Connector at ‘Getting Business Online’ training

by Connector on May 30th, 2011

At the Google HQ for train the trainer workshop for ‘Getting Business Online’ training with lots of people from the county enterprise boards!  See some FREE web site templates below and click here to get started with a free domain name, web hosting and training -  well done to sponsors Google, Blacknight and An Post and thanks to Google’s Michelle Beirne for her short video message!

www.GettingBusinessOnline.ie

Connector Weekly News

by Igor Walter on February 9th, 2011

The Connector Team has been incredibly busy in recent months and making lots of new connections and ideas we’d love to share with you!

We have lots of up-coming opportunities and are especially keen to talk to aspiring bloggers and event organizers around Ireland.

Connect with us via our Facebook page.

Connector News

• We have moved to new offices! Now you can find us at the Gateway House (133 Capel Street, Dublin), the former home of the famous dance group Riverdance.
• Did you miss Showcase Ireland? Well then you also missed Conor’s social media seminar “Meet Your Customers in the New Market Place”. You can take a look at it here.
• Check out some of the events our bloggers went to in the past couple of days! For example Annie went to have fun at RAM´s Pocket Radio´s concert while Megan attended the launch of Don Mullan´s new book.

Connector Training

• Social media can be useful for any business and they know that in the Digital Marketing Institute. That’s why they brought Conor in to lead workshops called “Social Media Marketing for Business”.
• We also launched a Social Media eBook which is based on a proven Connector 10 C´s Strategy Model and breaks down the utilization of social media into ten clear steps. Check it out!

Connector Consulting

• Conor is now a mentor of the Dublin City Enterprise Board.
• We have also acquired new clients from the field of interior design and personal transportation.

Connector Top 3 Connections

• John McColgan, Neil Leyden & the Gateway Ireland Team
• Eimear Dunne from Quirc & Dunn Design
• Quentin Ahern from Army of ID

Connector Team

• After months of great work our digital marketing executive Dave Dungan has decided to pursue a web development career in Jason Roe’s company. Thank you Dave for your great work in 2010! We’ll miss you!
• On the other hand new people are now partnering with us on projects – Igor Walter (PR), Graeme Hanna (planning), Greg Fry (training) and Shirleen Flynn (events).

Connector Meetup

• The Connector Team is going to meet up at the Dublin SoundCloud Meetup Day.
• Join us also at the Project Arts Centre where we plan on seeing the hilarious play called Connected. The tickets will be only 12 € so come and join us!
• The Facebook Garage event will be taking place at our new offices – the Gateway House – on Wednesday 9th @ 5pm. Check out more info here.

If you have any interesting news or know of any events taking place around Ireland share them with us via our Facebook page!

The Long Debate: Speakers (13-15) out now – expertise at hand! – Ron Immink, Theo Lynn & John Collins

by malte on November 4th, 2010

The Long Debate is at hand:

Check out now the next three scholars, that will bring their expertise to the exciting debate on 11. Nov. We strongly recommend to register now, click here

Did you know: The “Long Debate” is an evening full of lively discussion and networking. Inventorium has devised a special debate format, 18 of Ireland’s key contributors and commentators have been invited to give their views and opinions. Each speaker will present his or her viewpoint for five minutes, the emerging conversations will be documented and presented on the Inventorium website.

Ron Immink

Ron is a serial entrepreneur and author of a number of best selling business books. He has started several, grown a few and sold one company. Ron has worked in entrepreneurship, training, consultancy, publishing, education, innovation and tech transfer.

In 2007, following his passion for books, new learning and entrepreneurship he started Bookbuzzâ„¢, a company that has developed an innovative, proven and highly effective learning and consultancy methodology that harnesses the collective wisdom of the organisation, using inspiring business books to stimulate ideas, design innovative strategies, improve decision making and boost fresh thinking. Clients of Bookbuzz include some leading multinationals in Europe and the USA.

