2010 Upcoming Meetings

Mark your Calendars for our next Summer Breakfast Meeting
August 4th

Our informal summer breakfast meetings takes place from 8.00am until 9.30am at Nash 19 on Princes Street, Cork.   Come along at whatever time you can make it. We look forward to catching up with everyone and seeing some new faces too!

Wed. September 8th, Maryborough Hotel, 6:15pm
'Getting more of the customers that you love!'
by Leanne Papaioannou, Managing Director,
Chilli Pepper Marketing

Leanne Papaioannou is an international marketing professional specialising in innovative Customer Retention and Loyalty Marketing Strategies.

One of the few specialist practitioners in the Irish Market, she has helped forward thinking blue-chip companies achieve new heights by following her strategies.
Download Leanne's Full Profile here

For more information on our upcoming meetings Click here

2010 Event Reviews

July 7th

Informal Summer Breakfast Meeting at Nash 19

June 2nd:
Benedicta Attoh & Mike Mansfield - Plan Ireland
Deirdre O’Shaughnessy - Haven Partnership in Haiti

Presentation of €7,500 to Plan Ireland from our recent 'Sex and the City' Fundraiser.

We heard the truly inspirational stories of three people who have worked closely with 2 fantastic charities. Their accounts of their work and experiences were fascinating to everyone in the room.  It was an honour to have them speak to us at Network Cork.

Benedicta Attoh

Benedicta, a training consultant based in Dundalk, is, first and foremost, a child sponsor with Plan Ireland. It is through her sponsorship of Adama in Burkina Faso, that she became engaged with Plan Ireland on a more active level and today is an Ambassador for our work with girls in the developing world. Benedicta represents so much of what Plan strives for - education and opportunity for all and ultimately given access to basic human rights, impoverished children can break free from poverty.

Congratulations to Benedicta who recently won the Vodafone Ireland Foundation's World of Difference competition!  Well done!

Mike Mansfield

Galway-native Mike Mansfield is Plan Ireland's Sponsor Relations Manager. Together with his small team, he looks after all 9,000 Irish child sponsors ensuring that all communications go out and come in on time and that word continues to grow about Plan and their work throughout the developing world. "It's a hugely satisfying role. To see the communication from the children and the sponsors is so heartening and to know that so many people from this small island and directly helping so many poor children in rural communities in far away countries is really inspiring"

Plan Ireland was established in 2003 as part of Plan International which is one of the oldest and largest international development agencies in the world. It's vision is of a world in which all children can realise their full potential in societies which respect their rights and dignities. It has no religious or political affiliations.

To find out more about Plan Ireland or to sponsor a child log on to www.plan.ie or call 1800 829 829.

Deirdre O’Shaughnessy

Cork Independent editor Deirdre O'Shaughnessy travelled to Haiti in May with the Haven Partnership, which builds homes in Haiti for the country's poorest residents. Following the devastating earthquake that destroyed Port au Prince, Haiti's capital, in January, Haven has committed to building 10,000 houses in the next four years for dispossessed Haitians.

Deirdre was inspired to raise money for Haven following the earthquake, but as a journalist also wanted to write about the impact the earthquake has had on real peoples' lives. After spending three months fundraising, with events like Hope for Haiti, The Mad Hatters' Ball, and the Monster Cork Table Quiz, she has raised over €12,000, with funds still coming in.

**BOOKED OUT**
May 31st : 'Sex and the City' Evening -
Charity Fundraiser
€7,500 Raised for

Plan Ireland!!!

Fun evening started off at the newly renovated Bodega, Cornmarket Street for Nibbles and Bubbly, followed by an exclusive private viewing of the much anticipated Sex and The City 2 Movie at The Gate Cinema, North Main St, Cork.

Many thanks to our sponsors: Pam from Sobe Brown, Isobel from Monreal, Jenny from Red Balloon, Tuula from Designworks and our media Partner The Cork Independent

See photos of this event Click Sex and the City Gallery

May 7th : Annual May Lunch & Business Awards

A hugely successful event held for the first time on the 17th floor of the County Hall.  The spectacular location, our speakers Gerald Keane & Elaine Crowley plus amazing support from all our members helped to make the day a huge success. 

Congratulations to all our Business Awards Winners:

Network Business Woman of the Year (Self-Employed) Yvonne Farrar of Kanvas

Network Business Woman of the Year (New Business) Pamela Morrissey of Sobe Brown

Network Business Woman of the Year (Employee) Renate Murphy of Cork Chamber
Congratulations also to Mary Leahy (Town & Country Hampers) who was commended on the day and again to Yvonne Farrar who was awarded the Keanes Perpetual Cup.

Thanks to all who helped to make the day such and positive and enjoyable event including our sponsors Brook Catering and Kean Business.

May 5th : 'How to Interact with the EU', European Commission, Dublin Office.

