www.eebfex.com

Over 100 entrepreneurs and developed businesses have attended First Eastern European Business Forum & Exhibition in Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin.

Irish-Russian Enterprise Centre in cooperation with The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) and Institute of Minority Entrepreneurship (DIT) with financial help from the Government of Russian Federation are pleased to announce that over 100 local Eastern-European business leaders and representatives of Irish and Ethnic political, financial and business supporting groups attended First Eastern European Business Forum in Ireland at the Dublin Institute of Technology on 12th April 2008. The event is part of Intercultural and Anti Racism Week and the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, 2008. It is organised by representatives of the Eastern European community in Ireland.

The Forum proved to be a huge success with the participants, sponsors and speakers. Eastern European Business Forum has been organized to act as a vital step in supporting local ethnic businesses with advice, networking & communicational, financial and governmental help for starting, growing and developing the business or business idea.

Research shows that if new or growing businesses continue to take advice and support, there is a much greater chance of them surviving and reaching full potential.

EEB Forum’s mission was to facilitate networking and inter-trading opportunities among members and to promote good business practices. It also provided ‘business inspiration’ for business start-ups, small & medium sized enterprises and owner managers of the Eastern European business community in Ireland.

The Forum was arranged as an Exhibition style event, featuring the main sponsors of the event, enabling local businesses and entrepreneurs to meet, exchange ideas and discover new local suppliers and potential customers before participating in the Group sessions seminars laid on to provide education in business development: Networking and Communication, Financial Support, Business Planning and Business Support.

Honorary guests and speakers included Dr. Tom Cooney (IME, Director, and DIT), Anastasia Crickley (NCCRI, Chairman), Declan Byrne (Director, Byrne and Conroy Consulting), Andrei Nedosekin (Russian Embassy), Dr. Constantin Gurdjiev, Mazhar Ali Bari (ECRI and Chamber of Commerce), Ken Germaine (Chief Executive Officer, BASE Enterprise Centre Limited), Angela Leigh-Doyle (Commercial Branch Manager, Bank of Ireland), Patricia Callan (SFA, Director), Noreen Kavanagh (Emerge Skillnet, Director) and others.

Sergey Tarutin, The Chairman of the SBCI group who publishes 7 periodic titles in 3 Eastern European Languages in Ireland and UK and owns World Media Distributions, well established Eastern European newspaper distribution group commented, “This has been the best attended event we have ever held. The Group sessions enabled everybody to both network and leave stimulated with new ways of achieving their primary business objectives and being able to solve different issues for to succeed in this highly volatile business environment.”

Declan Byrne, of Byrne & Conroy Consulting, has also added that: ’ …. I thought everything worked very well, particularly the individual workshops ….. everyone was encouraged by the conference and everyone seemed to learn a lot.’

This Forum has laid the first stone in the continuous encouragement for Eastern European expatriates to start, grow and develop their business in Ireland.

Background Information:

According to recent assessments there are about 250,000 Eastern Europeans permanently based in Ireland with some of them well settled in 2009 with offices in Dublin and other major Irish cities.