Spotlight on Arclabs - Making Ideas Work

In association with Enterprise Ireland, this is an exciting new series on WLR's business programme The Hot Desk. Arclabs is WIT's Research and Innovation Centre and business incubator, supporting entrepreneurship in the South East from its sites in Waterford and Kilkenny.

Over the month of September, Hot Desk presenter Mary O'Neill will talk to various people who are based at or connected to, Arclabs. She'll find out first hand the level of enterprise and creativity that originates there.

Episode 1 - Arclabs Manager Aisling O'Neill and Miguel Ponce De Leon of The Walton Institute

This aired on Wednesday, September 8th. Mary spoke to Aisling O'Neill and Miguel Ponce De Leon, who set the scene for the weeks ahead.

Aisling is Manager of ArcLabs. She believes the centre represents a unique entrepreneurial ecosystem, marrying academia, research, innovation and enterprise. Aisling is active in advocating for the South East region in terms of our capacity to support high potential start-ups. She supports the ArcLabs community while seeking entrepreneurs and business ideas for the future development of ArcLabs. Aisling is open to business ideas and ways that WIT can support the development of enterprise in the region.

Miguel is the TSSG Technology Gateway Manager at Walton Institute, where he is responsible for engaging with industrial R&D activities, helping start-ups, micro-SME’s, SME’s and Multinational companies with their research and innovation needs.

Episode 2 - SportX - The Sports Tech Pre-Accelerator for the South East

This episode aired on Wednesday September 15th. Resolve Partners has teamed up with Arclabs and the WIT Arena, UPMC and SportsTech Ireland on this programme.

To find out more, Mary spoke with David Scanlon, Director at Resolve Partners. David has been involved with digital technology and start-ups throughout his career. He spent over a decade working for Enterprise Ireland across a variety of distinct roles, most recently involved with the Start in Ireland programme, designed to attract HPSU companies to Ireland from overseas.

Mary also discussed SportX with John Windle. John is General Manager for UPMC Sports Medicine and UPMC Institute for Health in Ireland. He is also a Board member of Ireland Active and Student Sport Ireland which aims to increase activity and Health across Ireland in both third level education and in the public and private fitness and health space in Ireland.

Also in studio was Donna Drohan, WIT Arena Facilities & Events Manager. Donna has been employed at WIT Novus since 2008. She was responsible for the project management of WIT Arena from the greenfield site to present day. Donna has also been involved in all stages of strategic management of the WIT Arena site from business plan to operational plan and revenue generation stream.

Episode 3 - Klearcom - IVR Testing Software Platform

This aired on September 22nd. Klearcom provides a SaaS platform enabling Contact Centres to verify that their IVR (Interactive Voice Recorder) is working, and customers can get through to agents. Klearcom's AI-based software helps companies prevent and recover faster from outages. The start-up recently won the NDRC Investors Showcase.

To discuss the Klearcom, and the benefits of setting up at Arclabs, Mary was joined by Liam Dunne, the company's CEO. Liam is a serial entrepreneur and Klearcom is his 4th start-up involvement. He believes passionately in Waterford and the South East as the best place to start and grow an export-led business.

Klearcom COO, Mark Rohan was also in studio. Mark is a thought leader within the technology space, having worked within the telecommunications and technology sectors for over 20 years. As a native of Waterford, he is passionate about bringing employment back to the county and believes that with the selection of local talent this can be achieved.

Episode 4: The Voice Industry and MarketCloud

In the final episode, which aired on September 29th, Mary spoke to Christine Scarry and Patrick O'Gorman. Christine has a background in the arts and has recently set up The Voice Industry. She joined Arclabs as a coworker to develop a business plan to create an innovative voice care centre in Ireland. Christine tells me she tapped into the network and expertise of ArcLabs to realise this goal.

Patrick O'Gorman is the owner of Market Cloud, an online marketing and recruitment service. The Tipperary native is a final year marketing student in WIT. Patrick set up his company Market Cloud in January as part of a student entrepreneurship programme affiliated with WIT. His services aim to help SMEs with their recruitment processes through targeted marketing. Patrick was part of the Student Enterpreneurship Bootcamp at Arclabs.