Connector @ The Entrepreneur Show

by Nicola OReilly on April 27th, 2010

Connector showcased its new training courses and connecting philosophy at this year’s Entrepreneur Event, Friday 23^rd to Saturday 24^th April.

Connector’s team helped man the stand for the weekend, making loads of new connections and spreading knowledge of the 10 C’s.

A huge part of the show this year were the bright and lively discussions that took place in the “Think Tank” and “Invest Test”  auditoriums which Conor helped chair as well as take part in.

One of the highlights of the show was hearing some of the Irish and UK dragons take part in these discussions. The connector team also had the pleasure of meeting Sean Gallagher who had his photo taken with them at the Connector stand.

Connector’s bright and inviting stand design, along with its engaging video content was down to the planning and hard work of new recruit David Dungan who has taken to his role with enthusiasm and gusto, as well as Sarai Fernández hard work managing the connector team and Connector’s Entrepeneur Networking Event at Lillies on Friday night.

Overall it was a busy but rewarding weekend at the stand for the Connector team and it will be a busy week again following the amount of interest shown at the show.

Review of iia Audio Video Culture Event

by Nicola OReilly on April 27th, 2010

On the 22^nd April 2010 the IIAs Social Media Working Group held an event entitled Audio Video Culture: Behind the scenes of audio & video content online.  Conor the current Chair of Social Media Working Group at the IIA was the chariman for this event.

Speakers from RTE, RaboDirect, Channelship, Mason Hayes and Curran, CEUD NDA, Google Ireland and YouTube all spoke at the event and helped to make it a great success.  Pictured is Sebastian Missoffe from YouTube in action from Conor at the top table!

There was very positive feedback with most feeling they learned a great deal about  audio and video content online.

Connector College – Career Connections Event

by Diarmuid ORiordan on April 21st, 2010

Connector college brought together speakers from Google, Microsoft, Careers Coach and Connector. The event for students took place at the Science Gallery and was themed around ‘I have my qualification, now what?’. It had some great insights for students in attendance on how to brand yourself, networking and job application techniques.

To organise the event, Connector collaborated with DCU masters student Roisin Lyons. Roisin did a really great job in organising the venue, bringing together our speakers and publicizing the event. Well done and thanks Roisin!

Bryna McCool works as a Senior Recruiter at Microsoft Ireland. She began proceedings and spoke about the process of graduate Recruitment. She continued on with some great interview tips before handing over to Careers Coach, Greg Fry.

Greg set up Careers Coach in March 2009 with the aim of assisting people with their Career Transition. He focused on using social media to build your personal brand, and urged attendees to bring these connections offline also.

Lindsay Brown continued the evening. Lindsay is a Recruiting Specialist. She recently moved to an in-house recruitment role with Google, having previously worked on the agency side. She gave great advice to students on dealing with recruitment agencies, techniques used by recruiters, networking and personal branding. Check out Lindsay ‘s great blog.

Conor Lynch rounded up proceedings and had a few hard acts to follow!  Conor capped off the evening with some good advice for students and information about how Connector gives students a chance to get great work experience and make connections . We collaberate with students, graduates & interns to run events, marketing campaigns and much more.

The ‘Career Connections’ event helped Roisin Lyons gain valuable project management experience, improve her personal brand and make some great connections. If any students would like further information about joining the Connector Team, don’t hesitate to contact conor [at] connector dot ie

Connector Weekly – 19th April

by Nicola OReilly on April 19th, 2010

Connector is set for another busy week of connecting! Here is a roundup of the main events for this week:

On 20th Connector will hold its Digital & Social Media Workshop. This strategy workshop will help participants understand how social media is changing our culture, and importantly, the way consumers share information and make buying decisions.

After that, Connector will also be hosting Career Connections a event only for students at the Science Gallery at 6:30 pm. With this event Connector is helping to connect graduates with potential employers. Many graduates this year will find it hard to get a job but those at the Students Event won’t be amongst them. Recruitment experts from Microsoft and Google will give advice about graduate programs, career choices and personal branding. Greg Fry from Careers Coach will be speaking at the event too.

Public Affairs Ireland presents a half-day event in Dublin on the 21st. It will be of interest to people who would like to have a better understanding of how new media, the web and email can enable better access of information and provision of services to the public.

