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

A unique format and networking opportunity

As part of the Inventorium project, The Long Debate will take place on the 11 Nov during the festival, at NDRC. An evening of lively discussion and networking, Inventorium have 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.

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 – get involved now: A unique format and networking opportunity. is a post from: Connector

Speakers (10-12) for The Long Debate: Alan Costello, John Handelaar,  Steve Gotz

Make The Long Debate your key event in Dublin Innovation Festival

Alan Costello

Alan Costello, BSc, MBA, Managing Director of Ruby Consulting.  Ruby Consulting current focus is on supporting start-ups in commercialisation and assisting them with funding from angel/family funds and VCs.  Alan has worked extensively with 3rd level Institutions & Entrepreneur programmes as VC/commercialisation advisor and business plan judging.  He is also Commercial Development Manager on www.spiritofireland.org, a €multi billion renewable energy project in Ireland.  Alan’s background is in Blue Chip Pharmaceutical companies covering traditional Pharma, Biopharma, Medical Devices and Generics, spanning areas from R&D to product marketing.

John Handelaar

Founder Kildarestreet.com and Broadcast Media Professional.

Steve Gotz

Commercial Development Manager at the Centre for Next Generation Localisation.

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.

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

Speakers (10-12) for The Long Debate: Alan Costello, John Handelaar & Steve Gotz is a post from: Connector

Connector Brainstorm @ Science Gallery! is a post from: Connector

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

Innovative connections @ “The Long Debate” during the Dublin Innovation Festival. is a post from: Connector

In recent times I have been lucky enough to meet lots of new people in whole new areas for Connector.  I have found myself miles from my digital marketing homeland and over in what could be best described as an interesting but alien socio-political-economic landscape.  On my travels I have been connecting with an assortment of non-techies, technophobes and luddites which is nice for a change and makes me feel oh-so nerdy!

In 2009, I am sure I was not the only one to be utterly depressed at the sorry turn of global events and the international pounding our once proud celtic tiger economy was taking.  This was in the back of my mind as I set out to become a full time connector in the midst of a recession in February.  I wanted to travel a new road and see where it took me and here are some of the connections along the way as I have ben a very lazy blogger lately!

As a recent graduate of the 6 month long (part-time) Common Purpose Meridian Programme, for the first time I encountered many senior civil servants and politicians and visited several ministeries and even Mountjoy Prison.  Only yesterday at an alumni event we were presented to by the most senior civil servant of them all, Dermot McCarthy, Secretary General to the Government & the Taoiseach.

I was also recently chatting to the Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation, Conor Lenihan TD at the annual showcase for the excellent Computer Clubhouse project in the Liberties (pictured above).  Conor had great craic with the kids and remarked that they were better hecklers than the guys in the Dail!  I was then very happy to be involved in a small way with helping Padraig McKeown promote the Martin McAleese brainchild ‘Your Country Your Call‘ campaign at a Connector Event in the Science gallery – this competition is now at the exciting judging phase.

And now I see I missed the recent launch of Gateway Ireland and on the same day I assume, I walked by Gabriel Byrne and regretfully not running after him to say hello!  This project looks quite exciting too and a welcome offspring of the Farmleigh conference of 2009. I see from their web site & video they are also about connecting the Irish dots … ah now lads, shor I’ve been doing that with Connector for over 2 years now! ;-0  I wish them all the best in their endeavours to promote Irish business, tourism, culture & education and the team of advisors they have assembled is first class.

As another 2009 connection, Colm Long from Facebook, said on the RTE News site, “the company has been working with John McColgan since shortly after the Farmleigh event nine months ago. He says that Facebook got involved because connecting people all around the world is its business. He says that connecting with the country’s diaspora will be key to the success of the site.”

Gateway Ireland – An Introduction from Fountainhead on Vimeo.

So what is it with this sudden burst of  economic nationalism?  While the dire state of the state’s finances is well known, there is a  fight back coming on strong.  There is a very exciting turning of the tide underway and I hope it hits the country’s shores in 2010.

With all my talks to small businesses recently including at the Entrepreneur Show, I see a realisation that the time to energize and digitize the nation is now, as Joan Mulvihill iia CEO championed  so well recently.  People are fighting back and connecting with each other at networking events the length & breadth of the country.  However thankfully the country’s heavyweights seem to be up for the fight and are grouping together to collaborate.  The international connections with the Irish diaspora hold the key but it is us at home who must do the hard work.

A final new connection this week was a really enjoyable conversation with Andrew McLaughlin who is the Director of the Masters in Organisational Behaviour in the IMI.  On Thursday he just published a very timely and fascinating research report for the IDA called ‘Innovation & the Irish Mind.’  As Steve Jobs from Apple said, “creativity is just connecting things” and Andrew has found that the Irish executives and entrepreneurs have a unique mindset that could be just perfect for the ‘conceptual age’.

In a great supporting article in Decision magazine, Andrew writes that the ‘conceptual age’, from Daniel Pink’s book ‘A Whole New Mind‘, will require new skills of which Ireland might be perfectly equipped to prosper once more.  The Irish entrepreneurs have a preference for social connections and associating with others who have larger social networks.  They also have a tolerance for ambiguity which indicates independent idiosyncratic innovative minds!

I am doing a disservice to this vast subject area and 80 page report by summarising it into a paragraph via a 2 page article, but the full report was co-written by Megan Burgdorf and can be found at ‘Innovation & the Irish Mind.’ However as the government has also produced an several ‘knowledge economy’ style reports, it is the actual implementation of good ideas that will get us back to our rightful place punching above our weight on the global stage.

The fact that this community of Irish economic nationalists has formed is very encouraging and will it have the desired impact?  If you have any comments or messages of support for these initiatives, please leave a comment below.

Words by Conor Lynch / Photo by Pavla K Smidova

Irish economic nationalism to take on the world! is a post from: Connector

Yesterday Conor took part in an Enterprise Ireland podcast about Micro-Blogging, i.e. Twitter etc.  This was for Irish SMEs and we will link to the podcast shortly.   Pictured are Conor with Ralph Averbach from ENN‘s and Andrew Townley from Archistry in the studio off Mount Street. Thanks to David Scanlon from EI for the invitation and the very nice lunch!

Connector Top Tips
- Use a downloadable application like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite if you want to use Twitter to its full potential
- Use Twitter as a great social media listening tool even if you don’t want to join the conversation
- Why not follow these guys on Twitter? @connector_ie / @dscanlon / @ralphenn / @atownley

Connecting with Enterprise Ireland 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

Conor met the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese & her husband Martin, at the presentation of  “Your Country, Your Call’. This is Martin’s initiative to help Ireland come out of a period of economic depression in 2009.  The event was help in the National Library & was hosted by MC Mark Little who made the big announcement.

‘Your Country, Your Call’ is a national competition which aims to find two transformational proposals that will enable the Irish economy to grow. There is a broad range of categories from sports and arts to communications and technology, and the best part:  a prize fund of €200,000.

I was invited to the blogger review event on Monday evening in the Guinness Storehouse & hear about the exciting plans for YCYC.  Some of the team are also coming to the Connector Tribes event next week to tell us more about this great contest.  Please check it out at www.yourcountryyourcall.com

Connector at launch of 'Your Country, Your Call' is a post from: Connector

Do you trust your business & government connections? is a post from: Connector