Fumbally Exchange members Asia Matters recently organised a successful initiative entitled Asia Business Week Dublin. Its success was due in large part to the support of the Fumbally family, writes Stephanie FitzGerald-Smith of Asia Matters.
Starting life in the Fumbally Family
Having run initiatives in Ireland, the UK and Japan, in early 2014 Asia Matters founder and Executive Director, Martin Murray, and Chairman, Alan Dukes set out their plan for expansion. After they recruited two returning Irish professionals from Asia (Ronan Lenihan from Singapore, and Stephanie FitzGerald-Smith from Shanghai), the next step was to find a home.
Following a recommendation from Kieran Rose of Dublin City Council, Asia Matters was connected to the good people at Fumbally to start life on the High Potential Start Up programme in March 2014. From the outset, the community spirit in Fumbally was a huge support to the Asia Matters team. Being part of a community where everyone is friendly, helpful and full of life, really motivates you to want to come to work everyday, and if ever you need advice — no matter what industry, no matter how big or small your business — Fumbally has the answer.
How Fumbally supported Asia Matters in the run up to Asia Business Week 2014
Asia Business Week Dublin was a huge undertaking for a team of three people. The initiative included four key events linking in Ministers, Ambassadors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and many more, while business and government delegations flew in from China, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Fumbally: a knowledge pool of experts from a multitude of backgrounds
As part of Asia Business Week 2014, Asia Matters commissioned an award to be presented to Coder Dojo for their contribution to building connections between Ireland and Asia. Starting with an abstract concept for a design combining both the Chinese Year of the Horse and binary code – no easy feat – we were at a loss on how to go about this or who to contact.
Of course, our first port of call was the Fumbally network and Bernard Gilna connected us with Gerald Nolan of the National College of Art and Design, with whom he had previously worked. Gerald designed a stunning perspex trophy, incorporating the traditional Chinese and Japanese character for horse, as well as engraving the award title in binary code.
Everyone in Fumbally knows somebody
In the run up to Asia Business Week Dublin, several members of the Fumbally Exchange linked us with people likely to be interested in our event. Lynda Stopford recommended that we connect with Start-Up Ireland as our Chinese delegation were looking to meet with Irish start-ups. Further discussion with those working in the PR and Media industry resulted in recommendations and advice on how to handle our external communications, Kathryn Mason and Yvonne Judge. Others like Graham Thew were always there to lend a hand with graphic design advice, while The Cake Club kept our energies up!
Fumbally: a community at the heart of the city
All in all, being based in Fumbally Exchange in the heart of the city was very important to us as we shuttled back and forth to the event venue, the Mansion House, and being part of such a supportive and close-knit, helpful community really stood to us in the run up to Asia Business Week Dublin 2014. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for the support from our fellow Fumballiers.
More about Asia Matters
Asia Matters is an independent, not for profit, educational think tank based in Dublin focused on the EU Asia business relationship.
The Chairman is Alan Dukes, former Irish Minister for Finance.
It began in January 2012 as a not-for profit, independent think tank, focusing on the Ireland/EU-Asia business relationship. The first initiatives of Asia Matters were to organise large scale business networking events to link the A-list of key stakeholders in the Irish-Asian business relationship.
Asia Matters’ birth filled a very substantial gap in the market in terms of Ireland’s engagement with a rising Asia. Rising economies such as China, India and Indonesia, as well as key partners such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, represent huge potential markets for Irish companies and no dedicated institution existed to work with Dublin City, the Irish government, The European Commission and Asian governments to help further unlock this potential. Simply put, we help Irish companies reach senior government and business people in these markets and understand how to do business better in Asia.