If you would like to volunteer as a Mystery Shopper with the Friendly Business Awards team, please email Michael Sikora here and include ‘Mystery Shopper’ in the subject line.

Leading on from the success of the 2013 Global Cork Economic Forum, this year’s forum will take place on Wednesday 1^st October 2014 in Cork City Hall. A Networking Event will take place that evening in the Atrium of Cork County Hall. The theme for this year’s Forum is “Cork - Packaging Tourism and Economic Growth in the One Great Place”

As part of the Cork business community we would like to invite you to attend this year’s Global Cork Economic Forum & Networking Event.  Please register your interest here 

At this year’s Forum we will have Speakers from across the International Tourism Industry, together with business leaders from Cork Business Diaspora.  The new entity Cork INC will be officially launched on this day under the joint auspices of Cork City and County Councils.  A Formal Invitation, Speakers Profiles and Forum Agenda will be issued in the coming weeks. This will be an invitation only event. 

• West Cork Awaits Foodies, Families & Fun Lovers! Save The Date! - Read More HERE 

• More Must Be Done If Town Centres Are To Survive - Read More HERE 

• Online Vouchers Worth €2,500 For Cork Businesses - Read More HERE
  

Date: 24^th July
Time: 5.30pm – 7.00pm
Venue: River Lee Hotel
Cost: FREE for Cork Chamber members
To book: HERE 

Cork Chamber and Aviva are working in partnership to bring you a highly energized event, where you will make over 10 business contacts in a fast-paced environment. ‘Speed networking’ is a more structured form of networking where you have 1 ½ minutes each side to pitch your business and make connections for both buying and selling.


This is a practical event for SME’s, giving you a chance to speed network and meet new business contacts as well as receive referrals and renew existing connections.

Places are limited, please BOOK EARLY to avoid disappointment

On Friday the 20^th June, Cork Chamber hosted a meeting with the Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Leo Varadkar.  This meeting centred around tourism and infrastructure priorities for the Cork Region. During the meeting, Cork Chamber highlighted the need to advance tourism support through the development of appropriate tourism strategies for Cork and took the opportunity to reiterate the suitability of Cork as a location for the new National Diaspora Centre.

The meeting also progressed talks on the wider regional economic benefits of upgrading the N28 to Ringaskiddy which were highlighted in Cork Chamber's recently published report entitled ‘Cork to the World’ An updated Economic Assessment of the N28 Cork to Ringaskiddy Scheme which is available to read HERE. 

Cork Chamber is part of a working group organised by NASC – The Irish Immigrant Support Centre in developing a new Cork City Integration Strategy. The Chamber’s input to the strategy hopes to enhance the multi-cultural nature of Cork life that helps promote the City as a great place to live and work as well as helping new communities to integrate into the workplace.

The working group hopes to have the final strategy published later in the year and it is expected that a number of positive actions in training and employment will be in place by 2015.

Everyone is involved in selling in some way. We are selling ourselves, our company and our products all the time. A solid sales technique is a key skill that once learnt, is never forgotten.

Invest in your sales technique with our Sales courses:

-          Increasing Sales by Telephone: develop the prospecting protocols and influencing skills required to significantly increase your sales success over the phone

-          Business to Business Selling – The Secrets:
designed for people who are required to initiate relationships with, and sell to, businesses, this course will teach you the necessary consultative selling skills required to exceed your sales target this year and beyond.

The Cork Chapter of the Ireland India Business Association (IIBA) will host an Indian Tourism Seminar on Thursday 26th June in Cork Airport. The event is kindly sponsored by Cork Airport. See 'read more' below for further details.

Date: 26th June
Time: 10am registration
Venue: Blackrock Castle Observatory
Cost: Free
To book: email HERE or telephone Eamonn Nolan 087 9138677

PlanNet21 in conjunction with Cisco Systems will present the next generation of the video collaboration portfolio, with live demonstrations of the actual endpoints to allow you to get up close and personal with the technology and speak to dedicated experts on the individual units to guide you through and answer any questions you may have on the technology. There will be a live session into the Cisco TSEC demo in the UK with a dedicated team ready to showcase all the benefits of Cisco Video Collaboration live.
 

Date: 2nd July
Time: 2pm
Venue: University College Cork, Western Gateway Building Room 4.02
Cost: Free
To book: Email here 


Dennis R. Costello, venture capitalist and leading expert in financing energy start-ups, will give a seminar on financing start-ups. After the seminar, which is sponsored by MaREI and Imerc, an informal workshop will take place where Mr. Costello will answer questions. This will be followed by a networking coffee session.