By Business & Finance 
Ireland has won a competitive global bid to co-host the Startup Nations Summit, which will take place in Cork during November 2016.
The Startup Nations Summit gathers a network of start-up community leaders and policymakers to help enable high impact entrepreneurship in nations across the globe.
The event is in its fifth year and is an initiative of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN).
It has never been held in Europe previously and is likely to draw hundreds of start-up policy makers, advisors, public and private sector organisations from around the world, who are interested in understanding and sharing international best practice in helping high impact entrepreneurs start and scale new enterprises.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD congratulated Startup Ireland and Cork innovates, the organisations which led the consortium to bring the event to Ireland in November 2016.
He said: “Ireland is garnering international attention for it’s successful creation of a strong supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurship. Start-ups are a key part of Ireland’s recovery and we want to help them create 70,000 of the 200,000 jobs we will create by 2020.
“The Startup Gathering in 2015 was a clear example of how we are working regionally, nationally and internationally to support the start-up community, through policy, programmes and promotion. We are delighted that Ireland is the first European country ever to host Startup Nations Summit in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network.”
President of GEN Jonathan Ortmans commented: “The Government of Ireland has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to setting a policy environment that allows entrepreneurs to flourish. Bringing the global policy and start-up community leaders to Ireland will further advance a fast moving global dialogue on the most impactful policies and programs that can be replicated in countries around the world – while highlighting the rapid expansion of Ireland’s start-up ecosystem.”
Startup Ireland, a partnership committed to advancing the country’s start-up sector, led the effort in partnership with Cork Innovates.
Siobhán Finn will act as project director for the Startup Gathering 2016 on behalf of the Startup Ireland board and will lead the planning process from Cork.
“Cork is a prime European location for Startup Nations Summit in 2016. The vision of the local authorities, business support agencies and educational institutions in the Region have been working together for the last number of years, through Cork innovates, to drive and nurture entrepreneurship and innovation in the Cork region,” said Finn.
“The fact that GEN have selected Cork as the location of choice for this global event is testament to the determination and commitment of this collaboration to create a model start-up ecosystem.”
