Bizcamp Limerick

Posted 24 Mar 2009 in Events | 1 Comments

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I attended Bizcamp Limerick on Saturday, or most of it anyway.  I was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm around the place, both organisers and participants. I know the question has been raised of how many businesses will be formed or radically changed as a result of the two Bizcamps.  The Bizcamp events are geared towards start-ups and early stage businesses.  These are the benefits as I see them:

  • Contacts, contacts, contacts.  Activate is in business over 2 years, a huge amount of our work comes via contacts, word of mouth, and who we know.
  • Exposure to new thinking, ideas, products. If you sit in your own little bubble, you run the risk of limiting your knowledge about new technology, developments, methodologies &  key players in your field.
  • Enthusiasm is infectious. Current media output could  make you think that 90% of Ireland is jobless and depressed, it is good to recalibrate your sense of reality.
  • Start-ups generally start up small.  This can easily lend itself to a sense of isolation.  These events help you realise that there is a whole army of people out there just like you, plugging away and getting things done.
  • Access to free advice on start-up admin/legal issues

Activate is over 2 years old.  We have gotten through the initial hairy stages of wondering whether the phone will ring. We have our contact list, we are busy, happy and focused. Had I stayed in bed on Saturday morning, I don’t think I would have missed anything life changing.  I enjoyed the motivational talks I attended, and will work a little harder at some of those things.

However, there will have been people for whom this was the first such event they attended.  And it might just spark them to take the leap of faith, or keep them motivated when days are tough, or provide them with a crucial contact who manages to solve an issue or refer a client down the line.

The fallout from Dell in the Limerick area will be huge.  The wind-down is only just starting. An estimated 9,500 jobs will be lost, and these people are emerging out into a very unfavourable jobs landscape. Starting out for themselves is a new idea that some may be just getting their heads around, they haven’t done the so called ‘blow-job circuit’ before.  This practical and emotional support is crucial to them.

Because let us not minimise the emotional impact of lay-offs.  At Bizcamp, Joan Mulvihill, spoke about feeling miserable, wretched and an utter failure after being made redundant in late 2008.  A career driven person, a huge amount of her self worth and identity was tied up in her career achievements.  In the dot com crash of 2000, a colleague of my husband’s, who was laid off from a semiconductor company, responded with suicide.  He was middle aged with a family and a large mortgage.  He didn’t believe he had any job prospects at his age, and he didn’t see any way forward.

The talk of same old faces, same old talk on the circuit is a very subjective one.  People will naturally drift away from these events once they feel they have nothing further to gain.  And new people will come along, and hear this stuff for the first time, and be inspired and energised and delighted to meet like minded people.

Just because your time at Bizcamp type events may have naturally come and gone, that doesn’t mean Bizcamp’s time has come and gone.

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