South-east is ‘Irish Silicon Valley’

The south-east can become the Irish Silicon Valley and is an ideal location for technology companies to locate, according to Sean Sherlock, the research and innovation minister.

Speaking at the opening of Techovate 2012, a two-day technology conference held in the Wexford Opera House, Mr Sherlock said bringing in fresh ideas needs to be encouraged.

“Ireland has been through a difficult period but all the signs are that there are people out there with lots of ideas, who will pick up the pieces and get Ireland back on track,” he said.

“It is our young people with innovative ideas who are our future.

“We should not think in terms of county boundaries but we should encourage the bringing together of innovators who work together for the region.

“We need to create similar templates around the country and have ecosystems where ideas are socialised, people are not precious about those ideas and share them for the benefit of their region.”

Mr Sherlock said events such as Techovate will offer inspiration to entrepreneurs with business ideas.

Innovation Wexford chief executive Brendan Ennis said they saw a unique oppor-tunity to develop growth within the SME sector by forging stronger links with the diaspora in northern California.

“We have had phenomenal support from vice-presidents and directors of these global companies, all of whom have volunteered their time to address the conference in person or via video link and attend forums and panel discussions that will deliver insights into how to accelerate business growth in a fast-moving global marketplace.”

Mr Ennis also thanked Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland for helping to foster relationships between Tech-ovate and the global technology leaders taking part.