Retailers Get Social in Association with LEO and Dungarvan Chamber.

‘Retailers Get Social’ this March at DEC!

As you’re likely already aware, next week 7^th-13^th March is National Enterprise Week, which is a fantastic opportunity to inform, advise and motivate businesses and potential entrepreneurs as to the latest news in enterprise as well as the range of supports and opportunities available to them. With this in mind, we at Dungarvan Enterprise have entered into the spirit of things and are delighted to announce this exciting, free event which we have arranged in conjunction with the Local Enterprise Office and Dungarvan Chamber:

What: Retailers Get Social

When: Thursday 10th March 9.30am-1.00pm

Cost: FREE

Where: Dungarvan Enterprise Centre

Aidan Geraghty, founder of VideoTree.

This half-day seminar will comprise talks and demonstrations from a number of trail-blazers of the retail industry. It will begin with a talk from video guru Aidan Geraghty, founder of VideoTree, a video-marketing expert whose company works with SME’s and other businesses who wish to incorporate a video strategy into their marketing. Aidan has an impressive range of experience with digital marketing and he also organised the Startup of You (SoY) event in 2013 for JCI Dublin, an international network of young business owners, professionals and those looking to explore new paths, of which he is an active member. You can find out more about VideoTree by viewing their website.

Justin Kearns, creator of Tucr

There will be an exclusive demonstration from Justin Kearns of his newly-launched mobile e-commerce app, Tucr, which is set to revolutionise shopping by merging the online and in-store experience, converting window-shoppers into customers. Last year Tucr took part in the Brave Business Conference 2015 and was recommended by websummit.net as one of the Top Ten Tech Start-Ups to Watch Out For. Find out more here!

Also speaking on the day will be Samantha Kelly, aka Tweeting Goddess. Winner of the Bank of Ireland Start-Up Hero 2014 award, Samantha teaches Twitter-for-Business workshops and runs Twitter campaigns for companies, in addition to co-founding the Social Media Summit and winning numerous Twitter awards, including the illustrious 'Tweetie' award. She also recently spoke at TedX Omagh. You can find out more about Samantha and her work with Twitter here.

A light lunch will be provided on the day and all are welcome to attend.

Applying Innovation Workshop at DEC

Let's Talk About Innovation 

Innovation is the difference between market leaders and their rivals. 

And yet, although we all know this to be the case, businesses regularly find themselves at a creative impasse for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we are full of ideas but lack the resources to implement them. Sometimes we let the need to innovate be pushed to the back-burner while trying to keep on top of a hectic day-to-day schedule. But we need innovation, not just for pulling punches against our competitors and signposting our organisation as cutting edge- we need innovation in order to streamline those very tasks that often prevent us from innovating in the first place. Innovation is the bread and butter of the thriving enterprise and deserves our attention. With this in mind Dungarvan Enterprise Centre is delighted to announce that in March we will be running Solutions Consultancy Ireland’s “Applying Innovation” workshop.

Bernadette Clancy and Dermot O’ Reilly of Solutions Consultancy Ireland have made it their business to sow innovation wherever they go. They acknowledge that to many people, innovation is a rather vague concept- “something to do with ideas”. This is certainly true but, as Dermot points out, innovation in an entrepreneurial sense tends to register with people mostly as an image of an early-stage entrepreneur tinkering away at some ingenious project. The thing is, in order for these ideas to ultimately succeed, innovation must be enforced across every aspect of your company or service, not just as your starting point. Solutions Consultancy Ireland hopes to teach entrepreneurs and businesspeople how to achieve this through their workshops around Ireland. If the testimonials on their website are anything to go on, this half-day workshop will prove invaluable by equipping participants with a strategic approach to harbouring creativity. 

“Overall, the combination of outside the box creative thinking and strategic insight was very impressive.” (Brand Led Growth, workshop participants) 

Bernadette and Dermot teach their approach to innovation through four simple steps:

• What IS (Your current product or service),
• What IF (Looking at the ideal version of your product or service- the sky is the limit!) 
• What will wow the customer, and
• What will ultimately work.