At the same time he co-founded www.smallbusinesscan.com in partnership with Ulster Bank. A free and open platform where owner managers can create and share the business knowledge, the insights, the experience and the contact networks needed to generate new growth for their own business and create a new beginning for the economy. Smallbusinesscan is now the fastes growing business support website in the UK and Ireland.

His expertise is around entrepreneurship, story telling, narrative, dialogue learning, social learning, social media and collective wisdom.

Ron Immink

John Collins

John Collins is assistant business editor with The Irish Times. A journalist for 16 years he specialises in technology, business and internet issues. He has been contributing to the paper’s popular technology pages since 2005 and has been on staff since early 2007.
He was the Irish Internet Association’s Net Visionary Technology Journalist of the Year in 2006. Prior to joining The Irish Times he was a freelance journalist contributing to publications including The Sunday Business Post, Computerscope, Business Plus, Ireland.com and Smart Company.

John was editor of PC Live! Ireland’s best selling computer and Internet magazine for five years. He has been online since 1995, and has written for a range of Irish and international publications including The Irish Independent, Silicon Republic, Business & Finance, TVB Europe, The Web Magazine, i-D, Hot Press and Apple Report.
John has commented on technology and business issues for a range of radio and TV programmes for both RTÉ and independent stations, as well as co-presenting the RTÉ2 series, TechTV.

John Collins

Theo Lynn

Theo Lynn is a lecturer in Management in the Dublin City University Business School where he teaches at postgraduate level on Strategic Management. Theo holds a Ph.D. in Law from University College Dublin and the title of his thesis was “The Irish Corporate Governance System and the Role of Irish Occupational Pension Funds as Institutional Monitors”. He is the Programme Chairperson for the MSc in Business Management, is Deputy Director (Technology) of the Learning, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre (www.link.dcu.ie) and is Principal Investigator on the Global Grid for Learning project (www.globalgridforlearning.org).

Theo Lynn

A unique format and networking opportunity: We invite you to this very special discussion The Long Debate which will take place as part of the Inventorium project, during Dublin Innovation Festival. Make The Long Debate your key event in Dublin Innovation Festival

When?

The Long Debate, Inventorium,

part of Dublin Innovation Festival

11 Nov

Doors open 18.00

Debate: 19.00-22.00

NDRC, Crane St, Digital Hub, Dublin 8

Registration for this event is essential

Innovative connections @ “The Long Debate” during the Dublin Innovation Festival.

by malte on October 12th, 2010

Invitation to The Long Debate

We invite you to this very special discussion The Long Debate – which will take place as part of the Inventorium project, during Dublin Innovation Festival.  Register >>

What is it about?

The debate draws on the Innovation Taskforce report. Launched in March 2010, the report sets out recommendations for developing Ireland into an International Innovation Hub, through developing the country’s creative and smart economy.

We invite members of the Taskforce, including some of Ireland’s leading economic commenter’s, industry and government members, academics, creative’s and entrepreneurs to discuss the nature of innovation within Ireland. Attention will be paid to how the report impacts on the development of digital enterprise within health, public services, education, leisure, tourism, culture, entertainment, environment and transport.

A unique format and networking opportunity

An evening of lively discussion and networking, not to be missed! Inventorium has devised a special debate format; eighteen of Ireland’s key contributors and commentators have been invited to give their views and opinions. Each speaker will present his or her viewpoint for five minutes. Audience members will be able to contribute to the emerging conversations, which will be documented and presented on the Inventorium website.

