Home Knowledge Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor Opens DIT/IADT New Frontiers Annual Showcase of Top Entreprenuers

Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor Opens DIT/IADT New Frontiers Annual Showcase of Top Entreprenuers

Over 100 start-up stakeholders were welcomed by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor T.D., as she opened the DIT / IADT New Frontiers Annual Showcase proudly hosted by William Fry. The Showcase featured 30 top entrepreneurs of Enterprise Ireland’s 2016 ‘New Frontiers’ programme. These included Popertee, Local, Cambrist, Nasal Medical and HomeSpun Foods.

The Minister congratulated the Programme participants on their success and spoke of the Government’s strong record in jobs, business and start-up support. She further noted the participants’ enthusiasm and the need to encourage more to start their own successful start-up. 

John Larkin, Chairman of William Fry, spoke of the Firm’s commitment to the sector and of its extensive expertise in assisting start-ups and world leading technology firms. This included licensing, outsourcing, e-commerce, data protection and IP.

Orla Battersby, Head of EI’s HPSU Team, further spoke of the importance of an entrepreneurial mind-set and a world class start-up eco-system to nurture aspirational talent. She noted that 35% of those showcased received Competitive Start Funding and others High Performance Start-up funding.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Chris Horn, Venture Partner at Atlantic Bridge, shared his thoughts on what makes a start-up successful. In this, he drew on his start-up journey as Co-founder and CEO of IONA Technologies. He further engaged in a lively Q&A, highlighting the need to attract top talent to Ireland.

Pictuerd (L-R): John Larkin (Chairman, William Fry), Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD, Leo Moore (Technology Partner, William Fry) and Professor Brian O’Neill, Director of Research, Enterprise & Innovation Services, DIT.