The Grow Remote Summit, a national conference on remote work taking place on June 8th and 9th in Portlaoise, is expected to attract a large number of visitors from County Roscommon.
Grow Remote Operations Manager and former President of Roscommon Chamber of Commerce, Caitlín McConn, says the event will be an open and honest discussion on remote working.
“Remote working is something that was forced on us during Covid-19 but it is the future,” she said.
“Our aim as a social enterprise is to host a big, open conversation around the challenges posed by remote working. The reason we chose Portlaoise is because it is smack bang in the middle of the country and has a huge number of people commuting to work in Dublin everyday. Counties such as Roscommon are experiencing similar situations”.
Caitlín says there will be a real ‘festival feel’ in Portlaoise on June 8th and 9th with events such as beer tasting, match making, and live music taking place on the Thursday and a 5k run on Friday morning.
“This is a conference and national conversation on remote working but it is also a fantastic networking opportunity for those seeking work as well as those looking to learn more about remote and hybrid working,” she said.
“This summit will feature a number of large employers, a panel of politicians, roundtable discussions, and it will bring together the world’s leading voices on remote working as well as community stakeholders and local authorities”.
Among the topics up for discussion will be online security and HR as well as the potential for rural Ireland to host corporate retreats.
“There is huge potential for corporate tourism in counties like Roscommon which are off the usual tourist trails,” Caitlín said.
“Many towns and cities are also running innovative programmes aimed at enticing workers to their areas.
“There will be a lot of interest in a talk by Tusla native Aaron Bolzle, who will be sharing his insights in this at this year’s summit”.
The event also aims to highlight the midlands as “a great place to live, work, visit, invest and do business in”, according to Caitlín, and Portlaoise is expected to welcome a large influx of visitors next month.
