Archive for the travel category
Taste of Darkness in Frankfurt
by Izabela Zelazna on November 26th, 2009
‘Taste of Darkness’ exhibition in Frankfurt’s Dialog Museum was an unique experience. By introducing me to the world of blindness, it opened my mind to other sensations.
Stepping into the darkness was intimidating, overwhelming and dangerous experience. My brain switched to alert mode, sharpening other senses to the limit. Out of my comfort zone of the world I know, I found myself feeling panicky and anxious. However, I had the other senses to guide me: hearing, taste, smell & touch. It made me realize that the more grown up I become, the more I explore the world with my eyes only. Unlike a little child, who wants to touch and sample everything within reach.
The exhibition was exciting and fascinating. My favourite part was when we were asked to lay down on the floor and enjoy the music. It was amazing how I could feel the bits tickling my feet, experiencing the music as a sort of a sensation going through the body, awakening the muscles and nerves.
In another ‘room’, I could even touch emotions, like friendship, anxiety and loneliness; curved in wooden blocks. Even Pepsi tasted sophisticated, pleasing the taste buds on my tongue…
I think that the communication between people should be inspired by the ‘Taste of Darkness’ experience as it shows that engaging messages which stimulate all the senses, will be exciting and memorable. That creating playful and interactive content will bring a positive outcome, be the opportunity to learn and understand.
This 1,5h journey, however, left me wondering how the online world deprives people from other senses. How poor is the virtual reality as it merely depends on what we can see&watch.
In Connector we are bringing the online into offline as we believe that they are complimentary to each other. Join our upcoming event and find out yourself.
Connecting with Paddy MaGuinness
by Jamie Richardson on August 13th, 2009
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!
The Connector Intern Party!
by Jamie Richardson on August 12th, 2009
It think it’s safe to say that the Connector Intern Party was a success!
Andrew and I worked very hard all day getting The Church’s Tower Bar ready for our special party!
Guests started to arrive, and the night was in full swing! We had a sign in table where guests received a pre-stamped postcard of The Church that they could send back to their families from around the world. We also handed out variously colored buttons with the Connector “C” on them for some mixing and mingling later on.
Soon enough the Tower Bar was brimming with the variety of international students that are living/working/studying in Dublin for the summer!
Personally, I had a wonderful time! It was refreshing to see some new faces and make connections with a variety of new people! I really enjoyed myself, and would like to thank all the volunteers who helped us with the event night! They made my job much easier!
Cheers!
Jamie
____________________________________________________________________________________________
First off I would like to start off and thank The Church right off the bat. All of their staff did a great job cleaning, organizing, and catering to our needs for the party. Next I will send my thanks out to our lovely ladies who were involved with the photography, and signing guests in. They did a wonderful job and deserve a big hand.
I was very satisfied with the turnout because I honestly had no idea how many people would show up. It is great to sit above the bar and observe people who have to move people out of the way just to get to the bar. This made me smile and I realized that we threw a kick ass party for students!!
Lastly I would like to say how much I enjoyed working with Jamie on this event. She was a great co-worker, and as a team we worked well together to throw this bang. I look forward to planning more parties in the future for large amounts of people.
~Andrew~
Connections made with Don Mullan
by Jamie Richardson on August 4th, 2009
“I’m an ideas man.”
This is perhaps the most unmistakable quality about Don Mullan. Ideas. He is full of them. Social entrepreneur, humanitarian, author, world traveler, top mobile phone photographer, and ideas man.
The Connector Team had the pleasure of spending a couple hours with Don a couple of weeks ago. We chatted about his recent and highly successful exhibition of photos from his Nokia phones. The exhibition, called “A Thousand Reasons for Living” was the world’s first amateur photography exhibition based solely on mobile phone cameras.
The exhibition, put on by Nokia Ireland, was a huge hit. Look at Don’s photographs, and it’s easy to see why!
It was a great pleasure to meet Don and we hope to hear more of great work from the ideas man himself!
Connect @ the Connector Intern Party
by Jamie Richardson on July 27th, 2009
Being an intern for Connector isn’t just something that happened by chance. Well, perhaps it was chance that landed me with Connector and Conor Lynch, but the part about being an intern here in Dublin was very much intentional. Confused? Allow me to explain.
Andrew Sigle and I pursued internships in Dublin through a program run by a company named EUSA. Essentially, we were placed in internships based on our majors in college. And now here we are, Americans, working for Connector for the summer!
