5th of January 2010 by admin
Happy New Year to everyone
Some community feedback needed…
1. What predictions do you see in 2010 for Web2Ireland community
2. What would you like to see on Web2Ireland.org ?
Please send us email, comments, etc.
20th of December 2009 by conor
I usually have these posts written within a day or two of Le Web but other commitments slowed me down this year. 2009 saw the 6th Le Web (my 4th) and it was easily the best ever. Loic & Geraldine can rest easy knowing 2010 will be totally over-subscribed.
People go to Le Web for a couple of reasons:
I went as an official blogger to the event but with intentions of doing all of the above. It was a real pleasure to be on the official blogger team and a big thanks to Stephanie Booth who organised all of that brilliantly.
The Irish contingent was tiny with Joe Drumgoole, John Peavoy, Colm Long of Facebook and myself flying the flag. Whilst I know the tickets are very expensive, it’s a pity there wasn’t a bigger showing. The IDA attended last year but I didn’t spot them this year. Le Web is the European web business/tech event and I happily skipped every other pay-for event this year to ensure I could go.
The opening session with Jack Dorsey set the perfect tone for the two days. The guy who created the global phenomenon of Twitter showed off his new startup Square. This is P2P payments with a credit card swipe that plugs into the headphone socket of your phone and an application which allows others to pay you. I didn’t quite get how revolutionary this was until I saw it in action (despite the terrible demo problems he had).
There are often complaints that they have too many Americans speaking at the event. I take the opposite view, since this is one of the few opportunities for those of us who don’t regularly travel to the US to see these guys speak and perhaps meet them. Standout highlights for me were Tony Hsieh from Zappos and Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV but there were plenty of others including David Hornik from August Capital and Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital.
I have ordered the Zappos Culture book that Tony mentioned (just email ceo@zappos.com and they'll post you a copy) and downloaded the Tribal Leadership audiobook from here (use California 90210 for your address in the registration screen). Wonderful stuff.
Gary (NSFW audio):
Those who worked best on stage were generally the contrary bastards. In that batch I’d include Mike Arrington, Lukasz Gadowski, Andrew Keen, Paul Carr, Dave McClure and Martin Varsavsky. Guys who are not afraid to call bullshit on things but who also see potential in the most interesting of places. The sessions that they were involved in were far more useful and fruitful than the usual cheerleader echo-chamber gang.
In fact, the echo-chamber gang were the only real let-down of the two days. We’ve all heard their schtick non-stop for the past few years and it’s grown old and boring. I’d love to see a bunch of new US faces coming over next year who have something new to say.
The real-time theme of the event did become a bit of an unbearable Twitter love-in at times to the detriment of many other exciting things happening in the real-time web. As someone pointed out on a TWiT podcast recently, more people play Farmville on Facebook than are users of Twitter.
For those who think Irish startups can’t compete at the highest levels on an international stage, just watch Joe Drumgoole’s pitch in the Startup Competition. I was shocked that Cloudsplit didn’t get the win but rumour has it that Thierry Henry was one of the judges 
Over a couple of days I met entrepreneurs, bloggers, VCs, techies and business people. That’s why I go. The energy in that room recharges my batteries and reminds me that fantastic startups are being built all over Europe and we all have more in common than we think.
Even if I didn’t get to announce our first US customer.
10th of December 2009 by conor
Nathalie Kosciusko Morizet, Minister of State to the Prime Minister, with responsibility for Forward Planning, Assessment of Public Policies and Development of the Digital Economy, speaking at Le Web with Loic Le Meur in Paris today.
€2B for broadband upgrades in France out of a €4B budget to invest in the digital future.
We reduce the price of booze and come up with meaningless buzzwords like Smart Economy.
10th of December 2009 by admin
Congratulations to Plink, who recently won the best reference app in the Android Developer Challenge for their PlinkArt application, and a prize of $100,000!
