On the 12th of February our 4th mini-conference was held in the O’Mahoney Hall in the Helix. This conference was titled ‘Get Started’. This was our first DICE lecture of 2013. This conference was all about the business side of things. We had numerous guest speakers in to talk to us. They were discussing enterprise, telling us how to start a business and how to become a successful entrepreneur.
The first half of the conference was a group discussion controlled by Sean Coughlin. I found this helpful as it gave me an insight on what the conference was going to be about and I got some useful points.
The first speaker out of the group discussion was Michael Kelly from GIY (Grow it Yourself) Ireland. Michael was the founder of GIY Ireland and he informed us how he set up the business. I thought that it was an interesting discussion as Michael gave us an insight about the right time to start a business. Michael came up with a business plan to set up GIY. GIY was inspired by a clove of garlic. One day Michael wanted to set up a network which influenced locals around Ireland to produce food and sell in locally instead of importing from overseas. Michael finished on a very interesting note with an inspiring quote: “Do not die with the music inside you”. This quote really appealed to me and in my opinion, influences you to share your ideas with the world. I feel that it shows you that your ideas matter and could be extremely beneficial to the world.
My favourite speaker from Get Started was Conor Winders, co-founder and owner and CEO of Redwind Software. Conor impressed me to a high extent. He is an alumni of DCU having graduated in 2005. He told us how starting your business should be fun and rewarding, and shouldn’t be about money. It is about being passionate and having a big interest in something. I learned that you should believe in your idea and be so sure of it to just go for it! As long as you have the right people by your side and your idea is so brilliant you should succeed. You need the belief as well. I would like to be successful like Conor one day. His story sounds like an enjoyable experience. I would love be successful one day and also love what I am doing. Being happy about your success is essential to me.
I found this conference very beneficial. I am now aware that there is always a time to start your own business. Getting your idea out there and getting your business started is an amazing thing to do. You should never be afraid of your idea. If you believe in your idea then there is no reason for anyone else not to. Be passionate and creative! Overall, the Get Started conference was very encouraging for young, educated students to become entrepreneurs.
The first guest speaker was Professor Martin Curley, Vice President of Intel Labs and Director of Intel Labs Europe. The title of his speech was “Reshaping the Future of Industry and Society – using Open Innovation 2.0″. Martin spoke all about innovation and the idea of sustainability. He talked about Moore’s Law in Intel and how it is used for innovation. Martin gave an effective quote which appealed to me: “When the winds of change come, you can build a windmill or a wall.”. Intel are hoping to make computer technology bigger and better. Intel have a vision which aims to create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth in this decade. I learned from Martin that innovation starts with a vision. I was greatly impressed with his success with Intel and I enjoyed learning about Intel’s vision for the next decade.
Followed by Martin was the next guest speaker Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev. The Russian economist is the Head of Research for St. Columbanus AG and lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. Constantin tried to explain about the idea of cloud computing today. Unfortunately Dr. Constantin had no Powerpoint presentation slides to show to us during his speech. Although he had interesting things to say I found it harder to engage in without having any slides to look at and take note. I was disappointed by this as I usually look to the slides to keep myself entertained and interested. My ability to maintain attention was more difficult than I expected.
The next guest speaker was Clare Dillon, Developer and Platform Group Leader at Microsoft Ireland. I found Clare to be the most interesting and captivating speaker of the evening. I enjoyed her speech the most as she kept me entertained. A key trend Claire pointed out is that technology is everywhere and that this trend is enabled by the innovation of Cloud Computing. Modern computing has changed the way we do everything and the way we use it, by touch, by gesture and so on. Clare went on to show us two videos predicting the future. I was amazed by the first video and found it extremely entertaining and interesting with all its futuristic aspects. Clare showed us how much we will be using cloud computing in the future and how it is evolving in technology.
The last guest speaker was Fergus Gloster, Managing Director of Marketo International. Fergus gave us a speech on “Marketing the Cloud”. I learned that marketing has a greater role than ever and Ireland has huge potential for cloud computing.
Theo Lynn then took to stage with the opening remarks of the conference. “Mobile as a term is just a reference to an eco-system that phones are a part of.” – Kevin Slavin. He talked about mobile apps and how they are becoming very vital to the mobile industy. Mobile is essential to ‘The Internet of Things.’ He explained Cloud computing in DCU. He also outlined Mobile landscape. Mobile market is a big opportunity for Ireland. The mobile market is constantly growing. He showed us this with the example of the ‘in-cloud car’. The car company ‘Mercedes’ are making this car model. In this car you can access social networking sites through the cloud network. I was looking forward to this conference as I have a huge interest in technology and how it is constantly evolving. Mobile is the future.
