Ireland: A global destination that attracts world
class events
GEW 17 Nov - 23 Nov 2014
Ireland
Ireland has always been a preferred destination for corporate events
– meetings, conferences, exhibitions and trade fairs. The reason for
this in the past was that Ireland was famous for a tradition of warm
hospitality, the land of the “hundred thousand welcomes”.
A completely new mindset
The most exciting feeling in Ireland today is a new wave of
Dublin’s state-of-the-art digital hub
innovative and creative thinking
What has been interesting in Ireland has been
the emergence of a new mindset that seems to
have been created, ironically, by the last five years
of economic turmoil. Necessity has forced the
country’s entrepreneurs to trust themselves to find
economic solutions.
“This has had a major global impact on youth
entrepreneurship” says Mary Moloney, CEO
of CoderDojo.“We are giving kids the skills,
the confidence and the networks to build small, or
large, technology-based enterprises in a safe and
supportive environment.”
series of national events and competitions and this
is Ireland’s first year to participate in the global
Creative Business Cup during GEW.
GEW host organisation:
Think Ireland Inc.
CoderDojo has become a featured event of GEW
Ireland and is launching a new competition for
Ireland’s Prime Minister
(Taoiseach) Enda Kenny
recently released a
statement supporting the
efforts of Think Ireland Inc.,
the host of GEW/Ireland,
in bringing the global
celebration to Ireland.
When Ireland went to the very brink of
collapse, this imminent disaster became a
catalyst for change and spawned a new way
of thinking. The hugely successful Celtic
Tiger years that preceded the collapse
seemed to paralyse the nation’s thinking.
In this incredibly comfortable cocoon with
seemingly booming construction and tech
industries there was no compulsion for
the younger generations to do something
new or to be innovative. The cosy affluence
stifled the nation’s entrepreneurial creativity.
And then, out of the blue, the ship hit a rock
and it was time to sink or swim as this very
catastrophe became the country’s savior.
Ireland’s natural instinct has been to survive
and in this it has excelled. In the first quarter
of 2014 GDP grew 2.7% while there was a
47% rise in the number of Irish tech startups
compared with the previous year.
In what could be a great economic recovery,
necessity has been the mother of invention and
a key driver is the realisation that the path to
economic prosperity must involve embracing
entrepreneurship.
A great example of this entrepreneurship in action
is CoderDojo, founded by young Irish entrepreneur
James Whelton and philanthropist Bill Liao. Just out
of college, James was recently featured in Forbes
magazine as one of the Top 30 Young Innovators of
our Time.
CoderDojo is a non-profit global movement which,
so far, has taught 50,000 children how to code and
develop games in close to 50 countries around the
world.
Page 20 GEW Magazi