In 2015, Head Stemette Anne-Marie Imafidon was part of an InspireFest panel on the ‘next generation in tech’, in Dublin, to talk about the upcoming Outbox Incubator. In 2016, Outbox Incubator cofounder Mary Carty returned to the same stage with programme Alumni. Here some of them share their experience and what they’ve been up to since the programme.
Niamh Scanlon, Founder of Recharge my eCar
Since Outbox Incubator, I have been awarded EU Digital Girl of the Year 2015. This award is given to girls who have shown an interest in coding and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and are encouraging more girls to get involved. I have also spoken at International Woman’s Day (run by Accenture in Dublin), at the Minds and Machines Europe Conference in Paris (run by General Electric) and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where I met people like Will.i.am, Bono and Ariana Huffington. Over the past few months, I have been working on my app, Auto-Journalist, which won runner-up in Apps at the Coolest Projects Awards 2016 in June. I’m still using all the skills I’ve learned at Outbox, particularly how to give public talks.
At Inspirefest 2016, I got to meet up with lots of the other Outbox Execs which was a lot of fun! The event was amazing and I loved talking about coding and CoderDojo on stage.
Vanessa Greene, Founder of LooRate and Cofounder of Leanu Tech
On Friday I was lucky enough to speak alongside Outbox execs, Edel, Elle and Niambh, about our experience of Outbox at Silicon Republic’s second annual Inspirefest. We shared this panel with Outbox Incubator co-founder, Mary Carty and Inspirefest founder Ann O’Dea. I couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate array of women to share a panel with as I am inspired by these women on a regular basis.
I spent three weeks in the Outbox house where I worked on two different startups whilst also focusing on my personal growth. These startups were LooRate, an application to allow the rating of public restrooms, and Leanú Technologies, which built bespoke applications for businesses. Unfortunately in the past academic year, these startups were put on hold but I’ve many plans in mind for LooRate.
The lessons I learnt in Outbox weren’t put to waste as many sessions have translated into improving many of my personal and business skills, they have also come in very handy when it comes to my studies.
Not only did the sessions teach me essential lessons, but they also inspired me to continue the gender conversation into the rest of my passions, creating Echoing STEM. Echoing STEM is a YouTube channel and blog which aims to inspire young people into STEM by discussing it with various people in industry and musicians.
I am very grateful to have spoken at Inspirefest. I attended the event last year and am so pleased with its growth. I am astounded by the quality of every talk at the event. It is rare to see so many passionate and noteworthy speeches after one another. The name Inspirefest really does it justice! You will without a doubt be inspired consistently throughout the event.
Lucy Fuggle, Founder of TalentWorks
Lucy did a write-up of the conference, which you can read here on SiliconRepublic or on her Medium blog.
I owe a lot to the world becoming a more diverse place. I believe I’ve had more opportunities available to me than any other generation, especially as a twenty-three-year-old woman entering STEM from the arts.
Finally, an interview with Mary ahead of the conference
