In this issue
Policy
Cork Chamber Launches the Cork City Centre Forum
Subsidised Training
Embracing Digital!!
Events
Business Opportunities In Canada - Focus On Alberta
Business Breakfast with Dan Kiely, Voxpro
International Marketing Workshop
Winning Public Sector Business Workshop
Annual Christmas Lunch
Chamber Supported Events
inBusiness inCork Showcase 2014
International
Innovation and IP supports
Member Updates
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Policy
Cork Chamber Launches the Cork City Centre Forum
 

On the 10th November, Cork Chamber officially launched the Cork City Centre Forum. The Forum which is comprised of retailers and business owners from across the City as well as representatives of business organisations also includes new City Council Chief Executive, Ann Doherty and Superintendent Barry McPolin of An Garda Síochana.


The objective of the Forum is to identify and advance innovative opportunities to rejuvenate the City and increase footfall and business in the City Centre.  The Forum will be a platform to re-focus the energy, enthusiasm and ideas of those who are working in the City to showcase the best of what Cork City has to offer to our local and international visitors.


Through stakeholder interaction and collaboration the Cork City Centre Forum will bring positive solutions to existing challenges and help make Cork City a better place to visit, work and shop.



Subsidised Training
Embracing Digital!!
 

Firstly, many congratulations to all of the winners of our Cork Digital Marketing Awards. It was a fantastic day and many thanks to everyone who contributed to its success. The full list of winners can be found HERE!


While we’re embracing digital, our next Digital Marketing/Social Media for Business Course is starting on the 25th November next. This course is ideal for businesses that want to get more business using social media and who wish to reinforce their offline reputation, online! 


We also have a course in GOOGLE ANALYTICS running on the 24th November, designed to help you wade through the sea of data, to assess your website traffic properly so you get a more accurate picture of how your website is doing. 


Digital Marketing/Social Media for Business Training Course

Course Dates: 4 Days (25th November, 2nd, 9th & 16th December) All Four Days can be booked together or individual days of interest can be booked separately.

Member Rate: €440.00 for the four days or €140.00 per individual day.

What’s involved?

This four day course will provide an in depth insight into the latest innovations in Online Marketing and Digital Media. The course will also give an overview of social media use and look at LinkedIn for the business generation.

Day One

Search Optimisation, website conversion and web traffic tools

Targeted Advertising with Google, Google Analytics and creating landing pages

 Day Two

Content Creation: Using a blog or your website to create attractive content

Facebook for Business: Using Facebook Pages to market to their Billion+ users

Day Three

Twitter for Business: Using Twitter for sales, support and marketing.

Linkedin: Using this business social network for lead generation and building the reputation of your business

Day Four

Mobile Future: Should you create an app? What is the work involved. Getting your company ready for the mobile revolution

Devising a Marketing Plan: Creating a template for your company to be efficient in digital marketing

What will I be able to do?

Following this course, participants will be able to:

  • Understand how search engines work
  • Make changes to a website to increase site traffic
  • Execute targeted ad campaigns online
  • Know why blogs are good for business
  • Build a plan for your business plan to increase traffic and leads to the website
  • Build a Facebook presence for your company
  • Build a Twitter business profile
  • Improve your LinkedIn profile and know how to use it as a calling card for your work
  • Be familiar with mobile apps
  • Create a marketing plan for your social media properties and devise one based on available resources


Who should attend?

This course is for any business that wants to reduce marketing and sales costs, that wants to get more business using social media and wants to reinforce their offline reputation, online.

This course is suited for those in marketing, communications, sales and company positions that define business strategy. This course is €440.00 for Chamber members for the entire four days or days can be booked individually for €140.00 each. BOOK NOW!

 

Google Analytics

Course Date: 24th November

Member Rate: €150.00

Venue: River Lee Hotel, Western Road, Cork

Are you swimming in a sea of data? Don’t know where to start when assessing your website traffic?

This course will leave you with a clear understanding of how to get the most out of your Google Analytics account. It will give you:

• A clear understanding of the important metrics to look for in a Google Analytics account

• A demonstration of how you can set-up and use goals and funnels in your own account to assess visitor quality

• Tips on how to produce better reports that contain actionable insights which you can use to power your business

What does this mean?

This course will help you identify the good quality traffic from the poor quality traffic so you can use the reports to get more quality traffic back to your website.

