Startup Ireland: Day 5 - Galway

Galway on Friday was the last day of big Startup Gathering events. The whirlwind of new foods, a different time zone, and lack of sleep caught up to me that morning. Since I wasn't feeling well, I missed several of the speakers and didn't explore the city as much as I had hoped. Thankfully, I bounced back quickly and was still able to experience some of the city.

They mayor of Galway spoke during the morning forum. Photo credit: Paul Condron

Like most of the other cities, the mayor came to speak about the importance of startups in their region. It was really cool to see so many important people make the Startup Gathering a priority and recognize the positive impact a good startup ecosystem could have on their area.

The rest of the morning forum proceeded as normal with breakouts, panels and keynote speakers. After those wrapped up, smaller events with a more industry specific focus took off around the city. Rachel, Clayton and I chose to attend the open house for an incubator office sponsored by Bank of Ireland that was recently completed. The space was beautiful and we all agreed we would love to work there. Here's a picture from a fun little side room that would be perfect for a conference call or locking yourself away form your devices to get work cranked out before a deadline.

Isn't this just the cutest little space? Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

The rest of the office was super hip bright orange and blue with nice big tables and huge presentation screens. I want an office like that some day!

In the evening, things wrapped up with a reception, just like all the other cities. The keynote speaker was a man who had recently sold his successful startup. He made two comments that really struck me.

• "Out of adversity there is always opportunity."

This quote hit me like a ton of bricks. It really is all about perspective.

• "There is absolutely no reason you can't start a business anywhere in the world."

This comment was made as he spoke about technology and all the doors recent advancements have opened. It really challenged me personally to learn more about the technology resources available to me. I need to learn, and use them effectively to achieve my goals. 

Galway was a great place to wrap up our tour of the country promoting the startup message. I feel so blessed to be a part of such an impressive conference and am thankful for all the new skills and connections I've gained. Stay tuned for a my final reflection on the whole trip coming soon. Thanks for reading!

Startup Ireland: Day 4 - Limerick

Limerick was day 4 of our 5 city journey across Ireland. Like every other city the morning began with an organized forum of speakers and panelists. I enjoyed learning from all kinds of organizations that have resources for startups. Hearing the trials and triumphs of experienced entrepreneurs was very interesting.

Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

There were lots of quotes throughout the morning that made me think, but this one especially stuck with me. "It takes a community to raise a child. Equally it takes a community to raise a successful startup and a country to raise a successful scaleup."

Part of the morning session included a breakout exercise where attendees divided into 6 groups. These teams brainstormed ideas related to networking, state, education, environment, skills and culture that would help improve the "startup ecosystem" in their region. It was fascinating to float around and hear their innovative solutions.

Breakout sessions in Limerick.

Each city had a city coordinator that handled a lot of the event planning in the region and leveraged their local network to make their big day a success. Gillian Barry was the city coordinator in Limerick, and one of my personal favorites. She was energetic, very engaging and communicated her passion for the startup movement well. Many of the speakers throughout the week were men, so it was fun to see a woman in such an important leadership position.

City coordinator, Gillian Barry and Startup Gathering CEO, Eoin Costello on stage in Limerick. Photo credit: Paul Condron

Just like all the other cities, several experienced entrepreneurs shared the lessons they learned the hard way. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from them:

• "My advice, hire slowly, fire quickly." - Adrian Fleming
• "I quickly learned, 'If you want it. Do it."
• "If you're out there doing everything for your customers, more opportunities will come." - Shane McCarthy
• "It is all about teams. It is about picking someone different than you that has complementary skills." - Kevin Sherry
• "Every company starts with the first employee. You can't export from day 1. Establish and prove a customer wants it." - Kevin Sherry

Entrepreneur panel in Limerick. Photo credit: Paul Condron 

In every city, there was also an evening reception where the mayor, city coordinator, the Startup Gathering CEO, and a keynote entrepreneur spoke. In Limerick, the keynote speech from Jimmy Martin, CEO of AMCS Resource Technology really grabbed my attention. My phone was dead by that point in the day, but here are a few of his key points I scribbled in a notebook as he spoke.

