I DON'T THINK ANYONE reading my Inside View blog attended last weekend's €300,000 think-in at the lovely Farmleigh House. This three-day photoshoot and chat session assembled some leading lights (Dermot Desmond, Moya Doherty, David McWilliams, Craig Barrett, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Susan Davis, James Hogan, Dermot Boden were a few attending). I doubt the attendees knew that just down the road, 300 entrepreneurs were talking about ways to bootstrap Ireland out of its financial mess. Nor will those Bizcamp Ireland strategies or the tearaways arising from Barcamp Cork (breakout session from Barcamp Southeast at right) figure in the Irish government's master plan. Some ideas have emerged on the pages of the Irish Times that provide a clue about how the movers and shakers were thinking. Here are some of the proposals.
-- Spend 4% of Irish GDP on research, thereby coming in line with other countries competing with Ireland for Foreign Direct Investment.
-- Establish a university of the arts to reap a spin-off from Ireland's cultural heritage.
-- Issue a government-backed "recovery bond" to be marketed to the 70m people wolrdwide who claim to be Irish.
-- Provide government funding to the Irish Technology Leadership Group in Silicon Valley.
-- Create a website linking with 1000 Irish movers and shakers abroad.
-- Pool third level resources more efficientlyt.
The Institute of Management in Ireland is summarising the proposals that emerged from the Farmleigh Smart Economy session. I'm interested in reading that.
Ciarán Hancock -- "Will Farmleigh Make a Difference?" in the Irish Times Weekend Review, 26 Sep 09.
Bonus Link -- LinkedIn discussion group for Innovation Ireland.
