Ann O'Dea
Ann O'Dea is an Irish businesswoman, the co-founder and CEO of Silicon Republic and the CEO of Inspirefest.Life
O'Dea co-founded the Silicon Republic online newspaper for science, business and technology with Darren McAuliffe in 2001. She is a champion of diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and set up the international conference to address inclusion at technology conferences.
2019 saw the fifth and final Inspirefest, with the event O'Dea curates being as in May 2020, with speakers already announced including US astronaut Joan Higgenbotham, and Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Brittany Kaiser.
She was awarded a fellowship of the Irish Computer Society for her work promoting women in the technology sector. She was co-inducted into the Irish Internet Association Hall of Fame with Darren McAuliffe.. She was awarded by Irish Tatler in 2014.
Opening the 2018 Inspirefest, the fourth year of the conference founded by Ann O'Dea, Ireland's Minister for Health Simon Harris "emphasised the role of women in STEM and said that the future was being invented by people like those at this event" in Dublin
