1. The Business Summit
Coming Back
from the Brink
Wednesday, 2nd November
9.30am to 1.00pm
“The hall is rented, the
orchestra engaged.
It’s now time to see if
you can dance”

2. Conference Agenda
Changing or developing your business in a
competitive landscape can be one of the 9.30am Welcome
greatest uphill struggles of your life, Ireland Michael P. Kelly
CEO, Carlow County Enterprise Board
has been to the Brink and now it’s time to come
back. Over 97% of business operating in Ireland Conference Chairperson: Blaise Brosnan
today are “small” businesses, and you have a
role to play in Coming Back from The Brink. 9.45am Enter the Dragon,
The Roadmap to Business Success
Coming Back from the Brink: Gavin Duffy
Business Summit 10.15am Product Development for SME’s
Noel Joyce, Design Hubb
This unique business event puts leading business
people in the same room where you can gain valuable
10.15am Coming Back from the Brink
insights on:
Seán O’Brien
• Developing Strategies for Personal &
10.45am Coffee & Networking
Business Development
• How to Develop New Products for Your Business 11.05am To Fix Your Business You Must First Fix You
• How to Draw up a Roadmap for Success Confronting the Fear of Failure
• Connecting with like-minded business people George Mordaunt
to create opportunities
11.25am Learning to Grow...
This limited attendance event is being held in Self Development for Business Sucess
VISUAL - Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Dr Tony Humphreys
Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow Town on
Wednesday 2nd November from 9.30am-1.00pm 12.30pm Panel Discussion
1.00pm Closing Words
Ashling Ward
Network Manager, Carlow-Kilkenny Skillnets
1.00pm Close
How To Book:
Train
Tickets for this business opportunity event cost €45.00 Railway Road Dublin/Waterford
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Booking is Essential. To book a place
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Entrance
at this business summit please contact:
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Southern Tipperary Skillnet
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Jackie Ryan
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Network Manager
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Southern Tipperary Skillnet
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c/o Clonmel Chamber
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8 Sarsfield Street
Clonmel Dublin
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T: 052 612 6500
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Tullow Street Wexford
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M: 086 0428668
skillnet@clonmelchamber.com Kilkenny/
Waterford
www.clonmelchamber.com/training
Tickets can also be booked from
Visual Box Office - 059 917 2400

3. Noel Joyce Seán O’Brien
Noel Joyce is a Dyson award Winning Seán O’Brien is a professional rugby
Industrial Design Graduate from player with Leinster and Ireland.
IT Carlow who recently formed a He has won 9 caps for Ireland since
company called Design Hub. making his debut against Fiji in
Design Hub is an amalgamation of November 2009. He has played for
a group of young and innovative Leinster 56 times, scoring 11 tries.
designers from varied design
disciplines - Graphic Design, Product The Tullow native was part of the
Design, Interior Design and Multimedia. Leinster squad that won the 2009 Heineken Cup and this
year he played a huge role in the team’s re-capturing of
Designhub offers innovative design solutions that can that trophy. He is the current ERC European Player of the
help businesses and individuals with ideas stand out from Year.
their competitors. Our objective is to utilize design as a
problem solving activity for businesses or an instrument Sean, who is 24 years old, looks set to play a major part in
to help bring innovative ideas or products to market. the future of Irish rugby.
Dr. Tony Humphreys George Mordaunt
Dr. Tony Humphreys is a Consultant George Mordaunt is the Managing
Clinical Psychologist, Author and Director of the Mordaunt Group, a
National and International Speaker. family business based in Clonmel,
He began his career as a Clinical Co. Tipperary. He is married with
Psychologist in State Psychiatric and two children. In late 2010, George
Psychological Services in England Mordaunt’s Chamber of Commerce
and Ireland and since 1990 has been conference speech to politicians and
working in private practice in Ireland.
He has become Ireland’s most influential psychologist, Irish company chiefs brought the conference room to
working with individuals, couples, families, schools, tears and sparked this story of how bust businesses can
local communities and the business community. He is the lift themselves out of the mire and recover.
Director of three National University of Ireland courses
which are run in University College Cork and All Hallows Ireland is insolvent because of mismanagement, corruption
College, Drumcondra, Dublin. and greed. We have been bombarded with and infuriated
by reports of self-serving bankers, developers and
He is regularly sought for his expertise and views on radio government ministers. To date, the general public has
and television shows and writes a weekly column for one not had an account of the devastating effect of this crisis
of Ireland’s primary newspapers, the Irish Examiner and on Irish-owned business as it tries to pick up the pieces.
has had his own radio programmes on RTE national radio. Irish businesses are trying to cope with insolvency,
arrears, liquidation - the rate of suicide among the self-
He is the author of many best-selling books, the most employed in Ireland has trebled in the last 3 years. George
recent being The Compassionate Intentions of Illness. Mordaunt believes that many Irish businesses are now
dysfunctional not because of the recession but because
His varied earlier careers encompassing theology, of the reaction of business owners to the recession - and
education and business adds breadth and depth to his specifically their reaction to their banks. With raw honesty
unique understanding of human behaviour. His ideas are he outlines the effect this reaction has had on himself, his
challenging, sometimes controversial, yet they are always young family, his marriage and his business. He shares
presented in the safety of understanding and compassion. his most private moments of despair and fear yet
It is indicative of the ethos he creates that he is in constant demonstrates how business owners can salvage their
demand for lectures, workshops, seminars, conferences businesses and that we now have a core responsibility to
from a very wide range of audiences that cross different get back to basics in all levels of Irish life.
social strata, different age groups and different social sectors.
He is amusing and entertaining in his presentations
without diluting the meaning and depth of the messages
he wishes to convey. He writes and speaks in a language
that is easy and accessible.

