This session focuses on the current crisis companies find themselves in. Its goal is to provide support and practical advice for the here and now. Many SMEs are focussed on survival, today we will hear from four key speakers on practical guidance to navigate these unprecedented times.

Welcome Address: Neil McDonnell, Chief Executive of ISME and Dr. Tomás Mac Eochagain, Academic Director, Griffith College

Enabling Remote Working: Nick Aikman, Channel Sales Manager at 8x8 and Stephen Mackarel, Managing Director, workair Ireland

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Banking Supports and Reliefs: Catherine Moroney, Head of Business Banking, AIB

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A Practical Guide to Government Crisis Relief Supports: Naomi Butler, Head of Tax Compliance, KSi Faulkner Orr

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Q&A Video with Naomi Butler

Data, data everywhere. There is no question that we are living in the age of working with big data. Spanning across businesses of all sizes, from a giant conglomerate working with regional customer insight teams to a local retail business reviewing their first Shopify analytics report. The prestigious report from Gartner, The Magic Quadrant lists business intelligence analytics as one of the key areas it tracks as a growing global trend. More and more businesses are differentiating themselves from the competition with powerful data visualisation. This strategy can improve efficiencies and allow for better team information sharing, communication and understanding. With more eyes and minds focused on data than ever before the Covid-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to analyse and your historical information and data to mine insights for better decision making in the future. There has never been a time like this before for many businesses where the focus can move from day to day management to focus solely on strategic planning. The only questions remaining are what does success look like to you and do you know the right questions to be asking the data in front of you?

Keynote: Eimer Hannon

Facilitator: Michael Bosonnet 

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• Google Digital Garage is a Google and IAB certification that takes you through the fundamentals of digital marketing to help grow your business.

Financial management is the heart of an organisation’s success and essential to the long-term sustainability of an organisation. This session focuses on the objectives of financial management including maximising value and providing key support to management for decision-making. The SME owner/manager will gain an appreciation of working capital management and important analysis techniques while also considering the current economic factors and related financing sources available to businesses. These skills will assist you in exploring the financial environment in which your business operates and understanding the practice and importance of working capital management. By the end of the session, SME owner/managers will have gained insight into financial analysis, sources of finance and the measurement of performance and efficiency.

Keynote: Mark McEnroe

Facilitator: Suzanne Burdis 

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Additional Resources:

• AIB cash flow planner
• BOI cash flow template
• SBCI business plan template

This workshop addresses privacy, conduct and data protection essentials for businesses facing new challenges with global remote working and preparing to return to on-site operations. While many organisations have enabled privacy compliance programmes to meet General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, many are still on the journey. The thrust into global remote working has posed new challenges, some of which must be handled by strengthening privacy, employee conduct, data protection policies and procedures. In this webinar we explore those changes, discuss practical options to implement improvements and answer questions from the group. Also, we review recent regulator guidance and court decisions that will require even more changes this year and next for all businesses for both their physical and digital operations.

Keynote: John Popolizio, sovy.com

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Facilitator: Michael Bosonnet

Eventually, our businesses will need to be restarted and our strategies re-thought. Taxation has always been, and will continue to be, a key player in our fire-fighting endeavours as well being a major influence in our strategic decisions. This session addresses two pivotal areas. Firstly, firefighting – negotiating your way through the myriad of COVID-19 tax supports, including the wage subsidy scheme. Secondly, strategising – including areas such as succession planning, entrepreneur relief, retirement relief and buyback.

Keynote: Tom Maguire 

Facilitator: Paula Byrne

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Jim Power provides a macro-level overview of the global economic landscape post-COVID-19. This facilitated session focuses on the concepts, perspectives and tools associated with the discipline of strategy formulation and development. It places the concepts and tools within the complexities of undertaking business in this unprecedented market context to go beyond the prescriptive “toolbox” approach to strategy making.

Keynote: Jim Power

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Facilitator: Justin Keogan

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