The INNOVATION DUBLIN 2010 Festival takes place from 10th – 21st November. The majority of the events are free and open to the public, though advance booking is required in some cases. The full programme of events is available on www.innovationdublin.ie or you can download the free INNOVATION DUBLIN iPhone app to browse all festival events from your iPhone/iPad/iTouch.  

INNOVATION DUBLIN is a Creative Dublin Alliance project and is promoted and coordinated by Dublin City Council. This is the second annual INNOVATION DUBLIN festival.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen invites everyone to get involved in and support Innovation Dublin. “Businesses and entrepreneurs will promote new ideas to transform business in the city” said the Lord Mayor. “Artists and performers will celebrate creativity and the wide mix of people and events will help make Dublin a smarter city. All involved in Innovation Dublin are willing to share their knowledge and expertise with everyone so I encourage everyone to get involved”

Speaking at the official opening of the Festival, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan said the theme of celebrating the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of Dublin “could  not be more apt, as we endeavour to establish Ireland as an ‘Innovation Island’, in tandem with the creation of the Smart Economy.”

“The  challenging  economic  and  financial  conditions  that  currently prevail only serve to sharpen our focus on the goal at hand – that the Ireland  of  the future will be a smart, high-value, export-led economy. Our goal is that Ireland will have some of the world’s leading research-intensive  multinationals,  a  number  of  which  will be Irish owned  and  it  will  have  thousands  of  innovative  small and medium enterprises”, the Minister added.

“INNOVATION DUBLIN will showcase, promote, and stimulate innovation and creativity in the city. It’s about connecting ideas with opportunities and everyone is invited to get involved” says John Tierney, Dublin City Manager. “The Festival provides opportunities to promote enterprise, to learn and find out how things work, to network and collaborate and to connect ideas with opportunities.  People can participate in events ranging from business seminars and science demonstrations to storytelling, workshops, music and virtual games. The innovationdublin.ie website is constantly updated and people should check it regularly to find events that particularly interest them.”

• The Festival is taking place over the entire Dublin Region, proving Dublin to be a City of Innovation. It is a key national economic policy objective to make Ireland an Innovation Hub, and with Dublin contributing 40% of the national GDP, with a critical mass of both FDI and Irish Exporting companies, Dublin is seen a national and international cluster for innovation and creativity by industry
• The festival has been embraced by Dublin’s public sector showcasing innovation in the delivery of services and infrastructure by the local authorities as well as in the research, commercialisation and enterprise work of Dublin’s universities and institutes of technology
• The festival is attracting international attention on Dublin with an increasing number of international delegations visiting the festival as well as through international events such as the global final of the IBM SmartCamp competition for entrepreneurs and the Globe Forum Dublin conference
• Innovation can be applied to products, services or processes. With increasingly challenging global economic, environmental and societal issues facing humankind, our capacity for innovation in addressing those challenges becomes increasingly important

Details of conferences, competitions, talks, tours, debates, demonstrations, exhibitions, performances and workshops are on www.innovationdublin.ie

The people involved in INNOVATION DUBLIN include Chief Executive Officers of multi-national corporations, innovators and entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprises, educators, researchers and school children, artists and creators, people in local authorities, citizens and local communities.