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20th December 2016
12:18am GMT
Today marks the first Swell Summit- tucked away in the far North West of Ireland in Strandhill, Co. Sligo which is most famous for being one of the world's most epic surfing spots. Swell Summit was borne from a series of Supper Clubs held in the region during the spring of 2014, and is a network for the creative, web, start-up and entrepreneur community. There are tonnes of start-up, tech and creative events every week in Dublin and Aoife Porter (of Bua Marketing) who runs Swell Sligo wants to ensure that Sligo gets the spotlight it deserves.
Swell runs for the day here (31st January) with about 150 people from all over the country and abroad attending. I'm really looking forward to getting inspired by all the stories told by the great line-up of speakers. These leading creative game-changers and entrepreneurs will take to the stage today in the most unusual setting- Sligo Airport.
There's something special about this summit compared to previous ones I've attended. There's a real sense of community- loads of the volunteers are Aoife's mates who have been 'roped in' to help out. Most of these guys are locals and do a huge amount for their stomping ground to include networking events and markets. Allan Mulrooney who hosted dinner for us in The Venue pub last night runs the market at the weekends in a disused hangar at Sligo Airport. He also runs www.gostrandhill.com which is probably the best small town website I've ever come across. It is clear the team behind Swell Summit are seriously passionate about the area and the creative people that seem to be superabundant here.
The line-up is perfectly diverse, from the talented illustrator Annie West, comedian Christian Talbot, photographer Christian McLeod, Creative Director of Thinkhouse & Co-Founder of OFFSET Richard Seabrooke to Industry Lead at Google UK Fintan Gillespie but to name a few.
