Gavin Duffy is guest speaker at the upcoming Enterprise Awards, taking place Thursday 1st October at 6pm in the Tullamore Court Hotel.
The Offaly Enterprise Awards is part of a national initiative organised by the Local Enterprise Offices which celebrates the achievements of Ireland’s micro-enterprise sector. The awards recognise and celebrate the success stories of small business owners from all over the country. The Irish Best Young Entrepreneurs (IBYE) Awards will also take place at this event.
Gavin Duffy who is a serial entrepreneur and a veteran of over 40 start ups. Gavin has also been a Dragon for all six series of the RTE Dragon’s Den show.
Gavin’s own business track record is impressive. At the tender age of 18, Gavin set up a local radio station employing 20 people. In 1989 he set up the country’s first licensed provincial local radio station, LMFM, after working for some years in RTE presenting various programmes including Ireland’s first television business programme “Marketplace”. In 2004 LMFM was sold to UTV for €11m.
His venture capital portfolio has been concentrated mainly on recruitment, professional development and radio stations.
Among his many successful Dragons’ Den investments are TanOrganic, the world’s first and only ECO certified 100% natural, organic sunless tan; Henparty.ie, an online business which has grown from a bedroom start-up to a multi-million revenue online business.
Matt McCormack of Cúl Heroes will also be speaking on the night in relation to the success story which is Cúl Heroes. Cúl Heroes is a Tullamore based company which has produced the new official trading card of the GAA/GPA which provides an innovative way of promoting Gaelic games, the players and the unique skills of our national games.
The finalists for the Enterprise Awards 2015 are as follows:
- The Marshmallow Factory, Clareen.
- Welding Quality Management Services, Tullamore
- Twisted Pixels, Ballycumber.
- Kearney Fabrication Ltd., Edenderry.
- Sean and Orla Clancy, Clanwood Organic Farm, Cloghan.
- Applied Concepts Ltd., Kinnitty.
- Hazel Greene & Cyril Stanley, Bramber Studio
- Dezynamite, Tullamore
- Polar Ice Ltd., Portarlington.
- Karl Mulligan, Tullamore.
- Hello Camera, Birr.
- Tommy & Karina Corrigan, Ballyshiel Artisan Foods.
Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition
In Offaly, the competition to find Offaly’s Best Young Entrepreneur is nearing a conclusion with the Awards to be announced on Thursday, 1st October at the joint IBYE & County Enterprise Awards in Tullamore. Winners will be named in three categories – Best New Idea, Best Start-up, Best Established Business – as well as an Overall Winner who will be Offaly’s Best Young Entrepreneur.
The Offaly Local Enterprise Office will have a total fund of €50,000 to invest in the three winning businesses, according to criteria including the prospects and investment needs of each business. The overall winner of Offaly’s Best Young Entrepreneur can receive an investment of up to €25,000.
The 7 finalists were shortlisted from the many applications received and went on to attend the IBYE Bootcamp weekend as well as receiving mentoring supports to help finalise their business proposal. They also faced a panel of judges where they had to pitch their proposal to try and convince them that they should win the title of Offaly’s Best Young Entrepreneur. The finalists are Maria Byrne; David Payne; Keith Lambe; Kenneth O’Regan; Colin O’Rourke; Darren Kearney and Jason Daniels.
The competition was open to individuals aged 18-30 years and be judged under three distinct categories:
- best new idea
- best start-up business
- best established business
The winners of the Offaly competition will go on to the Regional final and if successful will go on to represent Offaly in the National Finals with one business-person being crowned Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur before the end of the year.
The aim of the initiative is to encourage and support a culture of entrepreneurship among young people in Ireland, to promote entrepreneurship as a career choice, and to encourage the establishment and development of new innovative businesses by Ireland’s young entrepreneurs. This is hugely important for job-creation as two thirds of all new jobs are generated by businesses in the first five years of existence – more start-ups and a thriving entrepreneurial culture will lead to more jobs being created.
This project is an integral part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 and is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through the Local Enterprise Offices.
This event is free to attend but pre-booking is essential. Please contact 057 9357480 or email info@leo.offalycoco.ie to book your place.