• "I learned the importance of sales at a very young age. My father was a farmer and a big part of farming is business."
• "You have to understand your product and market quite quickly."
• "Focus. Focus. Focus. I couldn't tell you focus enough."
• "Understand your customer. That's key."
• "A lot of companies make the mistake of not knowing how to sell."
• "Don't waste your time. It's valuable."
• "One advantage startups have over the big companies is they are nimble."
• "Don't be afraid to fail."
• "If you're not the sales person, find one fast."

I hope you're as inspired by the knowledge and advice the speakers shared in Limerick as I have been. Thanks for reading!

Startup Ireland: Day 3 - Cork

Our Startup Ireland journey across the country continues! This little habit of seeing both the sunrise and sunset is becoming quite a pattern this week, but with sights like this I don't really mind.

Sunrise over Cork. Photo credit: Paul Condron

Sunset in Waterford. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

It will be pretty hard to keep it wordless, but this Wednesday I'm sharing some images from my trip so far. Many thanks to the friends traveling with me that let me share their art.

This was the view walking to the evening reception in Waterford. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

Growing up, I remember hearing my Grandma Addy talk about Waterford Crystal. It was so fun to be in Waterford and see it in real life. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

There are so many beautiful buildings here. We saw this one on our way to a Tech Brew event and had to take a picture. Photo Credit: Rachel Kelly

These planters outside the Google European Headquarters looked like macaroni noodles. This venue has been one of my favorites. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

This was one of the panels in Waterford. Each day featured two panels and several other speakers. The panels were always my favorite part of the session. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

This is another beautiful building from Waterford. It was near the venue for an event called The Big Pitch. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

The Bank of Ireland was the main sponsor of Startup Gathering. Here's their building in Dublin all lit up for the week of events. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

My new friend, Margaret, who works for Startup Gathering, myself and Rachel in front of the Bank of Ireland in Dublin. There was quite an impressive light show there Monday night. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

The Iowa State social media team doing their job in Waterford! Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

Our hotel in Cork, The Kingsley, was the nicest hotel any of us had stayed at before. Out in the "car park," or parking lot there was a beautiful fountain and statues. Here I am with the team photographer, Paul. Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

The Iowa State social media team hard at work in Cork on Day 3! Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

These Go Cars were our transportation for the week. Go Car is a car rental service out of Dublin. Photo credit: Margaret Stafford

This was the scene in Cork behind The Kingsley Hotel. We took tons of photos of this sunset! Photo credit: Rachel Kelly

Thanks for reading! Good night!

Startup Ireland: Day 2 - Waterford

Wired. Inspired. Tired.

After a second full day of Startup Gathering events, I wasn't sure how I would even begin to share all we've been experiencing as the social media team. It has been so exciting and completely exhausting all at the same time. Finally, these three words seem to best describe my day.

Wired

From 6:00 am to 1:00 am we've been connected and interacting online. I've been blogging, instagramming, tweeting, facebooking, pinteresting, adding content to the app, and group messaging minute by minute. At home, I'll confess I'm on social media often, but this is like never before. In someways I haven't missed a thing happening with my friends back in the US because I've been on every platform nearly around the clock. We've been pushing out so much content, along with all the conference attendees and speakers, that #startupIRL has trended two days in Ireland now. (Keep up the good work team! ;)) I love the opportunity this technology offers to connect with so many influential people and share stories from anywhere in the world. Every corner I turn, I can't help but see a photo opportunity or status update for social media. Here's one we just had to capture:

Rachel and I are two of the three Iowa State students covering the events on social media. She's been a lot of fun!

Inspired.

Both days so far we've been bombarded with entrepreneur's stories of starting, succeeding and scaling. It's touching to see communities come together, passionate about the startup vision and the economic impact potential in their region. Many important figures have been present at the Startup Gathering events demonstrating their support. The speeches and panels have challenged me to think in a new way about the positive relationships young, innovative startups and established multinational companies can have.

