Web 2 Ireland

Congratulations to Irish startup Plink who were recently acquired by Google.

We’ve covered Plink in the past, and well done to the founder team of Mark Cummins and James Philbin, who are both Phd Candidates at Oxford University.

Despite some other media coverage, Plink is very much Irish (registered company in Ireland), and is a past finalist in IQPrize. Colin Farrell has suffered from same confusion as Plink

Hopefully its the first of many acquisitions by Google in Ireland/Europe.

Interesting to see references to local Web2Ireland community in IDA Ireland Horizon 2020 strategy document

The ICT sector in Ireland is already playing a leading role in showing this model in operation, with Facebook connecting with local application developers through its
Developer Garage programme and Google's Code Jam engaging in a similar way.

One of the sections is very interesting – titled – Connect with Tomorrow's Twitter

High growth technology companies have impact hugely disproportional to their size. They are often first to market with new ideas and new business models in digital media, life sciences, mobile technology and financial services. These young companies are the seeds of tomorrow's multinationals whether through organic growth or in mergers or acquisitions, often with more established firms. IDA will increase its emphasis and focus on these high potential companies in support of the development of
Ireland as a global innovation hub. IDA has established a dedicated team focused on the needs of these companies. Working with sister agencies and other stakeholders, we will assist these emerging companies with financial support and in making connections in Ireland. These high-growth firms
will become an increasingly important part of Ireland's innovation ecosystem, linking up with established multinationals in ICT and globally traded businesses; third level institutions and their talented graduates; and indigenous companies of similar scale and potential.

Apply to Innovate!2010 to be named as one of The World's 100 Most Promising Startups and win a share of nearly $250,000 in prizes.

The Irish leg of the Pitch Slam takes place on March 8 after the BizSparkCamp program. Judges for the Dublin Pitch Slam include Brian Caufield, Martin Kelly, Cliff Reeves (MD of MSFT Emerging Business Team)

Readers of web2ireland can attend the Pitch Slam for FREE (thanks Microsoft & Enterprise Ireland!!) using the registration code: BZS2010 here

And startups can apply to the competition here – DEADLINE MARCH 1st

Innovate!2010 is a global competition to identify and promote the Innovate!100: a prestigious list of the world's 100 most promising technology, media and communications startups..

Produced by market intelligence firm Guidewire Group, developers of the G/Score proprietary assessment methodology for evaluating startups, Innovate!2010 will offer participating companies valuable training and promotion along with a chance to win a share of nearly $250,000 in sponsored prizes.

Partners and sponsors of the competition include market-leading companies like Best Buy, HP, Motorola, O2 Litmus, RIM, SAP, Sun, SWIFT and Verizon, dozens of early-stage investors, and marquee media partners.

Here's how the program works:
* Startups apply online to compete for expert feedback & validation, promotion and nearly $250,000 in prizes.
* Finalists are invited to pitch at one of over 20 networking events called Pitch Slams where they will deliver rapid-fire pitches to a panel of expert judges and an audience of local investors, entrepreneurs, executives and members of the media.
* After the Pitch Slam tour, the top-ranking startups will be named to the Innovate!100 list and will receive extensive promotion.
* A follow-on program called the Innovate! Connection Program offers the Innovate!100 finalists pre-qualified introductions to potential partners, investors and customers for a fee.

A video from recent Facebook Developer Garage in Dublin

Thanks to Jan at TouristRepubic for organizing video and pictures from event

We’re delighted to announce the First Facebook Developer Garage Ireland of 2010

Speakers include:

Gavin Barrett, Crowdstar
Charles Dowd, tickettruck
Declan Kennedy, Betapond
David Lenehan, Polldaddy
Sonia Flynn, Facebook

Thanks to The Science Gallery for hosting the event and Enterprise Ireland for providing support.

Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin 2

Sign up on Facebook for event

Daft announced recently their Polish Property web service – Daft.pl

The site is going live with about 60,000 properties across every major city and town in Poland. Approximately ten times larger than the Irish market, Poland has a population of 38 million.

This is also the first Daft site to run entirely on Amazon EC2 Cloud platform.

Eamonn Fallon, founder of Daft, over IM informed us that “The site auto-scales which is a pretty cool technology. Yesterday we went from 3 servers to 18 at the peak and we didn’t have to really worry about it.”

The Microsoft Developer Platform Group are holding an informal, celebratory, evening marking the commercial launch of Windows Azure.

At the event, you will briefly hear from Microsoft on what the Azure Services Platform is about and why it is relevant to market.

The evening will start and end with some drinks and snacks for attendees.

Date: 28th January, 2010

Where: The Westbury Hotel, Grafton Street, Dublin 2.

Time: 18:30 (18:00 Welcome time) 19.45 (21:00 allowing for afters)

Register here

Agenda

18:00-18:30 Canapés and Drinks on Arrival
18:30-19:00 Welcome and Introduction to Azure
19:00-19:15 Break
19:15-19.45 Customer Speakers: 'Developing Apps, and Going Live, on the Cloud'
19:45-21:00 Networking and Refreshments

Ammado are seeking donations for Haiti Earthquake Appeal

Please give what you can to help relieve the suffering of those affected.

Dial2Do, the Handsfree Assistant service that lets you get things done while you drive, recently attended the CES show in Las Vegas

Some highlights
- partnership with Enustech for a hands-free car kit called the drive'n’talk
- partnership with Bluetrek
- Media Coverage
Barron’s, Fox News and lots of others

The Dublin Web Summit is hosting an event at

Trinity College Dublin
on Thursday, February 04, 2010
from 5:30 PM – 11:30 PM – this includes a networking event

Chris Newmark (founder of Craigslist) & Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) , who are regular keynotes at the world’s largest technology conferences, will be talking about the lessons & direct experiences in scaling their companies, which have had huge impacts on global commerce and communication.

Chris Horn will reflect on his experience building succesful global companies from Ireland. He will also touch on the broader issue of innovation and Ireland, as well as prospects & opportunities for Irish entrepreneurs over the coming decade.

Sign up for tickets here