UCC Commerce Society to host 44th annual conference

Ireland's largest student-run conference will hear from former sports stars, entrepreneurs and business leaders

Members of UCC Commerce Society Conference Committee Zach Hyland, Becky Russell (Co-director), Jack Twomey (Co-director), Lucy McCarthy, John Cashman

Business students at University College Cork will be hosting their Annual Commerce Conference this month, featuring a lineup of numerous business leaders across several industries. 

The event, which will be the 44th annual conference organised by UCC's Commerce Society, will host academic staff, students and business professionals, with around 150 people in total estimated to attend.

The theme for this year's conference, which is the country's largest student-run annual conference, is "Éire 2030," which students say will explore the future of business in Ireland in the era of rapid technological change.

The conference will delve into these themes through three sub-panels, those being entrepreneurship, sustainability and fintech. These panels will be chaired by Brian McCloskey, partner, private equity and corporate M&A at Matheson, Catherine Doyle, general manager at Microsoft Ireland, and David Browne, chief financial officer at POC.

Speakers at the event will also include Mark Dineen, chief financial officer at storage and logistics group Sea Box, Katie Farrell, co-founder of digital loyalty card platform Squid, Alan Hicks, chief technology officer at drone delivery company Manna, and former Ireland and Leinster rugby player Jamie Heaslip, who now works as EMEA alliances and channels growth lead at payments company Stripe.

The conference will take place on January 29 at Cork County Hall and will run from 9am to 3pm.