Be Connected and Get Digital

Get Digital

Tuesday, April 14th 2015

#GetDigital was tweeted many times from the attendees of the Get Digital conference on in The Helix. The Get Digital conference was shorter for the DICE students as we had a poster presentation on cloud computing which was the main focus of this conference. The speakers all focused on the different ways in which people in the business can interact with cloud computing and the digital world to help their business. The conference began at 4pm after the DICE poster presentation. This was the beginning of the final conference of this year. The conference was opened and the first speaker took to the stage.

MARY MALONEY

The first speaker was Mary Maloney. She is the global CEO of Coder Dojo. Coder Dojo has over 600 facilities all over the world. There is around 50000 kids learning how to properly interact with technology. They have begun working with educators to try improve learning. They aim to show and have already shown that children have the ability to make a difference if they are properly thought how to use computers. A story she told was of a young girl who looked at the ESB’s power map and was able to use skills she learned at the Coder Dojo to make improvements for them. She mentioned that they were run by volunteers which surprised me. They also try to make things easier for people who can’t afford proper equipment.

RICHARD GARSTHAGEN

The next speaker was Richard Garsthagen from Oracle. Oracle is a tech company who develop and market computer hardware systems and software for businesses. Richard’s position at Oracle is Director of Cloud Business Development. He discussed the importance of cloud computing. He said that cloud computing is bigger than the “online storage” that most people think it is. They are trying to transform IT departments and use cloud computing to make the business place work better with the aid of cloud computing. They want to transform businesses to deliver or consume it as a service and support the transformation to the digital age.

JOHN MASSEY

The next speaker was John Massey from SAP Ireland. He is the Business Development Director EMEA. SAP Ireland is an enterprise application software and helps generate new opportunities for innovation and growth and stay ahead of the competition (according to their website). They create software to manage business operations and customer relations. They are the one of the worlds leading business software companies. They are attempting to make work in businesses easier.

SHAY GARVEY

The final speaker was Shay Garvey from Frontline Venture Capital. They are attempting to help grow tech entrepreneurs by giving them the capital to start up. They are based in Dublin, also London but they invest in start ups all across Europe. They give capital, and the guidance that can help the owners to build their companies. They are focused on making businesses grow

CONCLUSION

This was the conclusion of the conference. How can businesses use the things learned from this conference to improve their business? Can Coder Dojo influence the young to create the future developments in the tech world? Can your start up get capital from Frontline Venture Capital? The Get Digital conference was a good way to learn about the digital world of buisnesses.

@TheHelix
@DCU
@DCUBS
@DiceBlog for all the updates from future conferences

Be Ready To Get Started

Get Started

Tuesday, February 17th 2015

#GetStarted was another trending hashtag from the mini conferences which have been taking part in The Helix. The Get Started conference was focused on how to create, run and develop your own business in the world today. All the speakers gave their ideas on how the businesses can grow in Ireland and worldwide. The conference showed how important it was to work hard to make your business successful. The conference was ready to begin.

NIAMH BUSHNELL

The first speaker was Niamh Bushnell. She is the Dublin Commissioner for Start Ups. Her job is to promote Dublin as a good start up area. She discussed:

• Her work, in New York and now as Commissioner for Start Ups
• The companies she has worked for
• Working for enterprise Ireland in the USA
• She mentioned the idea that people were “throwing money at start ups”
• She descussed mentoring in Dublin while she was working in America

The idea of making Dublin a high level start up city was the most prevalent topic of discussion in her presentation. For her work she has a heavy focus on promoting Dublin for entrepreneurs. She discussed how what she had done was different from entrepreneurship. She had began to make the same mistakes that she had thought people not to make. It relates to DICE as DICE is focused on making us good business people so Dublin City Council will make it easier/better to be an entrepreneur in this city.

DAVID MCKERNAN: JAVA REPUBLIC

Java Republic is a wholesale coffee and tea company. David McKernan started the company. He worked for Bewlies for 12 years. He talked about being the second largest company in Ireland. He discussed raising money from suppliers. The importance of planning was also a topic that was brought up. He talked about how Java Republic had to go through a rebranding. He said that students should go out on their own. He talked about how Caffe Roma was his inspiration but it fell apart. Something he said that I felt was poignant was that “Risks will need to be taken” for a company to be successful.