Andrew and I, however, are two of many interns in Dublin this summer gaining work experience. There are quite a lot actually! Due to this wide array of people from across the U.S. doing a variety of internships throughout Dublin, we wanted to host an event in order to bring everyone together for a fun night of making connections.
Come join us on Wednesday July 29th @ The Church
Toyota iQ connects with Irish bloggers
by Jamie Richardson on July 16th, 2009
The Toyota iQ may be the world’s smallest 4-seater car, but its new social networking campaign is far from minuscule. Project managed by Conor Lynch as Strategic Planner @ EightyTwenty.ie , Toyota Ireland tweeted that they are in pursuit of 4 Irish bloggers that want to test drive the iQ for the next 6 months while recording their experiences on Twitter.
This tiny car may be designed to reduce both congestion and CO2 emissions, but the buzz surrounding this campaign is growing by the minute. The chosen bloggers will get to test out the Toyota iQ for the remainder of 2009. In exchange, these bloggers will write about their adventures with the iQ. Sounds like a fun ride to me!
Interested in participating? Check out the details here >>
Connector Freecording
by Conor on May 21st, 2009
If you are wondering what Freecording is, here is a video from Michael Scanlon in Kerry for the Canon Connector Digital Video Freecording Contest … I think I need to head south more often !
Connect with Eoghan McCabe, Damien Ryan & Michelle O'Keefe
by Conor on May 7th, 2009
We made the following videos @ Connector No.9 featuring short presentations by Eoghan McCabe (Contrast.ie), Damien Ryan (Results International Group) & Michelle O’Keefe (Travel Affiliate).
Connect with Pat Phelan
by connector on April 14th, 2009
It is a major coup but Connector has managed to persuade Mr. Telecoms Disruptor Pat Phelan to come and join our panel of experts for Connector Startup on the 23rd April. Pat (centre of picture) is a colourful character as befitting a Corkman and has made some big international deals lately including one with my favourite mobile video application provider …
In news that Pat just announced today, Cubic Telecom partners with Qik, Inc to bring low cost voice and data roaming to worldwide users. Cubic extend their partnership program by powering Qik Roam product that allows travelers to make calls and stream live video from their mobile devices for up to 80% less.
The Qik deal follows on from other deals with travel service Dopplr, Big Red Book, Shandon Travel, GetCover Insurance and Invincible Mobile. Details on these partnerships are available here: http://www.cubictelecom.com/partners
Supporting nearly 120 mobile devices, Qik allows anyone to broadcast video live from their cell phone. With users in more than 160 countries, Qik is a truly global mobile utility. For example, Qik user Joseph Tame from the UK streamed live for hours as he ran the Tokyo Marathon, and Qikkers in several world cities all streamed the simultaneous, global Twitter meet-up Twestival live on Qik .
The partnership with Cubic Telecom will see Qik give its users the opportunity to purchase Qik-branded SIM cards enabling them to stream video live from all corners of the planet – without coming home to an astronomical phone bill. The Qik SIM also provides massive savings on voice calls, email, web browsing and texting while they travel. Under the tagline “Go mobile, not broke,” Qik is offering its users a simple, inexpensive way to share live video no matter where they are.
The Qik pre-paid SIM cards with full voice and data can be purchased from http://qik.com/roam. This is also where customers can manage their accounts.
“Travelers can now share their world journeys with videos, photos, text, and calls from their mobile device without it costing the earth.” said Pat Phelan, Cubic Telecom CEO “We’ve heard of the horror stories of travelers returning from a trip abroad to cell phone bills in the thousands of euros. The Qik SIM eliminates this worry for our customers.”
Connect with the Waveriders
by connector on April 6th, 2009
Well even the fish in the sea know that surfing has really popular in Ireland in recent years with a community of surfers spring up beside the coast. I’ve seen some of this movies trailer on TV & Patrick from Screenclick recommended we go check it out.
WAVERIDERS is a feature film documenting the previously untold story of the unlikely Irish roots of the worldwide surfing phenomenon and today’s pioneers of Irish big wave surfing. The journey reaches a spectacular climax when the surfers conquer the biggest swell ever to have been ridden in Ireland by catching monster waves of over fifty feet.
Waveriders was Winner of the Audience Award for Best Film at the Dublin International Film Festival 2008.
More about Waveriders – www.WaveRidersTheFilm.com