The hunt is on for good start-ups who want to join Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology’s (IADT) innovative ‘Create’ enterprise platform programme that aims to mentor, train and make battle-fit to succeed in the digital media industry.
‘Create’ is this month recruiting 10 companies to commence its seventh year of training and mentoring in August.
According to Create organiser Frederic Herrera, the 2010-2011 programme will last until July 2011 and will offer desk spaces in both the Digital Hub and Media Cube incubation centre at IADT.
“What happens is we train and mentor these companies via 20 full-day training sessions over 12 months and 10 mentoring sessions over the same period.
“They have the choice to locate at either the Digital Hub or IADT but it’s not compulsory and free desk space is an option. The value of this is they get to work in a start-up friendly environment and meet and mix with other entrepreneurs.”
Entrepreneurs who qualify for the programme may be eligible apply for an Enterprise Ireland CORD grant, which provides half of their previous salary – up to €30,000.
“This year we’re getting a good number of enquiries and the quality is getting better throughout the recession,” Herrera said. “People are coming to us with advanced concepts and ideas and have already tested their ideas.”
Herrera told Siliconrepublic that 40pc of training would relate to digital media, such as iPhone apps, web usability and online advertising.
“We’ll be adding new services from September, including the assignment of strategic advisory boards for each company.
“Each company would meet with a board of three people every month or second month to drive their business development faster than usual. This will include elements of continuous PR and copywriting for the web as well as proposal writing.”
Successful digital media companies that have passed through the Create programme include Tapadoo, Tribal City, Gift Genies, Science Picture Company and Moby.ie.
To learn more about the Create programme, go to the website.
