Digital Media Island

Last year here on this blog we partnered with Microsoft to give you the Innovation Accelerator. Well the year has rolled around again and TechLudd are partnering with Microsoft once again to bring you BizSparkCamp.

If you’rs a Digital Media company or Startup then this FREE event is a bit of a must attend. With expert speakers from home and abroad it’ll be a great day.

The following is from the event registration site on Techludd.com

We’re delighted to again be partnering with Microsoft Ireland and Enterprise Ireland on BizSparkCamp 2010 featuring Innovate! PitchSlam – an event designed to help accelerate Irish Startups’ businesses and provide the opportunity to be identified as one of the world’s most promising technology start-ups. This day-long conference will run on Monday, March 8th (doors open 9am) in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin’s city centre. Entrance is free of charge.

At last year’s BizSpark event, we worked to provide business guidance on how to get your Startup off the ground. From your feedback, this year the plan is to focus on ways to secure funding as well as ways to build up new markets. If you are currently looking for funding, grants or other sources of capital, looking to expand your business to new markets, or even just looking for a great networking opportunity, come along to hear from local and visiting speakers about the programs and supports available through BizSpark and the Irish Startup ecosystem.

With several excellent speakers already on the roster and more being confirmed. Go register now.

Also if you’re a startup check out the Pitchslam event. A global project to find the worlds top 100 early stage startups.

Event Home        Event news        Schedule        Registration        Attendees        Location

Hey there I recently announced the schedule but as we have so many of the local tech community and quite a few investors attending we’d like to really drive some value for startups. So we’re having an expo as well during the event.

We should have space for 10 startup companies (we might make this more if there’s a big response) in an expo space jammed right in the middle between our 2 main conference rooms to guarantee the most exposure we can give. It has limited space but is absolutely free for startups. The slots are assigned on a first come first served basis and there may even be some press and high profile people at the event too. So get your entry in as soon as you can I’ll be operating the first come first served rule as usual. The only qualifying criteria is that you are a startup company. The demoing companies will be notified on Friday afternoon 3pm at the latest.

Register for the OpenDemo Expo here

Demo companies will have a 36″ Cocktail style table to showcase their product. Signage can be erected behind the table. Please contact me if you have any questions. anton[at]digitalmediaforum[dot]net

Someone is making some money from Twitter even if they aren’t, and while he’s at it @Walter from Sxoop Technologies has given a great demonstration of how to sell to the long tail and use a mashup of existing services to create real value.

He’s created a great little app called Twitter Mosaic. It’s one of those “Ronseal” apps that does exactly what it says on the tin. It makes a mosaic of all your Twitter followers or those you’re following.

IT’s not complicated and you don’t need to reveal a password. Just input your username and hey presto… your very own twitter mosaic. Choose if you want it to be those you follow or those who follow you as well. Great for use on a blog post or a website, embed codes provided. Cool.

That’s when it gets very interesting. A few clicks take you to a Zazzle merchant page where you can get a very unique and personalised mug, T-shirt or bag with your twitter friends on it, and even a business card with your twitter details. This is very clever and very cool because by definition no two peoples items will be the same. Mixing Twitter, Sxoop’s own tech and Zazzle, it’s the very definition of long tail marketing.

Go here to see it in action.

Oh and here’s mine

Event Home        Schedule        Attendees & Registration      Expo Reg        Location

Sorry for the delay guys, we’ve been tying up some loose ends over this side, but here it is the schedule for next weeks Innovate Media Event in IADT. It should be a great day and I hope to see you all there.

Event Home        Schedule        Attendees & Registration      Expo Reg        Location

Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design & Technology
Kill Avenue
Dun Laoghaire
Co. Dublin
Ireland

IADT is located on Kill Avenue, less than two miles from the centre of Dún Laoghaire. It can be easily reached by bus routes 46A, 75, 45 and 7. The 46A and 75 bus routes link IADT with the DART suburban rail and national rail network. The DART will take you to Dublin City Centre in less than 20 minutes.

The Luas in Sandyford, linked to IADT by bus routes 46A and 75, and the M50, coming up to Shankill, are less than 2 miles from IADT.

Media Cube is situated on Kill Avenue and is the first building encountered on the Campus of IADT.

I have a had a debate with a colleague of late around the ideas of nationalism as applied to both consumer and enterprise markets. I am a believer in Irish companies, I think Ireland, with the right policies for investment and growth could continue to punch even further above it’s weight in international trade. The question we were debating is should we buy Irish no matter what?

