Startup Week Dublin returns!

Techstars Startup Week Dublin, powered by Dublin City Council, returns for its second year from 21-25 October 2019. The successful programme will once again bring together entrepreneurs, innovators, local leaders and the community over the five-day period to build momentum and opportunity around the unique entrepreneurial and innovative identity of Dublin.

With over 2,500 attendees, 54 events, 115 speakers across 32 venues, the first Startup Week Dublin took place in November 2018, and it was an extremely successful 5-day citywide celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Mary Mac Sweeney, Deputy Head of Economic Development and Enterprise with Dublin City Council, welcomed Techstars Startup Week back to Dublin. “Dublin City Council is hugely excited to sponsor Techstars Startup Week Dublin for a second year and we look forward to once again hosting many of the events, workshops and mentoring sessions throughout the mornings and afternoons in the Civic Offices. The week shines a light on our strong, innovative, entrepreneurial community here in Dublin and the potential for further growth within that community. We love that we’ve been given the opportunity to work with a wide range of stakeholders who help foster that growth. 

Mac Sweeney added, “Dublin was the centre of new company start-ups in 2018. 10,313 new companies were established in Dublin last year, nearly half (46%) of all new companies in Ireland, up 1% on the previous year.  Local Government is supporting this activity through initiatives such as the Local Enterprise Office (LEO). In 2018, the LEO network nationally, directly invested €18.2M in over 1,259 business projects, which in turn supported the creation of 3,656 new jobs. Dublin City Council is proud to build on this activity by powering Startup Week Dublin and enabling increased entrepreneurial activity which is so critical to the regional and national economy.”

Gene Murphy, founder of Startup Boost and co-organiser of Startup Week Dublin, “Building businesses is tough but it doesn’t need to be difficult and that’s why at Startup Week right across Dublin people can meet and get to know the next person that can help them either start a company, scale a company or move into working in a high growth company. Last year’s event exceeded any of our expectations and a number of attendees have been in touch to tell us about the startups they have launched on the back of some of the events such as Slunchbox, a healthy packed lunch subscription for pupils and teachers and Learn in a Flash, an international traineeship marketplace”

Building on the review, impact, and success of 2018, Startup Week Dublin will bring together a diverse and more extensive array of content, events and entrepreneurs including two new content tracks, ‘Innovation’ and ‘University’.

An event encouraging all-island collaboration on the cusp of Brexit, NxSTech ‘Northern Ireland startup tech on tour’ hosted by Startacus will showcase NI startup technology in Dublin, whilst also discussing startup collaboration between NI and ROI – the differences, challenges and similarities, opportunities to co-create, co-innovate and diversify startup talent across the island of Ireland.

Each day has a different schedule of talks, panels and keynotes running 10:00 am – 3:00 pm across a range of topics. These ‘Base Camp’ talks will take place in the epicentre of Startup Week Dublin, Dublin City Council Civic Offices on Wood Quay.

Startups in need of advice and resources are also encouraged to avail of the one-to-one mentor sessions provided by the Local Enterprise Office taking place at the Base Camp on Wood Quay on Friday the 25th.

Other event highlights include:

• Techstars day with global reps flying in to share content

• Enterprise Ireland Innovation Day

• The NASA – Space APP challenge

• Upstarter – Teaming up for Ireland’s largest technology recruitment event

• The Dublin BIC funding and Scaling Session

• ‘Growing a business’ evening hosted by Startup Ballymun

Colin Keogh, the founder of Rapid Foundation, is a new addition to the Startup Week Dublin organising team. Keogh shared his excitement about the event’s second year. “Having Startup Week return to Dublin gives an opportunity for the innovative startup community here to showcase their abilities and connect them with the right people that they may otherwise would not have been connected to”. 

Co-organiser David Pollard, Innovation Projects Manager at Rehab Group and Lecturer at the National College of Ireland, shares who can benefit from the week, “So who is Startup Week Dublin for? It doesn’t matter what stage of the entrepreneur’s journey you are at if you have the spark of a startup idea and want to take the first step in entrepreneurship, or you want to join a high-growth company or are planning to scale your startup, Startup Week Dublin will be valuable to you.”

To find out more information about Techstars Startup Week Dublin and stay up to date on the list of events, go to https://www.dublinstartupweek.com.