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Local man’s sports business wins UCC’s competition

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DKANE 23/04/2021 REPRO FREE Ignite Graduate Patrick O’Regan from Reachthetop a platform to streamline the NCAA recruitment process. They are part of the most recent group of graduates from the IGNITE programme which just held its Awards and Showcase for Spring 2021. IGNITE is an international award-winning start-up incubation programme at University College Cork, supporting recent graduate entrepreneurs to turn good ideas into great businesses. Pic Darragh Kane

SUCCESS: Patrick O'Regan has won a prestigious University College Cork entrepreneur competition.

By Sean Moriarty
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Better known for his roles as the secretary of Spa GAA Club or as a player for St Paul’s Basketball Club, Killarney man Patrick O’Regan has been declared the winner of the IGNITE business start-up-competition organised by University College Cork.

The Coolcorcoran man’s business start-up project, entitled 'Reach The Top' will help ease the difficult process faced by National Collegiate Athletic Association in America that wish to recruit potential international basketball stars.

While his online and cloud project is suitable for all sports and includes a secondary element where clubs can use software to analyse matches and player performances to get it off the ground, he will concentrate on US basketball.

“We are going to tog off here in Ireland and play ball in America,” he told the Killarney Advertiser.
Collegiate basketball is big business in America with many colleges having multi-million dollar budgets.
Currently, US-based scouts would fly around the world looking for new talent. Aside from the expense of all of this there is an incredible amount of paperwork and administration involved. All of this is time consuming and expensive.

Mr O’Regan’s platform aims to streamline this process and make the application easier for both the player and the university.

He also hopes to put more potential players in front of colleges, which will reduce the current expense and allow colleges to vet more potential athletes.

“We are doing all the pre-screening work for the colleges and on behalf of the athlete,” he added. “It will reduce the admin time significantly and reduce the costs for colleges who fly around the world looking for potential players. It will also help players from disadvantaged backgrounds get further up the ranks.”
IGNITE nurtures start-ups from an idea to commercial reality and this is the 13th group of graduates to complete the programme. Seven entrepreneurs including Patrick have become the first founders to complete the IGNITE programme entirely online this year.

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Chamber’s emphasis on cyber security

  Businesses in Killarney have been fully briefed on what measures they need to taketo ensure greater cyber security to protect their companies. Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce hosted […]

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Businesses in Killarney have been fully briefed on what measures they need to take
to ensure greater cyber security to protect their companies.

Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce hosted a very informative breakfast
briefing in the International Hotel at which they keynote speakers were cyber security
experts Mike Dennehy and Ger McAuliffe from progressive local company Tricel.
The opening question at the event was how will a business operate tomorrow if it
loses access to its data today?
Mike and Ger recommended that all employers to include IT training as part of the
induction programme for new entrants, organise monthly awareness training for all
employees and to conduct monthly spot-checks to ensure everything is going
according to plan.
It was essential, they pointed out not to give the same level of access to all
employees to reduce risk and to devise a disaster recovery plan in case it is needed.
Companies have also been advised not to allow the public to use their private wi-fi
network and, instead, to set up a public or guest network.
Chamber thanked the experts from Tricel for their engaging talk which certainly put
the spotlight very firmly on the need to enhance cyber security measures.

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Win tickets for Killarney for Palestine sold-out INEC show

Killarney for Palestine has announced a fundraising competition that will give Killarney Advertiser readers a chance to win two tickets to the sold-out Night for Palestine concert in the INEC […]

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Killarney for Palestine has announced a fundraising competition that will give Killarney Advertiser readers a chance to win two tickets to the sold-out Night for Palestine concert in the INEC on December 19.

The event, which features Amble, Beoga and Clare Sands, has already reached full capacity, but the group is offering two tickets along with a €250 Gleneagle Hotel Group voucher, which can also be used at the Brehon.
To enter, supporters are asked to make a minimum €5 donation to the group’s Chuffed campaign, which is raising funds for urgent medical support for a displaced family in Gaza.

The link to the campaign is:

http://chuffed.org/project/154575-urgent-medical-relief-for-mohammad-basyouni-his-kids

After donating, entrants must email proof of donation to:
killarneyforpalestine@yahoo.com
The competition runs on the group’s Instagram page @killarneyforpalestine, where full instructions are listed. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on November 29.
Killarney for Palestine says all proceeds from the INEC event will support Aclaí Palestine, a community gym based in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem.

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