Leaders of successful startups from the UK, Ireland and the US revealed the secrets of their success at a high profile business event in Belfast city centre today.
Opportunity Knocks, co-hosted by Ulster Bank and Belfast City Council and supported by other partners including Entrepreneurial Spark, took place at St George’s Market, where attendees heard from, among others, the founder of an online delivery service platform that recently sold to London Stock Exchange-listed Just Eat.
Ciaran Lynch, who founded Nifty Nosh, was joined by product manager for San Francisco-based Pivotal Labs, Hilary Johnson, Julia Groves of the UK Crowdfunding Association and a host of other successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Opportunity Knocks attracted more than 350 attendees and over 40 exhibitors, ranging from seed and early-stage investment funds like TechStartNI, to social media marketing agencies like Social Bee NI, to coworking spaces like The Foundry and Innovation Factory.
Speaking at the event, Northern Ireland’s Economy Minister, Simon Hamilton MLA, said: “Today is all about celebrating entrepreneurship and provides a great platform for our local entrepreneurs to showcase and exchange ideas with other successful entrepreneurs.
“It is fitting that this event is taking place during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Within Northern Ireland, we have so many entrepreneurs achieving success on the global stage across a range sectors.
“It is vitally important we continue to ensure our entrepreneurs are surrounded and supported within the innovative and creative environment that will help them to flourish and succeed. Programmes such as Entrepreneurial Spark play an impressive role in helping to create the kind of ecosystem which will grow a vibrant, sustainable economy and one we can be justifiably proud of.”
In addition to hearing from expert speakers, delegates also saw a live pitching competition, heard from a panel of experts, and had the opportunity to attend a range of speed mentoring sessions as well as seminars on topics including pitching and raising finance.
Lynsey Cunningham, Entrepreneurial Development Manager at Ulster Bank, said: “Entrepreneurship is pivotal to the future success of the economy, and we are delighted to join with Entrepreneurial Spark and Belfast City Council to bring this inspirational event to Belfast. We want to help give new startups and scale ups all the support they need to accelerate their business.”
“Working with Entrepreneurial Spark, we’ve already had great success in building the people who build businesses at our Hatchery in Lombard Street in Belfast, and an event like this is a natural extension of our work there.”
Aileen Graham, Chair of Belfast City Council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee, which was also lending support to the event, said: “We support startups in the city through targeted enterprise programmes and events each year as well as facilitating the Belfast Entrepreneurs Network. Budding entrepreneurs are our future business leaders. We’re delighted to support Opportunity Knocks today.”
Opportunity Knocks is part of a UK-wide series of events created to encourage entrepreneurship and support startup and growth businesses.
