This article is from page 25 of the 2005-09-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 25 JPG
OVER 40 delegates from eve- ry County and City Enterprise Board in Ireland flocked to La- hinch this week for the eigth annual Association of Assist- ant CEO’s and Business Advi- sors Conference.
The conference, which was being held in Clare for the second time, began in the La- hinch Golf and Leisure Hotel on Wednesday morning and lasted for two days. The pur- pose of the high level meeting was to compare and contrast the different strategies used by the Enterprise Boards from all over the country and to swap ideas and experiences.
The main issue dealt with at the conference was the role of the Central Support Unit
for County Enterprise Boards. The Central Support Unit, which has responsibility for all the Enterprise Boards, has been up to the present time un- der the control of the Depart- ment of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
However, under the new ar- rangements discussed in Lahi- nch this Central Support Unit will now be managed by En- terprise Ireland.
“It is a fairly significant move,’ said Lucy Reidy, Busi- ness Advisor for the Clare County Enterprise Board. “It is going to bring change to the Enterprise boards but at the moment we don’t know exactly how. The decision was taken by the Government in an effort to streamline the work of the agencies.”
Aside from the Central Sup- port Unit the delegates also discussed the importance of design excellence in Irish busi- ness. Mr Sean McNulty, Presi- dent of the Institute of Design- ers in Ireland, spoke about the importance of design for entre- preneurs and outlined the com- petitive gain for entrepreneurs who use creativity in design.
Life long learning was also on the discussion table with Mr Dermot Coughlan, Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learn- ing and Outreach with the Uni- versity of Limerick, speaking to the delegates.
“It was successful and a lot of good ideas came from it,” continued Ms Reidy. “I think that the ideas swapped here will help the micro enterprise sector in the future.”