What we have been up to..!
Over the last number of months GROWTHhub have been very busy, attending and delivering various events. Here is a little update on what we got up to!
Hackathon May 2023:
GROWTHhub helped the Difuche Erasmus + project to deliver a novel residential hackathon, in our ArcLabs facility on 24th and 25th of May. The hackathon event focused on creating a sustainable future for the South East region.
Participants had the opportunity to network with each other, local businesspeople and work with experts from IPB, Portugal and Hanze Universities.
During the event participants engaged with innovative tools such as AR/VR, experimented with creative visualisation techniques and build prototypes of their proposed solutions which they presented to a local judging panel: Grainne Kennedy, climate change officer, Rebecca Walsh, EU Projects officer and Richard Hayes. Our participants also enjoyed talks from our two guest speakers: Peter Mooney, Innovation at Dawn Meats and Enda Hogan Assistant Director, Southern Assembly.
The event was organised and co-delivered by Southeast Technological University-Erasmus+ DIFUCH and supported by GROWTHhub.
GROWTHhub successfully ran its 2nd accelerator programme in Arc Labs in June 2023 :
From May 29th to June 2nd GROWTHhub successfully ran its second accelerator programme, Step-Up to Start-Up, in Arc Labs Waterford
The Step-Up to Start-Up programme was designed for students who had a business idea they wanted to develop.
The programme provided students with the foundation knowledge that they needed to get them started. Students from sports management, humanities, business, engineering and science worked tirelessly together for the week. The programme, delivered by David Scanlon, Resolve Partners was fun, interactive and insightful.
Well done to all who took part and special congratulations to the overall winner Callum O’Dwyer who secured a €2000 bursary. A massive thank you also to our judges: Aidan Shine (CEO SEBIC), Eugene Crehan (Director of Programmes, New Frontiers, SETU) and Jamie Whitty (LEO Business Advisor, Waterford).
HCI Pillar 3 Mid-term Conference :
Members of the GROWTHhub SETU team joined our project colleagues from GROWTHhub TU Dublin at the HCI Pillar 3 Mid-term Conference held in the National Conference Centre in Dublin on June 29th.
A big thank you to Niall Geraghty and Alannah Pardy for attending the event as student representatives on the day. Alannah was selected for to speak on the student panel where she explained the how working with the GROWTHhub helped her launch her start-up.
Grass Ceiling Project:
GROWTHhub were thrilled to be involved in the first meeting of the Irish Living Lab for Horizon Grass Ceiling project which took place on June 20th in ArcLabs, Carriganore. Dr Leana Reinl, the labs co-lead and Caroline O’Keefe Macra na Ferime, welcomed seven women innovators and other stakeholders to the event.
Participants included women who were at early and later stages of innovation and had rural business experience. Through various workshops and discussions, the participants highlighted important areas to focus on for their rural innovation aspirations.
The GROWTHhub’s Project. Lead, Dr Margaret Tynan, SETU Waterford campus ran a workshop using ‘Lego Serious Play’, where women build metaphors of innovator identity, this enabled them to further share their stories on their experience and communities.
The GRASS CEILING project will support women as agents of change in our rural communities and beyond and will run until December 2025. The next meeting is scheduled for October 2023 in Growth Hub’s Imaginarium, SETU Waterford Campus.
