 of Silicon Valley experts and innovators who will also be meeting with Udara Na Gaeltachta to discuss finance and business opportunities in the west.
The group of successful young entrepreneurs and executives from Silicon Valley, located in the southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California, and home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations, gathered in Dublin last weekend for the ‘Legendary Eight Night Trip to Ireland’. The trip is the brainchild of Fergus Healy, a Galway native and founder of Clixter - a mobile web company which allows people to collaboratively share photos at events - and was organised with the help of Galway-based Go West Conference and Event Management.
Explaining how this gathering came together, Mr Hurley said: “I graduated from UCC in 2007 and then completed a masters in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. I made some great friends and contacts while I was at MIT. I started planning this trip to get these guys over here to show them the best of Ireland. When I heard about the Gathering initiative I decided that this was the year to make it happen.
“It’s called a ‘Legendary’ trip because we will be visiting legendary places in Ireland and attending the amazing events like the Galway Races and the Cork verses Kilkenny hurling match and because the people taking part are legends in their fields including the founder and CEO of WiCare which develops innovative medical devices and the CEO and co-founder of ApartmentList.com ”
The itinerary for the trip will also be taking these mostly first time visitors to Cork, the Dingle Peninsula, and will finish up in Galway for the races this weekend.
“Fergus cannot wait to show his international friends the excitement of this great week in his home town. But, it’s not all about fun. Some of these guys are here to do business as well. Meetings have been arranged including a meeting with Udaras Na Gaeltachta,” said director of Go West, Kathleen McDonagh.