The first guest speaker was Dominic Muldoon from Púca. Púca is Ireland’s leading mobile marketing specialist. Dominic went through the history of mobile. He informed us that Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone in 1876. 91% of the population has a mobile today and the mobile industry is continuing to grow. In Ireland the mobile penetration is 100% and the smartphone penetration 71%. This shows how Ireland is a big part of the mobile industry. It touches almost everything in our lives these days. People believe that devices will constantly change. This is in fact a very true statement in my eyes. For example, mobile phone to smartphone and in the future mobile to Google glass. Mobile is good for marketing as we live in a multi-channel world. “Mobile is the glue that is holding human experiences together” – Samsung. Social media mobile marketing has become huge. You can access social networking sites on your mobile. Advertising is also growing in the mobile industry; local mobile search is very strong. Dominic then began to talk about SMS. He explained how it is interactive and ubiquitous. There are over 200 SMS sent per month per mobile user. Privacy for SMS is of prime importance. I found this speaker actually quite interesting. I hadn’t heard of the company before and I was almost unaware of the power of SMS. I found it fascinating to see how mobile has evolved. Finally, Dominic gave us tips for mobile marketing:
The next speaker was Patrick Ward from Microsoft. This was a speaker that I had anticipated the most. He was here to talk to us about Windows 8. Windows 8 is the new software on computing devices. It is a personalized experience that contains many apps. There is also the new Windows 8 phone and tablet, which Patrick kindly showed to us all. The Windows 8 phone is the most fundamental redesign of a product. Patrick showed us Windows 8 on his tablet. Patrick’s speech was short and sweet but I think it was very effective. I found Windows 8 extremely interesting. Windows 8, in my opinion, looks amazing. It is a whole new redesign of software on the computer. It enables you to completely personalize your desktop. It has plenty of new apps, including Skydrive. This is similar to Dropbox. I will definitely be purchasing a new laptop/netbook with Windows 8 in the new year.
The next speaker was Louise Phelan from PayPal. She was there to talk to us about Mobile shopping. She showed us some trends and data on mobile shoppers. Online purchasing can be done on tablet, laptop and phone. Nearly 40% of smartphone users have purchased something online. 80% use their smartphones to shop. This is an amazing figure and it shows how much online shopping is growing. PayPal are growing faster than the market. Digital goods are being purchased the most online, with a figure of 46%. Online shopping can be done anywhere on a smartphone. This encourages mobile marketing. Instead of having to go into a shop, people can purchase this online with a few simple steps on their phone. This shows that almost anything can be done on mobile phones nowadays. I find I can sometimes underestimate the power of mobile. However, online shopping on mobile can also be held back for reasons such as:
The last speaker was Johnny Walker, founder and chairman of Global Diagnostics Ltd. Johnny is a fun and interesting character. He used a lot of humour which made his talk more enjoyable. Johnny had an international journey: ‘Dare to Dream’. This was a medical “Mobile” enterpreneurial experience. Johnny was trained in Sydney, Australia. He spoke about his background; the different hospitals he worked in. He wanted use mobile in order to help medical patients. He had a twist of fate: The Visa Saga! This enabled him to travel outside of Australia. His idea was to use mobile ultrasounds. He used a “bit by bit” evolution. Global Diagnostics main advantage was that they were not afraid to embrace technology. They had a motto which was essential to them: “If in doubt, don’t fly out!” Johnny iformed us about the global concept: A vision – A concept. He told us about the Techshop which is also known as a ‘Dream’ shed. You literally go in and design your dream. 3D printing was another topic covered which I found unbelievable. I had never seen or heard of anything like it. I think Johnny is a really inspiring person. He was not afraid to talk risks and do whatever it takes to get what he wanted. He used all his knowledge to think of something brilliant in order to help people. He was not afraid to follow a dream which is very inspirational for young people today. The way he used technology and medicine together is truly fantastic.
The next speaker was Claire Wardle, Director of News Servives in Storyful. She gave us a talk called “Anyone can be a dog on the Internet.” Claire taught us all about the privacy settings on social networks. She gave advice on how you should behave on the internet and how you shouldn’t. She gave us tips on what to do when things go wrong on the internet. She put up a picture basically describing the title of her talk, which I thought was quite funny. I found this talk very interesting and entertaining. I felt that Claire made the talk amusing as she used humour to make the talk less boring. 
The third speaker was Jane White who works for Twitter. The talk she gave was titled “Twitter for Business”. I was really looking forward to this guest speaker as Twitter is my favourite social networking website. It is something I use everyday. I was also very intrigued by the fact that she was a former DCU student who graduated in 2007. This was very inspiring and made the talk more exciting and more anticipated. She described Twitter as a canvas for sharing your thoughts and talking directly to your customers. She showed and explained to us how powerful Twitter is. I found the power of Twitter unbelievable. There are 570,000 users in Ireland today and there are around 1 million tweets per day.Twitter helps business as well. She informed us that companies use Twitter to communicate with their customers. This makes the company more personal to users on Twitter. She advised us how to get more followers on Twitter. You are able to promote your tweets and when people search certain words or trends your page and tweet will appear. Retweets can be very powerful on Twitter. Once someone retweets someone else’s tweet it can be seen by many more users. She explained how you can buy the top trended topic for 24 hours. This can be very useful for business to promotes their products and services.
Our next speaker was Phillip Kelly from Electric Ireland. He was giving us a talk about Electric Ireland’s experience of social media. He explained how Electric Ireland are using social networking sites as an opportunity to promote the company itself. They are trying to improve their reputation and get more noticed and involved. He said that they have 33,895 friends and he also spoke about their Twitter campaign “Tweet Hunt”.
DICE 