Start-ups and the crowd mingle at the July Dublin Beta event. Photo via Sean Nicholls
Dublin Beta, the informal get-together for Ireland’s tech community, is holding its final event of the year next Monday in Dublin, and 12 start-ups will be showcasing their products and services on the night.
This year, Dublin Beta has already held four events, providing a free platform for early stage start-ups to demo their innovations. The events also reach out to students, designers, hackers, investors, developers and the design community to network and share ideas.
John O’Rourke, one of the organisers of the Dublin Beta events, said 12 companies will be demoing on the evening, while there is still space for another two start-ups to set up stands. “It’s free for start-ups to demo,” he said.
O’Rourke, who has just finished a master’s degree in e-commerce at Dublin City University and is now working as a strategist with Acorn Marketing, said the feedback has been positive from the last few events.
“People are really happy with the interactions and the questions that they are getting from attendees, be it around tech-based questions, business model questions or design questions.
“We are also getting really good feedback from people who are working in the start-up community or in some other element of tech,” he said.
Freda McEnroe of the digital venture Myifli.com, at the last Dublin beta event. Photo via @sean_nicholls
With around 50 start-ups having already demoed at Dublin Beta events this year, O’Rourke said next week’s event will also be a celebration of Ireland’s start-up scene.
“We have invited back all of the start-ups who have demoed before to come to the event.”
He said Dublin Beta is targeted at anyone who is interested in digital and tech-based start-ups, as well as students.
“When students come along to events, I think they get a real sense of the good things that are happening in tech. The essence of Dublin Beta is showing people that this community exists and that people are really very helpful when you go and talk to them. It’s very much a culture of people throwing their ideas right out there,” said O’Rourke.
For 2013, he said the plan is to grow Dublin Beta to reach out to more people who may not be aware of the tech and start-up community that prevails in Dublin.
“People might be chipping away on their own and not know that there is a social and supportive ecosystem that exists here. We also want to grow the volume of Dublin Beta and open out the platform to more start-ups.
“We find that some companies may not be ready to be showcasing, but when they put Dublin Beta on their timeline it really gives them an incentive to formulate their business model,” explained O’Rourke.
Dublin Beta will kick off at 6.30pm in the Lost Society lounge on William Street South, Dublin 2, on Monday, 3 December.
