Entrepreneur Superstars descend on Ballymaloe

12 October, 2012

Thursday October 11th - AxisBIC brought together a whole host of International Entrepreneur Superstars for the Second Going International Conference on Thursday October 11th. At the conference we welcomed delegates from a wide range of businesses, backgrounds and geographies to listen and debate with some of Europe's most experienced and successful entrepreneurs in a day-long master-class to help businesses use smart investment to take their ventures onto the great global stage.

The Going International Conference 2012 – Building a High Growth Company with Smart Investment took place on Thursday October 11th at the Grain Store, Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Co. Cork.

Pictured at Ballymaloe; Phil O'Donovan,Tweleve Winds; Gilles Bouchard, Harvard Business Angels; Johnny Walker Global Diagnostics; Sean Phelan, Serial Entrepreneur and Investor; Audrey Mandela, Mandela Associates; Jack Lang, Entrepreneur in Residence and Michael O'Connor, AxisBIC

Dr Johnny Walker of Global Diagnostics kicked things off with a lively presentation on why Ireland is a great place from which to expand your business globally, followed by Dr Phil O’Donovan, chairman of Twelve Winds and Gilles Bouchard, Vice President of Harvard Business Angels France, both of whom who gave incredible insights into the world of investments and why people invest.

It was Jack Lang, Serial Entrepreneur, Business Angel and co-founder of the Raspberry PI foundation who really wowed the delegates. Jack explored the 4 Exit routes; Acquisition, Flotation, MBO and Liquidation. On valuation Jack Lang said that "If you are a start-up that's not shifted anything then you are worth nothing!" also reiterating that "The product you sell is your company".

Some of the feedback included:
"Jack was Fab" - "Think Global, Think Exit!" - "Really great day, very insightful & enjoyable" - "Carnivorous sheep have teeth!" - "Great learning on 'Exit' messaging" - "Execution is everything"

With over a year since the first Coder Dojo in the NSC Campus in Mahon, the Coder Dojo Pioneers; Bill Liao, Lindsay MacVean and Harry Moran (world's youngest Mac App developer) came to give us an insight into the impact Coder Dojo is having around the world. We also introduced Coder Dojo to Raspberry PI and what a lovely match that was! Watch this space, more to come on that in the future.

We would like to congratulate Michael Fitzgerald, OnePage CRM who raised the most investment making his business the Most Investible Proposition and Arun Kapil, Green Saffron who was awarded Best Presentation at the Venture Academy. We understand how difficult it is to stand up in front of a full room of delegates and deliver an investment pitch. We would like to congratulate all participants on an excellent job, making the voting difficult!

And Finally a Huge word of thanks to our partners, without whom this event couldn't have happened, Our Founding Partners, Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Ronan Daly Jermyn and Ernst & Young and Media Partner, Irish Examiner.