WATERFORD Institute of Technology is gearing up for next week’s world-class business and education conference which will feature representatives from 20 countries and guest lecturers from Malaysia and the US.

IRELAND has one of the lowest levels of female entrepreneurship in the world, with disincentives such as a lack of maternity cover for the self-employed preventing women from going into business.

WATERFORD and the south-east are bidding to develop Ireland’s first “regional innovation cluster”.