Soapbox Speakers on the Night:
Michelle Johnson of ASA Marketing told us about her fantastic promotional products – the best way to get your brand out there – www.asamarketing.eu 1850 272 172

Sandra Maher our president and Managing Director of Inspire Financial Options wowed us with info about the savings to be made by switching to Aviva Health through her and also their new service for employers offering a financial advice session to employees who have had their hours reduced or been made redundant – www.inspirefinancial.ie 1890 - 467747

Finally Joan Walsh from Partnership Europe spoke about her internship programme. She offers companies a chance to gain the skills and knowledge of foreign students and graduates by coordinating internships. www.partnershipeurope.com 021 425 1765

Overview

Cathy O’Sullivan from Enterprise Europe Network spoke about the supports her organisation has for businesses looking to operate in other European Countries. Through their network of over 600 sister groups in more than 40 countries, they have access to all the information & local contacts a businesses could need. www.een-ireland.ie

She also introduced the Ambassador Network for Female Entrepreneurship, whose aim is to highlight some of the leading role models in entrepreneurship in Europe and use them to inspire others to follow in their footsteps. 3 of these European Ambassadors are members of Network Cork and we’re very proud to have Mary O’Riordan, Chris Winning and Jola Wojtowicz amongst our number.

Jonathan Fallon and Deirdre Lynham from the European Commission’s Irish office were then on hand to speak about how to interact with the EU. It was very much a questions and answers session where we learned how the EU directives are interpreted by the individual members states. Other questions followed about funding from the EU and how to apply for it locally, employment law and an EU identity card.

The evening ended with networking over a glass of wine.

'Enable Success & Balance: Stress-Less & Ree-Laax'
with Julie Silfverberg, Success Partners

April 7th @ The Maryborough Hotel

Our thanks to Julie for giving us a deep insight into Stress, its toll physically and mentally and ways we can recongise it and manage it. 

Julie started Success Partners on her return to Ireland from Finland in 2003.  She has been working with NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) since the middle of the 1990s with executives. She has studied in the UK, Europe, Canada and the US. Julie has been coaching since the early 90s where she started in Finland. She says “In my experience organisational change, change in business, performance or personal development all ultimately comes down to people creating the change, so bottom line; it is all about the individual.”

Check out Julie's website and upcoming Training on www.successpartners.ie

'Savvy Style' with Joan Cashman,

3rd March, 6.15pm @ The Maryborough Hotel

Super turnout recently to hear Joan Cashman.  Everyone will agree that Joan was amazing on the night and provided us with a fun and informative meeting.

Joan Cashman is the inspiration behind The Colour and Image Academy - a unique centre that specialises in all aspects of makeup and image consultancy. Joan has had a long and distinguished career being the previous head of Colour Me Beautiful in Ireland. She has trained and coached more than 12,000 people and helped even more women and men with their corporate and personal image.

Joan says, whether we care to admit it or not we are judged on the way we look. The way we dress speaks volumes about our personalities, it's our way of saying this is who I am. If we make an effort in the mornings and we're turned out well, it makes us look and feel great and radiate confidence.

Check out Joan's website :
www.colourandimage.ie

How to get the best out of Networking with Martin Brennan,
3rd February, 6.15pm @ The Maryborough Hotel

What a great turnout - our second meeting of the year focused on networking skills.  Martin Brennan went through some useful networking tips and techniques with us on the evening.  His presentation was very well received - informative, interactive and fun. 

Martin Brennan is an Occupational Psychologist with close on 30 years experience in a variety of sectors and industries, e.g. Electronics, Public Service, Pharmaceuticals, and SMEs. Martin has national and international training experience and specialises in Management Training, Team Training,Coaching, Train the Trainer, Course Design and Accreditation. He has delivered training at Board, Senior Management, Middle Management and Operator Levels.

Martin holds a BBS (Honours Degree) from the University of Limerick and MA (Honours Degree) in Occupational Psychology from University College Cork. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Member of the Irish Institute of Training and Development. He set up Proactive Management in 1991.

Empowering the Next Generation of Women Business Leaders with Veronica Canning, Wednesday 20th January at
The Maryborough Hotel in Douglas.

Veronica Canning really hit home with her Thrive not Survive speech. The meeting was attended by over 50 members and guests who were very impressed by Veronica's approach.

She was motivational and inspirational in a very subtle manner which left us all thinking about focusing on where we want to be in 3 years time. She mentioned the idea of using vision boards to really visualise where you want to be in the future. Then she advised us to make sure that our actions in the next few days, weeks and years would bring us closer and not further away from that goal.

To find out more about Veronica’s speaking experience or to see a video of
“Shoeisms the Cards” please go to www.veronicacanning.com

More from the night

Check out our next Ezine for more photos from this event

Network - What we do

Network Ireland provides a forum where women in business, the professions and the Arts can exchange business ideas and increase their business contacts. It encourages women to achieve more satisfying careers and promotes women as worthy contributors to the Irish economy. It liaises with national and international organisations and creates links with Government and State bodies.