Mary McAleese Visits SkySong in Arizona

The visit of the Irish president to SkySong highlighted the importance of forging global links for Irish companies. During her visit, Mary McAleese reflected on the current economic circumstances, the need for new thinking and the importance of Irish entrepreneurs forging the way for Ireland Inc.

According to Michael Crow, Arizona State University’s (ASU) President, the strategic partnership between ASU and Dublin City University (DCU), are examples of a new type of “open” university where communities, researchers, students and entrepreneurs meet to solve problems - including the current economic ones.

“Entrepreneurial enterprises based on a new paradigm will be the way forward and SkySong wants, and needs, to play an active role,” said Julia Rosen, ASU Associate Vice President for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

SkySong is a “best of breed” business gateway, combining elements of best practice examples from across the globe, according to Ron Immink, ex-manager of Invent-DCU and current CEO of Bookbuzz. “That is why Bookbuzz decided to open a base in Arizona,” said Immink.

“ASU is the largest university in the U.S., Arizona is 6th largest technology exporter in the USA and Phoenix is the fastest growing city in the U.S. At SkySong, companies have easy access to over 40% of the VCs in the United States. You have to be here. We did compare it to other university incubators and found that there is no comparison. They are simply more active and seem to be hungrier than other incubators for the business. The big difference is that SkySong actively engages with companies to link with their research centers, which are regarded as world class, but more importantly gives active access to all their business contacts to help grow their U.S. endeavors more rapidly. The value of that type of access into the U.S. market place, haloed by the SkySong and ASU brand, is immense.

“We are not the only ones interested in SkySong. There are currently 40 enterprises from 11 countries based in SkySong, with clusters in e-learning, ICT and sustainability - a real global mix. And at the visit of President McAleese, I met quite a few other Irish entrepreneurs and ex-pats, and I suspect there will be more to follow Bookbuzz. Personally, I cannot recommend it highly enough,” Immink said.

SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, is an interactive business environment in which individual entrepreneurs, global and U.S. enterprises, ASU researchers, and community members connect to bring new services and technologies to the marketplace. For more information about ASU SkySong, go to http://skysong.asu.edu. SkySong representatives will be visiting Ireland in April 2009. Qualified companies are invited to contact SkySong to discuss possible linkage.