Conor, as the current chair of the IIA, will introduce the Audio Video Culture: Behind the Scenes of audio and video content online on Thursday April 22nd. This will offer an in-depth look at how to maximise the impact of video and audio content for your business.

More updates next week.

‘Career Connections’ connect with Microsoft and Google

by Connector on April 14th, 2010

Connector has organised a very special event ‘Career Connections’ on Tuesday 20th April @ the Science Gallery, Trinity College.

Students and graduates are facing an uphill struggle to find a job these days.Sadly, Connector cant help you all ‘connect with a job’, but we do have the connections to help you get ahead of the pack in the hunt for a job.

This promises to be a great night, showing students how to pursue careers in the competitive job market.

Speakers include Bryna McCool: Senior Recruiter at Microsoft HR Ireland, Lindsay Browning: recruitment specialist at Google and expert careers coach: Greg Fry. Conor Lynch, the founder of Connector will also be along to talk about the use of social media to market yourself to employers.

Focusing on the theme ’you have the qualifications…now what?’ Connector wants to give students the best chance to land a job when they get out of college.

The event kicks off at 7 with doors open at 6.45. The event will conclude with some networking and a chance to meet the speakers.

Remember to bring your student cards, as this is a student only Connector event.

Check out the presentation below and register on our Facebook page to attend.

Rosin Lyons, DCU

Connect with Weedle

by connector on April 14th, 2010

After being involved in Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start Up programme, Weedle seemed to have a very promising future.  Then to top that, it also received funding, announced via Brian Cowen totalling US $4 Million to expand the Weedle social platform in the U.S and other global regions.

Weedle was founded by Iain McDonald, who successfully sold his previous company Perlico to Vodafone in 2007, and Michael Gallagher previously CIO of Perlico, Weedle is set to grow from the 16 handpicked employees who began developing Weedle last August.

Also among these is Brendan Hughes, Director of Community, with whom I had the pleasure of talking to a few weeks ago. Brendan has previously worked as  e-Commerce Manager at FBD and as e-Business Manager at Vhi Healthcare.  When he stepped down as Chair of Social Media Working Group at Irish Internet Association in 2009, it was Connector’s Conor Lynch stepped up to  take Brendan’s place.  Small world!

Six degrees of separation

There’s a theory that states that “if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth.” This is known as the Six Degrees of Separation theory. Whether you actually believe this theory or not, it is an interesting concept and one that is “core to what Weedle is about.” according to Brendan.

Weedle works on powerful connections and the idea that you can recommend someone and word of mouth recommendations are the strongest persuasions.  It was through word of mouth from Brendan that the launch plans were conceived.

Weedle Launch

Weedle had a soft launch, preferring to launch and showcase the product the night before the official launch to a select few connected online experts including that guy Conor Lynch yet again!

The social networking site officially went live on Thursday and it was already named in 5 blog posts and on Friday the site had hit the Irish Times. In the first 24 hours Weedle had as many people signed up as they had anticipated in the first month and had a surprising flurry of activity from as far away as Holland.

The more people who sign up for Weedle the more powerful the social network will become and for Weedle to realize its vision it needs to become global.

Best of luck!

Obviously Connector is a big fan of connections, Conor is excited about using this new platform. Thanks to Brendan for his time and best of luck to all the Weedle team!

Nicola O’Reilly

Connect with Dragons Den @ The Entrepreneur Show

by Laura Goucher on April 10th, 2010

Things are beginning to warm up for The Entrepreneur Show which will be held in the RDS Dublin on April 23rd and 24th. It is set to be two days of the biggest networking and business knowledge gathering event ever seen in the country. Connector will be present at the event with a stand and with Mr. Networker himself Conor will be taking part in some of the panels and discussions about building new connections.

The Entrepreneur Show is designed to inspire visitors to do new and better business. It will host an array of speakers from all sectors of business, to inspire you in your business development.  It will give the opportunity to  learn and develop new business ideas and the necessary skills to put them into practice.

Not only does it give guests an opportunity to do some serious networking, it will also feature over 80 guest speakers from some of the most knowledgeable business minds like the UK’s Dragons Richard Farleigh and Rachel Elnaugh, the Irish Dragons Sean Gallagher, Bobby Kerr and Gavin Duffy and the Entrepreneur of the Year Terry Clune.

