Learning from your peers

Into the gap left by the State’s underwhelming provision of national training programs (see my last post) come individuals from the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector in Ireland. The only drawback is that the events organised by this group are usually more relevant to internet and technology start-ups – however they are a valuable resource for that group of IIA members.

Share IT

Spawned by Damien Mulley, the Cork based journalist and Irish Blog Awards founder, comes this free initiative to deliver day long training to those entrepreneurs in the early stages of ICT businesses. Last Saturday nearly 20 people turned up to hear presentations from and discussions with some Irish businesses on topics such as:

• Bootstrapping a small independent software vendor
• Effective communications
• How to use outsourcing to grow a small IT business.
• Marketing research for Tech Startups
• Search Engine Optimisation for your website
• Managing web projects.
• Sales in the IT environment.

The next one is scheduled for Dublin on April 28th – see www.businessadvisory.ie for more
Barcamps

These free conferences are based on the willingness of entrepreneurs to share their experiences and learning with each other. There have been 2 held in Ireland in the last 6 months – 30 Sept last in Cork and 20 Jan in Waterford. See here for the schedule for the next year.

The format? Nothing to do with bars! A couple of people take it on themselves to organise a venue and date. The conference is announced and as the attendees sign up some of them also offer to do talks. So in both Cork and Waterford there were 3 streams of talks happening all day long combined with some great panel discussions. Wouldn’t it be great to see the IIA supporting barcamps?
keith