Student Summit at Dublin Castle to focus on start-ups

More than 600 students and 40 business start-ups from around the country are expected to descend on Dublin Castle this Thursday for the Student Summit.

The event will be focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and start-up employment, and aims to give students the opportunity to pick the brains of entrepreneurs and people who have been successful in their field.

Union of Students in Ireland president Kevin Donoghue said students are in the best position to set up their own businesses and launch new products.

“Young people and student inventors have brought a lot of life-changing, commercial products to the international market in the past few years, such as the SecuRetract from UCC,” he said.

“The Student Summit is a fantastic event for young entrepreneurs, job-seeking students and young people looking to start up their own business.”

Deposify chief executive Tony Kelly will give a workshop on venture capital and funding, while Usheru co-founder Ollie Fegan will talk about why cycling through Africa led him to starting a business.

David Bowles of Delta Partners will give a workshop on securing capital for your start-up.

Pointy founder Mark Cummins will discuss start-ups, from start to finish. Cummins previously co-founded a visual search start-up which he sold to Google in 2010. He has since co-founded another start-up – Pointy.

Paddy Power head of PR Feilim Mac An Iomaire will be doing a workshop on capturing people's imagination.

Two student start-ups will go head to head in front of an audience and a panel of judges, who will vote for the winner.

One start-up will walk away with a cash prize of €1,500, working office space and mentoring with Enterprise Ireland.

Elsewhere, Galway Chamber is partnering with the Indian embassy for a business breakfast event tomorrow. It aims to inform attendees about the key sectors of opportunity for Irish businesses and the latest initiatives and programmes in place to support Irish businesses in India.

The event will be attended by the Indian ambassador to Ireland, Radhika Lal Lokesh, and staff from the Indian trade desk, and is an opportunity to strengthen this important active bilateral relationship which can be of enormous benefit to both countries.