This entrepreneur panel was one of my favorite today. Each of them had lots of good advice!

I could write for days about all the advice that was shared, but I'll just share a few quotes and let you search Twitter for the rest using #startupIRL.

• “Focus. There are so many things that will potentially distract you, but you’ll benefit from focus.”
• “When you are starting a new business you have to produce something that will cause people to change.”
• “Entrepreneurship is only 10-20% about the ideas, the rest is about executing them.”
• “Don’t give up. Successful entrepreneurs are ordinary people with tenacity.”

After being around all these energizing, visionary people I'm even more excited to get to work on a few things I've been brainstorming for a while. 

Tired.

Mom, you can just stop reading here and know that all is well. :) The last 68 hours have been so strange. One minute I can hardly keep my eyes open, the next (particularly at 1 and 2 am) I'm wide awake and ready conquer the world... or order pizza! It may be jet lag, it may be adrenaline. I don't know, but I've decided to enjoy it all. I'm sure come Sunday I'll crash hard, but in the mean time I just want to take it all in. It's pretty impressive what you can accomplish even on 8 hours of sleep in that time with a little mind over matter.

The Bank of Ireland has sponsored Startup Gathering, but I think we need a coffee sponsor too! It's a necessity around here!

On that note, it's about time to try to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before tomorrow's events in Cork. I'll be sharing everything on Twitter throughout the day with #startupIRL or check back later for a follow up blog post. Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Good night everyone!

Startup Ireland: Day 1 - Dublin

It's 2:30 am here, so I'm pretty "wrecked". Rachel and I got up at 5:30 this morning and have been running around with the rest of the team since. This post will be short, but I wanted to post a quick review of the wild day we've had.

The Go Cars are a unique car sharing/rental system that is taking off.

First thing in the morning, we were picked up in the Go Cars the Startup Ireland team has been given for the week. It's been so nice to have designated vehicles for the week.

It was raining when we left the hotel, but we were told its common weather in Ireland. At first I was disappointed to start off the day in such a gloomy way, but it didn't really impact us at all. The day turned out fantastic!

The Google facilities were fantastic!

The morning began with the big forum event at the Google European Headquarters. The space we were in was called Google Foundry and was filled with bright colors, interesting speakers and exciting ideas. So many people were running around to make the event possible and they really pulled it off. Our hashtag, #startupIRL was trending right away in the morning and every bit of the presentation looked professional. 

Throughout the day, the social media team was in charge of taking quotes from the speakers, turning them into tweets and matching up photos. We made sure the huge Fandom screens were constantly displaying the things attendees were tweeting in. It was also important that we struck a balance between posting our own original content and interacting with others participating in Startup Ireland registered events across the country. Seeing so many people participate in the online conversation gave me a huge adrenaline rush!


In the afternoon, we split up and attended a few smaller Startup Ireland events and got more time face to face with beginning entrepreneurs. I particularly enjoyed Dublin Beta where the three of us from Iowa State visited with very young startups to create short highlight tweets featuring their ideas. Follow the @StartupIreland Twitter account to see who we met and the projects they're working on.

After, we regrouped at a final reception to hear a few more speakers. Then we loaded up the Go Cars again to head to Waterford, which is about a 2 hour car trip. I rode with a sweet Irish girl just a few years older than me named Margaret and two of the event speakers. I'm a terrible co-pilot, but eventually we made our way to the final destination.

At the new hotel in Waterford, we set up and regrouped a little. Most importantly, we had a little team bonding. Rachel and I even tried our first Guinness! We had lots of good laughs and were able to find humor in some of our miscommunications from the day. Even though I just wanted to go to bed when we got in, I'm so glad I went and hung out with the team. It's going to be hard to leave on Sunday!

Well, I better get some sleep so I don't nod off in any of the events tomorrow! Thanks for reading! Cheers!  

