Be a Leader in business

Clare Local Development Company is to launch a number of idea-gathering seminars across the county, beginning this month with a view to drawing those with fresh ideas for business in rural Clare to the Leader development programme.

The first of the four planned seminars takes place on Wednesday, November 30 at the Pavilion in Lisdoonvarna and will showcase businesses that have been supported by the Leader Fund in the county.
Bridgette Brew, rural enterprise animator with CLDC, is organising these seminars and is aiming to bring forward business and enterprise ideas, giving them a platform to network and share their ideas and get support.
Leader’s role is to stimulate new, innovative ideas and offer practical support to businesses, farm families and community groups in getting their ideas off the ground.
The current programme provides attractive incentives for new micro-enterprise projects to start up and provides support for farm-diversification projects into non-agricultural activities, food enterprises, opportunities in rural recreation and rural-tourism, all of which are important to the rural economy.
For community and voluntary groups, it offers opportunities to develop new and existing local facilities and services, while they also support environmental projects such as energy conservation and renewable energy and the conservation of rural heritage.
“There might be things people are thinking about that they have never acted on to bring them into this first. Part of my role is to go out there, find a few new ideas and bring them to us. That is the hard bit, to bring someone to Leader, to get someone with an idea to come and put in an application. Through this and the seminars they get mentoring support and so their business will be in better shape by the time the application goes in so that’s an added benefit,” Bridgette explained.
She outlined there are a number of ideas that in their essence were quite simple but with Leader support have become successes. these businesses include Clare Spring Water, Doolin Cave, Atlantic Airventure in Shannon and Boris Hunka’s pop-up playhouse.
Speaking about the pop-up playhouse, Bridgette said this was an idea that was hugely innovative, albeit a little out there, but it has become a very successful and intriguing venture.
“He has brought in this inflatable structure. It is a portable performance centre or theatre, from China, which can take up to 500 people and it is an ideal thing for festivals. He had an idea to create a venue and it shows how Leader can be adaptable,” she added.
Boris will be among the speakers at the first conference at the end of the month.
The seminars will give the public a chance to view how a small idea can grow and it aims to bring new ideas into the Leader net by celebrating what Leader has done in the county. It is hoped this will encourage others with ideas, no matter how great or small, to share them and engage with Leader. 
The seminars will also allow for Leader-supported businesses to network, show each other’s wares and share and get ideas.
The keynote speaker for the first event is Finbarr Bradley, who teaches risk management at the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School and also runs innovation programmes at a number of Irish and international companies. He was a professor of finance at Dublin City University (DCU) and will speak about how a cracked idea can be something that can grow legs.
There will also be case studies from Clare and outside the county with local speakers to include Denis Sheehy and Boris Hunka.
Denis is an architect by trade but is the managing director at Enspire Renewable Technologies Ltd in Clare and is the inventor of the Enspire rainwater recovery system, which is patent pending worldwide.
His system recently won the best innovation in business award at the 2011 FBD in Clare Business Excellence Awards.
The theme of the seminar is creativity and innovation so it will discuss how to be creative, how to be innovative and did it work out.
“Everyone has always got an idea and anyone with a potential idea or niggling idea sitting in the back of their head will get something out of this event. It is about getting to know each other and networking and sending visitors to other Leader-funded businesses to sustain our local economy. It’s a forum for ideas to spark and a chance to look at what others have done,” Bridgette said.
The November seminar kicks off at 9am and will run until 1pm, with a break-up session thereafter to give those attending a chance to visit North Clare by doing, seeing and tasting what is on offer in the locality.
The other seminars will be held in the new year at different locations across the county and further information about forthcoming events is available by contacting 065 6866800 or by visiting www.cldc.ie. 
Meanwhile, businesses, individuals, farm-families and community and voluntary groups who have a project idea can contact the CLDC LEADER projects co-ordinator Gloria Callinan by emailing gcallinan@cldc.ie or development officers Gerry McDonagh at gmcdonagh@cldc.ie or Michelle Lynch at mlynch@cldc.ie.