Young Guns Go For It (020, Mar 2011)

On the day after the TDs elected to the 31st Dail meet for the very first time, Banter talks to a couple of new Irish businesses about life in 2011.

As our new government prepare to take office against a backdrop of economic doom and gloom, life outside Leinster House for new, aspiring Irish businesses goes on as normal. The well-documented problems which businesses face on the ground won’t change overnight just because there’s a new man at the helm of the Department of the Taoiseach.

But while these are tough times for business people like our three guests, this state of affairs has not stopped them – or hundreds like them – from giving it a go. Instead of expanding energy on giving out or planning a life abroad, they’re spending their time and energy working on nascent business ideas and seeing where it all goes from here.

On the agenda: innovation, ideas, ingenuity, funding, optimism and the future.

On the panel: Anne Bedos (Rothar), Colin Harmon (3FE Coffee & Cafรฉ), Al Coleman (Onlineadvertising.ie and TEDxLiffey). “Going forward”: Jim Carroll.