Connecting For a Good Cause

by Sarai Fernandez on December 9th, 2009

A long time ago, in 1872 some good people from Dublin founded a tiny hospital for poor children. It had only 8 beds. But the idea was so successful that only 4 years after that, there was such an increase in activity that they had to ask The Irish Sisters of Charity to run the busy hospital.

Over time, this hospital grew and grew, andis now known today as The Temple Street Children’s Hospital, one of the most important hospitals in the country, which leads investigation and treatment in several areas such as neurological, eye, craniofacial, kidney, airways and metabolic disorders. The great success of this centre is that they’re always involved in new projects to improve the experience of staying in a hospital for both the children and parents.

Now this hospital is raising funds to develop a new dedicated Cystic Fibrosis and Respiratory Out-Patient Unit, that will cost €2.7 million. They are also looking to buy new equipment, some machines which can help in the diagnosis or in the treatment of ill children.

The fundraising office for Temple Street Hospital has thought of 12 ways that everybody can help the Hospital, and therefore the children and their families. At Connector we would like to join this good cause and that’s why we are going to fundraise at our Christmas Party. So if you also think that healthy children is something worth to fight for, join us on thursday’s evening at Lillie’s Bordello: make connections, have fun and connect for a good cause.

Temple Street Children's Hospital

Culch.ie – Connector 'Tribe of the Year 2009' (Shortlisted)

by Conor on November 30th, 2009

As part of Tribes Week, we are featuring all of our shortlisted Tribes on the Connector Blog today. Each of these Tribes have been shortlisted for the Connector Tribe of the Year award. The winner will be announced at Christmas Connector.

Culch.ie is a new and growing group blog, the main  theme being pop culture. The site also features information about different events around the country as well as features on gossip, movies, newspapers, photography, radio, politics, etc.

Connector would like to recognise the fantastic work that Darren Byrne has put in over the last year in creating a fantastic Pop Culture resource and community.

As Darren and Rick say themselves:

The idea was a simple one – a few months ago we thought it’d be fun to start a group blog project (well, everyone seems to have one these days), the theme took a little bit longer. To be fair, pop culture is one of the few common threads that runs through almost all of us and Ireland doesn’t have a  huge, enormous pop culture review site/aggregator/news place (can’t you see we’ve researched the lingo here?) so we decided to give it a go.

Check out Culch.ie’s presentation at Connector Tribes event in May:

Connect with Darragh Doyle & Aoife O'Driscoll

by connector on May 5th, 2009

Connector slayed on Dragons Den ?

by connector on April 3rd, 2009

My 1 minute of fame

I’ve just about recovered from being slayed by the Irish investors on Dragons’ Den. It was weird to watch them knock me back and it was an uncomfortable looking Conor & friends in action but great publicity … I was interrogated for about 45 mins but they showed only 1 minute of the footage on TV.  It was filmed 3 months ago and I went on the show to make some new connections & make the most of a great media opportunity.

What I wanted from the Dragons

Connector costs very little to run and I do not really need or seek investment.  Thankfully I have a 4 day a week job @ Eighty Twenty I like the work & & my employers support my personal projects.  I also thought some of the dragons did not have the profile I was looking for as a mentor or investor in such a specialised business.  The discussions & negotiations were two way but the viewer did not see this – the dragons wanted to know if this a good investment while I wanted to know if this a good investor ?

I went into the Dragons’ Den ‘offering’ 10% for €50,000 but I knew they would want 30-40% of Connector to get involved in a risky personal project.  That was never going to be acceptable to me as the status quo is more attractive.

There is no point in a deal for the sake of a TV show as I have a job I am happy with an in no rush to leave.  A bad deal could ruin all the good work and goodwill for Connector.  I was also disappointed none of them got out of their seats to look at my connector overview chart – they were about 10+ metres from it and I doubt could really see it.

The first step for me taking on a partner is for them to show an understanding of the new digital & social media landscape where Connector operates in the real & digital worlds. However, without the use of video (I was told I could only use an A0 or A1 board) and/or attending my Connector events, they did not get it.  I left Bobby ‘dazed and confused’ and Sean saying I had an ‘identity crisis’ !  (Given my background as the creator of CONMAN, that was accidentally insightful !)

My Profile

The last person to bow out was Sarah Newman who did not like it when she discovered at the end that I had a job.  They never really probed my background and focused solely on the idea.  I did not tell them I was Irish Internet Marketer of the Year in 2005.  I did not tell them that I was one of Ireland’s most successful internet marketers with several awards over the last few years to prove it.  Well, they never asked me and I was surprised they did not think my profile & past employers was important, particularly for a ‘connector’.

I went onto the show for national exposure to my events & blog and I achieved my objective with a 60 second ad for Connector on RTE1.  Bobby said he thought it was a publicity stunt, maybe he was right   Niall, Conor M, Brendan, Natalia, Tania & I filmed some Connector videos on the day as that is what Connector is all about … showcasing my work, my friends talents & creating stories for my blog.

Connecting with Sean Gallagher

By concidence, I met Sean Gallagher last night at an Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ charity dinner.  He was very nice and had some positive comments about Connector which was great.  He said that after I left the Dragons Den set, that he predicted that they had not seen the last of Conor Lynch & Connector.  He was right … I’d bumped into him already while out connecting ! Connector has made great progress since then with new sponsors including Canon, Ben & Jerrys, Hosting 365 & Bulmers Light and the Connector events are going great.

Pity that everything said to me on the piece aired on Thursday was only the negative bits.  Entrpreneurship is vital for Ireland today and people should be encouraged as much as possible.  I am not alone in thinking the show has room for improvement next series with a less dismissive attitude from the dragons coming across on the show.  Maybe they need better ideas or maybe it is simply down to the editing.

Thanks !

Thanks for all the support, comments & emails and those who joined me in Le Cirk to watch the show – we had lots of craic and I got to connect with some great new peeps including Anton Mannering & Marcus MacInnes who took the mobile videos below.  There was also quite a buzz on Twitter & you can follow me on Twitter @connector_ie

If you want to find out more about my Dragons’ Den experience, please get in touch.

Apologies if you were disappointed I did not get the cash.   For what it’s worth, I’m very happy with the outcome.

PS – Thanks to Enda Kelly & Sinead Barry for making myself & Nick so welcome at the ‘Soul of Haiti’ fundraiser.