Good night! Photo credit: Startup Ireland

First Impressions: Ireland

The past 24 hours have been "good fun" as my new Irish friends would say. I'm not really sure how long I've been up at this point, but before I try to sleep, I wanted to note my first impressions.

Steering wheel on the right, shifting with the left hand. Eek!

We were "collected" from the Dublin airport about "half of six", or six thirty this morning by Michael. He worked with my classmate, Clayton this summer and will be guiding our team through the process of documenting Startup Ireland on social media during the week. I'll introduce you to everyone I'm working with as the week progresses. The Irish I've met are very nice and remind me of the people back home in the Midwest. They are hard working, welcoming and know how to make stressful work fun.

At the airport we learned more of the Startup Ireland story and made a game plan for the rest of the day. Once a cozy little cafe was open, Michael took us out for a solid breakfast. 

My egg and spinach dish hit the spot!

Before coming to Ireland, I knew drivers sit on the opposite side of the car and drive in the opposite lane on the road in Europe, but it really threw me for a loop when I got in. The Go Car we have as part of the event is a little Ford Focus, very similar to my car at home... except it's a manual and everything is flopped to the right. 

As we rode the short bit to the cafe, Rachel and I giggled in the back seat as we mistook passengers napping or putting on make up for distracted drivers. It seems like a simple change, but it's such an adjustment to look over and see a steering wheel in what seems should be the passenger seat after experiencing something so different for 21 years.

Our hotel, Waterloo Lodge. I just love the bright red door!

After a delicious egg brunch and more social media overview, we got notice that our hotel rooms were ready. Michael took us to the hotel to freshen up and drop off our bags while he prepared a few last minute conference details. Like everything so far in Europe our hotel is small, but nice. From the outside, it is not at all what I was expecting in a hotel, but really is beautiful inside and out.

A short time later, he returned to take us to Dublin forum venue. This is the location where several prominent speakers will gather tomorrow morning. Here we explored and met the rest of the people who have worked so hard to put this event together. I wish I could tell you more about it and show you pictures, but you'll have to check back tomorrow for that. We want our event guests to see for the first time right when they walk in.

Once "the three Americans" did all we could at the venue to help out with last minute arrangements, we set out to find burgers and "pints." Now after a full hot meal and a relaxing warm shower, I better sign off before I fall asleep. I'll do my best to get a short post up tomorrow, but in the mean time, follow the hashtag #startupIRL to see what I'm doing. Thanks for reading!

Good night! Time to catch some sleep!

Giddy!

Just over a week ago, I was jumping on the bed, squealing like a little girl. Sure, I'm 21 years old and nearly a college graduate. I didn't care. The email I'd been anxiously waiting for just popped into my inbox with good news! I couldn't think of a time I'd been more excited in all of college.

Who should I call first? Mom and Dad? I'd need to call the bank. And the phone company! And my roommates would need to know. Eek! I could hardly pause my happy dance long enough to dial my dad's office number. As the phone rang on the other end, I tried to come up with the right words to say. Once he was on the line, it didn't matter. "I'm going to Ireland!!" I blurted.

Credit: Startup Ireland

Today, as I sit racking my brain for what I forgot to pack, I'm just as excited. In just a few short hours, I'll be my way to Dublin, Ireland to work on a social media team for Startup Ireland! 

While I'm abroad for the next eight days, I'll be using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to keep everyone up to speed with the activities of the conference. Each day, I'll work in a different city covering events aimed to foster entrepreneurship and celebrate the 'let's make it happen people' of Ireland. My time will be divided between Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Galway.

My goal is to post a few updates on Roots during my trip, but the fast pace of this adventure will make it difficult to share everything here. For the play by play, be sure to follow @startupireland on Twitter and like Startup Ireland on Facebook. We will be using the hashtag #startupIRL to keep track of all we do. 

Well, I better load up the car to catch my flight! Don't forget to follow my trip on social media! Thanks for reading!