The show is made up of five different areas,the Inspiration Chamber will host an inspiring group of Entrepreneurs speaking about their journeys through their business life.  The “New Ventures” Arena will feature recently developed companies sharing their journey through the early stage of their business, this will educate visitors on how beneficial mentors and investors are to a new business and also tips on what qualities to look for when investing.

The “Think Tank” Auditorium is a new feature to the show which  involves different business sectors participating in the show and a live audience of entrepreneurs, enaging in panel discussion and audience interaction. One of the most exciting areas for visitors to the show is the “Invest test” Sessions which will feature businesses looking for investment and will be judged by a live panel of experts including the UK Dragons. The Exhibitor’s Area will demonstrate the tools and services needed to develop your business development these demonstations will over vast areas including mentoring, life coaching and design services.

Two day tickets to the event are priced €35. Proud sponsors Google are giving the first 10,000 visitors who purchase tickets online €75 worth of free Google ad words to kick start marketing their business online.
Those who purchase tickets online before midnight on Monday the 12th of April, will enter into prize draws for Entrepreneur show hampers sponsored by companies such as henparty.ie, hairybaby.com and many more.  For more details, click here>>

Connect with The Board

by Conor on April 9th, 2010

Since I am now working at Connector full time since February, I have been looking at ways to get the support & advice I need from mentors and peers.  Invited originally by my mate Iarfhlaith Kelly, I have now been at 2 meetings of The Board and it is worth checking out for any business owners out there.  Here’s how they describe it in their own words, see what you think -

The Board is an exclusive support structure for your business delivered in the form of monthly board meetings. These meeting are chaired by a trained facilitator who controls the meeting, ensuring that everyone gets a fair share of the allocated time.

This is an exclusive club. So it’s not for everyone. We want entrepreneurs, innovators, natural sales people, people with boat loads of experience. We want the very best people, so the advice they give is of the very best quality. If this sounds like you, then The Board needs you.

To find out more, visit The Board and apply for an information pack or you can visit us on Facebook.

More

Connector Tribal Love @ The Science Gallery

by LauraD on March 16th, 2010

Following on from the many successful events held in the past few months, Connector’s “Tribal Love” event held in the Science Gallery was no exception. 

The event aimed to give a platform to up and coming collectives and companies who relied on “tribes” in order to connect members sharing similar interests together both on and offline. The night was kicked off with an enjoyable hour of networking helped along by the stash of free Corona being handed out by Connector’s ever-enthusiastic volunteers. The mix of attendees was varied and the crowd was one of the biggest I’ve witnessed at any Connector event so far. 

The night then progressed into a number of short presentations by tribes including; 121 Marketing , The Attic Studio, Laugh Out Loud, MonsterTruck, Darklight, Funky Seomra and many more.

The highlight of the night for me was Adam Drazin’s initial address. Adam is a lecturer in TCD specialising in social anthropology and ethnography. I found his talk to be both informed and hugely entertaining. His argument for the growing popularity of tribes (online tribes in particular) focused on the idea of a new form of social interaction rather than merely a new form of technology. He defined a tribe as somewhere in between a family and a state- a space where social interaction is ruled ultimately by politics and a sense of intimacy shared between members. The success of tribes is dependant on this shared sense of intimacy which leads to a sense of obligation to other members- a personal connection between tribe members and a sense of belonging to a particular tribe will often lead individuals to participate more actively in a community.

All tribes must seek to create a tangible community within which members will not only actively contribute both their time and knowledge but also share information of a more personal nature. By doing this, members feel a real connection to each other and the obligation to participate more fully in all areas of the tribes activity.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire event and look forward to seeing how the work of each tribe will progress over the coming months. Many thanks again to Connector for organising the event!

Connector Meetup No.20 – Online PR

by Sarai Fernandez on March 12th, 2010

Connector and Booze `n´Schmooze are partnering to organise Connector Nº20, an event themed around Online PR, with guest speakers who will talk briefly about how social media and new technologies are impacting in business today.

Booze `n´ Schmooze is a new free monthly networking event for  journalists, PRs and other media workers, which takes place every month at d|two Bar.  As usual, Connector is a monthly event for connecting people in Dublin and all are welcome to this event.

So register to the event  and join us to have fun, learn a little bit about Online PR and make connections next March 25th @ 6.30 pm.