Munster Express Online

Waterford Chamber welcomed Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon to Waterford on Thursday last (October 9th) as the keynote speaker at their Industrial Technologies and Operational Excellence Conference at the Tower Hotel.
Sponsored by Vodafone Ireland, the day-long event hosted over 100 professionals from the engineering and ICT sectors and delegates were addressed by Ms Sinnamon on ‘Driving Enterprise and Delivering Jobs’.
“We work with ambitious Irish-owned companies to help them start and grow through international sales and our vision is for Irish companies to be a powerhouse of job creation and economic growth in Ireland.”
Ms Sinnamon went on to make reference to a number of Waterford based companies who have come to the fore in recent years, including Eishtec, Dawn Meats, Feed Henry and EirGen Pharma and said that Ireland and Irish companies are measuring themselves against world class standards, which is encouraging and certainly positive for future economic growth.
In keeping with the Operational Excellence topic, Ms Sinnamon said “In a global market place, only the lean will thrive. Excellence is a choice – firms need to choose to be excellent, to do the hard work to strive for excellence. It requires a planned, concerted effort by firms and a holistic, business-wide approach to improving performance.”
Vodafone took the lead on the Internet of Things, led by Enterprise Director Anne Sheehan.
“It’s not just about connecting business systems – it’s also about connecting products and machines. The Internet of Things is the new frontier and an area where Vodafone is taking a leading role. Irish companies are at the forefront of this revolution. Agri-engineering firm Richard Keenan & Co is based not far from here in Carlow and is an example of a company which has employed cloud and internet of things technology to effectively conquer the world.”
Ms Sheehan was followed by Gerry McCourt, Head of Mobility Solutions, who discussed Emerging Trends for Technology in Irish Business. Conan Condon of the Keenan Group, also spoke on how technology and connectivity has changed their agricultural business, allowing them to provide very direct support to their global customer base, to achieve efficiency, productivity and ultimately profitability for their customers.
There were also presentations from Dr Stephen McGrath, Teva Pharmaceuticals, on Operational Excellence: Lean Transformation of a QC Lab and Ken McClannon, who spoke about the Holistic Design of a New Healthcare Factory.
Afternoon breakout sessions were facilitated by Roger Greene of WIT on Sustainable Energy Management, while Patrick Quinn, Genzyme, led a session on Operational Excellence – Managing Lean Transformations.
Speaking at the event, Waterford Chamber President Michael O’Dwyer said: “This conference has grown to become a very significant event on the Waterford Chamber calendar and one we take great pride in organising each year. We are delighted to have an international brand such as Vodafone affiliated with the event and are pleased to confirm they will continue their sponsorship next year. They are the perfect partners for an event such as this and are changing the face of technology not just in Ireland but around the world. The topics, the discussions and the feedback from today has been hugely positive and we look forward to growing the conference in the years ahead.”
The conference was supported by WIT, Waterford Chamber Skillnet and Waterford Local Enterprise Office.