After goal setting we will look at all the different ways to view your customers and you’ll be given a deep-dive into the main Google Analytics reports and learn how to look for and use actionable insights over vanity metrics.

After an in-depth look at getting actionable insights from most of the reports available, we’ll finish off looking at dashboards, custom reporting, scheduling reporting, the top 20 reports and a market overview and forecast.

This one day course is a must do for marketing professionals, IT professionals and all business owners. So don’t delay, BOOK TODAY!

 


Events
Business Opportunities In Canada - Focus On Alberta
 
Date: 13th November
Time: 
7:30am - 09:30am
Venue: 
The River Lee Hotel
Cost: FREE registration 
To Book: HERE


The Enterprise Europe Network is delighted to announce that Dan Byrne of Lincor Solutions will talk about Lincor’s success in the Canadian market on Thursday, 13th November, in the River Lee Hotel. To book your free place at this event, click here




 



Business Breakfast with Dan Kiely, Voxpro
 

Date:  26th November
Time: 7.30am – 9.00am
Venue: Kingsley Hotel
Cost: €25 members/€35 non members
To book: HERE 

 

Cork Chamber is delighted to host the November Business Breakfast featuring Dan Kiely, Chief Executive of Voxpro. Voxpro is an award-winning, multi-lingual, business process outsourcing provider headquartered in Cork, with an office in Dublin and an international office in San Francisco.

 

Founded in 1995 by Dan and his wife and business partner, Linda, Voxpro delivers customer contact solutions on behalf of more than 100 multinational corporations and leading international blue chip companies worldwide, including Google, Airbnb, Nest and Travelzoo. CLICK HERE for further details

 



International Marketing Workshop
 

Date:  26th November 
Time: 9:30am – 5.30pm
Venue: Cork Chamber Office
Cost: Free
To book: HERE


Are you looking at growing your business internationally or to improve your international marketing skills? Renowned Chartered Marketer, Ray Clarke, will be running a workshop on behalf of the Enterprise Europe at Cork Chamber on November 26th (9:30am – 5.30pm). The workshop will take place in Cork Chamber Office, Summerhill North.

Book your free place here



Winning Public Sector Business Workshop
 

Date: 10th December
Time: 12:30 - 16:30
Venue: 
CIT
Cost: Free
To book: here

The Enterprise Europe Network is running a FREE workshop on 10th December in CIT. The aim of this workshop is to help Irish businesses find and then bid for public sector business opportunities. The workshop aims to teach businesses how to avoid the typical mistakes and pick up tips and best practice when completing a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ), invitation to tender (ITT) or tender documents.


The workshop will involve a mixture of presentation, case study, group work and most importantly, “working on a tender that you could bid for”. The workshop will be delivered by Toni Saraiva, who has over 10 years’ experience in dealing with companies looking for partners, funding or contracts in the EU.


To register your place for this event, please click here



Annual Christmas Lunch
In Association With Brightwater Recruitment Specialists
 

Date: 12th December
Time: 12:30pm - 15:30pm
Venue: Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island
Cost: €60 members / €75
To book: HERE


Cork Chamber in association with Brightwater Recruitment Specialists are delighted to bring you the Annual Christmas Lunch, which will this year take place on Friday 12th December in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island and is held in partnership with the Marketing Institute of Ireland Cork Branch.


This annual event continues to be one of the most popular Chamber events, with a fantastic festive buzz, a fun and relaxed way to network, as well as our regular charity raffle with plenty of fantastic prizes up for grabs on the day. Our keynote speaker will be John Lonergan, former Governor of Mountjoy Prison.

Join the conversation on Twitter #onthe12thdayofchristmas

 



Chamber Supported Events
inBusiness inCork Showcase 2014
 

Date: 14th November
Time: 09:30 to 16:00
Venue: City Hall

Cost: FREE
To book: HERE


The third annual inBusiness inCork showcase at City Hall will deliver breakthrough opportunities for businesses and startups on Friday, 14th November 2014. With more than 1,500 participants expected to attend the business networking showcase and conference, Cork innovates has teamed up with Vodafone and AIB among other business partners to deliver a breakthrough event for potential and existing entrepreneurs in the Region.


The inBusiness inCork 2014 showcase is supported by a number of partners including Vodafone, AIB, Irish Examiner, RedFM and more to bring a high quality event to the people of Munster. 

