Bizcamp entrepreneurs defy recession


10 Mar 2009

Two hundred business owners and innovators gathered together at Ireland’s first user-generated business conference Bizcamp Dublin on 7 March, as successful entrepreneurs, including IGOPeople.com and MicksGarage.com, offered business advice, including insight on how to raise funding through a recession.

The grassroots business conference was designed to help businesses come together in an informal manner and offer advice on topics ranging from Enterprise Ireland funding to human capital. a

The main discussion at the event was a panel debate focusing on how five entrepreneurs managed to collectively raise more than €3m in funding on the cusp of recession.

Among the speakers were Caelen King of Reva Health, which raised €1.25m, Niall Harbison of Look & Taste (formerly iFoods.tv), which raised €400,000, and Campbell Scott of networking site IGOPeople, which raised €750,000.

Keith Bohanna, Bizcamp organiser and co-founder of online guitar database start-up dbTwang, said: “Bizcamp is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs and start-ups to lift ourselves out of the gloom of the endless bad news stories.”

Although we are in the middle of an economic downturn, Bohanna said events like Bizcamp were showing the positives coming out of the recession.

With the Dublin event over, the next Irish Bizcamp will take place in Limerick on 21 March. You can register here.

By Marie Boran

Pictured: The €3m men, who have raised a collective €3m in capital for their various ventures pose with funding panel moderator and entrepreneur Patricia O’Sullivan of www.whitepier.com at the Bizcamp event in Dublin’s Digital Hub. The panel (l-r) were: Campbell Scott of IGOpeople, Ciaran Crean of Mick’s Garage, Caelan King of Reva Health, Keith Bohanna of dbTwang.com, and Niall Harbison of LookandTaste.com