During the workshop participants will be guided through this process and explore the tools needed in order to implement the innovation process in their business. “It will make you more innovative in the long run and it will improve your market share and give you the edge on any competition you might have,” explains Dermot. “It could also help you come up with an idea that’s completely different to anything that’s been done before. So it’s a creative process, it’s a fun process, you should enjoy the day and you should come away having learned a hell of a lot to give your business or organisation the edge that you need in today’s world."

“Applying Innovation” will take place on Wednesday 23 March at 9:30am and Bernadette and Dermot are keen to stress that these workshops can be applied to all businesses, no matter what their purpose or what stage of development they are at. So whether you are a fledgling enterprise trying to establish a customer base, or a more seasoned professional looking for a new way to stimulate life and growth in your business, or even a potential future entrepreneur with nothing yet but an idea, this workshop could help you to achieve your aspirations and establish you as the only choice for your customers. 

The cost is €60 per person and includes light refreshments. For more information, or to book a place, please call Dungarvan Enterprise Centre at 058 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com

Video Marketing Masterclass

Video Marketing Master-class

Who are VideoTree :

Video Tree is an innovative video marketing business run by digital marketing and video production experts providing solutions for businesses who wish to incorporate a video strategy into their existing marketing strategy. 

Video Tree work with a range of SMEs's including jewellery companies, sculptors, fashion, food and more.

Click here to see sample video made for Sean Egan Art glass. 

Benefits of Video Marketing:

A company website now has just 8 -10 seconds to convince the visitor that they are worth browsing through. Content is king and presenting

your business with effective moving visuals is proven to be the most impactful method of engagement over text and photo content.

Benefits of video marketing include:

• Developing a powerful presence on YouTube, the second largest search engine on the web,
• Video content will add value to your social media strategy.
• Google love video so by having video on your website you will boost your rankings on   Google search results
• With just one video you can drive more engagement on your website.
• Video creates an emotional connection with your audience encouraging more trust in your products and services.

Video Marketing is for business big and small:

Regardless of the size of your business, you must have a video strategy of some level to succeed on line into the future. Video Tree will show you how you can apply a video strategy that fits with your budget. By 2018 it is estimated that 80% of internet traffic will be video and as consumer demands rise for video content, the cost of video content creation has become more affordable meaning that all sizes of businesses can integrate a video strategy to their business to connect with their visitors, develop trust and showcase themselves, their products and their services to increase the likelihood of conversion.

Workshop

This workshop will give you tips, tricks and techniques for marketing your videos on line.

 

Exclusive Offer

All participants in the workshop will get an exclusive discounted rate on a Video package to include recording, editing and promotion. If you think you might like to promote your business through video I would strongly urge you to attend so you can learn more 

Video Marketing Master class start on Wednesday 11th November 2015 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, cost €15.

For more information call (058)23598 or  e- mail info@dungarvanec.com 

Easter Coding Camp Offers Great Chance for Children to Learn Computer Skills

Easter Coding Camp Offers Great Chance for 

Children to Learn Computer Skills

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre in association with Local Enterprise Office will be running a Coding Camp for children aged between 8 and 14 from Tuesday 7^th April to Friday 10^th April 2015.

The Action Plan for Jobs 2015 emphasises the importance of computer literacy to the future. Jordan Casey is a fine example of the benefits of learning digital language from a young age. The 14 years old Waterford entrepreneur is the CEO of his own company, Casey Games-an award winning independent video game company. Click here and watch a short movie  about Jordan . 

The teenage tech prodigy’s company has had success developing apps for mobiles and the web such as Greenboy Touch, Alien Ball versus Humans, and Food World.

The Dungarvan Enterprise Centre's Coding Camp will be run in association with Calypso IT local based apps as well as developing skills in writing HTML, using quiz HTML, and coding CSS.

The week long camp will be delivered by the teacher and industry professional who also volunteers at Tramore Coder Dojo.

The camp is suitable and will be beneficial for children with an interest in computers, gaming and coding or children who have a keen interest to develop skills in these areas.

The camp will run from 10am to 1pm. The cost is €80 per child.

For further enquiries or to book now, call (058) 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Cost Effective Digital Workshops at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre, in conjunction with Waterford City Enterprise Centre, will be hosting a number of Connect Online workshops aimed at improving local business online skills and output.

The workshops, which are being generously subsidised by the Local Enterprise Office, will cover a wide range of digital topics. They begin on April 1st in Waterford city and will run until Dec 2015.

