Frontline: Economy Special
Prime Time takes a look at the economic crisis and investigate is there any light at the end of the tunnel. Presenter, Mark Little arrives to do a special feature in the Dublin Docklands area, where Hothouse Innovation Centre is situated. The well-established Hothouse Venture Programme helps start-up knowledge-intensive companies.
Bernadette O’Reilly, Centre Manager who was interviewed said that the current venture programme, Hothouse 17 is currently looking for new recruits. According to O’Reilly, many participants of the Hothouse programme, ‘Have the idea, the vision and the experience necessary to make the successful transition from employee to owner-manger. This is important in the context of current situation vis-à-vis the future of multinationals in Ireland,”
Andy Deegan of Breakout Gaming Concepts is one such example who is a recent Hothouse participant and a spin-out from DIT. Deegan gave a live demo of his action figure that can interact with on-screen computer games. He is also working on a new interactive communication system for disabled people.
Hothouse is actively looking for candidates for the next programme and Sara Hogan, Programme Manager is confident that Prime Time will generate a huge amount of interest. ‘We also hope to stress the importance of continued funding for initiatives such as the Hothouse Venture Programme because of the critical role they play in equipping the next generation of Irish entrepreneurs with the skills and tools that they need to building sustainable knowledge-intensive internationally trading businesses that will be the backbone of the new ‘smart’ economy” Sara added.
Details of recruitment drive for the 17 Hothouse Programme that will commence in March 2009 can be found here.