The Plink Art app is a visual search engine for art take a picture of a painting and the system recognises it and returns the history of the painting, info about the artist, etc. Right now it recognises tens of thousands of famous paintings.
9th of December 2009 by conor
Joe Drumgoole just presented Cloudsplit in the Startup Competition at Le Web in Paris. As always, Joe did a fantastic job.
1st of December 2009 by admin
Large US Retailer GameStop (Market Cap – $4bn, 6k+ stores) has acquired a majority stake in Jolt Online Gaming, a Dublin based publisher of free-to-play browser titles, led by founder & CEO, Dylan Collins.
This is the 2nd exit for Dylan, as his previous company Demonware was acquired by Activision in 2007. Original investors in Jolt Online, were founder Dylan Collins, angel investors, AIB Seed Fund and Enterprise Ireland.
We spoke with Dylan earlier this week, and he confirmed the deal. Dylan will continue to lead Jolt Online, and they will be ramping up their operation in Ireland over the next 12 months.
Great result for Dylan and his team – and more proof that the Gaming scene within Ireland is strong.
27th of November 2009 by admin
At the recent Eircom Golden Spiders Awards, Realex Payments founder and CEO Colm Lyon was named as 2009 Internet Hero.
Recognition is long overdue as Colm has built Realex into a leader in the payments sector, whilst also spending four years as director and chairman of the Irish Internet Associationand founding the Internet Growth Alliance in 2009.
In a recent Silicon Republic interview, Colm outlined his vision for
He believes it is vital that Ireland realises the internet is a sure route to overseas markets, which must be exploited by increasing the number of start-ups.
We need to have more and more successful Irish internet businesses. One route I recommend would be to have Enterprise Ireland set up a group focused on accelerating internet start-ups, with a fund of €2 million per annum that would put €50,000 into 40 start-up companies to increase the number of companies being supported, rather than just putting money into existing businesses.
In conclusion, Lyon admits to feeling humbled at being recognised as an Internet Hero. I value it a lot, to be honoured by my peers.
Also check out this recent video from the recent UCD event – BEYOND BORDERS – GOING INTERNATIONAL WITH YOUR BUSINESS
25th of November 2009 by admin
The Alliance Internet Growth Acceleration Programme has kicked off with fifteen Irish internet businesses selected, attending a 2 days residential covering “strategy and value proposition revenue/monetisation models” at the Knightsbrook hotel, Trim.
The launch of the iGAP programme was sponsored by Realex Payments
Companies selected include
24th of November 2009 by admin
Congratulations to the winners at the recent Irish Software Association (ISA) Awards
Company of the Year 2009: Openet
Emerging Software Business Award: Avego
Sales Achievement Award: Percana
The Technical Innovation Award: iTab
Corporate Social Responsibility Award: Norkom Technologies
Collaboration of the Year Award: Local Social
Software Person of the Year: Paul Kerley, CEO of Norkom,
Student Medal: Yuandong Zhu of UCD
24th of November 2009 by admin
Interesting event titled “Engaging Consumers through Apps, Marketing, Social Media and Entertainment” is on 26th November 2009 at the Radisson Hotel, Golden Lane Dublin from 9am – 4pm
The Speakers and Panelists are Monty Munford, Ex Vice President, PlayerX. Russell Buckley, Vice President, Admob. Mark Congiusta, Head of Interactive, Irish International BBDO. Colm Grealy, CEO,Adforce / Digital Reach Group. Pat Phelan, Maxroam. Barry O'Neill, Namco Games. Alex French, COO, Bitbuzz. Donald Douglas, Managing Director, Return2Sender, Dermot Daly, Founder, Tapado. Karl Aherne, Category Manager, Digital & Entertainment,O2. Daragh Ward, CEO, Axonista. Eanna O’Bradaigh, Ireland Business Development Manager, Apple. Aisling McCabe, Platform Manager, RTE
Tickets are €169 (incl VAT) you can use the code 'webireland' for a discount
