Conference programme

Graham Shaw knows what it takes to turn talent into a team that performs under pressure. A former elite athlete and international hockey coach, he made history by leading the Ireland Women’s Hockey team to the 2018 World Cup Final, the first Irish team ever to reach that stage. He was later named RTÉ Manager of the Year and coached New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Today, Graham works with leadership teams and organisations, bringing lessons from elite sport into the world of business, growth and high-performance culture.

The role of European start-ups and venture capital, market trends and cross-border strategies.

Updates on the EU strategy for start-ups and venture capital. New EU legislative initiative towards a unified EU start-up encouragement plan.

This session will cover the following topics:

• Revenue-based financing and alternative funding structures.
• Corporate venture building vs traditional VC.
• Scale-ups and PE funds' arrival.
• Venture lending and credit markets.
• Government grants and innovation funds across Europe.

Funding rounds, key legal terms, international expansion, and talent incentives across Europe.

Delegates will participate in sector-focused roundtable discussions.

This session will focus on the market conditions, challenges and opportunities for founders and investors in European start-ups and fast growth companies considering an exit.

• What sectors are attracting buyers?
• Are likely buyers, financial or strategics?
• Are sellers’ expectations being met on valuations?
• Do public markets provide a realistic exit option?

Board composition considerations from incorporation through late stage, including how it evolves, how to treat leaving founders on the board and when to onboard independent directors.

Digital, and increasingly, AI capabilities are at the center of every ambitious organisation’s plans, from start-up to multinational and nation state. However, in a technological landscape dominated by a few players, mostly from two countries, the rest of us face an apparent trade-off between sovereignty and leveraging the capabilities of these technologies. This fireside chat between two practitioners will explore how to navigate these choices.