Turlough
Edwin McGreal
The upcoming Mayo Ideas Week is an example of how organisations in Mayo are able to work together for the betterment of the county. That’s the view of Mayo County Manager Peter Hynes who was speaking at the launch of Mayo Ideas Week at Turlough House last Thursday.
The week will see a co-ordinated series of idea generation and entrepreneurship events in Mayo and Peter Hynes says that the inter-agency approach is an example of people working together in tough times.
“This is about partnership and there are about twenty agencies involved and it shows the kind of Meitheal spirit that there is in this county. Those of you who have heard me speak in the last year would have heard me talk of the Mayo of the future. What we would like to see is Mayo being sustainable, inclusive, prosperous and proud. We are living in very challenging times, that’s putting it mildly and to get through the challenges that we all face together, we need to depend on each other and we need to do a number of things.
“We need to innovate, we need to be open to new ideas, we need to be encouraging new ideas and we need to be encouraging people to do things in different ways. The essence of Mayo Ideas Week is to encourage people with an interest, an idea or any notion of getting involved in business to explore it, to get advice from those who have been around the block and to familiarise themselves with the various support agencies. And also, for people who are already in business and thinking of expanding or moving into different areas, to allow them to see what help is there,” said Mr Hynes.
Mayo Ideas Week runs from Monday, September 19 to Friday, September 23 and is hosted by Mayo Ideas Lab through its partner agencies.
Mayo Senior football manager James Horan was the special guest at the launch and he touched on the similarities between this venture and his involvement with Mayo this year.
“Peter mentioned how Mayo is perceived as a county and I think that is hugely important and this really leads into that. Coming from what I did this year in the involvement with the Mayo football team, what we tried to do was create an environment where ideas and talent and skill would flourish and that all the support and things that a player would need would be there.
“This is what I see Mayo Ideas Week as being, so that people know the expertise that is out there. I had a number of conversations this year with young guys from around Mayo, football players, wondering what direction to go in and some of them had great ideas and I’ll certainly be broadcasting this to them,” said Mr Horan.
Seamus McCormack, Area Manager, Westbic, one of the agencies involved, said: “It’s a very opportune time in the context of the current economic downturn to look at the development of our own resources and see what business opportunity exists.”
Seán Ó Coisdealbha of Údarás na Gaeltachta added that ‘our doors are always open for entrepreneurs with good ideas’.
Further information and the full programme of events are available on www.mayo.ie.