During the afternoon of our second day in Dublin we were welcomed by the Chartered Accountants Ireland to attend presentations of three key note speakers. We got the opportunity to get  insights in the achievements of SalesForce and Microsoft. Next to that, we learned more about SEO migration through the knowledge sharing moment of Eamonn O’Raghallaigh, adjunct lecturer at Trinity Business School. The day ended in a very fun way during the networking reception with – yay! – some free drinks.

At the start of the session, alumni Yannick Convens and Debbie de Bruijn tried to enthuse us to kick start a career in sales. By sharing their own experiences from the past, we learned that you cannot be a great salesperson as of day one. Instead, you learn so much on the job itself by failing sometimes but succeeding the next time.Of course, the master programme that we are currently attending helps us to succeed even faster!

The next speaker was Eamonn O’Raghallaigh, a true Irishman, recognizable by his typical Irish name. He introduced us in the very interesting subject of SEO migration in web development. He made us realize that the impact of changing your website is far greater than just altering certain page names or titles. When you don’t keep track of what URLs you’re changing, your business could lose its place in the Google search, resulting in catastrophic losses for your company. Adjust those URLs is the message here!

The third and last speaker of the afternoon was Annelies Bulkens, Inside Sales Manager at Microsoft. She gave us an insight on how to build a digital sales organisation, as well as how Microsoft takes on this challenge specifically. Maintaining a personal relationship while scaling up the business was one of the challenges, but Annelies stressed the importance of keeping this personal touch. We also got the opportunity to ask her a number of questions which she answered in a very constructive and educational manner.

The afternoon ended very nicely with an informal drink in a typical Irish pub called “The Lombard”, where we had the chance to enhance our networking skills. Several employees from Google, Microsoft and other very interesting companies such as LinkedIn were present. They were very willing to answer all our burning questions about working at those companies, moving to Dublin and enjoying life. The fact that the drinks were paid by Vlerick made this an extra amusing end of our second day in Dublin. Cheers!