What type of entrepreneur are you?

The Panel

Three speakers from DCU were then brought in. The speakers were, Richard Stokes, Eoghan Stack and Ronan Furlong.
Richard Stokes: is the director of innovation at DCU. He works in Invent. Invent is a limited liability company which was established in September 2001. He works in the incubation center. He surprised me when he said that there was only about 100 high potential start up companies but there was 200 in the North because there is a lack of incentives in this country.
Eoghan Stack: works in the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurs. He discussed the successes and failures of entrepreneurs. DCU has U Start to help DCU students. He said, “For every success there is 99 failures.”
Ronan Furlong: helps develop companies. He is the DCU Innovation Campus Executive Director. He works with companies to accelerate business. It lets small companies talk to larger ones. All companies in the innovation campus are involved in hardware.

The Panel:

• Q= Asked about if entrepreneurs are made or born?
• A= They said made. Entrepreneurs need support and belief
• Q= Biggest challenge for start ups
• A= Don’t worry about “noise”. Work on developing company. Come up with product to show investors
• Q= What is mechanism to become involved in the programmes?
• A= Programmes run by Ryan Academy, Invent and can be pointed in the right direction
• Q= Thoughts on redoing/reinventing older ideas?
• A= Can be done but will be tough. Angel investors decide who get on programmes

SEAN AHERN

ThankFrank is a way to put a thanks button on any webpage. The speaker discussed the importance of trust. They are still in the process of validating. It still has to be product tested and have market research carried out. It is importance to have a good team. You need to have the right attitude to succeed. He said “Don’t keep your ideas to yourself” as its all about the execution. Knowing failure is important.

KEALAN LENNAN

Kealan Lennan is the CEO and founder of Clevercards with an app called the Cleverbug that lets you upload photos and display them on cards. The aim of the company is to let you never forget birthdays. It uses Facebook to determine relationship between you and the people in question. There is now customers in over 200 countries. Digital or printed cards can be sent. Something I learned from this speaker is that new and innovative ideas which make peoples lives easier can be very successful. A promotion code that was given out at the end of the presentation.

PAUL KERLEY

Paul Kerley was the founder and CEO of Norkom. The speaker discussed the failures of his business. His successful IPO. Helping to stop terrorism. Macro-shocks and shock absorption and his personal sacrafices. A hard time he had in his career was when in the year 2000 when he had to let go hundreds of people. He showed us that to have a successful business sometimes you will have to go through hard times to become successful. It is important to keep going when the times get tough.

CONCLUSION

The conference ended after that. How can getting started in the business world as an entrepreneur help grow Ireland as a good city for businesses to set up in the future? If many people become entrepreneurs will the success rate improve? How can we #GetStarted? The Get Started conference was a great way to learn about the world of entrepreneurship.

Quotes that were shown at the conference:

@TheHelix
@DCU
@DCUBS
@DiceBlog for all the updates from future conferences

The Power of Get Mobile

Get Mobile

Tuesday, November 11th 2014

#GetMobile was the hash tag associated with the Get Mobile conference that took place in The Helix. The name of the conference was Get Mobile and the main focus of it was mobile devices in the business world. The speakers all had different ideas on what the world of mobile devices in business. The conference was ready to begin.

Dr Theo Lynn from DCU began the conference. He discussed the issues of mobile ownership, the fact that we, these days, are now always connected because of the mobile devices that most people have with them at all time and the prospect of smart devices. He mentioned that the ownership of a first mobile phone could soon drop to 7 years of age within the next few years. It was said that 94% of people have less than 10 applications on their phone which I feel is applicable to myself. A large percentage of mobile users prefer useful apps than any others, but games account for over 50% of mobile advertising. It was shown that it is important from a marketing perspective that people take mobile into account when marketing products. The 4Cs of Mobile were shown to be:

• Cash
• Credentials
• Communication
• Content

DR. MARK HUGHES

Dr. Mark Hughes from Digifeye was the next speaker on the stage. Digifeye is an image search engine to help the user search from a photograph to try find a match and also give suggestions to items which are similar. The aim is to try train machines to understand pictures through computer vision. There is a Style Eyes app that is used to take pictures of fashion to find matches.

