American students visit Ludgate Hub

A CLASS of 32 visiting MBA students and their professors from Syracuse University, New York got the opportunity to visit the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen this week. 

The group was on a Global Entrepreneurship & Innovation tour of Ireland, as part of their programme, to learn about global, regional and national business in a range of countries by visiting progressive companies and meeting with local business leaders.

Their first stop in Skibbereen, was to Spearline Labs for a tour and presentation with CEO Kevin Buckley and following this they visited the Ludgate Hub, where they participated in a lecture with Lord David Puttnam.

‘The work of Ludgate@Skibbereen is really amazing and was a great chance to meet Ireland’s Digital Ambassador, Lord Puttnam, together with local entrepreneurs and business owners who are part of the initiative so the students could take in the work of Ludgate@Skibbereen from various perspectives,’ said Eliska Dovoleova, Programme Manager for International Study Programmes and Syracuse University.

The MBA students came to Ireland to examine the global linkages in the innovations process, in which technologies are converted into marketable products and services.

 Ireland has long been known as the ‘Isle of Saints & Scholars’ and has continued this tradition for knowledge creations and innovation over the past 20 years.

‘We hope to develop further links with Syracuse University and hope they enjoyed their trip to Skibbereen. We had a fantastic, insightful sessions with the students and hope they can visit us again in the not so distant future,’ said Gráinne Dwyer, Project Director with the Ludgate Hub.

Ludgate is a not-for-profit initiative, which aims to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Skibbereen and West Cork region. The end goal is to create a digitally enabled rural society in which innovators can create and expand their businesses in rural Ireland whilst competing on a global scale. The Ludgate Hub is the first of its kind in a non-urban area and has the same Internet connectivity as Toyko.