Local Enterprise Week 4-9 March
26th February 2018
Over 300 events have been planned to celebrate ‘Local Enterprise Week’. From helping small businesses spot ‘mega’ trends to assisting start-ups to close more sales, the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are teaming up to run hundreds of events across the country from 4th to 9th March.
In addition to one-to-one business clinics, start your own business bootcamps, finance workshops, trading on-line seminars, data protection briefings and Brexit-themed workshops, the LEOs will also be marking International Women’s Day with a series of networking events for female entrepreneurs during the week. Local finals for the National Enterprise Awards and Student Enterprise Programme will also be held in several parts of the country.
Generating more jobs in less populated areas of the country is an important objective for Minister Humphreys as she welcomed plans for Local Enterprise Week 2018: “Creating more and better jobs in regional and rural Ireland is a priority for the Government, which, through the Local Enterprise Offices, provide a range of focused supports for small businesses and start-ups across every county. I am delighted to see that over 300 events are taking place during Local Enterprise Week 2018 to highlight the supports available for microenterprises. The new start-ups of today are the employers of the future, and we need to ensure as many as possible succeed. That is why the LEOs in every county in Ireland are on hand to support people embarking on their business journey.”
Sheelagh Daly, representing the LEOs, said that the aim of Local Enterprise Week is to showcase all the supports that can be accessed locally, saying: “Local Enterprise Offices are in every local authority area and we’re at the heart of delivering enterprise supports to small businesses and start-ups in local communities. From training programmes that help businesses unlock new markets to financial assistance that help businesses create more jobs, Local Enterprise Week is the ideal time to find out how your Local Enterprise Office can help your small business start-up and grow.”
The week officially kicks-off on Sunday, March 4th with the national final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in Google Headquarters in Dublin. Over 1,400 young entrepreneurs entered the IBYE 2018 competition, which is an initiative of the Local Enterprise Offices and supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland.
Event listings for Local Enterprise Week (March 4th to 9th 2018) are available here>>
(Pictured from left to right are: Sheelagh Daly, Chair of the Network of Local Enterprise Offices, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen T.D., Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Ms. Heather Humphreys T.D, Richard Murphy of Enterprise Ireland and Anna-Marie Delaney, Chair of the CCMA Committee on Economic Development and Enterprise. Photo: Mark Stedman)