 

For more information, or to register your place at the free event, please visit here

This year inBusiness inCork  will also have an online networking tool (available here) provided by Esus. This app will enable those who are registered to network with people during and after the event. Users can filter by name, company name and sector. It will also include the Irish Examiner Special Supplement, a map and an agenda. 



International
Innovation and IP supports
 

New Innovation Voucher – Horizon 2020 (Pilot Call)

Enterprise Ireland launched a new Horizon 2020 Innovation Voucher on September 1 and this will run on a pilot basis for an initial period of six months. The voucher will allow SMEs to explore and apply for Horizon 2020 opportunities, with the assistance of a public sector knowledge provider. 



Building a Business on your Ideas

25th November 2014,  08.45-15.00, Nimbus Centre, CIT

Enterprise Europe Network Ireland in co-operation with the Patents OfficeEnterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices have launched a series of one-day seminars, aimed at the ‘small business’ community, entrepreneurs and inventors, on the theme of ‘Building a Business on Your Ideas’. 

This seminar will focus on:- How business should be aware of and can exploit the value of Intellectual Property (Patents, Trade Marks, Designs and Copyright) and the support structures that are available for small businesses and start-ups from the State and Europe.

For more information or to register click here


See 'read more' for further details. 


New Innovation Voucher – Horizon 2020 (Pilot Call)

Enterprise Ireland launched its pilot Horizon 2020 Innovation voucher scheme on 1 September and after the initial six months, the pilot call will be reviewed. This initiative is open to all small limited registered companies, with less than 50 employees, in Ireland.

To recap, Horizon 2020 is the EU Framework Programme for research and innovation (R&I) in Europe which will provide funding of €79 billion for R&I and boost jobs and growth across the EU and in Ireland during the 2014 to 2020 period. The programme presents numerous opportunities for companies, large and small, to carry out innovative R&D and product development. This innovation voucher allows small enterprises to explore and apply for the Horizon 2020 opportunities with the assistance of a public sector knowledge provider.

Please note that companies which have participated in European Framework Programme (FP7) projects are not eligible to apply for an innovation voucher. Companies can only apply for one of these standard €5,000 vouchers during the pilot call.

Eligible activities:

  • Analysis of how similar companies have benefited from participation in collaborative R&D programmes such as Framework Programme 7
  • Proposal preparation
  • Partner search and due diligence

Applications for the Horizon 2020 Pilot Call must be made via the Enterprise Ireland Online Application System (hyperlinked). For further information about this scheme, contact Jill Leonard at h2020.voucher@enterprise-ireland.com



Building a Business on your Ideas

25th November 2014,  08.45-15.00, Nimbus Centre, CIT

Enterprise Europe Network Ireland in co-operation with the Patents OfficeEnterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices have launched a series of one-day seminars, aimed at the ‘small business’ community, entrepreneurs and inventors, on the theme of ‘Building a Business on Your Ideas’. 

This seminar will focus on:- How business should be aware of and can exploit the value of Intellectual Property (Patents, Trade Marks, Designs and Copyright) and the support structures that are available for small businesses and start-ups from the State and Europe.

 For more information or to register click here

 


Promotion
Latest News
 

1. New Forum Brings Focus On City Centre - Read More HERE

2. Winning Turnout At Mii Cork Event Hosted At Logitech - Read More HERE 

3. Anne Walsh Appointed As Director Of Nursing At Mater Private Cork - Read More HERE 

4. Calling All Americans In Cork - Eat, Drink And Be Thankful At Cork International Hotel This Thanksgiving - Read More HERE 

5. Explore Business Opportunities In Canada - Read More HERE

6. County Winners Reach 'Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur' National Final - Read More HERE 

7. Public Bike Schemes - 50% Discount Offer - Read More HERE





Members Offers
Member Offers

1. 10% OFF Personal Training at Dan Sweeney Personal Training 
2. 10% discount on black and white fine art landscape photos at Giles Norman Photography
3. November Special offer 10% OFF with Skytech
4. Achieve your BEST BODY with At The Fitness Centre
5. Christmas Printing Offer at MBE Design & Print
6. A divine 2 hour pamper package at Robin Hill Sanctuary 
7. Complimentary Financial Review MyMortgages MyFinances
9. Up to 40% discount* on your international shipping withFedEx Express! 


More details on these offers can be found here.



