7 ways Inspirefest can help you grow your career
Lara Hanlon, designer, IBM Studios, at Inspirefest 2016. Image: Conor McCabe Photography

7 ways Inspirefest can help you grow your career

21 Jun 2017

Whether you’re on track to become the next leader or just looking for a change, Inspirefest 2017 will help you grow your career.

Here at the Careers team, we’re passionate about making sure you’re on the right road to becoming the very best you can be.

From finding your dream job and perfecting your CV, to achieving the perfect work-life balance and learning leadership skills, we’ve got you covered.

There are so many ways to grow your career and sometimes you just have to go out and absorb it for yourself.

Inspirefest is now just two weeks away, taking place in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin from 6 to 8 July.

It’s a sci-tech extravaganza full of amazing speakers, diverse panels and phenomenal founders. However, it’s also the perfect event for anyone who’s hoping to develop and grow their career.

Here are some of the ways Inspirefest can help you in your professional life.

Inspirational role models

One of the most important parts of Inspirefest is the speakers and, for anyone looking to develop their career and be inspired, they’ll be spoiled for choice.

Inspirational career stories include that of Eimear Noone, who turned a 10p gig for Metal Gear Solid into a legendary career in video game music; and Dr France A Córdova, the first woman to become chief scientist of NASA, who is now director of the National Science Foundation in the US.

eimear-noone

Orchestral conductor and Inspirefest 2017 speaker Eimear Noone. Image: Isabel Thomas

If you attend Inspirefest, you will walk away with so many new role models and aspirational stories, your outlook and career will definitely feel the benefits. After all, you can’t be what you can’t see, and, at Inspirefest, you’ll see plenty.

The future of work

We’ve spoken a lot about the future of work lately. With the advancements of technology and innovation, this is a hot topic – the workplace as we know it is set to change drastically.

Those interested will want to absorb all they can about how these trends will affect their own future of work. Luckily, Inspirefest is catering for such a discussion.

Featuring industry leaders, Inspirefest will host a panel entitled ‘How We Will Work in 2020’. The panel will feature the head of people at Hays, Sandra Henke; the head of design thinking at Bank of Ireland, Lesley Tully; global head of customer experience at Dropbox, Adrienne Gormley; and director of the Sodexo Institute for Quality of Life, Thomas Jelley.

The networking opportunities

At Inspirefest, the networking opportunities are second to none. The speakers, the panels and the attendees all encourage and create discussions, debates and conversations.

Kelly Hoey literally wrote the book on networking and spoke about this at last year’s Inspirefest. This year, she’s back, speaking on a panel about ‘Transforming You’. After being inspired to transform, network and meet new people, you can look forward to enjoying a delicious lunch while introducing yourself to a wide variety of thought leaders and role models from top companies. Networking is one of the best things you will ever do to transform your career.

Time for a change?

Not everyone is on their perfect career track already. Some might even be in the job they thought they wanted and it’s just not doing it for them anymore.

However, while you may know you want a career change, you might have no idea where you want to go from there. Prepare to be blown away with inspiration and a whole new world of opportunities you never knew existed.

The Eimear Noones and Dr France A Córdovas would be enough to inspire anyone with their career journeys, but there are many other passionate speakers, industries and ideas on stage for you to take in. Who knows, they might even turn into your next dream career.

Could Scissor Sister Ana Matronic tempt you into the world of robotics? Can Rhianna Pratchett, lead writer on Tomb Raider, show you the wonders of a career in gaming? Will the countless founders and entrepreneurs encourage you to start your own business?

How to become a leader

Sometimes, building, developing and growing your career means becoming the best at what you do and finding the sweet spot of doing what you love in the most flexible way.

Other times, growing your career means eventually becoming a leader in your organisation or in your industry.

Not only will Inspirefest have a number of industry leaders – such as data science leader Karen Church, and security and infosec head Tarah Wheeler – it will also offer you interesting discussions on how to become a leader.

Karen Church, Intercom

Karen Church, data science leader and senior manager of product analytics at Intercom. Image: Karen Church

‘How We Will Lead in 2020: Executives and Boards’ will look towards the future of work from a leadership point of view, and will also feature Anita Sands, board director of Symantec, Service Now and Pure Storage; and Alastair Blair, country managing director of Accenture Ireland.

Building your brand

Part of growing your career and networking your way to your job is building your personal brand. Part of Inspirefest is the Inspirefest Fringe, taking place at some of Dublin’s trendiest tech offices from 5 to 8 July.

On Wednesday, 5 July, Accenture’s The Dock will host a special evening on building your own brand. This will feature Hoey, and a panel of experts that will provide tangible insights and hacks on building a kick-ass personal brand.

This will hopefully help you take control of your career story and articulate your value as an employee. You can pre-register here.

The companies

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of networking when it comes to building your career. You also now know that Inspirefest is the perfect place to network. But who will you be networking with?

A myriad of industry, leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, academics, decision-makers and influencers from a huge number of companies will be at the event. It’s the perfect opportunity to get talking to people from Accenture, Etsy, Bank of Ireland, Facebook, Dropbox, Hays, Nokia Bell Labs and IBM, to name but a few.

Convinced? Hurry up and grab your ticket to Inspirefest here.

Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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