ARTS ENTREPRENEUR WINS "GIFT OF TIME"

Conor McCarty and Mark Duckenfield, Directors, Emergent Events

Street performance World championship Wins the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award 2006.

A company, which staged the first ever Street Performance World Championship in Ireland in August of this year, has won the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award 2006.

Emergent Events directors, Conor McCarthy and Mark Duckenfield, were presented with their award at a ceremony in the Coach House, Dublin Castle, by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheal Martin, T.D. As overall winner of the award, McCarthy and Duckenfield won “the gift of time,” mentoring and consultancy advice worth over €80,000 from a selection of top Irish professional advisors and a cash prize of €10,000.

The street performance attached some of the best street entertainers in the world to Dublin. Performers from Australia, Canada, the USA, France, Sweden, Portugal, the UK and Ireland performed music, acrobatics, theatre and comedy to an audience of some 26,000 people.

Speaking at the presentation, Minister Martin said, “the directors and their team are lead role models for those who choose the entrepreneurial path. We need to continue to ensure that the spirit of entrepreneurship becomes embedded in the consciousness of Irish people especially among the young”.

The David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award is in its fourth year and, until this year, focused on rewarding enterprise in commerce. David Pierce, Chairman, David Manley Awards Committee, said, “in recognition of David Manley’s generosity with his time mentoring across different elements of society, we decided to expand the award to feature two additional dimensions – one recognising Social Entrepreneurs and one recognising Artistic Entrepreneurs.”