DR. CATHAL GURRIN

Dr. Cathal Gurrin from DCU came next. He’s a lecturer and researcher in the Insight Center for Data Analytics. He discussed the development of technology. The question of why wearables? was brought up. He believed that they are starting to become more common which I agree with, as most of the worlds biggest computing manufacturers are coming out with different types of wearable technologies such as Google with Google Glass and Apple with the iWatch. The mobile sensing technology is being improved to make these devices better. The ability for devices to become more aware will help marketing by finding what people view.

MICROSOFT MOBILE DEVICES

Eoin Cruise who works for Microsoft came out to speak next. The Microsoft Mobile Devices is the new name for Nokia. After the decline of Nokia they were taken over by Microsoft. The speaker discussed the idea of “One Microsoft” that Microsoft is trying to create. This idea is the connection of all Microsoft devices between each other. Microsoft is trying create the connection between all of their products, with Windows computers, Windows tablets and their Windows phones. Microsoft are trying to phase out the Nokia brand and replace it with their Microsoft brand.

IBM

Paul Davey from IBM was next to take to the stage. IBM have many products that are used every day but they have not broken into the mobile market as they are more focused on the software. They talked about one phone number to fix problems and their strategic relationship with Twitter and Apple. He said that creating a truly engaging mobile experience involves far more than building a mobile app which is understandable as if it is not marketed properly or if they do not have a website compatible with a mobile device it can hinder the engaging mobile experience.

Wiforia

Alex Meisl from Wiforia was the keynote speaker. There was many different facts from the speech. He said that fear, uncertainty and doubt is holding companies back. 145 billion SMS were sent in UK in 2013 with about 6.5 texts per person. There is not enough of Google’s top searches which don’t have mobile optimised sites with only one third of the top 100 clients having one. Mobile advertising will overtake newspaper. It is important not to forget standard business principles and mCommerce is more important than mShopping. Businesses should get all customers to self identify mobile. A well executed omni-channel strategy delivers three times the sales per customer compared to single channel.

Statistics

• 94% look at less than 10 apps
• 63% prefer useful apps
• Games account for over 50% of mobile advertising
• 77% of mobile searches occur on the go
• IPhone 5 is 60000 times more powerful than computer that guided Apollo II
• 1/3 of Google’s top 100 clients don’t have mobile optimised sites
• 145bn SMS in UK in 2013, 6.5 per head
• 80% of branded apps get less than 100 downloads
• 12% of Walmart spending is online
• 4 out of 10 shops will shut down in next 5 years
• 40% of mobile search is related to location

Conclusion

The conference was a good indication of how mobile devices can influence the business world. How can mobile devices help the growth of a business? Can new mobile technologies improve change the way people live? How far can mobile devices develop in the next few years? What can we do to help #Getmobile in the future? All these questions came to mind while listening to the speeches. The Get Mobile conference was a great way for me to learn about the mobile world.

@TheHelix
@DCU
@DCUBS
@Digifeye
@Style Eyes
@Microsoft
@IBM
@AlexMeisl
@DiceBlog for all the updates from future conferences

Getting noticed with Get Social

Get Social

Tuesday, October 14th 2014

#Getsocial was trending throughout Dublin on this day, why you ask? Because the first of the mini-conferences were on in the Helix. The title of this conference was Get Social and the topic was Social Media Marketing. The speakers all had the topic of social media and the interaction with the public as a main point in all their speeches.

