Over 300 events are planned for Local Enterprise Week (4th to 9th March), to increase awareness of the range of supports and services available to microenterprises from the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in every county.
In addition to one-to-one business clinics, start your own business training, finance workshops, trading on-line seminars, data protection briefings and Brexit-themed workshops, some LEOs will also be marking International Women’s Day with a series of networking events for female entrepreneurs during the week. Local finals for the National Enterprise Awards and Student Enterprise Programme will also be held in several parts of the country.
Welcoming plans for Local Enterprise Week 2018, Minister Humphreys said: “Creating more and better jobs in regional and rural Ireland is a priority for the Government, which, through the Local Enterprise Offices, provide a range of focused supports for small businesses and start-ups across every county.
Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen, also welcomed the plans, saying: “I am pleased to see such an impressive range of enterprise events for start-ups and existing businesses taking place across every county during Local Enterprise Week with themes such as sourcing finance, advice on Brexit and complying with the new data protection regulations.
“I believe that this concentrated week of events provides an ideal platform for raising awareness of the LEO services to businesses”.
Sheelagh Daly, Chair of the Network of LEOs, said that the aim of Local Enterprise Week is to showcase all the supports that can be accessed locally, saying: “Local Enterprise Offices are in every Local Authority area and we’re at the heart of delivering enterprise supports to small businesses and start-ups in local communities”.
The week officially kicks-off on Sunday, March 4th with the National Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in Google Headquarters in Dublin.
Event listings for Local Enterprise Week (March 4th to 9th 2018) are available from www.localenterprise.ie and by searching #localenterprise on social media.
