FOI’d Visit Dublin which is part of Fáilte Ireland. Remember that Loving Dublin thing in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre? Did you know they got €5k ex VAT from Failte Ireland as it encouraged people from the UK to travel to Ireland? Now you do. The money was to help in “Repositioning Dublin as a cool, contemporary, edgy city break destination”
Good news too. They expect 10k people (lots from the UK) in 2015 and 15k in 2016. Hmm, people from the UK coming over in 2016. Great!
(Click to enlarge etc.)
I asked Failte Ireland too if “communications between Fáilte Ireland and employees of LovinDublin on content/editorial decisions of
LovinDublin” and they said they didn’t contact them with any issues about their content. Maybe people from the UK will Love content like this? It’s “edgy” alright.
Posted in Ireland, irishblogs | Comments Off on Fáilte Ireland and Lovin Dublin
Boom, 110 SMEs have entered the Blacknight SME Awards. Really happy with that. In 3 years we’ll probably see 400+ SMEs enter and once again our main issue is we can’t find a venue that will hold all the finalists.
What is a “full-stack” startup? Startups that control all aspects of their product, like Apple. Compare this to replying on key parts made by others. Microsoft makes the software but needs to work with Intel and others for hardware. This can be very limiting.
Jim blogs about how he runs his events. Banter is a superb cultural series at this stage. Free to attend with an amazing amount of guests who are asked proper questions by Jim and the audience.
Kind of in the same light. Blacksmiths make their own tools. Apple designs their own manufacturing plants. Jonny Ive doesn’t just design the iPhones you know…
Remember the amazing series “The Secret Life of Machines“? I wonder was the new series of Cosmos influenced by it?
Jeff Bezos really involved in the Washington Times digital initiatives including make a really clever news app that isn’t supported by the majority of tablets and phones out there. That makes sense.
Baidu was the Google killer in China. Now Baidu is being killed. Google still nowhere in search share for one of the biggest countries in the world.
Jeez, this is a very Apple heavy Fluffy Links but still. Apple Pay to be used for US Govt payments. Pretty huge, this.
Developing with WatchKit 1.0. Remember the early days of iPhone apps? We’re slightly past that point when it comes to Apple Watch development but it’s still probably that basic and awkwardly new.
What Fáilte Ireland spent around Web Summit 2013 and 2014
Pretty lights!
€60k light job
2014
Design of Online Le Cool Guide to Dublin – €4000 ex VAT – Link to Issuu
€13,715.68 on hosting media organisations for the Web Summit, flights and accommodation included.
Rest of 2014 payments are for walking tours around Dublin
2013
Design of Web Summit Dublin Guide and Online Guide by LeCool – €8500 ex VAT Link
Printing costs of said guide €9,550
Lighting of Trinity College during Web Summit €48,985 ex VAT, goes to €60k with VAT
Jogging tours of Dublin – €2,018
2 Buses for Jogging Tours – €900
Videos about the Web Summit 1 30 second video, 1 2-3minute video, 1 2 minute video – €13,100 ex VAT
Video to include “cool young hipster types, speakers, tech geniuses”
Pre-promotion media event for International media – flights, accom etc. €4065
Fáilte Ireland Web Summit Costs
Posted in business, Events | Comments Off on Fáilte Ireland and the Web Summit
Constraints are good, really good. Legendary Apple designer Susan Kare shares two nuggets of advice.
Freebooting. Stealing content and using it as your own. Mostly without attribution. Those “Lad” Facebook Pages are a great example. Though you see it on Twitter wholesale too. Your tweet “quoted” instead of Retweeted so the freebooter gets the credit.
Telepathy. A comms app for iPhone, iPad without the need for a mobile network or Internet connection. So when they shut down our phone networks when we rise up, they can’t stop the comms.
How To Destroy The Web – Bruce Lawson
Crazy scary robot cutters
Posted in Fluffy, irishblogs | Comments Off on Fluffy Links – Monday January 26th 2015
That new Bjórk album, was expecting to end up in a dark hole with my mascara running because of the sadness. It’s some album but I think I need to listen to it lots or read the lyrics sheet that came with it.
And I just wanted to get that headline out before anyone else.
Posted in irishblogs, music | Comments Off on Björken hearted
2012: €80,000 ex VAT
2013: €140,000 ex VAT
2014: €100,000 ex VAT
The below is for a press conference and networking event at the 2014 Summit. From IDA “Our networking event in the National Museum which had over 200 clients and potential investors present. We also had a press announcement with national and international media in the building to coincide with the event.”
TLDR: €265k in 2014, €175k in 2013, €144k in 2012 : €584k over three years
I did an FOI request in December:
1) Grants, fees, payments made to the Web Summit / Founders
2) Web Summit/Founders costs paid by EI such as speaker fees, travel costs (if any)
3) Costs for the EI for stands, marketing and running events around Web Summit / Founders
This is what I got back:
The Income column is money EI made from subletting their stand at the 2014 Web Summit.
The column on the right includes travel and accommodation costs for overseas buyers, investors and media.
Via Justin Mason Man saves the life of his wife with the help of 3D printing and an open minded surgeon. He did a 3D print of her skull and tumor. Imagine when it will be the regular thing for a surgeon to do “test runs” on brain ops with a perfect copy of the brain and the tumor.
