On Wednesday 25th October GROWTHhub SETU, Waterford Campus, successfully launched first ever unique festival themed event. The aim of Inspire fest was for students to take a break from their typical academic day and experience the energy and inspiration of GROWTHhub entrepreneurship events.  

SETU alumni Tammy Darcy, CEO and founder of the Shona Project, opened the festival with a keynote talk. Tammy shared her motivation and journey in becoming a social entrepreneur and shared insights into potential future directions for the Shona Project.  

Following Tammy’s talk, it was straight into the very first opportunity recognition workshop. This workshop provided an unusual context for brainstorming solutions around business opportunities with Llama’s! Meanwhile in the main atrium, a pop-up market appeared where local craft entrepreneurs showcased their products to the local SETU community. Accompanied by music from Andrew Ryan and Oisin O’Neill. Students enjoyed taster Lego challenges, which attracted a curious crowd and proved popular among students.  

Up next was festivolve, where students applied their imaginations and the use of Artificial intelligence to shape the future of festival going experiences in Ireland.  This workshop was a hive of creativity, fun and innovation where students came up with innovative festival related ideas. The workshop exposed them to the benefits of Artificial Intelligence when prototyping. Lots of great products and services were created during this workshop that you might see at a festival near you very soon! 

Lunch was enjoyed by all with our food trucks on site on the day to feed all staff and students after a morning off fun and innovation. Everyone was fueled then for the remaining events of the evening: our Fireside chat with Seamus Kilgannon and our Cooking up an entrepreneur workshop.  

Seamus Kilgannon, founder and CEO of Schivo Medical / workLAB shared his journey from student to successful entrepreneur with us. In particular, he explained that being an entrepreneur wasn’t part of a grand plan when starting out. Rather, it was only after gaining valuable work experience that he recognised the next step for him into entrepreneurship made sense. This really struck a chord with students.  “It’s all about responsibility” he said. Responsibility to your employees, investors and all involved that you would do as good a job as you can. Seamus provided great insight into failure, and just because you have done something right once does not mean its guaranteed to be a success the next time. In face he suggested that failure teaches you something, and those lessons stay with you. 

The day ended with students cooking up entrepreneurs.  This workshop was enjoyed by all using LEGO® Serious Play® where students built their image of an entrepreneur and compared it with others to reveal a real diversity of views related to the term.