The WDC has been announced as a Silver Sponsor for the upcoming PorterShed Spark conference, taking place in Galway.
Galway will host a national gathering of global technology leaders this April as PorterShed marks ten years of building an innovation ecosystem in the West with the launch of PorterShed Spark, an invite-only one-day summit at Dexcom Stadium on 23 April 2026. Spark will bring together international venture capital, European AI infrastructure leadership and the head of Ireland’s state enterprise agency alongside founders, operators and policymakers for a future-focused conversation on what comes next for technology, entrepreneurship and innovation beyond capital cities.
Emphasising the importance of partnership in driving growth across the West and North West, WDC CEO Allan Mulrooney said:
“At the Western Development Commission, our role is to support economic and social development across the West and North West of Ireland by backing entrepreneurs, supporting communities and helping new ideas become real opportunities. For the past ten years, PorterShed has been a key partner in that journey, a place where founders connect, challenge ideas and build companies with the potential to scale from the West to global markets. Through initiatives like the Western Investment Fund and the Connected Hubs network, we have seen first-hand the impact of strong collaboration and vibrant innovation spaces. Our new strategy places partnership at the centre of everything we do, because regions succeed when organisations work together”.
“We are delighted to support the PorterShed Spark Ten Year Event and congratulate the team on this milestone. What has been built here matters not just for Galway, but for the wider region, and we look forward to continuing this journey together over the next decade.”
A new independent socio-economic impact study by KPMG, assessing PorterShed’s contribution to the regional economy between 2016 and 2026, will be unveiled during the event. Rather than marking its ten-year milestone with reflection alone, Spark has been designed as a forward-looking convening: a curated line-up of industry leaders sharing real-world experience, emerging trends and practical insight across infrastructure, AI capacity, investment, talent and global market access.
Mary Rodgers, CEO of PorterShed, said the intention is to bring together the people actively shaping what comes next. “Spark is about bringing the right people into the room, founders, investors, infrastructure leaders and policymakers who are actively building. The West has already shown it can produce globally relevant companies. Now it’s about ambition, connection and making sure the next decade is even stronger.”
The speaker line-up reflects that ambition. Sean Blanchfield, CEO and Co-Founder of Jentic, previously co-founded Demonware, Phorest and PageFair. Demonware was acquired by Activision Blizzard and continues to power multiplayer infrastructure behind the global Call of Duty franchise, while PageFair was acquired in 2018. Blanchfield also serves on the Irish Government’s AI Advisory Council.
From the United States, Elaine Brennan, Executive Director of Global Strategic Partnerships at Northwell Health, brings experience from one of the largest healthcare systems in the US, spanning pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device innovation partnerships.
Albane Bruyas, Chief Operating Officer of Scaleway, represents Europe’s critical digital infrastructure layer. She oversees operations across 12 data centres and has led deployment of one of Europe’s largest AI cloud infrastructures, with 5,000 GPUs already active.
Also speaking is Jenny Melia, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, the state agency responsible for supporting Irish companies to grow and compete globally, bringing direct insight into how high-potential start-ups secure investment and international market access. US venture capital perspective will come from Mike Krenn, Managing Director of Prebys Ventures, a $50 million evergreen fund investing exclusively in San Diego-based life sciences and technology companies, reinvesting returns back into the region in perpetuity to strengthen the local innovation economy.
The programme also includes Mark Little, founder of Storyful (acquired by News Corp) and Kinzen (acquired by Spotify), and former Vice President for Media at Twitter in Europe; Stuart Brydson, with more than 35 years’ experience across enterprise software leaders including Siebel Systems, Oracle and ServiceNow; Paul Hayes, Founder and Director of Beachhut PR and long-time advisor to Irish start-ups; and Rob O’Shaughnessy, known globally to more than 40,000 developers as Rob Shocks, an educator in the world of AI development.
Collectively, the speakers represent expertise across venture capital, state policy, AI infrastructure, healthcare innovation, enterprise software and founder-led companies operating internationally.
Alongside the main stage programme, companies from across the West of Ireland, from early-stage ventures to internationally active firms, will present on a dedicated demonstration stage, highlighting the pipeline of innovation emerging from the region.
The daytime programme concludes with a black-tie dinner recognising the founders, agencies and partners who have contributed to building the ecosystem over the past decade.
Find out more: www.portershed.com/spark