I think that this doesn’t really do Irish firms any favours at all. Especially in Digital Media where we are competing in global markets, if there isn’t a solid business case for using an Irish company then I don’t think we should. Being able to physically meet and the lack of language difficulties is a solid business reason but has to be balanced by quality and costs.

I believe that especially in the current climate everyone will start to do cost benefit analysis on their service providers and if costs are higher from using Irish companies then this will make them less competitive. Will our global economy mean the end of rip-off Ireland as we look for a better deal? Should we buy Irish anyway to try and support Irish firms or should those firms rationalise and look at the international market and adjust rates and quality to compete?

I say go for the best deal no matter what, but if it’s a close run thing then buy Irish. What do you think?

Here’s some of the ingredients for the event on Thursday the 6th. You can catch the other details and register to attend here. It’s free as usual with some refreshments thrown in.

6:45-7:15 – Opening presentations from

• Dr. Jimmy Devins, Minister of State for Science and Innovation
• Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland
• Cliff Reeves, General Manager of Microsoft’s Global Strategic and Emerging Business Group.

7:15-7:45 – Panel Discussion:- ‘How can we foster start-ups and innovation in Ireland today’. Panel members include:

• Cliff Reeves (above),
• Brian Caulfield, Irish Venture Capitalist;
• Pat Phelan, MAXroam, entrepreneur and winner of the IIA Net Visionary Award 2008
• Anton Mannering, CEO of Irish Startup Udoogoo, Organiser of Digital Island Meetups, Network Facilitator All Island Digital Media Network at Digital Media Forum
• Pat Brazel, CEO of Irish startup Zignals;
• Conor O’Riordan, CEO of Irish startup Tradefacilitate

7:45 Presentations from Mobile startups

• Locle
• Justroutes

From when their done we’ll have the usual networking featuring OpenDemo. WE should have some interesting companies opening up their laptops to demo at the event stay tuned for announcement of who’ll be there later on.

Here are some sample questions for the panel discussion but arm yourself with your own for the night.

• What are key drivers of innovation in other market places – how can we replicate that in Ireland?
• What are the biggest blockers to innovation? How can we overcome them?
• What assistance is available to help bring technical solutions to market in Ireland? From government bodies / corporations?
• Please comment on the drop in computer science graduates – will this negatively impact our efforts to become a centre of tech innovation?
• What do you see as the big opportunities in the IT sector in the next 5 years? Future areas of investment?
• Web 2.0 has seen a lot of start-ups with an ad-based business model – what are the drawbacks to this model – any recommendations from the panel about alternative business models?
• How can small businesses attract investment?
• Any tips for expanding your business into international markets – what support is there from government bodies / corporations?

Hi guys just to update you that the Digital Media Breakfast tomorrow morning will be on in Cafe Urbano in the IFSC starting around 7:30ish but don’t stress out if you’re not bang on time. (There’s a map on the original post if you’re not sure where it is. Please stick your name down if you’re going to pop along.)

Agenda will be some informal networking then a (VERY short) talk about the All Island Digital Media Network and what it’s aims are followed by some discussion on that. Then I’ll be looking for some feedback on what you guys think formats for breakfast events should be in the future.

We’ll get the coffees and the croissants you just get yourself there.

So we’re heading to the REAL capital for a meetup at the end of August. The Corkonians are well known for their innovation and there are lots of cool startups down there. Should be a bit of fun.

What:
Digital Island Meetups are completely free thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, and open to anyone who wants to attend. There may even be cash behind the bar on the night! Come along and meet new people, and make new contacts and have some fun too.

When & Where:
28th August from 7:30PM • Cork International Airport Hotel • Cork
Dress code, for people who care about such things, is whatever you like.

The OpenDemo will return for those who want feedback on cool stuff they’re doing right now only 8 spaces but if a lot of people are interested we might expand it. Go register to demo now slots are allocated on a first come first served basis.

Sponsors:
Sponsors get to support a great event but also will get promotion with links and logos via posts on Digital Media Island and via announcements at the event itself although we’re flexible and willing to work with people to run the best events possible.

We’re looking for sponsors right now so please drop me a line at anton [at] digitalmediaforum [dot] net for details.

Who’s coming?

RSVP:
This event is absolutely free as always so please register below so you can let us know you are coming and we can ensure we know who you are.  Thanks, and we’ll see you there