WASup Kerry! Wild Atlantic Startups is Coming to Tralee

Dairymaster CEO Edmond Harty, Conall Ó Móráin of the Sunday Business Show, Paul Hayes of Beach-Hut PR and investor Ian Lucey will be among the speakers at Wild Atlantic Startups: WASup Kerry, being held at IT Tralee on Friday October 17.

We’ve featured WASup before on Technology.ie: you can hear a podcast we did with organiser Shane McCarthy in advance of the first event held in Limerick last May. Growing out of informal meetups like Open Coffee, the idea is to encourage networking among western startups and promote the Western Seaboard as a startup ecosystem.

“The Wild Atlantic Startup (WASup) is a vibrant new initiative and series of events taking place along the Wild Atlantic Way. Our goal is to shine a light on the incredible Innovation and success taking place along the worlds Longest tourist route.”

The Kerry pillar of WASup is based around the themes of Social Innovation and the Innovation Mindset which are focus elements of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (CEED) in IT Tralee. Social Innovation challenges today’s entrepreneurs to seek innovative technical solutions to address some of society’s biggest problems today and in the future: whether that be accessible education, usable technologies and materials for different abilities, addressing health challenges and risks, innovative waste management solutions, climate and sustainable energy. Encouraging and fostering an Innovation Mindset is an important aspect of creating a healthy and vibrant startup culture. How can this be encouraged across all ages and levels of societal involvement? Panellists will discuss these topics alongside 6 lightning value talks which provide education on presentation skills, approaching and best use of investor funds, importance of strong branding, entrepreneurship challenges and supports.

The full programme for the day can be viewed at wasup.ie/kerry2014 – and for those who can stay overnight, there’s a Startup Hiking Meetup in Dingle the following morning!

Technology.ie will be there on the day as well. If you’d like to arrange for us to cover your startup or tech story, just get in touch.