News
Meath Enterprise Week 2017
Meath Enterprise Week 2017 #MEW2017 took place from 13th-17th November with enterprise events, seminars & workshops taking place throughout the county. It was a fantastic week with lots of events that offered meaningful and actionable advice to those who attended. Our themes of Collaboration, Innovation and Entrepreneurship were evident throughout the week at the various events from Enterprise talks with LMETB/VTOS students to the centrepiece of the week our #MEW2017 Business Conference & Expo. The huge depth of entrepreneurship within Meath really shone through at all the events, from small start ups to huge multi nationals they were all involved in various forms and it was truly inspirational to see everyone come together throughout the week and we really hope that every person who took part or attended an event took something away from it.
A huge thanks to the sponsors of the week without which it would not happen- Meath County Council, AIB, Meath Chronicle, LMFM, Cusack Hotel Group, BV Food Innovation District and Meath Local Enterprise Office.
To give you a feel for what took place throughout the week here is a brief review of the week. We are already planning next years events and we welcome any suggestions so please contact us if you have one!
The first event of Meath Enterprise was an Enterprise Event titled Trending for the Future for students of VTOS Navan and LMETB in Athboy. We were treated to a morning of excellent presentations from Gary O’Meara General Manager of Meath Enterprise, Joe English Head of the Local Enterprise Office, Matt Tully from the Dept. of Social Protection, Patrick Everit, Mary Crilly and Jan Carroll of LMETB/VTOS.
Joe English kicked off the morning with a very informative presentation on how to start and grow a business in Meath with information on all the services and supports the Local Enterprise Office can provide, followed by plenty of excellent questions from a very interested audience. He was followed by the Manager of Meath Enterprise- Gary O’Meara who discussed what supports were available to new businesses as well as how important it is to Meath Enterprise Week to involve VTOS/LMETB students as they are potentially going to be entrepreneurs of the future.
We then heard from Matt Tully about how the Department of Social Welfare strives to support those seeking to start up a new business.
Patrick Everit followed presenting a fascinating presentation on Digital Marketing and used Donald Trump as proof of the power of digital marketing which really caught everyone’s attention! Mary Crilly then educated us on Entrepreneurship and how important it is to take risks! Jan Carroll finished off a wonderful morning with some helpful tips on applying the new GDPR directives into business going forward.
A huge thank you to Angela Cahill the coordinator for VTOS/LMETB for her part in organising the event and we look forward to further collaboration in the future!
On the Monday the Local Enterprise Office also hosted a Trading Online Voucher Seminar for businesses considering trading online. The final event of Monday was a Lab on the Go in AIB Ashbourne where a team of experts from AIB were on hand to advise business owners on various topics applicable to them.
Tuesday of Meath Enterprise Week led us first to Ashbourne for a Business Breakfast & Networking event with the Ashbourne Chamber of Commerce. Here we heard extremely interesting presentations from Eoghan Riordan of Tadgh Riordan Motors on the future of cars in Ireland and the Toyata Hybrid Technology and Gary O’Meara general manager of Meath Enterprise and Boyne Valley Food Innovation District who explained what the District involved and what stage it was at and how it will be hugely significant in terms of regional development particularly for Meath.
Next, we headed over to the Monasterboice Inn in for another wonderful and very well supported event- the Boyne Valley Food Producers Network Showcase. Many of the producers within the Boyne Valley region were in attendance to network and meet with chefs and buyers from various outlets. The morning was a great success for all involved and we look forward to future events involving the Boyne Valley Producers Network.
Midway through Meath Enterprise Week and the first event on the Wednesday was a very early morning Business Breakfast with the Royal BNI. The Royal BNI opened their doors to welcome visitors as part of Meath Enterprise Week and a very enjoyable morning was had by all. We heard pitched from all members of the BNI as well as a presentation from Sky Daddy Media a local media company. It was great to see such collaboration and trust between the members of the Royal BNI and we thank them for allowing us the opportunity to join them for the morning.
Also taking place on the Wednesday morning was a GDPR Data Training event organised through the Local Enterprise Office. As we all begin to realise the implications of the new GDPR coming into effect on March 25th, 2018 it is essential that all businesses prepare for the new directives.
The final event of Wednesday was the always enjoyable “3 Minute Pitch” night in AIB Navan. This event is the precursor to the Meath Business & Tourism Awards and allows each of the nominees in the categories to give a “3 Minute Pitch” on why they should win! MC for the evening was Kevin Stewart- Director of Services in Meath County Council and he did an excellent job on the night. There were plenty of nerves for the contestants, but all gave worthy pitches and deserved to be there.
Thursday brought our headline event of the week #MEW2017 Business Conference & Expo in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim. Kicking off good and early at 8.30am we started the day with a welcome from Meath County Council Caothairleach Cllr. Gerry O’Connor before MC for the day Brian Purcell took to the stage. Panel 1 of the day was “Maximising opportunities for SMEs through Collaboration and Shared Learning” and to discuss this we welcomed Gavin Duffy – Gavin Duffy & Ass., Cathal Dolan – Gizagig, Shane Holland – Shane Holland Design and Keith Finglas – Innovation Delivery. A lively discussion ensued, and some excellent points were raised by all speakers from their different points of view. Shane Holland described how he started and the challenges that he has faced and how he believes it is through collaboration that his business has prospered and grown. The ever-charismatic Gavin Duffy shared some excellent insights into being successful in business recommending to ask for help when needed as well as to always be looking for the problems and then finding the solutions.
