Mayo Ideas Week focuses on 'the challenge of change' for businesses

MAYO Ideas Week – which will take place from September 25 to 29 – has been launched at GMIT Castlebar and takes the theme of The Challenge of Change for 2017.

The well-established business week offers quality events for a broad range of business sizes and sectors. All events are specifically targeted and feature expert speakers, facilitators and presenters.

Seamus McCormack of WestBIC spoke about Mayo Ideas Week at the launch, describing it as a 'fantastic opportunity' for those in business or thinking about it to engage with and get support from others in business.

Mayo Local Enterprise Office (LEO) have been involved with Mayo Ideas Week since its inception. Speaking at the launch, John Magee, head of enterprise with Mayo County Council, said: “Mayo Ideas Week has been recognised at a national level as part of the government’s Action Plan for Jobs, and Mayo Local Enterprise Office is delighted to be part of the team delivering an important programme of seminars and workshops for the business community in Mayo.”

The 'Spirit' event in GMIT has been part of Mayo Ideas Week since the beginning, and this year it shares the theme of the week – the Spirit of Change. Hosted by Mayo LEO in association with AIB, and supported by GMIT, WestBIC, Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Mayo Ideas Lab, it presents a range of agencies and organisations supporting innovation. To register, see the website www.spiriteventwest.com.

Events across the county include seminars and workshops in Castlebar, Ballina, Belmullet, Westport and Claremorris.

Ballina will be the focus for two of Tuesday’s events. The morning starts with a seminar on tourism, hosted by Mayo LEO, called 'Mayo Tourism: 2020 and Beyond', which will be held in the Twin Trees Hotel from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This will be followed in the late afternoon by the Mayo SICAP Enterprise Awards, which will be held in Hotel Ballina from 4 to 8 p.m. This event is well established as a regular in the enterprise calendar, and is jointly hosted by Mayo North East Leader Partnership and South West Mayo Development Company.

Other Tuesday events include the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland Open Day, hosted by SEAI in Belmullet, and the Déanta i Mhaigh Eo brand development discussion and showcase hosted by Gnó Mhaigh Eo in Westport.

Wednesday’s events feature a full day workshop called Enterprise Start, hosted by Enterprise Ireland in the new Leeson Enterprise Centre, Westport. Placed are limited and pre-booking is essential.

An evening event, Doing Business in Uncertain Times, will be hosted by Mayo LEO in the McWilliam Park Hotel, Claremorris, from 6 to 8.30 p.m.

Thursday is also a busy day, with three events being held in Castlebar. The day kicks off early with a breakfast briefing on funding and supports at 8 a.m. at the offices of Mayo LEO, Cedar House, Moneen. It will include representatives from AIB, Micro Finance Ireland and the Leader companies, and no booking is required.

The annual Jobs of the Future event for second level students (pre-booking essential) will also take place, to be followed in the evening by a very valuable information event covering core online essentials for business in the form of parallel workshops. This will be jointly hosted by business networks Network Mayo and Digital Marketing in Mayo, and will be held in GMIT from 6.30 p.m. Pre-booking is recommended.

Údarás na Gaeltachta is organising and hosting a number of events across the week, including Digital Technologies – Rejuvenating Rural Business, which will be held in Belmullet on Friday.

Mayo Ideas Week is a series of entrepreneurship, idea generation and business events hosted by the development and enterprise support agencies in Co. Mayo. The full schedule of events and information on booking is available at www.mayoideasweek.ie. The social media hashtag is #MayoIdeasWeek. Numbers are limited for most events and advance booking is essential.

Most events are free of charge.