Innovation in Culture, Enterprise and the Environment to be Celebrated at Innovation Week 2009

Innovation Dublin week begins on the October 14t. It is a creative Dublin Alliance Project and is promoted and co-ordinated by Dublin City Council.
Innovation in Culture, Enterprise and the Environment to be Celebrated at Innovation Week 2009
10/14/2009
Updated:
10/14/2009
Innovation Dublin week begins on the October 14th. It is a creative Dublin Alliance Project and is promoted and co-ordinated by Dublin City Council.

Mary Murphy spokesperson for Dublin City Council said in a statement, “It’s the first of what hopefully becomes an annual event. Innovation week will provide opportunity to promote enterprise, to network and collaborate and to connect ideas with opportunities.

“There are 200 events in all taking part between October 14th and 20th and the week will be an opportunity for Dubliners, whether they are entrepreneurs, students, researchers, artists or large corporations to promote and celebrate new ideas and initiatives.”

Each event is themed around a key aspect of urban life involving the culture, the enterprise and environment. Scheduled for the week are performances, exhibitions, workshops and children’s entertainments.

Some of the projects associated with Dublin City Council includes “The Fields of Gold” exhibition at Corkagh Park. This details the process by which rapeseed oil is cultivated for fuel for council vehicles. There is the tour of the traffic control room for Dublin City and the student’s project in the Atrium on Wood Quay which illustrates the business plans for the new products invented. John Tierney City Manager said, “The week is about connecting ideas with opportunities”.

In Trinity College and at other venues around the city there will be talks on entrepreneurship and these will be based on real life accounts to raise awareness on what can be achieved from what originally was just an idea.

At the Lab Gallery in Foley Street among other exhibits is artist Benjamin Gaulan’s ‘Created System’. Sheena Barrett from the Lab explains, “The system hacks into the gallery’s wireless CCTV playing with time lapses and revealing the faults in the man-made mechanism which we rely on for the truth. Other exhibits include the work of Mark Cullen who invites the visitor on a journey through time and space by transforming the gallery into a series of interlocking chambers.”

Among the 200 events taking place will be the showcasing of the dynamic Dublin City of the future at Wood Quay offices.

Other exhibits which project the future are at the Science Gallery Pearse St., entitled “What If”, which explores among other notions the idea of dead bodies being used as batteries to power led lights.

The company IBM are also involved in Innovation Week and will give young Irish entrepreneurs in start up companies the opportunity to receive mentoring office space and access to cutting edge technology, venture capital and business advice.

Among the many tours available in the city is the fabulous food trail which starts at the Mansion House and visits food halls, cheesemongers, butchers and bakers throughout the city and tastings are frequent and generous.

There are also tours of the Viking settlements, the turbines in Father Collins Park and Croke Park stadium. Throughout the week there are lectures and workshops on the skills necessary to develop ideas and business. Innovation week offers much in the way of entertainment with Shakespeare plays at the Draoicht and operatic performances at St Patricks Cathedral.

According to Fiona Foskin from Blanchardstown, “Libraries will be involved in the week, we are setting up a research site online where people can blog in their stories and comments about history and events and what is currently happening in their local areas.”

During Innovation Week medicine will also be touched upon and there will be a talk in the Axis Theatre Ballymun on the breakthroughs in addressing heart disease and at the Carlton Airport hotel there will be talks on bionanoscience in medicine.

Taking part in the week long festival of events which includes workshops and Halloween shows for children are colleges, local authorities and 39 companies.