SFA Annual Conference 2016 - Next Generation Business

The world is changing and your business cannot stand still. You must adapt and evolve in order to succeed. The SFA Annual Conference 2016 equipped delegates with information, advice and inspiration to make their company a next generation business. Expert speakers, including business gurus, successful small business owners, policy makers and journalists shared insights on three key themes:

  • The workplace of the future – identifying the key strategic roles in your business, competing to recruit and retain staff, transforming the employer/employee relationship, future skills needs
  • The environment for success – digital technology, succession planning, business costs, innovation, the domestic and global economies
  • Due recognition for entrepreneurs – overcoming barriers, starting again after business failure, transforming Ireland's culture to be supportive of entrepreneurship, valuing small business and rewarding risk takers

Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, famous for his ‘heroic failure’ as an Olympic ski jumper (now in a cinema near you), delivered an inspiring keynote address on self-belief and following your dreams.

Other speakers included:

  • Sharon Ní Bheoláin, RTÉ News Anchor – Conference Chair
  • David Collings, DCU Professor named one of HR’s most influential thinkers
  • Edel Browne, 19-year old Entrepreneur in Residence, NUI Galway
  • Paul O’Toole, SOLAS CEO
  • Lorraine Scroope, serial entrepreneur and founder of The Hire Lab
  • AJ Noonan, SFA Chairman
  • Vicki O’Toole, Managing Director, JJ O’Toole
  • Bennet Holmes, President of 60,000 Rebounds Montpellier

We have produced a short video recap of the day, highlighting some of the main points made by the speakers and capturing the atmosphere and activity of the day, which is available here.

On 15 May the Sunday Business Post published a four-page pull out previewing the SFA Annual Conference. This can be viewed here.

The presentations delivered by David Collings and Thomas Cooney are attached.

The SFA's medium-term vision for the future of small business in Ireland, which was launched at the conference, is available here for download in full and summary form.

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