Our Year in Review | 2022
As we approach the end of 2022, we decided to take a quick trip down memory lane and look at all the exciting and interesting things we got up to in Republic of Work. So why don't you grab a cuppa and enjoy the throwback!
January
We eased into the new year the same as most, quietly looking forward to what was to come. We welcomed a new marketing team consisting of Nnenna and Colin, to help freshen up that element of our business.
On the flip side of new recruits, Frank, our CEO celebrated his fifth year working at RoW. What an achievement. He’s looking forward to five more.
Teamwork Catalyst, our SaaS incubator that we run in-house, opened applications for Cohort 3 - and the recruitment process began.
February
With cobwebs officially shaken off, we entered into the second month of the year as Nominees for ‘Business Hub of the Year’ in the Digital Business Ireland awards.
Thankfully we could finally resume having our monthly member meet-ups. We had our first members' night in a long time since the onset of the pandemic, and it was great to see people laughing and joking around altogether again.
March
Recorded a podcast with Riley for International Women's Day. Riley is on a mission to make eco-friendly, toxin-free period care accessible to absolutely everyone, wherever and whenever they need it.
The main event for March was celebrating our Birthday week. This was a week-long program full of various events and is our most exciting event of the year. We finished the week with a massive ‘Relaunch Party’ to celebrate our renovated space, and also the return to some form of normality.
We had two members' days this month: a St.Patricks Day parade watch party (we have the perfect viewing spot on the mall) and a Christmarch party! We didn't have a 2021 Christmas party, so the only solution was to have it then instead.
April
April saw us hold an event with the Spark Crowdfunding folks, where we got to listen to several up-and-coming businesses do the pitch of their lives in front of a panel of investors.
We also ran a ‘Find the Flyer’ campaign, which saw hundreds of Republic of Work flyers distributed across Cork City. Those who found the flyers were eligible to work for free from Republic of Work for the day. Did you find one?
May
May saw the opening of applications for our second Founder Weekend - A high-impact weekend sprint where businesses learn how to approach and define the many facets of a startup idea.
We hired a new programme manager Eshna - who has now very much become part of the furniture - we can’t imagine running our programs without her now!
JETRO, or the Japan External Trade Organisation, is a government-related organisation that promotes mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world - they stopped over in RoW for a quick visit and learned about what we do here.
June 2022
Early in June we hosted our edition of First Fridays for Startups. First Fridays for Startups is Ireland’s largest monthly startup ecosystem event, managed by Dogpatch Labs and hosted all across Ireland by Ireland’s leading startup hubs. It was a great day and loved the energy it brought to our building!
Later in the month, we hosted our second big event, Founder Weekend, a weekend-long ideation and innovation sprint. It was a chance for passionate entrepreneurs to meet each other and learn first-hand what it takes to move an idea from concept to reality.
July 2022
July was a sweltering month in Cork. We had our big summer social, which was sh!t shirt themed and took place in Crawford across the bridge from RoW. We had a great turnout and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
We opened applications for our edition of the NDRC Pre Accelerator. We were on the lookout for up-and-coming founders with a great idea to match.
August 2022
We opened applications for Cohort 4 of our Teamwork Catalyst program. We were in search of 10 companies to enrol and accelerate their startup journey!
International Coworking Day was August 9th, so we had to mark the occasion. We held a free coworking day to welcome newcomers in - and had a members' evening that night.
We welcomed yet another addition to the programmes team, Gennaro, whose role was to help Eshna and also boost our community engagement.
September 2022
September was a relatively quiet month in RoW terms. Some big news was that Grant Thornton joined us as one of our corporate sponsors. Our goal was to work together to bring more value to the local business community.
We had our team building day this month which involved going out to ZipIt in Farran to climb some super high poles, followed by some tasty food in the Anglers and a few drinks in town.
October 2022
Okay, October was a hectic month so we’ll try to condense this down as much as possible.
Frank and Eshna went to Sifted Summit.
We partnered up with Kruz to allow our members to test out some e-bikes and scooters.
Some of the team travelled to Belfast for First Fridays.
We announced the opening of our second location in Clonmel!
It was our turn to run a Pre Accelerator Showcase - what an event it was!
Ray Goggins came to visit and talked to us about the importance of resilience.
We launched a new podcast, Dive into Deeptech, with our very own Eshna being the host.
We attended the Cork Business Association Digital Marketing awards! We were up for the best use of Linkedin for Business.
Nnenna attended the first NDRC marketing offsite in Dogpatch Labs in Dublin.
We closed out the month with a Big Pink Breakfast, this was a charity event in aid of the Irish Cancer Society. That evening we held the third edition of the Mixer on the Mall - great fun as always.
November 2022
November was a tiny bit quieter than the previous month - but we still had a lot to attend to. First up was the inaugural Female Founder Awards where we were presenting the award for ‘Best Solopreneur of the year’. This fab event was organised by Sian Horn and her team!
We also celebrated Digital First Day in the RoW office. This national initiative reflects the objectives of the Government and the EU in respect of rural economic development, the circular economy, social enterprises as agents of change in society and more.
Some of the team went to the first Connected Hubs Summit in Athlone. It was an amazing event getting to meet all the other hubs and talk all things coworking!
December 2022
And here we end - the last month of the year! The biggest thing that happened this month was our ‘Winter Wonderland’ Christmas party! We transformed our lounge into the perfect festive retreat and invited all our members to enjoy a festive drink and some yuletide nibbles.
Similar to how we started the year - we’ve found ourselves once again nominated for the Digital Business Ireland Awards, in the section ‘Business Hub of the Year’. We’re hoping to nab the award this year - so watch this space!
Thanks for reading this far - it’s been a busy year. We’d like to thank anyone who reads this - the support means a lot. We hope you keep following our journey into 2023 as well.
Best wishes, Team RoW.