Optimism was the order of the day as 300 people met to swap ideas and listen to advice from established business people, writes IAN CAMPBELL

PUTTING ANY talk of recession to one side, about 300 budding entrepreneurs gathered at BizCamp in Dublin last Saturday to soak up free advice that ranged from no-nonsense business planning to more esoteric ideas on what it takes to succeed.

Wandering between 40 sessions spread out over three floors at the Guinness Store House, delegates tapped into the knowledge of diverse speakers who gave up their time to share their ideas and be part of an event where optimism was the order of the day.

Recurring themes were about online business and harnessing the power of technology, but there were also sessions on presentation skills and marketing. The trick was to separate the clichés and occasional nuggets of nonsense from real pearls of wisdom.

In a practical guide on making accurate financial projections, Brian Flanagan dug down into a level of detail on a fundamental part of running a business that most start-ups get wrong. He was delighted that Nama has given his specialist subject a moment in the sun. “I never thought there would be newspaper headlines about financial projections,” he quipped.

From number-crunching to brain-training, Adrian Avendano hosted a session on using the two sides of your brain, but it was not always motivational. “If you’re going to do a start-up, you’re going to fail,” he said. “Fact. The thing is to get over it.”

Next door, it was less about sides of the brain and more about using your brain at all. “We seldom see a clear description of a product,” said Enterprise Ireland’s David Lucy, in an instructive talk on the common pitfalls in business plans.

“And be realistic when you pitch for investment otherwise you will be underfunded,” he warned, explaining that many start-ups fatally underestimated how much money they were going to need.

Meanwhile, Avendano was sucking more enthusiasm out of delegates. “Start-ups are screwed,” he said, pointing out that new businesses rarely made a good impression when they first meet customers.

In a panel discussion with successful Irish entrepreneurs, Colm Lyon, chief executive officer of RelaxPayments.com, gave a more positive insight into forging customer relationships. “Every time I got rejected I went back to the office and made two more appointments,” he said. Today, his company processes more than €6 billion annually for 3,000 businesses.

Also on the panel was Jerry Kennelly, the man who built up Stockybyte and sold it for a whopping €10 million. He cut to the quick of what it takes to be successful. “Make life better for your customer and you have to make money.”

Kennelly also picked up on another theme of the day, that Ireland is a small country so any entrepreneur would be well advised to look abroad. “You might be in north Dublin but your head has to be in Seattle or wherever your competitors are.”

Ironically, one of the least well attended presentations was on China as an emerging market, which was not lost on the speaker who praised her select audience for “being aware of the biggest business opportunities in the world”.

Deirdre Walsh works for a consultancy firm that facilitates business introductions to China and came out with tantalising statistics that would get any entrepreneur salivating, not least the claim that $764 million worth of goods are sold every minute.

“There are emerging wealthy people who like to show off their sophistication and taste,” she said, which had unsettling echoes in a country that had just come through the Celtic Tiger.

By contrast, it was standing-room only in a presentation on how to become a market leader. A sharp-suited American business consultant explained that the success of Cirque du Soleil had valuable lessons for any entrepreneur on “how to find their unique value curve”.

Keith Bohanna, one of four volunteers responsible for the non-profit event and an internet entrepreneur in his own right, was pleased with what BizCamp had accomplished.

“It’s not necessary to have to pay keynote speakers to fly in from around the world,” he said.

The diverse list of 40 speakers was whittled down from twice as many people who volunteered to take part. The one rule is that they are not allowed to do a sales pitch, a bugbear of traditional conferences where companies often pay for a spot on the podium.

Not just about presentations, BizCamp is a day when delegates have the opportunity to network among themselves. It is hard to imagine anywhere outside of singles club where introductions and personal details are exchanged with such speed and enthusiasm.

The mood was defiantly upbeat. It was the second event the BizCamp organisers have run this year and with the help of its sponsors, two more are planned for 2010, something that will be enthusiastically welcomed judging by the comments of one delegate.

“This is the kind of event the country needs,” he said. “It helps us to feel good about ourselves again.”