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Minister Heather Humphreys launches Ireland’s Edge 2017

By Business & Finance
08 November 2017
Heather Humphreys, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht , Philip King, founder Ireland’s Edge and Other Voices and Eamonn Sinnott, VP and GM, Intel in Smock Alley at the launch of Ireland’s Edge 2017
Heather Humphreys T.D., Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Philip King, founder Ireland’s Edge and Other Voices and Eamonn Sinnott, VP and GM, Intel, in Smock Alley at the launch of Ireland’s Edge 2017.

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys T.D. launched the third annual Ireland’s Edge conference, which will take place in Dingle, Co Kerry alongside the eir Other Voices weekend festival on the first weekend of December.

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys T.D., joined Other Voices founder Philip King and Eamon Sinnott, VP and General Manager of lead sponsor Intel, to launch the third annual Ireland’s Edge conference, which will take place in Dingle, Co Kerry alongside the eir Other Voices weekend festival on the first weekend of December.

The conference deals with what gives Ireland its unique edge in a competitive global economy, and focuses on how STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) can equip us as a nation to be more creative and innovative. It takes place alongside the long-running eir Other Voices music festival which runs throughout the town of Dingle over the weekend of 1st-3rd December.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Migration Nation’ and speakers include Ciaran Canon, T.D. Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with special responsibility for the Diaspora and International Development; Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland and Dr Christopher Kissane, historian and writer on migration. The platform for debate and discussion will explore the role of the Irish diaspora and how we might harness this immense resource.

At the launch Eamon Sinnott called the conference ‘the highlight of his year’. Other particular highlights of this year’s Ireland’s Edge conference include Prof Genevieve Bell, a cultural anthropologist and a recognised world leader in the ethnographic approach to the development, shaping and use of technology; John Mulholland, the Irish-born editor of the Observer newspaper; and Zainab Boladale, co-presenter of RTE’s news2day and the first Nigerian woman to work in the RTE newsroom.

Minister Humphreys referenced the fitting focus of the conference on “our country’s powerful tradition of invention and innovation in the context of a changing world”. She also spoke of her particular pride in the hugely successful eir Other Voices festival, which has travelled internationally to Germany and the USA, for “telling an exciting story about Ireland” and “boosting international perceptions” from a Gaeltacht base, and ended her speech on a humorous note with words from Leonard Cohen’s Closing Time about “the Johnnie Walker wisdom running high” during the weekend of the Other Voices festival.

A limited amount of tickets for Ireland’s Edge 2017: Migration Nation are available to the public through Eventbrite. The conference will be held at the Dingle Skellig Hotel, Dingle, Co Kerry on December 1st and 2nd and will be live streamed on www.facebook/IrelandsEdgeHQ.