500 Entrepreneurs expected at Bizcamp on September 19th 2009

With thanks to sponsors 3 mobile, Bank of Ireland, Microsoft Bizspark,
Mason Hayes+Curran Solicitors and our supporters The Irish Internet Association and Enterprise Ireland

Panel discussion at 2pm "Taking the rough with the smooth – trading through difficult times" featuring the following panel of entrepreneurs:

Kevin Traynor – CEO www.sonicacademy.com

Kevin is the founder of Sonic Academy which he set up in Belfast in 2004 as a training facility for DJs and music technology enthusiasts, which has since become the premier facility of its kind in Ireland. A former drummer with one of Ireland’s most successful bands The Divine Comedy, it wasn’t long before he dumped the drums in favour of decks and began DJ’ing and promoting club nights between London and Belfast. Since then he has notched up appearances in Holland, France, Italy and Australia and played alongside some of the worlds’ best DJs from James Zabiela to Adam Freeland and DJ Dexter to Tiefschwarz.

Kevin was awarded the Prince’s Trust Young Achiever of the Year Award in 2005 for his work in setting up Sonic Academy. He also sits on the board of Disability Action Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Employers Group of Creative & Cultural Skills (the Sector Skills Council for the Creative and Cultural Industries).

Colm Lyons – CEO RealexPayments.com

Colm Lyon is Founder and Managing Director of Realex Payments. He is highly regarded as one of the foremost innovation leaders in the online payment processing business. His career has spanned almost twenty five years in payment related businesses, starting with fourteen years in the financial service sector.

Colm founded Realex Payments in 2000 and since then the business has grown rapidly to a position of inspired leadership in the online payment processing business. The payment exchange concept, which he conceived has proven to be the market winning approach in that it offers a strategic solution which addresses the core issues. Today Realex Payments process in excess of €6bn for 3,000 businesses.

Colm is a regular industry speaker. In 2005 he was acclaimed and rewarded for his leadership when he was a finalist of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. As an industry figure he was Director and Chairman of the Irish Internet Association for over four years – during which time the association significantly enhanced its position. He was invited (2008) by Enterprise Ireland to participate in the Steering Group to devise the strategy for the Irish Software Sector. In 2009 he lead the development of the Internet Growth Alliance (www.alliance.ie) with Ray Nolan and Dylan Collins which is working with Enterprise Ireland to develop a new support structure program for Irish Internet businesses.  He is a graduate of University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Management Science Degree.

Jerry Kennelly – Founder & former CEO of Stockbyte and Stockdisc – sold to Getty Images for over €110 Million.

 As well as establishing and selling his highly successful stock images business, Jerry has been honoured by the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards and was named the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. Jerry has been instrumental in the launch and roll out of the very successful Young Entrepreneur Programme  which is aimed at fostering an entrepreneurship culture among second and third level students.  He has spearheaded the programme since the concept was first mooted in 2006 with the Institute and Kerry Technology Park. Jerry is also central to the development of the recently launched Endeavour Programme.

Asheesh Dewan – Founder of  Jaipur Restaurants and co-founder of Segala
Asheesh Dewan is the founder of Jaipur Indian restaurants, which employ over 100 people.  With six restaurants in his group in Ireland, the most recent one being Ananda in Dundrum shopping centre, Asheesh is also the proprietor of Benares in London, one of the first Indian restaurants in the UK to be awarded a Michelin star.   In March 2009, Asheesh was awarded the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Award and last year was named Permanent TSB Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year 2008.  He is also a co-founder of Segala, an IT company which specialises in web accessibility and mobile web standards compliance certification.

See who’s attending here

See the speakers schedule here