Local Enterprise Week is organised every year by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices across the country. This year Local Enterprise Week takes place from Monday, March 6th to Friday, March 10th! Check out some of highlights taking place in the Midlands region.
Longford Highlights
- AI – The Way Forward
Join the Local Enterprise Office Longford, in conjunction with Longford Chamber, on Monday, 4th March 2024, at the Backstage Theatre, Longford for an insightful exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on small businesses.
About the Event:
Date and Time: Monday, March 4th, 2024, 12:30 pm – 14:30 pm
Location: Backstage Theatre, Longford
Keynote Speaker: Anne-Marie Tomchak
Longford-raised, London-based Anne-Marie Tomchak is a seasoned broadcaster and editor with an illustrious career at some of the world’s most esteemed media brands, including the BBC, Vogue, and Mashable. With almost two decades of experience, Anne-Marie has been a trailblazer in covering technology and artificial intelligence.
Panellists
A panel of AI experts will join with Anne-Marie to discuss AI and demystify the challenges and opportunities it presents for small businesses.
- Alan Farrelly, Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, CitySwift
- John O’Shanahan, Managing Director, LeanBPI
- Toby Ferran, CEO, Waypoint Software
Further Queries:
Should you have any further queries with regard to the event, please contact Rose Mc Kenna, Business Advisor at rmckenna@longfordcoco.ie
2. International Women’s Day Regional Event for Women in Business
(Longford, Leitrim & Westmeath)
Hear inspiring journeys and work out your own route to success over a lunch to mark International Women’s Day 2024 – the theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is #InspireInclusion
Date: Friday 8th March 2024
Venue: Mullingar Park Hotel, Co. Westmeath
Time: 11:00am-2.00pm (Lunch included)
This event, hosted by the Local Enterprise Offices Longford, Leitrim and Westmeath, offers an exciting opportunity for participants to learn key tips from the experiences and journeys of all the speakers to apply to the running of their own businesses and will afford attendees the opportunity to step back from the day to day of running their own businesses and network, learn and share in the experience of other business women from the region.
This is event will showcase female entrepreneurs from a spectrum of business sectors and stages of their business journey from each participating county, and the MC for the event is Pat Murphy.
Our Keynote Speaker is Caroline Reidy, Managing Director of the HR Suite and Employment Law Expert. Caroline has written 2 books, done a TEDx talk and is regular conference speaker and contributor to national media. She has spoken on topics including ‘The Art of asking the Right Question’, ‘Tips to Maximising & Achieving your full potential’, ‘Dignity & Respect in the New World of Work’ and ‘Leadership in a Blended Working Environment’ etc. BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE
LAOIS – HIGHLIGHTS
- “Be Brave – Take Your Business to the Next Level
LOCATION – Preston House, Abbeyleix
DATE – Wednesday 6th March at 7pm
This workshop offers a unique opportunity to glean insights from Pearse Flannery, author of no 1 bestseller business book ‘Grabbing your Oyster.’ Learn how to recentre your goals, rekindle your focus, and revolutionise your approach to achieving high performance. Don’t miss this chance to unlock your full potential! This seminar is devised to empower and motivate people to get the most out of themselves through changing approach, habits, lifestyle and mindset.
About Pearce Flannery
Pearce Flannery is the founder of the acclaimed Pragmatica organisation, a cutting edge business consultancy renowned for their high impact training programmes. He is an experienced business leader having held senior positions with a variety of multi-national organisations. Pearce has worked in Italy, Spain, UK and USA prior to returning to Ireland to set up his own business.
He is the author if the Number 1 best selling business book ‘Grabbing the Oyster – Anecdotes and Advice from Icons of Irish Business’. He is also the author of numerous other business books including the critically acclaimed ‘Create Your Own Reality.’ Register here
2. Enterprise Week Celebrating International Women`s Day
Women Business Networking lunch in Castle Durrow to celebrate International Womens’ Day on Friday March 8th.
Lorraine Keane, journalist and freelance broadcaster with RTE and Virgin Media Television, content creator, host and MC of corporate and public events will speak on her business, give tips on skincare and discuss female health. Lorraine Keane was the first Irish Public Figure to openly discuss her perimenopause story in 2016 and has continued to fuel the conversation hosting her Let’s Talk Hormone Health podcast and regional events. Lorraine is an IFTA-nominated broadcaster and journalist and founder of Fashion Relief, a preloved women’s clothing and accessories charity initiative, which has raised over one million euro for Irish charities to date.
Lorraine will be joined by Dr. Mary Ryan, Consultant Endocrinologist who will speak on womens health and ‘Taking Care of you’. Book here
Westmeath highlights
- How to Investigate your Business Idea
To provide participants with the necessary tools to research and analyse their idea and evaluate their suitability to becoming self-employed using the Lean Startup Canvas.
The course is aimed at individuals with a business idea wishing to start their own business or exploring the possibility of becoming self-employed for the first time.
Participants will be able to research and evaluate the viability of their business idea by early engagement with target customer. By carrying out a gap analysis, they will know the elements they need to work on to progress their business proposal, create action lists and be able to determine their readiness to advance to the next stage of business start-up.
This course is being delivered by Marie Manning & Melanie Boylan, Marie Manning & Associates Ltd.
Date: 5th March 2024
Time: 9.30am – 3.30pm
Venue: Annebrook House Hotel Mullingar. Book here
Offaly Highlights
1. Lunch and an inspiring talk with Alec Drew, The Business Expert.
‘Greater Productivity, Morale and Retention – The Intergenerational Solution’
Venue: Tullamore Court Hotel
Date: Monday 4th March 2024. 12.30pm to 2.45pm
The speaker at this event is Alec Drew, KBE of The Business Expert. Alec shares his passion, experience and knowledge with business leaders across many sectors. A major part of his 40 years in business was spent as Managing Partner of a highly successful branding agency where he worked with a wide range of CEO’s across all sectors. His insightful questioning and straight talking opened up new conversations, giving them fresh insights into their own organisations and uncovering valuable revenue streams that were previously overlooked. One strategy helped his clients achieve €3.23 billion in additional sales over a 5 year period. He demonstrates the positive effect on shareholder value when all levels of an organisation speak the same language.
2. START YOUR OWN BUSINESS
Venue: Bridge House Hotel Tullamore
Date: Wednesdays 6th, 13th & 20th March 2024
Time: 9.30am to 4.30pm
Over the 3 days, you will learn about:
- Market Research – Is there an opening for your business and customers willing to buy from you?
- Business Structure – Should you be a sole trader, a limited company or even part of a partnership?
- Business Planning – A good business plan is necessary before you can apply for funding or a loan from your bank. We will outline what it takes to create your own business plan.
- Sources of Assistance – We will tell you about the supports for SME’s from the Local Enterprise Office and other sources: funding you might be entitled to, training we can offer to help you or your employees upskill, or access to an expert advisor to help you grow.
- Taxation Issues – As a business owner you will need to understand income tax, VAT and possibly corporation tax. Taxes can be complicated and overwhelming, so we will help you understand the basics to get yourself set up the right way from the beginning.
- Promoting your Product/Service – Marketing is costly and time-consuming if it is not done right. We will explain the most effective marketing channels for small businesses – many of which are free!
- Managing your business – Business leaders produce results, and to do this, they need to manage people, resources, processes and money. We will outline the basics of business management for a start up SME. Also you will get a valuable one to one mentoring session at the end of the course to help you get through the next steps in your particular business, or avail of supports you might be entitled to.
This course is FREE of charge to all Offaly based participants.
This training will be delivered by Bernadette Farrell of Ace Training.
