The first network meeting of 2012 will take place on February 7th at 6.30pm in The Bush Hotel, Carrick on Shannon.

The theme for the meeting is “Networking to Grow Your Business” with Pat Carroll from Touch Communications.

Pat Carroll

BIO

After more than 25 years working in the traditional sales and marketing world,Pat made the transition in early 2010 into the exciting new area of social media. He worked for over a year as Business Development Manager with Irish social network, ’RendezVous353’.  In this capacity, he established and grew the network of Irish people globally, over this period to over 10,000 members.
During this time, he orchestrated the PR and event management of the network’s official launches in the U.S. and U.K. (in New York & London, respectively).  Though international travel and working with Irish networks, ’on the ground’ was a part of this; most of the growth took place ‘virally’ –online.  He utilized the social media tools of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter extensively, to achieve the goal of connecting with the vast global Irish Diaspora.(See Global Irish Networkspage)

Recent Article in the Irish Times

Touch Communications

Set up last February, this new company aims to provide a mix between social media, digital marketing and public-relations services in the Irish market. Founder Pat Carroll had previously worked with company RendezVous353, which built up a network of Irish persons globally. Carroll noticed a gap in the market in integrating social media into marketing strategies and Touch Communications was born.

Funding for the business has come from a mixture of government start-up funds and personal savings. “With the current economic climate a lot of people are about reinvention so it is a great time to reinvent yourself,” says Carroll. “It is very liberating to work for yourself after many years of working for other organisations. It is going very well, even though the company is only 10 months old.

“I’m doing a lot of work in London and New York and this year I hope to build on international connections and link up great Irish companies with international markets.”