President Michael D Higgins is to give the opening address at the Engineers Ireland annual conference this Friday.
The conference, which is taking place in Hotel Kilkenny, will address a number of issues, including how the sector can support a sustainable national economic recovery.
“The Irish economy is on an upward trajectory and the country’s industry is steadily regaining confidence. With this growing confidence it is now pertinent to ask at this year’s conference what the future holds for the Irish engineering sector and where we should focus our talents and investment to support sustainable economic growth,” Engineers Ireland president Bill Grimson said.
Hans van der Loo, an adviser to several international organisations including Nato, will discuss the world's shift to a new era, the Anthropocene, which is deemed to have begun with the first atomic bomb test during the Manhattan project in New Mexico in 1945.
The one-day event will also feature contributions from Environmental Protection Agency deputy director general Dara Lynott, Kilkenny senior hurling manager Brian Cody, IDA Ireland southeast regional manager Anne-Marie Tierney- Le Roux and Stephen Armstrong, professor of innovation at the University of Toronto.
Elsewhere, DCU is hosting a family business conference tomorrow. The aim of the conference is to explore how family- run businesses can attract and retain the best talent and manage the issues of staffing, and how to build a business culture based on family values. It will also examine best practice when it comes to getting non- family members involved.
The keynote speaker is Jim Ethier, former chief executive of Bush Brothers & Company, a US family-owned corporation best known for its tinned baked beans.
