Inaugural enactusTALKS takes place on Microsoft’s new campus

On Wednesday, 25^th April 2018, Enactus Ireland held the first enactusTALKS with Microsoft Ireland. An event that invites students, alumni, business and faculty advisers to see individuals give talks on areas such as empowerment, social change and innovation. The event was held in Microsoft’s new state of the art campus in Leopardstown, where seven speakers, Andrea Whelton, Colin McAndrew, John Evoy, Róisín Lyons, Mairead Dillon Stuart Bolger and Stephen Howell, spoke on topics such as Multiculturalism to Artificial Intelligence.

Due to the wide range of subjects and backgrounds of speakers, the event proved to be a very diverse and interesting evening.

Andrea Whelton, an Enactus University College Dublin student spoke on “The Spark of Sustainable Social Innovation”;

Colin McAndrew, a Maynooth University Enactus Team Leader for their ‘Map the Way’ project’ and Entrepreneurship student, spoke on “Why Mapping is the Most Important Humanitarian Tool of the 21^st Century”;

John Evoy, the founder of Irish Men’s Shed Association, talk was called “Poacher Turned Gamekeeper”;

Stuart Bolger, a DIT Enactus Alumni and now KPMG employee spoke about Artificial Intelligence with his talk ‘Artificial Intelligence is Changing Social Enterprises’;

Mairead Dillon, a Bank of Ireland Employee, spoke on ‘Multiculturalism in an Evolving Ireland’ after introducing multicultural initiatives in her own branch, that were then rolled out into branches across Ireland;

Stephen Howell from Microsoft, spoke about using technology to empower people with hidden disabilities, with his talk ‘How Tech Can Empower People’; and

Róisín Lyons, an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Dublin City University, discussed ‘The Student Entrepreneurial Ecosystem’. Roisin spoke about the ecosystem around the student entrepreneur, and the aspects within this that help to develop entrepreneurial confidence and self-efficacy.

Enactus is a global, non-profit organisation that is changing the world through highly dedicated student teams on more than 1,700 university campuses in 36 countries. Enactus offers these students the opportunity to develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise, thereby improving the standard of living for millions in the process. This event, enactusTALKS allows students, business people and academics from our network to come together, share ideas and inform others on important topics relevant to a lot of us today.