Agenda

18.00 – 19.00                Networking

19.00 – 19.45                Speakers 1-9

19.45 – 20.15                Networking

20.15 – 21.00                Speakers 10-18

21.00 – 22.00                Networking

Refreshments including finger food will be served

Make The Long Debate your key event in Dublin Innovation Festival

Partners

Inventorium is a three-year programme taking place across southeast Ireland and northwest Wales. Inventorium is designed to bring together people who would not normally meet – people who each have a part but not the whole of an innovation. The project aims to establish a sustainable distributed mechanism for the generation of new ideas, which will lead to the formation of new businesses or contribute to sustaining existing businesses. The focus of Inventorium is on digital technologies for health, public services, education, leisure, tourism, culture, entertainment, environment and transport. Inventorium is a partnership between CAST Ltd in Bangor and NDRC in Dublin and supported by the European Union’s Ireland Wales Interreg IV Programme. www.inventorium.org

Innovation Dublin Festival was launched to promote innovation and creativity in the city. Conceived by the Creative Dublin Alliance and coordinated by Dublin City Council, the project aims to provide Dubliners – whether they’re entrepreneurs, students, researchers, artists or large corporations – with an opportunity to discuss, promote and celebrate innovation in the city. Organised by a multidisciplinary steering committee made up of the Dublin local authorities, third level institutions, state agencies, businesses and the not-for-profit sector, the festival will take place from November 10th-21st.  www.inventorium.org

When

The Long Debate, Inventorium, as part of Dublin Innovation Festival

11 Nov

Doors open: 18.00

Debate and networking: 19.00-22.00

NDRC, Crane St, Digital Hub, Dublin 8

Registration for this event is essential

Register @ Inventorium

Introducing SocialMedia.ie social media services

by adam on October 11th, 2010

Connector recently launched a sister web site SocialMedia.ie and here we present our brand spanking new services guide including training and community management.   Hats off to Alvin Perry & Bernie Grogan for the great design work!

Get a Job Jumpstart from ICBE’s Begin Again

by Dave Dungan on October 7th, 2010

With the tough economic times more and more professionals are finding themselves out of a job. They are finding that there are little or no opportunities in their areas’ of expertise despite years of study and hard work. Most are also keen to adapt and re-skill in order to get back to work.

The Irish Centre for Business Excellence (ICBE) have recently launched the Begin Againâ„¢ initiative aimed at getting unemployed professionals back into the workplace.

The programme offers a combination of work-placement, training and mentoring  and focuses on maximising canditates current strengths, but also helping them to adapt to new roles.

They will be holding introductory meetings entitled ‘Jobs Jumpstart’ on Thursday 14th October in north and south Dublin.

• Stillorgan Park Hotel, 10am-12pm (South Dublin)
• Dublin Skylon Hotel, 2:30pm – 4:30pm (North Dublin)

These meetings aim to introduce young professionals to the Begin Again™ programme and show them the potential to get their careers back on track.  The programme is free and you can retain your social welfare payments while you are with the host company.  Over 20% of placements have secured new jobs since the start of the programme in August.

For more information on these events please visit the official Begin Againâ„¢ Facebook Page and these events have also beed added to LinkedIn here for North Dublin and here for South Dublin.

Begin Again Facebook and LinkedIn Inbox X Reply | David Dungan ✆ to me show details 4:25 PM (1 hour ago) Hi Conor, The Begin Again Facebook Page is setup and viewable here The events have been added to the events tab and also appear on the wall There is an add created with a preliminary budget of €25 per day that will show on Facebook for users in Dublin The events have also beed added to LinkedIn here (North Dublin) and here (South Dublin) Cheers – David Dungan Connector Email: david.dungan@connector.ie Mob:0879853029 Reply Forward David is not available to chat

ISME Roadshow featuring Connector

by Connector on September 3rd, 2010

The ISME (Irish Small Medium Enterprises) Roadshow featuring Connector is about to start and we can’t wait to get the show on the road! The idea behind it is to share our knowledge and try to connect with people all over the country!

We will be visiting between 10 locations over the next two months, driving there and taking part in business events hosted by ISME.  We will be speaking on why social media and will be joined by 3 other speakers -

AGENDA
- Banking Issues for the SME – Eddie Fitzpatrick, BankCheck
- Online Marketing & Social Media = Better Business – Conor Lynch, Connector.ie
- Employment-Understand your responsibilities and avoid disputes & litigation – John Barry, MSS Ltd.
- Tendering for Government Business- Dos & Don’ts – OPW and Enterprise Ireland

You can see out route map below!  If you would like to attend, please contact conor [@] connector.ie for details or click here to reserve a ticket.

