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The BizSpark Innovation Accelerator Event will run from 9:30 to 6pm. Topics will include stories from the trenches from experienced Irish entrepreneurs, and practical advice from individuals and organisations who have been working with the local Tech Start-up community over the past few years.

The exact agenda has not been finalised at this time, please check back for updates and changes.

Start End Room 1 Room 2
09:00 09:30 Registration  
09:30 09:45 Welcome Address:
Paul Rellis, Ronan Geraghty Microsoft Ireland		  
09:45 10:30 Get the basics right – top tips on setting up your company!
Felim O’Caoimh, McDowell Purcell Solicitors
Gordon Wilson, Hilary Haydon & co.		 29 Ways and 29 Days to Improve your Online Presence:
David Petherick, Digital Biographer
10:30 11:15 What to put in the small print – top tips for end user licensing:
Siofra Flood		 Product Management to Increased Profitability:
Mary Ryan, Product Innovator
11:15 11:30 Break  
11:30 12:15 Panel Discussion: Building an Innovation Economy – are we on the right path?  
12:15 13:00 Stories from the Trenches:
Chris Horn, co-founder IONA		 Are you too nice for your own good? The dangers of bad HR:
Sheena Clohessy
13:00 14:00 Lunch  
14:00 14:40 Leads, Pipeline, Forecasting – the ABC of Sales Management:
Mark Simons		 Stories from the Trenches:
Steve Collins, New Game
14:45 15:30 From Research Projects to Profitable Companies – Top Tips:
University HPSU Panel Discussion (NovaUCD, DIT Hothouse, WESTBIC, LEAP)		 Stories from the Trenches:
Pat Phelan
15:30 16:00    
16:00 16:30 Funding Options (1)
Tom Hayes, Enterprise Ireland		 PR on a shoestring:
Emily Tully, Emily Tully PR
16:30 17:00 Funding Options (2)
Jenny Young, Invest NI		 The Power of Networking:
Anton Mannering, Digital Media Forum
17:00 17:30 Funding Options (3)
Brian Caulfield		 Stories from the Trenches:
Niall Harbison, Look &Taste
17:30 18:00 Funding Options QnA:
A chance to get your questions answered.		 Stories from the Trenches:
Joe Drumgoole, PutPlace
18:00 Late Reception and Networking  
       

Speakers and Panelists include:

- Brian Caulfield:- Named ISA Technology Person of the Year in 2007, Brian is a board member and personal investor in a number of early stage technology companies including PutPlace, Vigitrust, Sentry Wireless, Cibenix, Cicero Networks and Clavis Technology. Brian has recently completed an assignment as Interim CEO at AePONA, a UK based telecommunications software vendor. Previous to that Brian spent 5 years with Trinity Venture Capital, during which he sat on the boards of companies such as AePONA, ChangingWorlds and CR2 and was responsible for the successful exit from StreelTrace, sold to Compuware. He has been involved with many other start-ups including Prediction Dynamics (founder director), Similarity Systems (co-founder), and Exceptis (co-founder).

- Steve Collins:- Dr Steve Collins co-founded Havok in 1998 as a spin-out from Trinity College Dublin. Steve was initially CEO before becoming CTO and he later acted as chair of the company’s advisory board and a technical consultant. Havok was acquired by Intel in September 2007 for $110 million. Steve has recently announced a new venture, New-Game Tech.

- Sheena Clohessy:- With over 28 years of HR experience, Sheena is a strategic HR advisor to many Irish indigenous companies. She specialises in difficult people issues, mediation, bespoke training and psychometric testing for selection and coaching. Fresh from her recent appearance on The Apprentice, Sheena will be giving some practical tips on how to identify and recruit the best possible team to help build your business.

- Joe Drumgoole - Joe Drumgoole is software industry veteran with over twenty years experience in building commercial software at companies both large (DEC, Nomura, Oracle) and small (CR2, Cape Clear, PutPlace). His most recent venture is as founder and CTO of PutPlace.com, an online backup service for home users. Joe is a regular speaker at conferences and was one of the first users of Amazon’s Cloud Computing services when they launched in 2006. PutPlace.com is now completely hosted in the Amazon cloud and continues to reap the benefits of being architected from scratch for “cloud computing”.

