Inaugural Belfast Entrepreneurship Week promotes SMEs

With a growing recognition of the importance of small businesses as tools for spearheading local economic regeneration, Belfast City Council and Invest Northern Ireland have organised the first Belfast Entrepreneurship Week.

With the assistance of local enterprise agencies and a range of other private and public sector partners, a wide variety of events has been organised to assist both those seeking to set up in business for themselves and those already in business but looking to take the next step or expand their horizons.

Seminars, workshops, exhibitions and above all practical advice and assistance are on offer throughout Belfast Entrepreneurship Week, with issues such as business incubation, innovation, taxation, online training, ideas generation and doing business with the rest of Europe all on the agenda. All of the events have been designed to reflect the week’s themes of creating an entrepreneurial culture, promoting business start-up and celebrating business success.

“We all recognise the value of small businesses to the Belfast economy. They are an important source of employment, and therefore are central to our efforts to promote a more dynamic and diverse economy in the City,” said Councillor Michael Browne, Chairman of Belfast City Council’s Economic Development Sub-Committee.

Top motivational speaker Frank Dick will deliver the keynote address at the opening event, to be held in the City Hall on Monday May 27. This will be followed by the week’s showcase event, Belfast: Open For Business, a two-day exhibition featuring around two dozen entrepreneurial success stories, from IT companies to florists, publishers to ceramics manufacturers. Business support agencies from across the City also will be on hand to offer advice and help to budding entrepreneurs.

The exhibition will be Open For Business at the City Hall on Monday May 27 (5.30pm-7.30pm) and Tuesday May 28 (10am-4pm).

(GMcG)