Workshops on offer include Twitter,Linkedin,Pay-Per-Click advertising, Google Analytics, Facebook, SEO, You Tube, Blogging, Pinterest, Email marketing, generating quality content for digital marketing, and managing your online presence. The wide range of selection allows participants to pick and choose particular areas of digital marketing that may benefit their business output and intake.

Date	Description	Location
01/04/2015 6pm-9pm	Twitter for Business	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
08/04/2015 6PM-9PM	Linkedin	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
15/04/2015 10am-1pm	PPC & Google Analytics B2B	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
22/04/2015 10am-1pm	PPC & Google Analytics B2B	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
29/04/2015 6pm-9pm	Facebook for Business B2C	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
06/05/2015 10am-1pm	Facebook for Business B2C	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
13/05/2015 6pm-9pm	Search Engine Optimisation	Waterford City Enterprise Centre

As consumer activity continues to transfer rapidly to the online market with the ever explosive and expanding growth of digital technology, these workshops will  allow small business

owners insight into connecting with their customers through numerous means of digital channels.

Date	Description	Location
20/05/2015 10am-1pm	You Tube	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
27/05/2015 6pm-9pm	Blogging for Business	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
03/06/2015 10am-1pm	Pinterest	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
10/06/2015 6pm-9pm	Email Marketing	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
17/06/2015 10am-1pm	Generating quality content for Digital Marketing	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
24/06/2015 6pm-9pm	Managing your online presence	Waterford City Enterprise Centre

Each individual workshop will last for three hours and will cost participants just €30.
Moreover, due to the enticing variety of workshops on offer, participants can avail of a special four the price of three discount- an offer that allows them 12 hours of training for under €100.

There are two sites for these workshops- Dungarvan and Waterford City. Dungarvan Enterprise Centre and Waterford City Enterprise Centre are connecting together to deliver this project. This collaboration will provide networking opportunities for business across the county. These workshops will allow business from all over Waterford the chance to meet and work closely together and develop ties that can help benefit each other.

TO BOOK CLICK HERE 

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre Hosts Information Session on exciting EU Grants worth up to €150,000

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre were delighted to partner with Go Dungarvan to host an information session on frontierCities on Tue 20th Jan. this  new EU fund is available for the development of smart mobility apps for cities using FIWARE technology.

Through the frontierCities grant found, €3.920.000 in grant financing has been made available for SMEs, Start-Ups and Web-Developers to develop and deploy smart mobility applications in cities. Successful applicants will get between €50.000 and €150.000 in grant funding , with no equity requested. the application process for this funding is a simple two-step online application through an open competitive Call for Proposals process. "There is approximately a 1 in 3 chance of your application being successful," said Sean J Burke, project manager for frontierCities ,who travelled from Brussels to attend the session, " You can tap into a wealth of technical and business support from our project partners at each stage of development. The initial application is just five sections covering areas such as the problem you've identified, your proposed solution, the technology and the people involved."

Technical Support will be available for successful applicants to help develop and deploy their smart mobility application. business and commercialisation support will also provided to help successful SMEs reach a critical mass of end-users and deploy their smart mobility application in other cities and countries.

Smarter Travel have already long been working toward developing Dungarvan as a smart mobility hub. Now the arrival of frontiesCities is a fantastic opportunity for local web developers and programmers to access huge funds and develop pioneering technology that will be at the forefront of European smart mobility development. Johny Brunnock of Go Dungarvan has made himself available to provide information to any applicants on the work of Smart Travel Dungarvan should they need it for their applications.

The closing date for the callis 10 th Feb, if you missed the session you can contact Mags at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre for details on how to apply by emailing:  dungarvanec@gmail.com.

Seasons Greetings from Dungarvan Enterprise Centre!

2014 was another busy and successful year for Dungarvan Enterprise Centre.

We ran many training workshops and seminars throughout the past twelve months and were delighted to provide information and advice to anyone who dropped by our offices with a business related query.

Some of the happenings that went on here in 2014 include:

• Crowdfunding with Lorna Sixsmith

15 people attended this event and learned about how to pitch a crowdfunding idea and what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign.

• Open Your Eyes to Alternative Funding

75 people attended this event and learned about alternative funding methods from professionals in MicroFinance Ireland, Linked Finance, and South East BIC.

