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 at ‘Getting Business Online’ training is a post from: Connector

We’re giving  away free tickets to the Appys which take place in the Gibson Hotel on the 4th of November.  The Appys are Ireland’s only dedicated awards ceremony for mobile and web application development and design.

It should be a great night so if you fancy coming along please contact conor[@] connector.ie.

Win tickets to the Appys is a post from: Connector

I was delighted to speak to a packed room at the Dublin Web Summit and made a lot of new local and international connections.  Click on the image for a link to for the Late Late Show appearance by Dublin Web Summit organiser Paddy Cosgrave with Jack Dorsey and Michael Birch, the founders of Twitter & Bebo respectively.

Seeing this event up close and how the DWS has progressed since the first event last year has been fantastic.  Huge credit to Paddy who is a seriously talented young entrepreneur who is destined for more success with the Dublin Web Summit series and Founders. Some of you may recall I put Paddy in the ‘Connector Top 10 for 2010′ and he has certainly had a great year!

Michael Birch spent an hour or two as barman in the Guinness Storehouse Gravity bar last night where I snapped him beside a copy of the Founders book.  This book is a cracking idea for all the guests as it is a photo album of their weekend ready for them to take away before they leave the country.

Above I am pictured with Joe Fernandez who is the founder of Klout which is a great tool for measuring online influence.

Dublin Web Summit connections is a post from: Connector

Last week Microsoft launched the beta version of IE9 and were kind enough to host a media briefing at the Westin hotel on College Green in Dublin. Speaking at the event was Brian Kealy who is Microsofts’ Western European Lead. As a Mozilla Firefox user I was initially a little skeptical but quickly changed my outlook.

Brian demonstrated how Microsoft have raised the stakes with this release as it has some seriously impressive features. He told us how IE9 reflects the changing nature of the web and aims to showcase content rather than get in the way.

Microsoft have taken advantage of new developments in technology such as hardware accelerated graphics to harness the full power of your computers graphic card. This has made it much faster than it’s competitors and allows it to take full advantage of HTML 5 features such as the canvas tag.

Other nice features that will be familiar to Windows 7 users include ‘pinning’, which allows you to add your favorite sites to the toolbar and ‘snaping’, which allows you to view two web-pages simultaneously.

From a developers point of view they have made a number of improvements to the developers tools to compete with Firefox plugins like Firebug.  From a web standards perspective they wanted to stress that they are leading the way in terms of compliance and are working closely the WC3, HTML5 and CSS3 working groups.

Overall the demonstration was very impressive. You can check out IE9 for yourself however by downloading it from www.beautyoftheweb.com.

Microsoft IE9 Beta Launch Briefing is a post from: Connector

This is an interesting  article from the Burson Marsteller Blog….

‘Following in the footsteps of consumers, large international companies are now becoming active participants in social media. A recent Burson-Marsteller study found that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs.’

Read more about Innovation_and_insights on Burson-Marsteller’s Blog:

Burson-Marsteller Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study is a post from: Connector

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!

Crafting outstanding presentations using storytelling techniques is a post from: Connector

Yesterday Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, and Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, were the keynote speakers at the Dublin Web Summit in Dublin’s Trinity College. The great expectation this event created ended up in massive crowdofover 400 people.

Other speakers as Wired’s Editor-at-Large, Ben Hammersley, and former Iona CEO, Chris Horn shared their stories and insights about the current situation in front of a very mixed audience, but all interested in entrepreneurship and theInternet.

After the conferences the delegates assisted to a Networking Event organised by Connector where each attendee had a Connector coloured badge identifying the category they worked in so as to encourage conversation and create an ‘ice-breaker’.

Conor is picture with Matt from WordPress at the No Name Bar after-after-party !  Connector is built on WordPress so we are big fans of his creation !  Well done to Paddy Cosgrave for organising such a great event for the Dublin web scene.

Connector Networking Event @ Dublin Web Summit 2 is a post from: Connector

You should get your ice skates on and get a ticket to the Dublin Web Summit 2 which looks like one of the best speaker lineups on these frosty green shores EVER !  At only €100 per ticket, these will be sold out in a matter of hours and are a snip at that price.

A major well done to the the one & only Mr. Paddy Cosgrave for pulling the DWS2 together and for being such a great supporter of Connector in recent months.

“Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, and Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, will be the keynote speakers at the Dublin Web Summit in Dublin’s Trinity College on Thursday, February 4th, 2010. They will now be joined by Wired’s Editor-at-Large, Ben Hammersley, and former Iona CEO, Chris Horn. For more details on speakers and what will be discussed at the Summit see the latest newsletter by clicking here.”

Dublin Web Summit – 4th Feb 2010 is a post from: Connector

BIG thanks to Colm Lyons from Realex Payments for supporting the Christmas Connector Party this year – his company have generously helped us put on this event & we hope you make his team feel very welcome on the night !

Colm was the guy (pictured above left) who presented me with my Internet Marketer of the Year award in 2005 & his company is one of the shining lights of the Irish web scene & he is a great supporter of those trying to follow in his footsteps.

In 2005 Colm was acclaimed and rewarded for his leadership when he was a finalist of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. As an industry figure he was Director and Chairman of the Irish Internet Association for over four years – during which time the association significantly enhanced its position. In 2009 he founded the Internet Growth Alliance in early 2009 to help Irish Internet businesses. Most recently he was awarded the ‘Internet Hero Award’ at the Golden Spiders in Dublin.

The company now employs 70 people in Ireland, Great Britain and France. In addition the company currently has 15 vacancies advertised on its website, as it continues to expand its operations in Ireland and abroad.  They recently announced profits of €720,000 as turnover increase to €6.5 million. The company has experienced year on year growth since its foundation in 2000 & now process payments for over 3500 clients, including Virgin Atlantic, Vodafone, Aer Lingus, Quinn Insurance, Motortax.ie.Wow!

Connect with Colm Lyons from Realex Payments is a post from: Connector

Connector is looking for 10 new businesses to step forward and tell us their story at a great new Connector Event on the 26th November 2009.  We are also accepting newish businesses who have a new web site, web or mobile app or video to show off.  Maybe you have a new fashion design ?  Maybe a new killer home made chocolate bar ?  You tell us what you been up to and we will help you spread the word !

Does this sound like you or a friend of yours ?  If so please register your interest with Event Elephant – The final list of presenters will be unveiled on the 19th November.  Good luck !

Connector Launches Event is a post from: Connector