Hundreds of businesses flock to Local Enterprise Week 2022!

Hundreds of businesses flock to Local Enterprise Week 2022!

Fingal’s business community booked over 1,000 places at this year’s Local Enterprise Week, run by Fingal Local Enterprise Office (LEO). A series of 20 exciting business events were run both online and in-person between the 7th and 11th of March 2022 as part of Local Enterprise Week (LEW) this year. There were over 220 physical and virtual events taking place across the country, run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices from March 7th to 11th, and huge numbers of Fingal business owner/managers used the opportunity to network and learn about new supports and opportunities for their businesses.

The packed week of events kicked off on Monday the 7th of March with an in-person dynamic “Start-Up Bootcamp” in the Riasc Centre, Kinsealy. Forty aspiring entrepreneurs participated in the intensive bootcamp, where they participated in interactive group exercises and received real-world advice from business experts.

Pictured: Oisín Geoghegan Head of LEO Fingal at the Start Up Bootcamp

One of Tuesday’s events saw a business breakfast hosted by Balbriggan Chamber, which featured a high-calibre talk on “Preparing Your Business for Growth”. This seminar was centred around steering a business in the right direction by elevating performance and putting a plan in place to back it up.

Pictured: Oisín Geoghegan Head of LEO Fingal at the Preparing your Business for Growth event

Fingal Enterprise Awards took place on Thursday the 10th of March with six finalists battling it out for the coveted prize of winner of the 2022 competition.  Hosted in Sonica, Skerries, the evening was also streamed online, highlighting the success of the six finalists from across Fingal: Dimension 88 (Nigel & Catriona O'Leary), Love the Mug (Pamela & Suzanne Hughes), Farmony (Dan O'Brien & John Paul Prior), Nufields Ltd (Denis Manzke), EcoFriendly Cups (Elaine O'Farrell) and Rubberduck EHJC Ltd (Ben Colwell).

Pictured: Finalists at the Fingal Enterprise Awards 2022

Life Ahead Ltd. T/A Farmony who provide vertical farming solutions were announced as overall winners, scooping the top prize of €5,000 and will now represent Fingal Local Enterprise Office at the 22nd National Enterprise Awards at the Mansion House in Dublin on the 2nd June.

Pictured: Oisín Geoghegan Head of LEO Fingal , Deputy Mayor of Fingal Daniel Whooley, Dan O’Brien and John Paul Prior from Farmony and Chief Executive of Fingal County Council AnneMarie Farrelly 

Swords-based Khiron Ltd T/A Dimension88, a Digital Twinning / Metaverse / Digital Innovation company were also announced as the winner of the Highly Commended award at this year’s awards ceremony.

Pictured: Oisín Geoghegan Head of LEO Fingal , Deputy Mayor of Fingal Daniel Whooley, Nigel and Caitriona O’Leary from DIMENSION88 and Chief Executive of Fingal County Council AnneMarie Farrelly 

One of the highlights of Local Enterprise Week was a networking lunch hosted by Fingal Enterprising Women’s Network at the Clayton Hotel, Dublin Airport. The Fingal Enterprising Women Network (FEWN) welcomed guest speaker, Broadcaster and Businesswoman Lorraine Keane, who discussed a range of topics including new beginnings and "Dare to Change." Deputy Mayor of Fingal Daniel Whooley also joined over 150 women entrepreneurs who participated in a networking lunch, the first in-person event the women’s network had hosted in two years!

Pictured: Businesswoman and Broadcaster Lorraine Keane and Manager of FEWN Sharon Rossignuolo at the Dare to Change event in the Clayton Hotel

Local Enterprise Week concluded with “Show Me the Money” on Friday 11th March. The hybrid event, hosted by Newstalk presenter Shane Coleman, took place in Sonica, Skerries and was also livestreamed on the Local Enterprise Office Youtube channel. A diverse panel of financing experts and  business owners covered an array of topics relevant to anyone seeking to source and secure finance for their business including securing finance, identifying the right lender for your business and the loan application process.

Pictured: Panelists along with Oisín Geoghegan Head of LEO Fingal at the Show me the Money event

Other events run during Local Enterprise Week included a Business Briefing with Fingal Chamber on focusing on key topics including: staff retention and recruitment, the lack of skills and talent, the availability of housing and transport issues. An online event to help Ethnic entrepreneurs was also held with a panel of successful ethnic entrepreneurs who shared their journey and detailed how they accessed financial supports. Cyber Security was highlighted at a “Protecting Your Business Online” webinar with The LINC at TU Dublin, while over 120 businesses attended an online webinar featuring the Trading Online Voucher (TOV) Scheme on the last day of Fingal’s Local Enterprise Week.

Ends

For further information:

Please contact Local Enterprise Office, Fingal:  

Tel: 01 8900 800     E-mail: info@leo.fingal.ie