- Siofra Flood:- Siofra has over 10 years experience with Irish software companies, formerly holding the role of Corporate Counsel at Havok, and Legal Counsel at Silicon and Software Systems and IONA Technologies. Siofra has a wealth of experience in the areas of software licenses, support and professional services agreements, employment agreements, due diligence assistance and commercial legal advice.

- Ronan Geraghty:- A member of Microsoft Ireland’s Developer and Platform Group, Ronan is primarily responsible for working with Software and Service vendors from Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ronan runs Microsoft’s BizSpark Program aimed at delivering software, support and visibility to Ireland’s tech Start-ups.

- Tom Hayes:- Tom is the head of the High Potential Start-up Unit at Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland supported 71 High Potential Start-up Companies in 2008. Enterprise Ireland has worked with the majority of these companies from embryonic concept stage to the stage where in 2008 they were formally recognised as achieving high potential start-up status. Software and services companies are the dominant group among the group (43 out of 71 companies in 2008).

- Niall Harbison:- Niall Harbison started his career as a chef in Ireland’s premier restaurant at the time, Peacock Alley, under the guidance of Michelin Star chef Conrad Gallagher. Niall became the youngest Head Chef in Ireland of a fine dining establishment in 2001 when he took the reigns at Lloyd’s Brasserie at the age of 20. Niall is now the resident chef and co-founder of ‘Look and Taste’ website which provides free online video recipes with professional chefs and a social community for food lovers. It has already won a web award in its native Ireland by receiving a Golden Spider in late 2007 and in May 2008 it was recognised as the 3rd best European Web2.0 startup this year.

- Chris Horn:- The co-founder of IONA needs little introduction. Dr. Horn is a non-executive director of a number of privately held software companies and business associations and advisor to a number of venture capital firms. He is also a former Director of Science Foundation Ireland , a former chair of the "Expert Group on Future Skills", Ireland’s Educational Technology Investment Fund, and former chair of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce eCity working group; and a former chairman of the Irish Management Institute . Dr Horn regularly contributes to debate on Ireland’s high-tech industry and is a member of the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) working group at IBEC and was the founding chairman of the Ireland China Association . Dr Horn is a former member of the Board of Trinity College Dublin .

- Paul Rellis:- Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland, Paul is also Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce, a board member of IBEC, the Irish Management Institute and the National Digital Research Centre. Prior to being appointed MD, Paul was the Managing Director for Microsoft’s European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operations Centre, based in Sandyford, Co. Dublin.

- David Petherick:- Described by the BBC in 2007 as the world’s first Digital Biographer, David Petherick has co-founded several companies in his home city of Edinburgh, including Russian Communications (1993), NewsBase (1995) and Clarocada (2005). All focus on making words make sense. He currently is UK Contributing Editor for http://TheNextWeb.com, based in Amsterdam, blogs at http://digitalbiographer.com and improves online reputation and visibility for ambitious entrepreneurs and savvy corporations. He is one of 237 authors of the ebook, hardback and paperback ‘Age of Conversation 2′ the proceeds of which all go to Variety, the childrens charity.

- Pat Phelan:- Pat Phelan has been involved in the telecoms arena for over 10 years and has deep experience in both the US and European markets. His first step into the market was the building of the first callshop and internet café software, a successful product still in use today by over 100 internet cafés worldwide. Pat launched Ireland’s first independently owned phones cards in 1999 and continues to trade in this market in a numbers of countries, with the business hitting 5-7 million minutes termination per month. Over the past three years Pat has run back end on a number of incredibly successful products, including one which sells to this day onboard Ryanair. He now sees himself as a telecoms disruptor and a champion of the underdog against the ruling telecomms companies. He lives in Cork, Ireland but spends almost three months per year on the West Coast of the USA. His numerous contacts at telecom’s highest levels in the USA and Europe enable him to flirt between the boardroom and the coalface.

