Heading To Media 2020

Courtesy of Mediacontact.ie, I’ll be heading along to Media 2020 tomorrow in Croke Park in Dublin for a day long conference that includes presentations from BBC, RTE, the Guardian, the Irish Times, CNN, Google, Channel 4, and Realex Payments amongst others.

According to Mediacontact.ie, the aim of the conference is to

• Understand the key domestic and international trends that will shape the media in the future.
• Explain the techniques, and strategies for reaching new online audiences.
• Give you detailed information about the technologies, websites and applications that will capture the zeitgeist for the next five years.
• Network with key influencers in the media industry.

Just over a year ago, my own business took a step in a new direction, went through a little re-branding, and came out the other side with an additional focus on all things media. While web design and development is still the busiest element of the business, the shift from Event Ireland to Event Media has allowed me to open new doors in the world of design, music, theatre and radio and reach out to new audiences for each.

Online and offline, dealing with the media has become a near daily part of work life on some level, certainly moreso when it comes to the music and theatre side of life so I’ll be very interested in hearing what the big players have to say about the changing face of media and thoughts on what’s coming over the next few years. Plus it’ll be good to get out of the office and meet some new faces.

If you’re heading along and we’ve not met before, feel free to say hello. I’m here on Twitter, here on LinkedIn, and I’m aiming to be in Croke Park for breakfast. Hashtag for those following the conference on Twitter tomorrow is #med2020.

Check out the Media 2020 lineup and details here or grab yourself a pdf brochure download.

WordCamp Ireland All Weekend

WORDCAMP IRELAND takes place this weekend, kicking off this morning in my own back garden (Kilkenny) where hopefully I’ll get to pop my head in for a few minutes over the course of the two days.

Langton House Hotel is the venue for the first Irish WordCamp conference and for bloggers, techies, non-techies and Wordpress users of all levels there’s plenty to choose from. Things kicked off informally last night with some nibbles, drinks and a photowalk around Kilkenny and registration has just opened this morning for the start of talks proper. Up first are Hanni Ross & Sheri Bigelow, Leo Ibanez & Loughlin O’Nolan and Daryl Koopersmith all split across the three tracks – Intro, Bloggers and Tech.

Check the full WordCamp schedule.

Langtons are looking after the catering and judging by mentions of croissants and scones for the morning, lunches in the afternoon and the (ticketed) dinners in the evening, along with a special WordCamp cocktail menu, nobody will be going home hungry. There’s full childcare available, free wifi for all and plenty for speakers and attendees to link up with.

For those who haven’t picked up tickets yet, there are limited numbers available on the door with tickets today available for €50 and tomorrow (Sunday) available at €25.

It’s possible I’ll make an appearance this afternoon disguised as a clown (or I could be mistaken for a clown in the garb I’ll be wearing for the day) so if you see a grown man running in the door of Set Theatre wearing lime green dungarees, a bright pink shirt and a very white face, do say hello. To all those visiting Kilkenny for the first time, you’ve got the weather for it, you’ve got plenty to see and do so don’t miss out on what the city has to offer as well!

Follow WordCamp Ireland on Twitter.

Digital Ideas at The Digital Festival

photo credit: whiteafrican

DIGITAL IDEAS should be in plentiful supply in Dublin this Wednesday with The Digital Festival taking place in the Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge. Early bird tickets are long gone but there’s still the possibility of buying a full-price ticket for €375 (plus VAT) before Wednesday.

What does the €375 get you?

How about a day with the following speakers –

• Peter Kim, MD of the Dachis Group, speaking on “Social Networking & Social Business Design in 2010 and beyond”
• Tim Duggan, Founder & Director at Mercury Girl Inc speaking on the revolution of Apps and how the explosion of production, engagement with and use of apps alter the communications landscape.
• Shel Israel, speaking about real world stories of how Twitter has dramatically helped companiesgrow, provide greater customer service and changed the dynamic of the human conversation
• Martin Bailie, Planning Director at Glue London speaking on digital consumer insights.
• Russell Davies, The Open Intellegence Agency, speaking on blogging and business in a connected world.
• Brent Hoberman, co-founder of LastMinute.com, delivering keynote talk on “Digital Growth – Opportunities for the future and some lessons from the past.”

You can download the full running of the day (PDF) here.

Speaker list does look quite good, with each allocated 50 minutes on stage, three talks in the morning and three in the afternoon, sandwiching an hour for lunch and wrapping with an open panel discussion with all speakers. Those interested in getting more details about tickets can check the site or phone +353 1 284 6096.