We then welcomed Minister Damien English TD to discuss what our current government is doing for enterprise development. He congratulated Meath Enterprise on their continued hard work at promoting and developing enterprise in the region and their continued collaborations with local authorities and state agencies into driving enterprise growth in Meath.
Before we began our second panel we announced the winners of our Schools Enterprise Competition. The entrants in this year’s event had the opportunity to pitch for the prize at a “Dragons Den” style event the previous week and the standard of the entries blew the judges away. As this was a competition only three could win however each group or student was welcomed onto the stage to receive their prize/participation medal. The overall winner was EZtopup and the team behind EZtopup was Aibhen Casserly, Sean Kendal, James Fagan, Aaron Rafferty & Seanog O’Foley of St.Pats Classical School. Jomana Hosny of Dunshauglin Community College secured 2nd place with her Easi Stirrup Invention and Junior Cert Grinds Navan established by Ryan Baxter, Joe Fitzgerald & Evan O’Sullivan of St.Pats Classical School scooped 3rd place. Gavin Duffy along with Cllr. Gerry O’Connor presented the students with their awards and hopefully inspired them to continue working on their businesses! Huge congratulations to all the students who took part and to their teachers who worked so hard preparing them.
Panel 2 was next up, and it focused on Channels to market – finding the right partners and for this panel we welcomed John Cunningham – Epicom Foods, Christian McManus – Foro International, Annie Madden – Fenu Health and Christine Liu – Ireland-China Institute. This panel of experts held nothing back as they took us through the challenges they faced in finding the right partners in business. John shared some of his vast experiences on finding a partner in China and Annie shared with us the inspirational story of the conception and development of her business Fenuhealth informing us that it is now sold in 14 countries and 5 continents! Amazingly Annie shared that herself and her business partner sister Kate manage to find time to run the business from their phones on the commute to and from school!
Driving Sustainable economic growth in the regions was the topic for our last panel before lunch and we welcomed Gary O’Meara- Meath Enterprise, Noel Moran – eComm, Michael Fox – Aryzta and Brian Colgan – SBCI to discuss the topic. An excellent discussion ensued with each speaker sharing fascinating insights into economic growth in the regions and Noel Moran sharing with us the exciting news of his company’s expansion plans in Navan Co. Meath and his hope to provide significant employment opportunities in the near future. Gary O’Meara took us through the developments of the Boyne Valley Food Innovation District and its plans to attract major investment to the region through scaling food companies for international contracts.
Before we broke for lunch we were delighted to present Hugh Maguire with an award in recognition of his huge achievement in winning the Great Taste Supreme Champion Award in London earlier on this year. He shared with us briefly the significance of winning such an award and his plans to capitalise on it.
Lunch featured a beautiful selection of locally produced foods including- Boyne Valley Farmhouse Cheese, Finnegan’s Farms Potatoes, Meade Potatoes, Newgrange Gold Oils, What’s for Pudding Desserts, Hugh Maguires black pudding and Clarkes Fresh Fruit Jams and was very much enjoyed by all!
Full and refreshed we returned for our 4th panel of the day – Business Model Innovation- Scalable by Design. Joining Brian on stage to debate this topic was Alison Cowzer – East Coast Bakehouse, Caroline Horgan – Abbeylands Furniture, John Cunningham – Epicom Foods, Minister Helen McEntee TD and Dermot Ryan – AIB.
From this super line up of speakers the audience received many fascinating insights and thoughts. Alison explained to us her plans for East Coast Bakehouse, how it has a colossal 18 metre oven and the intention is to achieve significant export growth in the near future. Caroline talked us through the impact the recession had on her business and how she had to diversify significantly to survive. She explained her future plans for growth into new avenues and markets in the coming months. Minister McEntee informed us off the various strategies the government is applying to support enterprise and how they plan to be more agile in reacting to the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners. Dermot shared with us AIB willingness to back businesses but the importance of business owners when raising finance to find another source of funding along with their ban to share the risk. John divulged his fascinating experiences in doing business in China and the etiquette which they apply to doing business. Overall this discussion was truly great to listen to and a lot of great tips were shared.
Our final speakers for the day was Anne Lanigan – Enterprise Ireland Brexit Unit and Anne took su through the way in which Brexit may impact on SMEs and what SMEs should be doing not to help mitigate issues in the coming months and years. Many of the audience availed of her Q & A session afterwards and lot of actionable advice was offered.
Throughout the day as well as all our speakers we also hosted a large business exhibition, and this was once more a huge success.
The #MEW2017 Business Conference & Expo was very well attended, and the feedback has been excellent so far with many people enjoying the panel format of our discussions. We would like to thank all the speakers who participated and shared their experiences and learning with us.
The final day of Meath Enterprise Week began with a BRC Preparation Workshop in association with Bia Solutions. John Dowling of Bia Solutions gave a super presentation on what it takes to achieve a BRC accreditation for food and drinks companies. We then closed of the week with a tour of Slane Whiskey Distillery. This was hugely enjoyable and took us through the history of Slane Castle and the Irish Whiskey Industry as well as the production of Whiskey. It ended with a whiskey tasting that was enjoyed by all and was a fitting end to an incredible week of events, seminars and workshops around the county.
We would like to thank all who attended and supported the events as well as our sponsors and we hope that our themes of Innovation Collaboration and Entrepreneurship will inspire others to incorporate these themes into their business. Planning has already begun for Meath Enterprise Week 2018 and we look forward to welcoming you all back! In the meantime, please keep an eye on out website and social media pages for upcoming events.
infor@meathenterprise.ie