4. Conference Chairperson: Gavin Duffy
Blaise Brosnan has a unique blend Carlow County Enterprise Board and
of practical top management Carlow-Kilkenny Skillnet are delighted
experience gained over 25 years in his to present “Dragon” Gavin Duffy,
capacity as Chief Executive of a well Ireland’s leading communications
known National business and later skills consultant. Gavin will give a
as business adviser to a range of Irish hugely entertaining and enlightening
business types. In addition to this, talk to your delegates touching on the
he has gained further National and following topics.
International experience, having successfully completed
• How to deliver knockout presentations every time
a range of projects in Ireland, US, Turkmenistan, Ukraine
and in Russia. • How to always get your way at meetings
• How to put your message across on the media
To underpin this “cutting edge” experience, he studied • How to work a room and network
and graduated from TCD in 1989 with a M.Sc.Mgmt.
The strategic orientation of this programme was the Gavin Duffy has recently appeared on RTE’s Dragons’ Den
perfect complement to the analytical nature of his and is a regular columnist on business and the economy
primary Economics Degree. The combination of practice for the Sunday Independent. Bill Cullen of The Apprentice
and theory coupled with a pair of trained objective eyes, on TV3 sought Gavin’s assistance to help him select the
ears and hands equip him to make meaningful interven- final candidates by giving them ‘the interview from hell’.
tions for clients. He does this by facilitating his clients to
strategically reposition their businesses, so they can gain A veteran of 3,000 coaching sessions for executives
leverage in their changing environments. wishing to improve their performance in presentations,
meetings, networking or appearing on the media, he is
He is Strategy Senior Specialist within the Management a guaranteed, top-drawer conference speaker who will
Resource Institute, working with Boards and senior deliver every time. He will get you the positive feedback
management to stand back from their businesses and you want from your event, with delegates impressed by
formulate and agree their future strategic reposition- the relevance, practicality and entertainment value of the
ing. He then works with the team to bring that strategic session.
thinking and vision down through their organisations, so
that they are all “singing from the same hymn sheet”. He Gavin’s career in the media started in the 80s, working on
achieves this through a combination of direct facilitation Radio One’s “Morning Ireland” and presenting RTE’s first
and focused training. TV Business programme “Marketplace”. He left RTE to
set up local radio station, LMFM, and then in the 90s set
He is also founder Director of International Dispute up his Management and Communications Consultancy,
Resolution (Ireland) Ltd, which specialises in providing which services Ireland’s top indigenous and multinational
disputants with an alternative to the normal litigation corporations.
routes, to solve their commercial disputes. In addition
to this he is a Director of a number of commercial Gavin has proven ability in to enliven, entertain and
businesses, three of which he is currently chairman. enlighten any conference. Amongst the organisations that
Gavin has spoken for are The Chamber of Commerce and
The Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland.
Southern Tipperary Skillnet is funded by member
companies and the Training Networks Programme,
an initiative of Skillnets Ltd. funded from the
National Training Fund through the
Department of Education and Skills