Blogging The Arts Festival

The Kilkenny Arts Festival, now in its 36th year, opened on Friday night and for the duration of the festival I’ll be hiding out over on the festival blog, with myself and John Morton making contributions to the festival content manning the blog / Twitter and video output until Sunday the 16th.

For me personally it’s a fantastic way to see the festival, having missed out on much of last year’s offerings due to our own (via Devious Theatre) commitments to producing Smitten (2008). Friday took in Aleksandar Madzar, Aka Moon and Black Machine opening to a weekend featuring RSAG, Julie Feeney, Amiina and much more. Throughout the week I’ll be attending a myriad of theatre, music, visual arts, crafts and literature events and working on bringing those to the web for the festival.

If you’re attending anything at the Kilkenny Arts Festival or talking about it on Twitter, there’s also the #kaf hashtag that’s currently being used to track festival chatter online. If you do manage to spot me at an event, be sure and say hello.

Wing Your Way To A United Game for the Irish Society for Autism

Keith nudged a few of us about a charity auction taking place for the Irish Society for Autism. I’ve done the road trip to a Premier League game. I’ve taken the bus to Dublin, got the ferry, the bus to Liverpool, spent silly money on taxis, the bus back to the ferry, the ferry trip itself, the long road home…

Forget that.

Solicitor to the stars, Gerard Keane has provided a prize of a chauffeur-driven trip to the airport, a private jet to Manchester, overnight accommodation, match tickets to *any* Manchester United game at Old Trafford between now and the end of the season and the same chauffeur and private jet home.

Bidding on the prize closed out yesterday at €1,200 and to make a bid, you’re asked to email Carl at carl@reviseonline.ie before the auction closes on Sunday coming at 8pm.

Keith’s original post…

Tis The Season For BarCamps

Tis the season for BarCamps, surely. Tomorrow I’m off to BizCamp in Dublin where I’ll join in the region of 200 other entrepreneurs, freelancers and free thinkers in the first business-focused BarCamp to be held here (nice to see another “themed” BarCamp running). Registration starts from 9am tomorrow and with the early train leaving Kilkenny pre-7am I’ll be hoping to make breakfast in Dublin. Talks are scheduled for between 10am and 5:30pm ish and there’s a draft schedule here.

BizCamp Limerick follows on March 21st for those who can’t make Dublin tomorrow (it being “sold out”) or are looking for another helping of talks from more business people. The Limerick session is being held in UL and at time of writing there are currently 71 attendees and 19 speakers registered.

Two events that I’m going to miss (will be out of the country) are the ACE (Awakening Creative Entrepreneurship) in Derry running March 25th – 27th and OSS BarCamp in Dublin on March 28th which runs in DIT’s Kevin Street Campus. While all the speaker slots have been filled, if you’re interested in going to OSS BarCamp, leave a comment on the attendees list.

Finally, in April we’ve got BarCamp Belfast coming up. I haven’t been to Belfast since August 2006, catching Steel Pulse in the Andersontowns Leisure Centre (what a gig!) and it will be good to get across the border and meet some more web heads for the weekend. It’s going to be held in The Black Box on Saturday April 25th and already there’s over 110 signups, the makings of another great day.

The best thing about all of these events is that they are free.

If you’re looking to get out and meet some likeminded people – business types, designers, web heads, geeks, startups, entrepreneurs and more – then get yourself to one of these events because that’s where you’ll find them hanging out.

Kilkenny Open Coffee, Tuesday March 3rd

We’re down a few regulars (regulars being those who were at the first two gatherings) but Kilkenny’s third open coffee is set for tomorrow, Tuesday March 3rd at 11:30am.

The venue, as on previous days, will be the Kilkenny Cafe at Market Cross Shopping Centre, High Street, Kilkenny. Check IGOpeople.com for more.

Each of the previous mornings have seen new faces introduced and hopefully tomorrow will bring more of the same. If you’re involved in the tech / web / a startup or want to come along and meet people working in those spaces then join us tomorrow morning from 11:30am.

Creative Entrepreneurship UnConference for Derry

I like creative things. I like creative people. I like people who get up off their arse and start something, creative or otherwise. So it’s great to see word of the Awakening Creative Entrepreneurship UnConference hitting Derry at the end of March. With recent BarCamps, CreativeCamps and Unconventions hitting Belfast, it’s great to see another UnConference heading North, this one taking in the full weekend of March 25th to 27th.

