NWC 09 – Closing Thoughts (an article on business, entrepeneurs, Innovation, north west, optimism)

We still cannot get over the great response and feedback to Northwest Connects last saturday.

As an organising committee – we hoped we had left nothing to chance in the run up; our greatest concern was whether anyone would turn up? We had nearly 130 confirmed registrations and had assumed a natural attrubution rate of up to 30%.

In the end, we had over 120 people attending throughout the day – and to all of you – a huge Thanks – you are the ones that made it a success.

So – What Next?

We’ve taken some time this week to pore over the comment forms – here are some of the overriding themes that are emerging :

• There is lots of positive energy, ideas, inspiration and confidence to be gained from informally mixing with other folk and talking about business and entrepeneurship
• There are clever people and clever businesses in the Northwest – it would be great to interact with them more.
• You don’t have to be alone – lots of 1 and 2 person companies out there.
• Lots of help from people who have been there.

With regard to what people learned on the day, points raised included :

• The amount of support and help that is available if you look for it and take advantage of it.
• The importance of the elevator pitch to your potential customers and indeed anyone that you come in contact with – “what do you do?”
• Others have have faced these same problems – find out what they did?

Some of the best comments came around the question of what did attendees wish there was more of :

• More networking and conversation time other attendees and afternoon speed networking session, for those who missed the morning.
• More 5 by 5 sessions, as well as more breakout sessions after speaker presentation (there was a particularly good, accidental breakout session after Fergus Callagly’s Permission Markering talk – this was just before the afternoon coffee break, so did not interfere with other slots).
• More focussed sessions for different types of businesses – and other speakers from the wider business commmunity.

Finally – onto your thoughts on what you would like to see more of in the future, and other tips and reccomendations :

• Top of the list was definitely for this event to happen again; it looks like NWC10 – due to popular demand – will be a runner.
• More focus on core business topics such as finance, business planning.
• More flexible slots for speakers – barcamp style; on the day, put your name down for a talk – a longer version of the 5 by 5 if you will.

The organising committee (part of Open Coffee Sligo) are currently evaluating all of the comment and feedback, talking with panelists and sponsors – and establishing a plan and format for NWC10.

We would be delighted if you could get in contact with us, if you haven’t done so already – and share more thoughts with us!!