The stage was set for the start of the conference, when Dr Theo Lynn from DCU, took to the stage. He began the discussion about, what do people talk about, what do people want and how do people feel when they are on social media. He brought up the examples of Nelson Mandela and Paul Walker. Both men were in the public eye and both died within a couple of days of each other. Which do you feel had a bigger imprint on social media? The works of Nelson Mandela were greater than the “cinematic masterpieces” that were the 7 Fast and Furious movies that Paul Walker stared in. But social media disagreed

GAJO

Dr Deirdre Hogan came out to talk about “The easiest and quickest way to discover your target audience on social media.” The way that this type of feature usually works is through key word targeting but that sometimes fails. Gajo uses filters to help stop unnecessary targeting. They have had positive results and have been out preforming others. I felt this presentation was good and that Gajo was something that could be important in improving the way targeting is handled but it didn’t have as much interactivity with the audience as the others did which I feel is important to keep the audience engaged

THINKHOUSE

Jane McDaid from Thinkhouse, who help companies connect to a younger audience from the ages of 18-35, was next to come to the stage. The videos try to depict a fun lifestyle, which from the videos that were played, they succeeded in doing. Also, the mention of jobs being available in their Dublin and London agencies is something that all college students will like to hear. The statistic that the internet now has more reach for advertising than tv does not surprise me as I hardly watch the tv and I consume most of my content on the internet. The Seven Sins of Killer Content showed how they target their ads by the most likely to be shared. This was an entertaining talk as the videos kept my and I feel most peoples attention. The Seven Sins are:

1. Comedy
2. Epic
3. Emotive
4. WTF
5. Zeitgeist
6. NSFW
7. Informative

RTE DIGITAL

The RTE talk from Lucy Campbell was about RTE’s digital strategy. RTE is trying the meet the audiences needs. 89% of people have a mobile device but only 4% of Irish companies have mobile optimised sites. RTE digital is working towards the idea of “mobile first”. Over 73% of the total visits to RTE sites are mobile visits. They tried to use Twitter for their customer service. RTE2 is being re-branded to become more youthful. Popular characters such as Damo (pictured below) and Ivor have been part of this rejuvenation. I feel making RTE2 more youthful and making some huge shows like Love/Hate will be beneficial for RTE

WOLFGANG DIGITAL

Wolfgang Digital are “the digital marketing scientists.” They use social media to create brand advocacy. They are available to offer traineeships which is something positive to say to a room full of college students. Facebook has the greatest reach of any medium today which is why it is an important for any digital marketing. They believe in a purchase funnel different to others. It follows the structure of:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Action
• Loyalty
• Advocacy

The speaker was able to add some humour into his talk when he brought up the story of how they set up a “sex shop” and ran it for a couple of years so that they could walk in their customers shoes and to hire themselves to market their new business to see how they could operate better

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn speaker Nicolas Cappiello talked about the ability to manage your two lives. Personal and professional to try be more productive. LinkedIn’s mission is stated as trying to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. The CEO of LinkedIn sees “our longer-term vision is … to build the world’s first economic graph …to visualize every economic opportunity in the world, every skill required to obtain those opportunities.” I felt like the LinkedIn talk was more aimed for people in the business world as opposed to college students. The speaker did interact with the audience well by asking questions though.

ERIC WEAVER

Eric Weaver is a digital marketer. He works with many media brands worldwide. Companies are paying to boost the visibility off their ads because only 5% of ads will be seen by a companies fans which I don’t think is right. Do you? He said that ads need to have good content and be engaging, which I would have to agree with. He spoke about the way in which he has to justify spending his advertising money. The question he said to ask was “What would I have had to pay to achieve the same result.” The result is the number of people who see it. The idea of these ads is to try get likes and get people talking. His high energy and enthusiasm were a big factor in his ability to keep the audience interested in what he had to say.

CONCLUSION

The conference was a good indication of how Social Media Marketing should be done in a company. How can it be implemented into other companies in Ireland, and also the rest of the world? Can good Social Media Marketing be achieved in all companies? What can we do to help #GetSocial in the future? All this questions crossed came to me while listening to the speakers. The Get Social conference was a great way for me to learn about the world of Social Media Marketing. As this is about social media I feel as though it is important to link to the various Twitter accounts where they are available

@DCU
@Thinkhouse
@RTE
@WolfgangDigital
@LinkedIn
@Weave
@DiceBlog for tweets about this conference and the rest to follow