• Powerful Presentations with Ian Noctor

The people that attended this event learned tips and techniques for delivering presentations and speeches,

• Introduction to Digital Marketing with Justin Kearns

The people that attended this event received a thorough introduction to digital marketing topics such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Email Marketing, SEO, and Blogging.

• Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing with the Digital Marketing Institute

21 people attended this course for ten weeks every Thursday night where they received in depth teaching and techniques from industry professionals in digital marketing.

• Website Management and Strategy with Carol Faughan

15 people attended this event where they learned how to create and maintain a website for their business using Wordpress.

• Benefit 4 Basic Internet Training

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre continued its basic internet training through the Benefit 4 government initiative. We have now put over 90 beginners through the programme.

• The launch of Help4Biz Infographic.

We launched our Help4Biz infographic to help pre-startups and startups in the Dungarvan and West Waterford region easily identify available resources.

We would also like to inform and remind you that both Enterprise Ireland and Frontier Cities currently have funds available to Waterford and the South East that might be of interest to your business.

We would love the opportunity to work with and alongside you in 2015 so feel free to get in touch in the New Year with any enquiries at dungarvanec@gmail.com or 058 23598. 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas with warmest regards,
Dungarvan Enterprise Centre.

Boost Your Online Sales With E-Commerce Expert Niall McCann

Do you trade online? Are you happy with your number of sales? Does your website show off the best side of your business? Do you think you can do better? Do you know you can do better? Or would you just like to take that first step on the ladder of e-commerce?

Then Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has the course for you!

We will be hosting one-to-one e-commerce consultations with expert Niall McCann of Woolshop.ie on Wednesday, November 12^th.

E-commerce is becoming one of the fastest growing trends in business. Here are five reasons why it is important for your business.

In 2013 alone, 43% of Irish consumers made purchases online, while 2.6 million Irish people regularly shop online. According to a report by the Digital Marketing Institute, €4.1bn was spent on online shopping in Ireland in 2011, up from €2.96bn the previous year.

However, 75% of these purchases went through companies outside Ireland. That statistic alone highlights the opportunity for businesses in Ireland to capitalise and cash in on e-commerce.

The e-commerce clinics will be held on a one-to-one basis where e-commerce expert McCann will provide trouble shooting tips on areas such as improving online sales and developing your company’s website.

These clinics are a great opportunity for online businesses to pinpoint and discuss specific issues that will boost online sales. They will also act as an informative gateway for businesses thinking of going online to find out what e-commerce is all about. Just listen to the guys in the short YouTube clip below!

This is the second time Dungarvan Enterprise Centre will be running these workshops. Last year’s participants all benefited from McCann’s sessions and were able to implement his advice which resulted in an increase in online sales.

The fee for this one-to-one private consultation is just €30. Each individual consultation will last for one hour.

McCann’s e-commerce business, The Wool Shop, sells an extensive stock of knitting wool and knitting patterns. It is a family owned business that operates from McCann’s home in Bunmahon.

As a follow on from these clinics Dungarvan Enterprise Centre hopes to establish an e-commerce network. This would allow businesses to learn from each other in a peer-to-peer environment and benefit from each other’s expertise.

To book or for more information, contact Mags on 058 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Learn How to Create and Manage Your Own Wordpress Website at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre!

Need help managing and maximising your website's potential? Need help putting a website together to begin with? If so, Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has the course for you!

In conjunction with the Local Enterprise Office, Dungarvan Enterprise Centre will be hosting a Website Management and Strategy course on November 20^th.

The course, which will run for a full day at a cost of €80 per person, will be taught by industry expert Carol Faughnan.

In 2014, a website for your business is simply a necessity. If you are not online then you can bet that your competitors are! Having a website for your business gives online customers a glance into your shop window. Read here why you need a website. 

This course is suitable for people who have a Wordpress website but are not sure how to make the most of it, or for people who are looking to set up a Wordpress site for the first time. Wordpress is widely recognised as the best choice for a website. 