What is it?

“Awakening Creative Entrepreneurship [ACE] is a collaborative unconference, a showcase, and a multi-track Creative BootCamp for creatives, business leaders, support agencies, students, developers, technology providers, and VCs looking to develop and/or discover the next big thing. ACE revolves around a multi-track creative business development programme which offers the opportunity to win on several levels – for traditional businesses, support agencies, and creatives alike! ”

Speakers over the weekend include Edward T Colligan (CEO at Palm), Andrew Shorten (Platform Evangelist at Adobe), Sean Melly (Chairman of PowersCourt), Brian Kelley (Senior Advisor for Deutsche Bank), Greg Rewis (Creative Suite Evangelist Worldwide at Adobe), BarCamp favourite Martha Rotter (Microsoft Ireland).

The Official Blurb

“The technology world will converge in the North West from 25 to 27 March when Silicon Valley comes to Derry/Londonderry for the ACE UnConference, which has been funded through the Arts Council’s Innovation Fund. The not to be missed three day UnConference for Creative Entrepreneurship will see senior figures from the world’s leading creative technology and communications companies visit the region including Palm, Adobe, Powerscourt, Deutsche Bank, Nokia, Microsoft and DemonWare among others. The delegate driven industry event provides an opportunity to showcase the talent of local creative industries and will act as a platform for local entrepreneurs to access global expertise within an open innovation environment. Tickets for ACE are free, and with demand expected to be high, it is essential you register your interest to avoid disappointment.”

I found more on it here or check the official site for details .

Booking & BizCamp

Tickets are FREE so if you’re thinking on heading along, book now before it winds up like BizCamp – sold out. There’s no way I’ll make it to Derry on the weekend (giving a course in Kilkenny on the 26th before heading out of the country) but I will be at BizCamp for the most of the day on March 7th. Registration for that is closed but if you’re in Dublin for breakfast on the day, let me know. Rumour has there’s breakfast nibbles on offer.

Registration, however, is open for BizCamp Limerick. If you’re around on March 21st, get booking for that too!

Slow Down, Go Further, Share A Car?

photo credit: thingermejig

I met Paul Brennan, the man behind Future Proof Kilkenny some months ago and I always meant to slip a note into the blog about the events Future Proof run here in town.

This week, coinciding with EU Mobility Week, Future Proof Kilkenny are hosting a seminar on Sustainable Transport. While some of the talks will look at Kilkenny’s plans for cycling, the future of city motoring and more, one of the talks will come from Mike Newham of GoCar, a new pay-as-you-go car-sharing business launching in Cork this Friday.

I’m particularly interested myself in how GoCar will do in Cork and if there’s a possibility we’ll see something like it happen elsewhere in the country (as opposed to something like DublinTraffic.ie).

Following a light lunch there will also be a demo of the REVA electric car in Butler House carpark. The event (half day) takes place in Butler House, is priced €15 and you can grab all the details here.

Note: Trying the Photo Dropper plugin for Wordpress 2.5+ to grab Creative Commons licensed images for the blog posts. Another thing I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time.

Silverlight Heads For Big Screen In Dublin

An email yesterday from Fergal Breen points me to another event I’m likely not to make but what matters is that IrishDev.com are behind a Silverlight event being held in the Cineworld Complex on Parnell Street in Dublin on Thursday fortnight (September 27th).

The event is free but registration is required to attend. Things kick off at 7:30 in the evening and the bar opens at 9:30pm allowing for some good networking opportunities.

On the event itself…

Rich internet applications are the foundation of Web 2.0 and there are a host of new tools out there promising to help you deliver interactive, animated web applications. Microsoft has recently released Silverlight – their sparkly new platform for delivering rich internet applications, which focuses on high-def experiences and media streaming. Silverlight works cross-platform and cross-browser, supporting Firefox and Safari as well as IE, and Mac and Linux.

In September, Martha Rotter, from the original Silverlight crew, invites you to witness how Silverlight can light up the web with Rich Interactive Applications. Join her, free to learn how to use Silverlight at Ireland’s largest cinema complex. It’s Silverlight, on the silver screen. If you see one movie this year, skip it and join us instead. Next year, they’ll be attending your Silverlight RIA.

Find out more about the Silverlight event by clicking here or contact 1890 81 21 00 for details.

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