A ‘Startup Gathering’, a series of 50 events promoting Irish start-ups to global investors, will take place around Ireland this October.
The initiative, backed by the Irish Government and led by Startup Ireland, will see Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick hold events for five days to showcase the start-up scene “to up to 15,000 people”.
The event is aimed at highlighting the current start-up environment to attract investors from abroad, as well as lure foreign start-ups to Ireland to start a base in the country.
If the success of Ireland’s The Gathering initiative in 2013 in drawing significant numbers of tourists to the country is anything to go by, ‘Startup Gathering’ has the potential to really take off, especially with a small time frame and a specific target market.
An interesting plan
Although whenever the State gets involved in the private industry – and you can’t get any more private industry than start-ups – it’s a guessing game as to how it will work out.
There’s already a raft of events planned for ‘Startup Gathering’, with hackers, founders, entrepreneurs and even diaspora networking projects in the works.
Indeed Startup Ireland wants anyone interested in submitting proposals to log onto its official website.
“The future growth of Ireland’s economy in terms of innovation and jobs is closely linked to the performance of Ireland’s start-up sector, and we need far more people creating high-impact start-ups here,” said Eoin Costello, co-founder, Startup Ireland.
“Our goal with the Startup Gathering is to encourage more of our population to consider entrepreneurship as a real career choice and make the move on start-up ideas they have.
“In support of Minister (for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation) Richard Bruton’s goal of making Ireland a country where great ideas can be transformed into excellent businesses and new jobs, our ultimate ambition is to use the Startup Gathering as a key pivot towards making Ireland a global start-up hub by 2020.”
(From left) Bank of Ireland’s Liam McLoughlin, Minister Richard Bruton, Elzbieta Bednatek from start-up Asyncode, Eoin Costello, co-founder of Start-up Ireland and Ged Nash TD.
Start-ups image via Shutterstock
