Some 700 students will touch down in Shannon Airport on Wednesday morning to compete for the The Irish Technology Leaders Group (ITLG) Young Innovators title.
The event starts at 10am in the terminal building and will see the students from 15 counties imagine the world 50 years from now in a competition to become Ireland’s ‘Young Innovators’ for 2016.
Teams will be tasked with exploring how society will live, work, play, shop, learn and travel half a century away. The winning team will be announced at 4pm following a pitch by a shortlist of finalists and will walk away with not alone the ‘Young Innovators’ title but a dream trip to Silicon Valley, California courtesy of Aer Lingus.
Students will have the opportunity over the course of the day to meet with and hear from experts from these companies as well as experts in future technologies from the third level sector.
Mentors from industry will work with students on the day to help hone their entrepreneurial and innovation skills and to encourage energetic, creative and resourceful young thinkers to come into their own.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.