- Feilim O’Caoimh:- Feilim O’Caoimh, partner, heads up the Commercial Law unit in McDowell Purcell Solicitors. Feilim has over 12 years experience in advising clients on business set up, company compliance, mergers and acquisitions, IT contracts, IPR, shareholder arrangements and venture capital transactions. He has advised many start-up businesses on corporate structuring, fundraisings and internal shareholder arrangements. He has significant experience of the IT sector and has worked on a large number of IT related projects. Most recently (December 2008) Feilim advised on the merger of Hibernia Services Limited with Iverna Technologies Limited and on the acquisition of Evros the Computer Centre Limited by Hibernia Services Limited to become the Hibernia Evros Services Group, a substantial IT services group.

- Mary Ryan:- Founder and director of Product Innovator Ltd., Mary recently won the Dublin City Female Entrepreneur 2008. Mary has over 17 years experience working in the finance and software industries. Before founding Product Innovator Ltd, Mary Ryan was Senior Product Manager at IONA Technologies where she worked with blue-chip customers including Credit Suisse, AT&T, BellSouth, GAD, Winterthur, Swisscom, SBC, Unicible and Zurich Insurance. Mary has a strong technical background, and a deep understanding of software markets built on years of experience with customer requirements gathering, product definition, product management, sales training, lead generation and customer relationship management.

- Anton Mannering:- Anton Mannering is the Facilitator of the All Island Digital Media Network Project for the Digital Media Forum and CEO of Social Cloud technology startup Udoogoo. Having started Udoogoo in 2007 and a series of massively successful networking events in early 2008, he joined the Digital Media Forum to help manage a network project to connect the disparate strands of the Digital Media community across the island for mutual benefit and real business (This event is part of that). Anton is a deep student of the issues around social interaction online and offline and their implications for trust, connectivity and value creation. As CEO of Udoogoo he has a growing network in the UK and across Europe to help scale the service and disrupt the social network market. A startup man at heart he is also involved as an advisor in several early stage projects.

- Mark Simons:- Mark Simons has helped some of Ireland’s most successful software companies to grow sales over the last 20 years. Mark spent eight years at IONA Technologies, where he opened and ran offices in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. At Kindle Banking Systems, Mark led sales efforts in a number of emerging markets in Eastern Europe. Previously he had been sales and marketing director of Trintech, where he established its original sales operations in Ireland and Germany.

- Emily Tully:- Emily Tully is a former newsreader, editor and reporter with national radio station Today Fm. After more then 6 years receiving PR material as a journalist, Emily decided to return to Public Relations, where she first began her career in 2001. To date, Emily has worked in the newsrooms of East Coast FM, Newstalk and Today FM. She has trained as a Public Affairs Officer for Irish Aid’s Rapid Response Corps. In the field of PR, she’s worked with clients such as Sustainable Energy Ireland, Ryanair, Independent Newspapers, BlueMetrix, Embassy of Brazil, Louth Local Authorities, the International Puppet Festival of Ireland and Omniscout Ireland. Emily provides advice and expertise on all aspects of public relations, media activity and online PR, specialising in in PR campaigns for smaller budgets and for start-ups.

- Gordon Wilson:- Gordon Wilson is a Chartered Accountant, working as a Director of Corporate Finance and IT Development at Hilary Haydon & Company. Gordon heads up a dynamic team of accountants in providing professional advice and consultancy services to a broad client base on a diverse range of issues, from mergers, acquisitions and disposals, business start-ups, corporate restructuring and refinancing, to consulting on IT and Management Information Systems for clients.

- Jenny Young:- Jenny is the Business Development Director and Invest NI. Part of the Northern Ireland Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Invest NI’s roles is to grown the economy by helping new and existing businesses to compete internationally.

- Neil Leyden:- Neil Leyden is Chairman of Digital Media Forum, owner/manager of Calico Media, a digital media consultancy and is also an accomplished screenwriter. He is involved in a number of digital media start-ups and has a keen interest in the development of the digital media industry in Ireland. He speaks regularly on the topic of digital media as well as writing for a number of publications.