On Friday, April 1st, we hosted First Fridays for Startups (FFFS), and it was a thrill to see it all come together after weeks of promotion, planning, and hard work.
The PorterShed was the first hub in the country to host this year’s First Fridays event outside of Dublin. Dogpatch Labs led the way by holding the inaugural FFFS, and it was amazing to see the online event heading west.
We broadcast the event live from our new premises at Bowling Green, and we even had a couple of visitors stopping by in person to see what all the excitement was about.
First Fridays is a monthly online meetup that gives founders and those involved in the start-up community the chance to collaborate with entrepreneurially minded people, successful leaders, tech experts, and more. It includes mentoring sessions, exciting talks, and informative panels.
PorterShed Programme Manager, Rosemary Gallagher, and Dogpatch Labs Ecosystem Development Director, Jake Phillips, kickstarted the event with our welcome session. This was an energetic and engaging way to begin as everyone was given an overview of the Irish ecosystem.
Next up, there were two hours of mentoring as leaders from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Hubspot, and Salesforce came together to offer their insight and guidance to participants.
Following this, a trio of deep technology innovators took to the stage for a panel discussion led by Rosemary. Tympany Medical’s CEO Liz McGloughlin, Genesys chief data scientist Maciej Dąbrowski, and MBRYONICS CEO John Mackey all took part in a fascinating discussion.
Liz, Maciej, and John discussed the future of deep tech and so much more as the virtual audience was treated to a fascinating and enjoyably meandering conversation.
The final session of the day saw Manna Drone Delivery’s CEO and founder Bobby Healy speak with the PorterShed’s co-founder David Cunningham. They took a deep dive into all things innovation and disruption, including entrepreneurship, company image, tech, strategy, and so much more.
Overall, it was a successful day, and it was brilliant to see it all come together as everyone got to tune in through Zoom and Crowdcast. Kudos to the team – Rosemary, Jake, Anthony Shaughnessy, DC Cahalane, and everybody involved on- and off-camera.
Soon, First Fridays will be taking place at the RDI Hub in Kerry – and we can’t wait to stream it live as FFFs continues its tour around Ireland.
