Mary McKenna at #SharedIsland Rural & Community Development

It was a great honour to be invited to contribute last week to the #SharedIsland Dialogue in Ireland. My theme was rural development, social enterprise and getting the best out of the new hub network. In the spirit of remote working and using the hubs, I joined from #GTEIC in Gweedore (although I sorely missed meeting everyone who was in the room in Monaghan, but it's somewhat true that you can't be in two places at once!)

In my 5 minute guest address, I make some suggestions about how to achieve a more prosperous (rural) island of Ireland & I talk particularly about:

* unlocking the economic power of women on this island
* deciding what sort of future entrepreneurial ecosystem we want & then starting to build it
* how talent is distributed equally but opportunity certainly isn't
* using government resources to make many people across our island moderately wealthy instead of just a few (usually men) super-rich
* giving our diaspora something tangible to invest & share in instead of always asking them to do stuff for us for free
* how the agencies North & South are missing a trick by not figuring out how to engage properly with social enterprises
* how to make those rural hubs "hum" with opportunity
* starting AwakenHub with my co-founders as a social enterprise

The video is below & I hope you enjoy it. Feedback & comments welcome.
Thanks to Clare McGee Mary Ann Pierce Sinead Crowley Mary Carty Denise McQuaid AwakenHub
Thanks to the Shared Island Unit and the Office of the Taoiseach & especially Katie Daughen for the invite & thanks to Údarás na Gaeltachta & GTEIC team members Mícheál Ó Duibhir & Mícheál Ó hÉanaigh (Michael Heaney) for their excellent help on the day.