December's Mayo Open Coffee Club Meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 7th, in the Harlequin Hotel, Castlebar, at 11am, and there will be a distinctly Christmas feel to the event. Hosts the Harlequin Hotel will lay on some mince pies to add a seasonal flavour, and Belmullet-based event photographer Proinsias Mac an Tuile from Tullylens (www.tullylens.com) will come along to take festive shots of the attendance. The topic this month will be on "Sources of Funding for Start-Ups and SME's" and a panel of experts from South West Mayo Development Company, Mayo CEB, Mayo North East and Enterprise Ireland will be there to answer questions from the audience.

MOCC is a business network run by businesspeople for businesspeople. The event is free of charge. All meetings start at 11am and last between one hour and 90 minutes.

All you have to do is turn up on the day. More details on the Mayo Open Coffee Club are available on http://mayo-open-coffee-club.org/, or you can email any of the organisers: Judith Feehan (iibccastlebar@gmit.ie), Robert Grealis (Robert@thediscoverypartnership.com) Maria Staunton (Maria.Staunton@gmit.ie), or Liam Horan (liam.horan@slinuacareers.com).

Start-up businesses, people with the germ of an idea, and established businesses all find the Open Coffee Club a useful vehicle to get in touch with what's happening in the business world around Mayo.

The IiBC's in GMIT Castlebar & Galway have created the following:
160+ jobs created
€45,000,000 funding raised by client companies
14 HPSU (high potential start-up) companies created
17 successful spin outs
80 companies in 6 years