I’m really pleased to see how well the Leitrim Business Network is taking off. Johnny Beirne from Leitrim CEB and the team are really pushing it forward. I love seeing them evangelise the opportunities presented by online networking through tools like LinkedIn and of course the site itself is a group blog.

it@cork has shown how useful and influential a professional local business network can be, particularly one that understands technology. It has also become clear to me that the CEBs are moving things up a notch. The Tech-Check initiative continues to impress me daily. Seeing South Cork CEB attend the Cork OpenCoffees tells me that they see a strong match between their mandate and all the small web start-ups that are popping up.

Online networking tools can  help overcome the difficulties faced by those living and working in rural areas. Whilst the face to face of it@cork, Soho Solo and OpenCoffee is critical, these can now be bolstered by LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, Jaiku, Qik, UStream, Web Conferencing etc. I hope 2008 is a year of major experimentation with all of these so that you can live in Goleen, Arvagh, Donnybrook or Birr and be equally visible and accessible to your professional network.

2 Comments for this entry