What Happens Next? Galway Founders Conference
About this Event
What Happens Next? Galway Founders Conference
Local Enterprise Office Galway presents
You have started. You have grown. What happens next?
Monday 16 November 2026 · 9.00am–1.30pm · Dexcom Stadium, Galway · Free to attend
Register your place
Places are limited. Breakfast and networking lunch included.
About the conference
You have built something. What happens next?
What Happens Next? is a free half-day conference for Galway founders and business leaders thinking about their next stage of growth. Hosted by LEO Galway at Dexcom Stadium, it brings together founders from technology, life sciences and beyond to share honest stories of setbacks, pivots and breakthroughs. Expect practical conversations on scaling, people, funding and putting AI to work. You'll leave with useful ideas, stronger connections and a clearer view of the decisions ahead.
Galway has no shortage of ambition. Across the city and county, founders have taken an idea, found their first customers and built businesses with real momentum. This morning is about celebrating that, and then asking the harder, more interesting question: what comes next?
This isn't a conference of polished origin stories and broad statements about innovation. It's a grounded, honest look at what growth actually involves: testing assumptions, hiring the right people, raising money, navigating regulation, and making big decisions before you have all the information.
You'll hear from founders who have been through the difficult middle and come out the other side, along with the support organisations, investors and advisers who help businesses get there.
Who it's for and what you'll leave with
Is this for you?
If you have a good business, a growing team and a nagging feeling that the next phase will ask something different of you, this morning is for you.
- Early-stage founders and entrepreneurs finding their first customers
- Owner-managers and SMEs moving beyond early traction
- Technology, medtech and life sciences businesses
- Leaders of established companies planning their next growth phase
- Researchers and innovators thinking about commercialisation
- Investors, advisers and enterprise support partners
- Emerging leaders and future founders
What you'll leave with
- Honest insight from founders who have scaled, pivoted and learned the hard way
- Practical ideas on people, funding, systems and growth you can apply on Monday morning
- A grounded view of AI: where it can add real value to your business, and what to protect along the way
- New connections with founders, business leaders, LEO Galway and the wider Galway enterprise community
- A clearer sense of the next decisions that matter for your business, and the supports available to help
The conversations
Four conversations. One question.
From Idea to Growing Business
How do you get from a good idea to a business with customers, revenue and real momentum? Three technology founders talk honestly about testing assumptions, earning customer confidence, hiring their first people and making calls before all the facts are in.
Growth is rarely neat. It gets easier when you learn from people who have already been through the difficult middle.
Scaling in Life Sciences: People, Funding and Growth
Great science is essential, but it isn't enough. Three life sciences leaders discuss what it really takes to scale in a complex, regulated sector: talent, investment, partnerships, commercial discipline and access to international markets.
In Conversation: What Happened Next?
Two focused, one-to-one conversations with leaders who have taken businesses further than most. David Barrett (Welliba) and Ursula Kelly (Cormac Tagging) share how businesses evolve, how leaders must adapt, and how to prepare for the next phase before market forces make it necessary.
The next stage isn't simply more of the same. It takes new skills, sound judgment and a willingness to change.
AI and the business of growth
There's no separate, overhyped AI session. Instead, practical questions about AI run through every conversation:
- Where can AI genuinely improve productivity in a small or medium-sized business?
- How do you move from experimenting to measurable value?
- What new products, services or markets might it open up?
- What should you protect along the way: your data, your IP, your judgement and your customers' trust?
- AI isn't just an IT question. It's a question about growth, leadership, skills and staying competitive.
Practical details and registration
Join Galway's founders and business leaders for a practical, honest and ambitious morning at Dexcom Stadium.
Register your free place
Hosted by Local Enterprise Office Galway, with the support of Enterprise Ireland, Galway County Council and Galway City Council.
Agenda
🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:30 PM
Arrival, registration, networking & light breakfast.
🕑: 09:30 AM - 09:40 AM
Welcome from Liam Hanrahan from Galway County Council
Host: Liam Hanrahan
Info: Director of Services - Economic Development & Planning at Galway County Council
🕑: 09:40 AM - 09:50 AM
Introduction from LEO Galway
Host: Caroline McDonagh, Head of Enterprise
🕑: 09:50 AM - 10:00 AM
Opening from event facilitator
Host: Dorothy Creaven
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:35 AM
Panel 1: From Idea to Growing Business
Host: Paul Killoran
🕑: 10:35 AM - 10:45 AM
Panel 1: Q & A
🕑: 10:45 AM - 11:20 AM
Panel 2: Scaling in Life Sciences: People, Funding and Growth
Host: Brian Shields
🕑: 11:20 AM - 11:30 AM
Panel 2: Q & A
🕑: 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Coffee break
🕑: 11:45 AM - 12:05 PM
In Conversation 1: What Happened Next?
Host: David Barrett
🕑: 12:05 PM - 12:15 PM
Q&A 1
🕑: 12:15 PM - 12:35 PM
In Conversation 2: What Happened Next?
Host: Ursula Kelly
🕑: 12:35 PM - 12:45 PM
Q&A 2
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:00 PM
Closing remarks and LEO Galway supports
🕑: 01:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Networking lunch
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
EUR 0.00
