Sarah Carroll, Founder & Managing Director, Eventznet

Sarah Carroll is founder and managing director of Eventznet.ie, the experts in getting events onto the net. Eventznet is a web based system for marketing and managing events, and for integrating online payment with event registration.

Eventznet allows Sarah to combine her primary skills in marketing and event organisation with her passion for inventing and realising software products since she founded the company in 2002. She spent many years working with TRADOS Inc as Director of Product Marketing responsible for the global introduction and commercial success of a wide portfolio of software products and solutions. At TRADOS, her customers included SAP, Microsoft, the bodies of the European Union, and Lucent Technologies. As well as the large conglomerates and bureaucracies, her customers also included localization service providers and freelance translators. She has also worked with Symantec, BowneGlobal, Marketing Image Group, and Trinity College Dublin. In an earlier incarnation, Sarah worked in theatre, film and TV – performing, directing, producing and many other roles including technical and stage management and company administration.

Eventznet has taken hundreds of thousands of bookings since it was first released in 2003, and has powered the registration and RSVP's for hundreds of events. Sarah and her team at Eventznet are fanatical about ensuring a smooth and trouble free experience for their customers and their events.

Sarah is evangelical about how the internet can help to market any event in a measurable and cost-effective manner. In mid-2005 she also founded NEO Ireland – the Network for Event Organisers in Ireland. NEO Ireland is designed to be the meeting space and market place for all those involved in the events industry. Members include hotels & conference venues, marketing executives, pa’s, civil servants, caterers, graphics and stands producers as well as professional events organisers. The networking is both physical at networking events, and virtual at the website: www.neoireland.com. The online directory of suppliers allows customers to give testimonials and ratings to suppliers, critical in this highly word-of-mouth driven industry.

In 2007, Sarah led the application process for funding for the Events Industry Skillnet through Skillnets Ltd, under the national training plan. The Events Industry Skillnet was successful in securing funding of almost .5 million euros over 2 years (2008/2009) for subsidised training and networking for the industry. The Events Industry Skillnet is administered by the new Centre for Excellence in Events, another of Sarah's inventions which is currently in inception phase.

In 2006, together with Alchemy Events Managing Director Des Doris, Sarah founded DonationPoint.ie – a service to people who are raising funds for charity that allows them to put their "sponsorship cards" online, with credit card donations going directly to the charity.

Sarah enjoys nothing more than seeing a market need and finding a solution that addresses it. She says that innovation is her middle name – and that the most difficult part of being an innovator is convincing her long suffering family and friends that this time it won’t consume her.