In between sending hundreds of people to their deaths by drone strike, some candid moments from the Whitehouse.
Watching Harry Potter and this popped into my feed, nice juxtaposition. iPhone, Arduino and a few other bits and you have a fairly fast M&M sorting machine.
Magic Leap wants to bring magic back into the world. It has half a billion of funding to do so. John Graham Macnamara is one of those involved. Sounds like an Irish or Scottish name.
Kickstarter coaches. As Kickstarter becomes more and more popular, it makes sense to get an expert in to ensure your campaign works. Same in every other marketplace.
Search for symptoms on Google and you might be able to connect directly with a Doctor. Google is testing this right now. Lots of positive uses, think about it too for mental health issues.
Posted in Fluffy, irishblogs | Comments Off on Fluffy Links – Monday January 5th 2015
My ones to watch are entirely subjective, they’re based on people I know or know of, these people are mostly Irish or they have a link to Ireland that’s weaker than the criteria to play for our soccer team. I do not link to people hoping I’ll get gratitude from them or get links, retweets or future business from them.
Play
Read:
Marie Duffy was featured in these Ones to watch about two years ago. In 2014 she has been directly affected by mental health issues and she wrote about it from hospital. This felt like watching storm coverage on TV and the person in the middle of the storm pausing the scene and talking directly to you, explaining what’s going on. I worked with Marie when I was on the board of Spunout and am really proud of everything she’s done and will do. If there’s one new thing you’d like to read as 2015 starts, read this short piece from her. “Can you guarantee your safety?”
In no particular oder, here are some people to check out and see what they’re up to in 2015.
Matthew Mulligan
Deputy Editor of tn2 Magazine and Editor-at-Large of Trinity News for the 2013//2014. This is his LinkedIn. A very boring place for someone that is not. I first encountered Matthew from various tweets to his writing and retweets of his commentary. A very talented writer who I hope to read more from in 2015. His Twitter, far more interesting than LinkedIn.
Jane Ruffino
Well there’s someone that won’t shut up. Won’t be quiet when some bro has his mansplaining to share with the world. Won’t play the game of “all is well in techland” as everyone feeds from the trough. Good. I’m glad Jane has her weekly slot/shot in the Business Post. You should read it. This is her site. This is her Twitter. She did archaeology, she knows how to dig up the stuff that other people buried. Oh my, isn’t that clever writing from me? Punarific. Jane is also the token woman on the list so I can now go back to talking up the menz, right? All of the menz.
Mark Coughlan
Good journalists weave. They take various threads and bring them together and give you a tapestry. Weaving. Mark has put in the time to craft his skill, put himself out there and worked hard which has made him skilled. It wasn’t family dynasties that got him to now. In 2015 though they’re going to replace that pen in his hand with a swankier one.
Vicki O’Callaghan
I’m sure she’ll get awkward reading this. Vicki is a digital champion for Landmark Digital who look after all the digital properties of the Examiner. What’s great about Vickie is there’s no being able to bullshit her on anything digital. Same goes for a few others in there. The Examiner publications have seen major changes in the past few years and their digital offerings have been doing really well in 2014. I’m not privvy to the way the Examiner works but 2014 seemed to be a year of things settling down with debts, layoffs and office moves so given some good enough digital gains in 2014, I think 2015 will be very interesting for the Examiner group and it will be worth seeing what Vicki and her colleagues will be doing. Plus you know, Cork bias from me.
Mat Morrison Mat’s Irish now. He’s stayed in Dublin at least three times. So yeah. Mat has spoken at the Measurement.ie conferences from the very start and made them successful as a result too. He’s finished up in his last gig and is off now, wandering the land like an episode of Kung Fu. 2015 ought to be very interesting for this very insightful chap. His blog.
Ciara King
Yer wanno from Chris and Ciara on 2FM. If she doesn’t kill him, their show is going to grow in 2015 and you may see them get more attention for the work they do. Ciara’s youth diary entries are a recently uncovered gem. Even if she did kill him, she’d get out in a few years anyway and can resume what she does. Ciara King on Twitter.
Aoife Clarke Aoife and Caitriona and the other Lidl comms staff seem to be always on social media looking after their brand. Lidl did well in the 2014 Social Media Awards and it’s because of an in-house team that obviously like what they’re doing. For such a massive brand, the Lidl comms are a bit of fun. Looking forward to what happens in 2015 with whatever Team Lidl will be doing.
Deborah Maguire Deborah is the bosslady of Irish Made Gifts, a growing company in Cork that sources well produced Irish crafts and sells on behalf of producers. One of the ways to pay attention to a company, technology or person is having three different sources come to you talking about the company/person and I experienced that a few times in 2014 with Deborah.
Jim Carroll
The Banter Boy. Jim has been piloting Banter for a good few years and it’s expanding out and out each year too. It’s almost, but thankfully not fully become “the establishment”. And when other outlets report on what happens at them, good stuff is happening. Again, not privvy to his plans but with Banter, Agility HQ, that Irish Times gig and other bits n baubles, 2015 could prove very interesting. New shirt for those bigger arms or something.