Two North Belfast entrepreneurs are set to take to the BarCamp Belfast 2024 stage next week in the city’s Oh Yeah Music Centre.
The event will see Marty Neill, AirPOS Pay CEO and Tina Calder, Chief Vision Officer of Excalibur Press, represent North Belfast on the Main Stage and Bar Stage respectively.
As part of Belfast Tech Week, which will run from September 28 – October 4 this year, organisers Marty Neill and Martin Gillchrist have built upon Belfast’s first and only unconference, which took place back in 2009.
15 years later, Belfast will see a return of the ‘un’conference at the Oh Yeah Centre on October 4, bringing a unique networking opportunity for professionals and business owners to connect with technology experts.
A unique spin on traditional conferences and events, Belfast BarCamp’s speakers are selected voluntarily from amongst the list of registered attendees, removing the hierarchical structure of inviting individuals purely to hear from them, instead facilitating a space that values everyone involved.
The unconventionally-structured day allows for collaborative business development and socialisation whilst intentionally straying from stagnant networking occasions.
North Belfast native Marty Neill may have co-organised the event, but the businessman is also amongst the list of speakers for Belfast BarCamp 2024, delivering a talk and subsequent Q&A on ‘Why Payment Facilitation (PAYFAC) Will Mean The End Of Software Subscriptions’.
The pre-lunch 30 minute speech will delve into payment processing strategies in an attempt to help professionals reclaim their money rather than wasting precious financial resources, specifically tackling the cost of living crisis one penny at a time.
Speaking on why he decided to bring another unconference to Belfast, and the significance that the event has on the local industry, Marty said: “With tech and entrepreneurial culture now very much shifting towards working from home we felt it was more important than ever to get the community together and Belfast Tech Week looked like the perfect time to do it.
“BarCamps and Biz Camps thrived back in the day as places to meet, spaces to learn and as environments where the sparks of starting something were lit.
“We’re hoping that we’ll see some of the older heads from the original events rubbing shoulders with the new generation of makers and builders, transferring knowledge, making contacts and hopefully sharing some collective wisdom over a pint or two.”
Also hailing from North Belfast, Excalibur Press frontwoman Tina Calder will appear on the Bar Stage at 11.50am to discuss her talk ‘Using AI To Supercharge Your Entrepreneurial Journey’, an in-depth look at how the transformative power of artificial intelligence can be positively utilised within a business.
Tina has decades of experience working in marketing, communications and journalism, with her background making her well-versed in growth, including through the use of often-feared AI tools such as ChatGPT, but her half an hour speech aims to alter business owners’ mindsets for the better.
She said: “I heard about BarCamp on LinkedIn and it’s a new concept to me in that I’ve never been involved in a user-generated unconference before.
“I love the idea of an event crafted solely by the people who step up and volunteer their time to get involved.
“It has created what is an incredibly exciting and interesting lineup and one I’m delighted to be part of.”
Adding to why she chose to get involved with the day, Tina said: “It’s such an interesting concept that allows for collaborative creativity and offers an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs and founders alike to craft an event they would want to attend.
“The eclectic nature of the talks and speakers means it’s a day that will undoubtedly offer a mixture of learning, collaboration and networking.
A total of sixteen attendees-turned-speakers have been confirmed for Belfast BarCamp, which will commence from 10am to 6pm on Friday, October 4.
For more information about #BelfastBarCamp2024 and to register interest for the October 4 event go to barcampbelfast.com