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I didn’t know what a “super-angel” was a week ago but I definitely do after attending the EBAN congress. The team at Comit had the privilege of doing all the PR for HBAN, who hosted this year’s European Business Angel Congress on the 19th and 20th of May, and what an enjoyable two days it turned out to be.

More than 350 business angels, investors and entrepreneurs from around the world arrived in Dublin for the second largest angel event in the world. The attendees had  a clear passion for business angel investment and high tech start-ups. The networking and discussions that took place will help to significantly promote the role of angel investment in Ireland and across Europe.

Some of the highlights of the event for me were:

  • The impressive speaker line up: Hearing stories from both investors and entrepreneurs made for diverse, interesting and well-rounded presentations and discussions.

Speakers and topics of discussion included:

– The charismatic John Teeling, founder of Cooley Distillery whose hunger for entrepreneurship left everyone in the room inspired;
– Loretta McCarthy, a founding member of Golden Seeds the most active angel network in the US, tackled the issue of funding for female led companies;
– Candace Johnson, who was elected as the new EBAN president, had really interesting insights on where angel investment has the potential to go in the future and what might be involved in getting it there;
– The discussion on crowdfunding, which included Darren Westlake and David Drake on the panel, led to some lively debate on the new investment phenomenon.

 

  • The buzzing atmosphere: The bright future and excitement surrounding business angel investing was tangible. One of the things I emerged with from the conference was a deep respect for angel investors and what they do. In his presentation, Ciaran Connell, founder of DecaWave, discussed how he has tapped into 171 business angels who have invested in DecaWave. He said “Founders have to have faith. Angels have to have trust”. Both components are vital to the success of the angel – entrepreneur relationship. The conference made you see what an invaluable resource angel investing can be to entrepreneurs not only financially but also through the advice, experience and support that angels offer.

 

  • Exciting news: A Europe-wide initiative was launched by Paulo Andrez, EBAN President that is set to double early stage investment funds to €15 billion and create 1.5 million new jobs by 2017. The manifesto gathers thinking of early stage investors and entrepreneurs in 28 EU member states and aims to support the most innovative, technology oriented businesses to create real growth and jobs.

 

The event wouldn’t have been possible without EBAN but the diligence and hard work of the HBAN team was second to none. We would like to take this opportunity to say well done on pulling off a world class event and thank you for letting us be a part of it.

 

We had great fun pitching the story. Lots of early mornings.  National and broadcast interviews by the dozen! It is great to have a really strong story, especially one that impacts so deeply on an area we are all deeply passionate about: promoting Ireland’s tech  start-ups.

 

If you’d like to learn more about business angel investing and the EBAN conference have a look at the following snapshot of coverage about the event:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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