Derry Enterprise Week underway with tasty food tourism event

Derry’s Enterprise Week has got off to a mouth-watering start with a special event focused on opportunities within food tourism.

The city’s Guildhall was sizzling for the Taste Our Best event, attended by local chefs and hospitality figures, food producers and budding new talent in the catering industry, who gathered to hear from a series of industry experts.

Among those who took part were hospitality guru Georgina Campbell, award winning chef and TV presenter James McIntosh, No Salt Chef Brian McDermott and a host of tourism experts.

Showing off some of the premier local produce on offer throughout the region at the event were Dart Mountain Cheese, Flossie’s Fudge and the Walled City Brewery, who talked about their own approaches to product development. 

A number of tourism industry professionals, including Michelle Shirlow, CEO of Food NI and Elaine Groves, Naturally NI officer with NITB shared some of their expert insights into the current local market.

Enterprise Week is currently running at venues throughout the city with five days of business focused events spanning a range of industries organised by Derry City Council’s Business Opportunities team, delivered with support from Invest Northern Ireland through the European Regional Development Fund.

The Food Tourism Day opened the week-long programme of events which include panel discussions, workshops, meet the buyer events, one to one business consultations and case study presentations. 

A wide range of industry experts will be on hand to offer their insights, including leading social entrepreneur and founder of the Trampery, Charles Armstrong, Kara Academy founder Alan O’Neill, and Chief Economist with the Ulster Bank, Richard Ramsey.