As we entered into this new phase of Dogpatch a unique opportunity presented itself to partner with one of the most successful agricultural innovators & entrepreneurs in the world — Dr. Pearse Lyons — to run a global agri-tech accelerator.

In January 2015, the Journal.ie published their 20 Under 20 list for the year, a selection of Ireland’s “most promising young talent,” from budding sportstars to young scientists to teenage entrepreneurs. I was over the moon after seeing myself on the list and got plenty of congratulations from people who knew me. However, there wasn’t much more in making the list and I quickly forgot about it.

Here at Dogpatch our team works with all members of the tech ecosystem – from startups and solopreneurs to universities and multinationals – supporting them to innovate through events such as team-building innovation workshops, knowledge sharing meetups, and highly curated intro-accelerating networking events. One of the event formats we use to help organisations to innovate is through Hackathons and Startup Weekends, which help immerse the organisation in the world of innovation over a few days. If you’re asking yourself “What is a hackathon?”, we’ll explain it briefly. The term comes from a combination of two seemingly unrelated words: Hack –…