Business
Meetwest is just the business
A massive 4,500 businesses will gather in one room this week as Meetwest 2016 takes place this Thursday and Friday at the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris.
Organised and part funded by the local authorities, local enterprise offices and state development agencies in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, MeetWest brings together a wide range of companies from the West of Ireland and further afield to network and do business.
Now in its sixth year, organisers have tailored this year’s programme to maximise new and innovative networking opportunities for attendees in a variety of formats.
Meetwest 2016 will open with a conference style event entitled finding opportunities to grow. The conference will be opened by a short address from Mayo County Council Chief Executive, Moycullen native Peter Hynes.
One of the topics of this year’s conference will be around the issue of “Brexit” and the Challenges and Opportunities which it presents to businesses in the West of Ireland.
Speaking on the topic will be Niall O’Donnellan, divisional manager, Enterprise Ireland, with responsibility for strategy, policy and planning, leadership and management development, skills, competitiveness and regions.
Other topics covered in the conference will be “knowing your customer to take your business to the next level” delivered by Jo Collins, Managing Director of SalePerformance.ie, and “making Sense of the digital Maze – Practical Paths for your Business” delivered by Fergal O’Connor CEO and Founder of Happy Marketing and Media.
‘Finding Opportunities to Grow’ will be hosted by Noel Davidson, Director of Training at The Entrepreneurs Academy.
Day one will conclude with a networking reception and dinner followed by an address from one of Ireland’s leading economic commentators, David Mc Williams.
Day two of the event will kick off with the prearranged one-to-one meetings.
The format is similar to speed dating in that each delegate receives a predetermined meeting schedule with 20 minutes allocated for each meeting. Once the 20 minutes is up, a bell will ring and one of the delegates moves to a different table to start the meeting process again.
In addition to the one to one meetings there will be a number of ten-to-one meetings where delegates can meet selected larger businesses in a group format.
MeetWest 2016 commences with registration at 3.30pm today (Thursday) and continues from 8am on Friday.
See www.meetwest.ie
The new President of Local Ireland, the association representing local news publishers around the country, is Head of Irish Times Regionals Dan Linehan.
Mr Linehan takes over the presidency from Declan McGuire of the Connacht Tribune. His appointment was confirmed at the recent Annual General Meeting of Local Ireland at Bloomfield House Hotel near Mullingar, Westmeath.
Mr Linehan, who has served as Vice President of the organisation for the last two years, said: “The coming years are a very important time for local publishers with many important issues to be addressed, including the implementation of the Future of Media Commission recommendations, defamation reform, the role and support for local publishers in public service reporting and helping publishers develop commercial digital offerings.”
Speaking at the AGM, Mr McGuire acknowledged the work done by the Executive in the past two years under the direction of Executive Director, Bob Hughes, on several projects related to the publishing industry but most especially the successful conclusion of the long-running campaign for the abolition of VAT on newspapers.
He also wished Mr Linehan the very best in his new role as President of the association for the next two years.
Mr Hughes thanked Mr McGuire for his leadership and support during his term of office and said he looked forward to working with Mr Linehan on the key policy priorities for the association, including Government supports, Government advertising, fair remuneration for content from the tech platforms and the reform of the legislation for defamation.
Local Ireland members also elected Seán Mahon, Managing Director of the Southern Star, as Vice President for the next two years.
The shortage of affordable housing is the single biggest impediment in attracting and retaining workers in the West, according to business group Ibec.
At a ‘Regional Insights Series’ meeting in the Galmont Hotel in Galway last week, employers were told that capacity constraints and labour supply are the key challenges facing business growth in the region.
Ibec Head of Regional Policy Helen Leahy said: “There must be greater focus by government on enhancing quality of life issues such as housing and infrastructure which are driving labour shortages in the region.
“Ibec’s vision for the West is to realise its potential to become a globally competitive location. An inadequate supply of affordable housing is now the single largest impediment to attracting and retaining talented workers, without whom business investment and expansions are not possible.
“Labour shortages are a real concern for businesses in the region. People decide where to live and work based on quality of life and access to high quality services and amenities. Industry tends to follow talent, and in this regard, the region needs to have all the building blocks in place as the attraction and retention of world-class talent becomes increasingly competitive on a global level,” said Ms Leahy.
Amongst Ibec’s priorities for the West are:
- Addressing housing and infrastructure challenges
- Transitioning towards a new growth model with Net Zero energy powered by Atlantic offshore wind resources
- Adapting businesses to the new economic realities
- Enhancing capacity and skillsets to achieve sustainable development objectives
- Investment in people and skills
- Creating competitive advantage through digitalisation
- Innovation as a key driver of productivity growth
One in five Galway businesses want to go fully cashless, as the move towards card payments and tapping continues unabated post-Covid.
In all, 22% of Galway businesses would like to be fully cashless, according to a survey carried out by BOI Payment Acceptance (BOIPA), a provider of payment technology solutions, which asked Irish businesses about the current payment landscape as well as business confidence and concerns.
Over one-third (36%) of Galway businesses were unaware there is no contactless limit on mobile wallets – just below the national average – while 54% believe the increase in card over cash transactions has helped them run their business.
Six out of ten Galway businesses expect to grow this year despite the cost-of-living crisis and running costs dominating as key concerns; 62% believe their business will grow over the next twelve months despite global economic uncertainty.
Unsurprisingly cost-of-living increases and running costs were the main concerns the majority of businesses had.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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