Member Events
Christmas Night at Flemings
 
Date: 29th November 
Time: 7pm
Venue: Flemings Restaurant, Tivoli
Cost: €57
To book: 021- 4821621


Christmas at Flemings is magical. We love Christmas and our Georgian Dining rooms are perfect for capturing the atmosphere of Christmas perfectly. We will be starting with a wine tasting followed by a 5 course dinner accompanied by music and storytelling by one of Ireland's best known storytellers, Pat Speight.


Focus Ireland Cork Table Quiz
 
Date: 12th November  
Time: 8.30pm
Venue: Sober Lane Cork
Cost: Teams of 3/4/5 €30


Focus Ireland in Cork is holding a Table Quiz on Wednesday night next at 8.30 in Sober Lane. This is a quiz with a difference... a quiz without questions!! Teams of 3/4/5 cost €30. Free finger food, super raffle and a great night. We would really love to see and welcome you.


Kilkenny’s November Sale- Up to 50% Off
 
Date: Tuesday 11th of November - Sunday the 16th of November 
Time: *See 'read more' for the various times
Venue: Stores Nationwide


Kilkenny are running their BIGGEST ever November sale, Up to 50% Off Everything and FREE €50 Hotel Voucher’s with purchases. A wonderful opportunity to get your Christmas Shopping sorted so early with fantastic once-off reductions!

The Kilkenny Shop, Emmet Place, Cork City

Tuesday 11th November: 9am – 9pm

Wednesday 12th November: 9am – 9pm

Thursday 13th November: 9am – 9pm

Friday 14th November: 9am – 9pm

Saturday 15th November: 9am – 7pm

Sunday 16th November: 9am – 7pm



The Kilkenny Shop, Douglas Court Shopping Centre, Co. Cork

Tuesday 11th November: 9am – 9pm

Wednesday 12th November: 9am – 9pm

Thursday 13th November: 9am – 9pm

Friday 14th November: 9am – 9pm

Saturday 15th November: 9am – 7pm

Sunday 16th November: 10am – 6pm


The Kilkenny Shop, Shanagarry Design Centre

Tuesday 11th November: 10am – 6pm

Wednesday 12th November: 10am – 6pm

Thursday 13th November: 10am – 6pm

Friday 14th November: 10am – 6pm

Saturday 15th November: 10am – 6.30pm

Sunday 16th November: 10am – 6.30pm


Cloud Services in Ireland
 
Date: 26th November
Time: 8 – 10 am
Venue: The Tyndall Institute
Cost: Free
To book: here 

Cloud Services in Ireland:The State of The Nation. BT Ireland will host a special breakfast in Cork, in association with IDC, to reveal key insights on the current use of cloud services in Ireland and an assessment of the opportunities and challenges associated with transformational cloud technologies. As an IT manager or a CIO today, the pressure is on to make critical decisions so your business can compete in a new kind of economy, where competitive advantage comes from operational efficiency as well as product differentiation. 


CILT Agri-Food Logistics
 
Date:  27th November 
Time: 20:00-22:00
Venue: Board Room of the Port of Cork Company, Customs’ House St, Cork
Cost: Free
To book: Registration is VITAL. To register email here .


Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine Simon Coveney will launch the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics (CILT) Seminar on Agri-Food Logistics for Ireland and Emerging Markets. Expert panellists from large and small manufacturers, logistics providers and retailers will discuss supply chain and logistics challenges and opportunities. The CILT seminar will be chaired by Capt Michael McCarthy, Commercial Manager of the Port of Cork.


SolarWinds Cork Customer Appreciation Day
 

Date: 5th December 
Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm
Venue: SolarWinds, Building 1000, City Gate, Mahon, Co. Cork.
To BookRegister Here


Join your IT peers at the SolarWinds Customer Appreciation Day and discover how we are changing the way the world manages and monitors IT infrastructure. At this event you'll hear about the latest SolarWinds developments with practical real life examples of customer implementations. Whether you are managing networks, systems, applications, databases or security performance or have responsibility for your organisation's entire IT infrastructure, this is an event you can't afford to miss.


 


Key features of the event include:

  • Live Product Demonstrations with SolarWinds Product Specialists
  • Learn how you can optimise your IT environment
  • Monitoring product developments and roadmaps
  • Deep Dive into the Network, Systems and Applications tools
  • Avail of on the day competitive pricing and free SolarWinds goodie bags

Free Parking will be provided for registered attendees.