Enterprise Week event at House of Lords a great success!

There was standing room only at the Enterprise Week event at the House of Lords on Friday morning. Over 300 entrepreneurs and SMEs gathered to hear keynote speakers such as Paul Rellis from Microsoft, Justin Keatinge, Managing Director of Version 1 and Nicola Farronato, CEO of b.sm@rk

Paul Rellis in Microsoft spoke about the technological transformations that are taking place and how natural user interfaces such as Kinect will become more pervasive in the near future. It is predicated that in three years time 50% of phones will be smartphones, and according to Rellis one third of those will be on the windows phone platform.

Justin Keatinge shared with the audience practical business advice which helped him transform Version 1 into a company with 265 employees in 6 years. His advice included: 1. Live your values, 2. Find your rhythm 3. Know the cost of a bad hire 4. Have the Numbers at your fingertips, 5. Find the recurring gold dust, 6. Heed your own advice.

Nicola Farronato, CEO of b.sm@rk spoke about his decision to locate his company in Ireland due to our high levels of innovation. He illustrated how companies can deliver better online content by capitalising on customer feedback using a special colour rating chart which is embedded on each piece of content online.

Also speaking at the launch was Gabriel Bannigan, Regional Manager -Dublin, Bank of Ireland. “The key message that we would like to communicate is that Bank of Ireland is very much open for business and our lending figures prove that. Our average loan approval rate is at 83%. SMEs are the driving force behind the Irish economy and we continue to lend to viable businesses. It is important that businesses can seek relevant advice and support from all parts of the local community and Bank of Ireland wishes to be instrumental in leading this drive”.

There was an active community of delegates tweeting at the conference and posting the soundbites to Twitter using the hashtag #ew11.

If you attended this event or any event during Enterprise Week, we’d love to hear your feedback. You can leave your comments in the box below or you can fill out this short survey here.