Local Enterprise Week kicks off on Monday, March 4th. Organised by Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), the week involves over 350 events around the country dealing with everything from sustainable businesses practices to succeeding on export markets and raising finance.
Some well known faces and houses hold names including Olympian and Entrepreneur Derval O’Rourke, broadcaster Richard Curran, entrepreneur and broadcaster Anna Daly, international journalist and editor Anne-Marie Tomchak, Donegal manager Jim McGuinness, Mayo football legend Cora Staunton and former politician and broadcaster Ivan Yates will be taking part.
“This is the ninth Local Enterprise Week,” says John Magee, chair of the Local Enterprise Office Network. “It’s an annual programme of events held in the first week of March. All 31 LEOs in the country will have a programme of events for businesses in their area. These events include specialised business advice sessions, information on training programmes and other supports provided by the LEOs, online trading, using AI to market your business, and much else besides. Over 10,000 businesses participated last year, and we are expecting even more this year. It’s going from strength to strength and we are very pleased with the traction it’s building.”
There are two national spotlight events open to all businesses around the country and streaming online. “On March 6th, the first event is on understanding and leveraging future trends for your business,” Magee explains. “It will focus on international trends like digitalisation and sustainability and how they are likely to affect businesses. It will contextualise these and help businesses spot the opportunities they hold.”
Technology expert, futurist and digitalisation specialist Nancy Rademaker will lead the event. She will give businesses an insight on where the world is headed and the key areas they should be looking at now and how business is going to be different in 20 years’ time. She will be followed by Ady Floyd, vice-president of Client Success at Trend Hunter, who will look at the 18 megatrends that will shape the future of business and the economy and where Irish businesses can leverage them to help with their own products and services.
The second national spotlight event takes place on Thursday, March 7th, and focuses on sustainability. “It will look at how sustainability is no longer a nice to have for business but is now an imperative,” Magee points out.
Science and environmental broadcaster Liz Bonnin will explain ways in which businesses in any sector and of any size can look to change the way they operate to be more sustainable and have a smaller environmental footprint and benefit from cost savings in areas such as energy consumption, waste disposal, and insurance premiums.
“Alongside these national spotlight events, the hundreds of events around the country allow businesses to take stock and look at opportunities for growth,” he says. “It is an opportunity for businesspeople to work on the business rather than in it. They can take a helicopter perspective of where they are and where they want to go. They can also use the events to see what supports are available. Some of the events are aimed at specific sectors while most of them have a more general focus. Events in the cities and larger towns might be more sector specific, for example.”
Within the food sector, Local Enterprise Office Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is organising an event with Colette Twomey from Clonakilty Black Pudding, who will share her journey, milestones and tips. Mari Donelan from Dan & Monstro Foods saw the opportunity to bring a product to market which encouraged children to consume more vegetables and she will share her recipe for business success.
A number of the events are being run in conjunction with local chambers of commerce. “We have two in Mayo,” says Magee. “We are running one with Castlebar Chamber of Commerce on the theme of business growth – development, sustainability and success. We also have a networking event run in conjunction with Ballina Chamber of Commerce on International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8th. Síle Seoige will be joining us for that.”
Other events include a family business succession planning seminar organised by Local Enterprise Office Kerry. The seminar is relevant to anyone preparing to deal with or manage any aspect of family business succession. Expert practitioners will discuss the three elements of good succession planning – legal, finance and tax, and psychological.
They are also organising a creative clinic for the craft sector which features one to one mentoring with craft business expert Maebh Ring. This customised support for craft businesses can focus on activities to support microenterprises to grow and sustain their creative enterprise including organisational structure, product development, sales and marketing, branding, pricing, market research and consumer purchasing behaviour.
One of the events in Louth offers advice on first stops to greening your business. Pamela Kerr from Louth LEO will explore how taking steps to drive sustainability in a business can have significant benefits for everything from efficiencies to cost savings.
In Offaly, Úna Ryan from Marketing Eye will help tourism businesses to turbocharge their bookings and sales in just 60 minutes. She will offer valuable insights into the latest marketing trends and strategies specifically tailored for the tourism industry, present actionable tips and tricks that businesses can implement immediately to start seeing results in your bookings, sales and profit, as well as offering personalised guidance and advice to help participants address the unique challenges and opportunities facing their businesses.
Magee urges businesspeople to make the time to attend at least one event during the week. “It’s a very difficult operating environment for businesses at present and we want to support them in dealing with the pressures created by rising costs and other factors,” he says. “It’s a very good time to look at the supports available from their Local Enterprise Office, particularly in areas like productivity, sustainability, and exports. We can help businesses reduce costs and extend their market reach. Local Enterprise Week is a great opportunity for microenterprises to come along and introduce themselves to the people from their Local Enterprise Office. They will be more than thrilled to tell people how we can help.”
The enterprise support ecosystem has never been better resourced, he concludes. “There is always something practical we can do for businesses. We can introduce businesses to people who can help, we can bring in specialist advisers, we can support businesses on their digital journeys with trading online vouchers, help them with sustainability through energy efficiency vouchers, provide training in key business areas, and much more.”
Attendance at Local Enterprise Week events can be booked through at localenterprise.ie