CONNECTOR ISME ROADSHOW

21^st Sept – Fairways Hotel, Dundalk (10am-1pm)
21^st Sept – Stillorgan Park Hotel, Dublin South (5pm-8pm)
28^th Sept – Clarion Hotel, Limerick (10am-1pm)
28^th Sept – Silversprings Hotel, Cork (5pm-8pm)
5^th Oct – Mount Errigal, Letterkenny (10am-1pm)
5^th Oct – Clarion Hotel, Sligo (5pm-8pm)
6^th Oct – Carlton Hotel, Galway (10am-1pm)
6^th Oct – Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone (5pm-8pm)
12^th Oct – Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny (10am-1pm)
12^th Oct – Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley, Dublin West (5pm-8pm)

Thanks to Bernie Grogan for her great map design!

Designing at Connector Academy

by Andrew Sides on July 6th, 2010

The design work I have done for Connector has been an interesting experience. I am caught between the styles and branding that was developed for Connector and my own design and style.  In my design work I like to keep things clean and simple, because I think that is the most effective type of design. Simple design allows for the strongest creativity and at the same time allows for a very straightforward clean message. I guess that’s my design weak point. I need to start developing more complex and interesting design, so that way I have a lot in my design arsenal to use.

Every time I go into creating a design for Conor, I try and do two or three different designs. The first I try to create something consistent with the Connector’s current style. The second I make something I like and I think is cool, and third I make a hybrid of the design I like and the design consistent with the brand. It’s hard at times to create something I like. Time constraints often leave me feeling like there is something left to be desired out of some of my designs. I guess college has spoiled me with a plethora of time to create and refine my designs. Now I am working under short deadlines and desire for high quality. It’s been a bit of an adjustment to this kind of working environment, but I am getting used to it and I am learning where I to focus to save time but still produce decent quality.

Overall the adjustment to office life has been good and interesting. I am still getting used to the fact that my designs are actually being used for the web, proposals, etc instead of for just portfolio development. I hope by the end of this internship I will be doing work on a fast paced basis, I will be able to create a piece that is high in quality but only takes a short amount of time.

Here are a few examples of the work I have created for Connector. Please share what you think about them. Any feed back I can get would be great!

Entrepreneur Marketing Workshop with Marie O’Riordan in Dublin

by Connector on June 16th, 2010

This morning I had a very pleasant and interesting morning tea with Marie O’Riordan who is a self-styled international communications & media expert.  Marie has been doing really well of late and carries our speaking and consulting engagements for international clients.

She introduces herself in the video and is a serious connector who was the last interviewer of Mother Teresa.  Marie O’Riordan has also been interviewing & building instant rapport with Hollywood’s Elite & scores of Academy Award winners face to face for many years such as Paul Newman, Michael Caine, Quentin Tarantino, Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, Renee Zellweger & many, many more “A list” legends. Marie travels the globe as a Worldwide Communications Excellence Specialistâ„¢ & is the Author of ’66 Secrets To Nailing Any Media Interview.’â„¢

Her next event in Dublin is as follows called the Entrepreneur Marketing Workshop and features the thrilling trilogy of with Debbie Allen (USA), Tracy Repchuk (USA) & Marie O’Riordan (IRL) ;-0

It is on Friday, June 25, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM (GMT) and I hope to check it out.

Crafting outstanding presentations using storytelling techniques

by Connector on June 14th, 2010

Conor saw this presentation being made for the first time at Bizcamp in Dublin recently.

It covers applying  storytelling techniques to create outstanding presentations for a better engagement with the audience.

Claudio really is a good presenter!

Please take a look and see what your story would be for your next presentation!