Castleisland aims to position itself as industry powerhouse
Castleisland Chamber Alliance is launching an ambitious plan involving scattered diaspora and other stakeholders to bring investment to the Kerry town.
An economic forum takes place at the River Island Hotel tomorrow in order to “get the town and district into focus as a realistic location for which to locate businesses in”.
The business alliance is targeting foreign direct investment companies, locally based international companies, and local start-ups.
Castleisland Chamber said there have been some notable advances in the past years, mostly in the area of commercial services and tourism initiatives, building on strengths for which the locality has been known.
The organisation said it believes more can be done to attract businesses to locate in the area.
“We still lack the backbone of industry and entrepreneurial investment to add to the area’s economic strength,” it said.
“To this end, we believe the Castleisland diaspora — the mafia of old, and schools alumni — could be a vitally important group to start gathering ideas and views from, and possibly in identifying entrepreneurs to kickstart the process of moving the area forward as an attractive place to locate business.”
A diaspora and alumni economic forum tomorrow afternoon will focus on the possibilities and hear the views of Castleisland and district people at home and away, said organisers.
Moderated by Miriam O’Callaghan, the panel includes acclaimed health entrepreneur and the first woman and first Kerry Global Chair of the Irish International Business Network, Liz Shanahan; partner at public relations firm FleishmanHillard, Orla Burke; and chief executive of digital advertising body IAB Ireland, Suzanne McElligott.
The panel also consists of Three Ireland’s chief information officer, Stephen Reidy; co-founder and group chief executive of Netwatch, David Walsh; co-founder and chief executive of Netfort, John Brosnan; and co-founder and chief executive of Compound Feed Engineering, Con Lynch.