This course will provide you with the necessary skills to understand how to manage and run your company website while incorporating a marketing strategy. The extensive course outline will take you through the following areas: 

1. Getting Started 
   • What are the advantages of having a Website? 
   • Your Marketing Strategy
   • Your current online Presence? 
   • Discussion of Goals and Outcomes 
2. Setting up your Website 
   • Logging in 
   • Familiarising yourself with the Dashboard
   • Editing user profiles
   • Adding user profiles for staff
   • Configuring the Dashboard settings
3. Adding the right content to your Website
   • About posts and pages
   • Difference between pages and posts
   • Creating pages
   • Adding Images and thumbnails
4. Blogging 
   • Creating posts and generating titles
   • Text formatting 
   • Adding and managing hyperlinks
   • Adding Images, 
   • Youtube Videos 
   • Adding a photo gallery
   • Adding post categories and tags 
5. Customising your Website        
   • Installing and activating themes
   • Exploring the themes option
   • Installing plugins 
   • Info about various widgets and working with them
   • Setting up custom background and header images
6. Launching your online presence
• Submitting the site to search engines
• Managing users and permission levels
• Managing comments and controlling spam
• Backing up your website
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Adding social media options like facebook, twitter and many more    
• Your website Traffic                   

As well as a full day training in Website Management and Strategy, one-to-one email training will be provided prior to the event. This will allow Carol to give individual attention to each participant and to their specific marketing challenges on the day, ensuring maximium benefit from attendance.

The Wordpress course will run from 10AM until 4PM with a free lunch included at the interval.

To book a place on this course, or for more information, contact Mags at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre on 058 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Still not convinced? Check out this short YouTube clip explaining in 3 reasons why Wordpress is the best!

Check Out the Results of our Training Needs Survey Autumn 2014!

The feedback from Dungarvan Enterprise Centre’s Training Needs Survey for autumn 2014 has been astoundingly helpful and informative. Through customer comment and feedback Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has received an abundance of constructive advice which it plans to implement into its programme immediately.

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre discovered that close to 55% of respondents had not availed of a course in our Centre during the past six months with the prevalent reason being due to a lack of relevancy. Dungarvan Enterprise Centre plans to combat this finding by striving to bring the businesses of Dungarvan and West Waterford the most relevant courses. This will be achieved by open communication with business owners and by researching and staying on top of evolving trends in business.

Encouragingly, a massive 97.87% of respondents said they would take a course at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre in the next six months if they thought it was relevant to their business.

Comments under this section also praised Dungarvan Enterprise Centre as a “Great place to learn” and an “Excellent service that is easily accessible”.

As well as that encouraging statistic, we also found that 68.88% of respondents had no difficulty applying courses held at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre to their business. As 26.67% of the respondents were inapplicable to this question, only 4.4% found our courses difficult to apply to the day-to-day running of their business.

Other areas that were suggested by respondents through the comment section indicated an interest in upskilling regarding business plans, health and safety, sourcing new clients, office administration and filing minute taking, and project management.

The comments section also revealed many business owners would appreciate the creation of a networking forum to combat the isolation of working alone. Dungarvan Enterprise Centre is currently putting together an e-commerce forum. This would allow businesses that sell online or wish to do so, the opportunity to learn from each other in a peer-to-peer environment and benefit from each other’s expertise.

We also learned some very interesting statistics on where respondents find information about Dungarvan Enterprise Centre. Email is proving our most effective tool of communication with 83.3% of respondents finding information on us here. Our website (31.25%) and Social Media (20.83%) are also proving strong sources of information.

Overall, we are delighted with the findings and feedback of our Training Needs Survey for autumn 2014. 93.75% of respondents believe Dungarvan Enterprise Centre keeps up to the date with current trends while 97.87% said they would take a course at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre in the next six months if they thought it was relevant to their business.

Further feedback to highlight that Dungarvan Enterprise Centre was meeting customer demands was also revealed in the final comment section where respondents stated: “All evidence points to best practice”, “All courses (and above) show that DEC are up to date with current trends”, and “Notices of upcoming events show the level of commitment DEC has in the business community”.

With the information gained from this survey, Dungarvan Enterprise Centre looks forward to implementing your feedback in our bid to bring you the most relevant and necessary courses and training in the business world for 2015. 

If there is a specific area you would like us to help you please do not hesitate to contact us by phone or email, at 058 23598 or dungarvanec@gmail.com. Or if you know somebody who you think could benefit from what we do, don’t hesitate to send them our way.