Inside Ireland's most exciting tech, science, and arts fest

It's a ground-breaking festival embracing technology, science, arts, diversity and inclusivity. Inspirefest just wrapped up in Dublin. 

Now in its 4th year, Inspirefest, founded by Silicon Republic CEO and co-founder Ann O'Dea, sees 3,000 delegates flocking to Dublin to hear 50 keynote speakers from 20 countries at Dublin's Bord Gais Theatre.  

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Inspirefest

Inspirefest aims to celebrate and challenge perspectives and norms relating to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) and the arts. The themes for this year’s event varied from Environmental and Marine Science to Space Exploration, tackling the biases in Artificial Intelligence and the Talent Dividend that can be created by companies embracing those with differences, from Autism to Blindness and beyond. The festival ran June 21 - 22, with Ireland's Minister for Health Simon Harris giving the opening remarks. 

Speakers included:

• Surbhi Sarna, the 32-Year old whose start-up nVision Medical has just sold to Boston Scientific for US $275m
• Liza Donnelly, Cartoonist and Writer for The New Yorker and leading Me Too advocate.
• Claire Lee, Head of Early-Stage Banking at Silicon Valley Bank
• Beatboxer, Reeps One – The collision of technology and the arts will also be tackled with renowned Beatboxer, Reeps One teaming up with Nokia Bell Labs’ Experiments in Arts and Technology (EAT) group to perform a world-first duet between himself and his digital beatboxing artificial intelligence (AI) twin.
• Zoe Philpott returns to Inspirefest to collaborate in the development of her latest interactive story: Ada’s Army. With a bag of postage labels, a chair and five hundred metres of string, Zoe will be inviting Inspirefest attendees to update history with the overlooked STEM greats who just happen to be women.

Weren't in Dublin to join in on the fun? Don't fret! IrishCentral has videos from each day from Inspirefest:

Day 1 highlights: 

Taylor Denise Richardson, AKA Astronaut Starbright

Liza Donnelly, New Yorker Cartoonist: 

Day 2 highlights: 

Nilofer Merchant

For more information, visit InspireFest.com