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!

Connector Weekly News is a post from: Connector

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 Bookbuzz™, 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

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

The ISME Roadshow: 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 – BankCheck
- Online Marketing & Social Media = Better Business – Conor Lynch, Connector.ie
- Employment-Understand your responsibilities and avoid disputes & litigation – MSS Ltd.
- Tendering for Government Business- Dos & Don’ts – OPW and Enterprise Ireland

The videos above feature Stephen Hughes (Enterprise Ireland), Kehlan Kirwan (FocuSME) & Maureen Grealish (Begin Again).

Connector at ISME Roadshow in Limerick & Cork is a post from: Connector

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.

Connector Weekly – 19th April is a post from: Connector

This is a bit Irish.  The Facebook group “No to NAMA” has 11,369 members. I want John Joe from the late late toy show to fix my clock group has 47,415! In my opinion, Ireland needs to connect online to have a discussion about the most important piece of legislation in the history of the state.
Lets use social media to voice our opinions and lets get interested in what could potentially make or break our state. Why?

NAMA is purchasing loans at only a 30% discount from the banks. The lands these loans are based on are now priced back at agricultural value. Unless the farmers strike oil on this land, the actual underlying value will remain as low as 10% of the loan value. We’re screwed!
David McWilliams sums up the figures as “we see that there will be €51.5bn of land and development assets and associated loans transferred, based on what he has seen so far, we are looking at a hole of possibly €40bn, where we will borrow €51.5bn from the ECB, for assets worth a little over €10bn”.
A loss of €40 billion ladies and gentleman, puts Ireland in the red for generations to come.
Ireland should prepare for even higher increases in taxes to pay for the debt, unemployment and emigration should this happen. 
Social Media was used as a primary method of communication among opposition supporters in the Iran 2009 elections. Tight state control of traditional media drove the opposition online to spread their message. In the USA, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign generated $60m dollars from social media channels.

Users of social media in Iran and the USA were able to establish a voice in important moments in their history.

Whether NAMA is a success or failure will decide the fate of the Irish economy for a generation.

This is an important moment in our history, and we can use social media to establish our voice and contribute.

Connect with NAMA is a post from: Connector

Yesterday we have had the pleasure to be interviewed by Ellen Gunning for her programme Mediascope, a radio show which deals with issues of interest to public relations, event management and journalism professionals. The interview will be broadcast in today’s programme on Dublin City FM (103.2) at 13.30 hours.

Conor chated with Ellen for 20 minutes about Connector. If you want to discover how Connector started, our new plans for 2010 and much more, listen to the podcast!

Connector on Mediascope with Ellen Gunning is a post from: Connector

Connector Lunches moved to Pacino’s Restaurant on Suffolk Street last Friday. We had a great chat over some tasty pizza and pasta after a busy week of Halloween preparations. We continued our Connector Lunches odessey in Little Caeser’s, on Balfe St. this week at 1PM.

As usual we had a  very diverse crowd of friendly and interesting people from the online and offline world who dropped in to make or renew some connections over lunch.  Afterwards we popped into the Westbury for afternoon tea !

Please keep an eye on connector.ie for the next Connector Lunch location.  If you are a restaurant and would like us to pay you a visit, please contact events [@] connector.ie

By Mallory McSweeney

Connector Lunch @ Little Caeser's is a post from: Connector

Nokia – ‘Connecting People’ has been slightly amended in the blog post today as we have some good news for all Nokia mobile phone users @ Electric Picnic this weekend.  Nokia are providing a great green solution for the dreaded problem of a dying or dead mobile phone battery at a music festival !  Now you can potentially save your festival, save on electricity & also get the latest information about the festival @ the Nokia Recharge Pod !

And don’t forget to go to Nokia’s ovi.com where you can register for ‘Ovi Synch’ & back up all your phone numbers & more for free – this is a smart move in case of a festival mishap where you lose your phone & all your numbers !

Here is the message from Nokia about the Recharge Pods -

“Nokia are delighted to announce that they are contributing to the Carbon Responsibility Policy of the Electric Picnic by bringing for the 2nd year, the “Recharge Pod”. This is an eco-friendly, freestanding wind and solar power mobile phone charging station, capable of charging up to 120 Nokia handsets an hour for free!

The Nokia Recharge and Information area will keep you constantly updated with up to the minute festival news, updates, and information on all the services on offer at the Electric Picnic, and all while charging your Nokia handset in the Recharge Pod.

The Recharge Pod has been specifically designed for use at outdoor events and festivals, as it doesn’t require a power supply; the entire system is self sufficient and runs from its own renewable solar and wind power sources.  The Recharge Pod also powers its own lighting; utilizing low power LED’s to illuminate the inside, the turbine and the branding.”

Sian Gray, Head of Marketing for Nokia Ireland comments, “We are committed to doing things differently and reducing our own energy consumption.  We are delighted to be bringing back the “Recharge Pod” to Electric Picnic 2009.

Nokia – Re-Connecting Electric Picnic People is a post from: Connector

Today the Connector Interns had the pleasure of meeting with Paddy MaGuinness. Paddy, recommended to us by Don Mullan, our last interview, to meet up with. The web of connections has just begun, and Connector is keen on having many more!

Despite the fact that the chat was a little under an hour, we were able to discover a wide range organizations and projects Paddy has been involved with over the last year. A clear leader in international development, Paddy has worked with Niall Mellon Township Initiative Concern Worldwide, Traidelinks, and the Global Housing Foundation to name a few!

But most remarkably so, was Paddy’s Lifetime Humanitarian Medal presented to him by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. For more on this go check it out >here>>

We  enjoyed meeting Paddy, and hope to see where his passions take him next! The Connector Team is also looking forward for many more connections to come!

Connecting with Paddy MaGuinness is a post from: Connector

On the way in to Croke Park, we came across one of the contestants for Total Xposure, a competition to become the next presenter of TV3‘s flagship entertainment show Xposé.

The show is down to 3 finalists, Ruth, Sean, and Simon. Simon Atkins was at Croke Park telling people to vote for him for tomorrow’s final voting as he is from Mayo. He was joined by two former contestants, Michael Coghlan and Daniella Moyles.

To vote for Simon for the Total Xposure competition, text SIMON to the 53307 or ring 1513 712 303.

Check out the the site for more information >here>>

Best of luck guys!

Connecting with TV3's Total Xposure is a post from: Connector