Thursday, Last Day in Belfast

We started our day by attending an IT Conference on Cloud Computing at the Titanic Museum.   The 5th floor is a conference center that has a replica of the grand staircase which is off the public tour.   It was a thrill seeing it.   There was a speaker from Salesforce.com which was very good.  This was all about creating jobs for Northern Ireland.  I enjoyed this.


We then listened to 4 speakers over in the office building we've been working in.   The first one was William McCarter who was in a family business that created underwear for many years.   He also chaired the International Fund for Ireland, which was a pot of money that would be given to worthy causes to help build businesses, created jobs within Ireland.   

Then we heard Sr. George Quigley.    He was President of the Ulster Bank for many years before he retired  (yes the same one that out he major outage last weekend) and Chairman of the Bombardier company board.   He has been working for years to get the corporate tax in Northern Ireland lowered from 28% to something near what the Republic of Ireland has which is 12.5%.  

We then heard from Lisa Bradley who is a professor of International Studies.   She asked each of us to give us a difference we've observed in the business world since we've been here.   I said that the CEOs are much more humble and down to earth people who have been willing to spend lots of time with us.

Colm McGormick from Maildistiller then spoke.    His goal through the companies he starts is to create jobs for the local economy.   He wants to give back to his community.   

We then took a small bus to a company called Andor.   They have 350 people worldwide and about 250 in Belfast and they make cameras that help in the process of curing diseases and other scientific causes.    It was a beautiful facility and we got to tour the manufacturing floor.   The CEO Connor Walsh was extremely impressive.   He has led his company through 30% growth in only 5 years and his company is voted one of the best companies to work for.   

Bryan Keating, the investor we interviewed on Tuesday also spoke to the group.   He talked about taking risks and also that you are never to old to become an entrepreneur.

We had a team dinner at McCrackins.   I had my first Irish steak and it was delicious, I was glad I didn't miss out on that.   Tomorrow we leave at 8 am to go back to Dublin for our final day of the course.