It was around 8pm on a Saturday night that I got a text from my friend Wolfy, asking if I wanted to go, with him and my friend Tadhg, to a Bank of Ireland talk in Leopardstown racecourse. I said yes.
So on the 21st of November 2017, Wolfgang, Tadhg, and I set off for Leopardstown, at around 7am. We arrived in time for the talk which started around 8am. The talk was about expanding your business and, more important to a 15 year old, how to understand the environment you’re in and how to catch the attention of possible business partners.
The Talk started off with anybody willing to, placing their business card in a box, more on that later, followed by an introduction from Bobby Kerr, the Co-founder of the Insomnia franchise. He told of how difficult it was for him in those first few months starting out a company. Next five guest speakers were invited onstage and each speaker was given 2 minutes to explain what they thought were helpful tips on how to network. Some of the topics were, “Understanding your Market,” and, “How to write that killer email,” and, “How to catch anyone’s attention in 7 seconds,” etc… Also a member of the Irish Women’s Rugby squad was there to talk about how failure is only a temporary setback in life.
Of the five guest speakers, the topic spoken about that caught my interest the most was the talk about catching anyone’s attention in 7 seconds. The premise behind this talk was that a human’s attention span is only 7 seconds long. This means that you only have 7 seconds to catch a potential business partners attention. He gave us one example of how his friend, who made internet podcasts, went to an event and couldn’t keep anyone interested long enough to explain his business. After telling his friend to introduce himself differently, he instantly got loads of attention. The line was “Hi, my name is Bill, and I make people famous.” By playing with words he was able to catch a client’s eye in seconds.
After the speakers were finished, Gavin Duffy (famous for his part on Dragon’s Den) came onstage to talk to all of us about the importance of being engaging in business. After he spoke, that box of business cards I spoke of earlier, was taken, then shaken, and each of the five guest speakers were asked to pick a card at random. These randomly picked cards correlated to members of the audience. These members would soon be asked to come onstage to give a 1 minute pitch as to why we should do business with them. The winner of the five was chosen by Gavin Duffy and Bobby Kerr and he got 4 free enterprise classes with Bank of Ireland.
During the breaks between speakers, we visited a multitude of stalls. The two most interesting stalls were the GO-Car stalls, a company that rents out cars placed on the streets in various places in Ireland, and a real-estate agency called Sheridan Estates. I may have snagged a deal with the real estate agency but it’s only the day of the event now so I’m not expecting a reply just yet.
Overall I enjoyed the experience. The talks were informative, and I feel like I learned something new.
So on the 21st of November 2017, Wolfgang, Tadhg, and I set off for Leopardstown, at around 7am. We arrived in time for the talk which started around 8am. The talk was about expanding your business and, more important to a 15 year old, how to understand the environment you’re in and how to catch the attention of possible business partners.
The Talk started off with anybody willing to, placing their business card in a box, more on that later, followed by an introduction from Bobby Kerr, the Co-founder of the Insomnia franchise. He told of how difficult it was for him in those first few months starting out a company. Next five guest speakers were invited onstage and each speaker was given 2 minutes to explain what they thought were helpful tips on how to network. Some of the topics were, “Understanding your Market,” and, “How to write that killer email,” and, “How to catch anyone’s attention in 7 seconds,” etc… Also a member of the Irish Women’s Rugby squad was there to talk about how failure is only a temporary setback in life.
Of the five guest speakers, the topic spoken about that caught my interest the most was the talk about catching anyone’s attention in 7 seconds. The premise behind this talk was that a human’s attention span is only 7 seconds long. This means that you only have 7 seconds to catch a potential business partners attention. He gave us one example of how his friend, who made internet podcasts, went to an event and couldn’t keep anyone interested long enough to explain his business. After telling his friend to introduce himself differently, he instantly got loads of attention. The line was “Hi, my name is Bill, and I make people famous.” By playing with words he was able to catch a client’s eye in seconds.
After the speakers were finished, Gavin Duffy (famous for his part on Dragon’s Den) came onstage to talk to all of us about the importance of being engaging in business. After he spoke, that box of business cards I spoke of earlier, was taken, then shaken, and each of the five guest speakers were asked to pick a card at random. These randomly picked cards correlated to members of the audience. These members would soon be asked to come onstage to give a 1 minute pitch as to why we should do business with them. The winner of the five was chosen by Gavin Duffy and Bobby Kerr and he got 4 free enterprise classes with Bank of Ireland.
During the breaks between speakers, we visited a multitude of stalls. The two most interesting stalls were the GO-Car stalls, a company that rents out cars placed on the streets in various places in Ireland, and a real-estate agency called Sheridan Estates. I may have snagged a deal with the real estate agency but it’s only the day of the event now so I’m not expecting a reply just yet.
Overall I enjoyed the experience. The talks were informative, and I feel like I learned something new.