Get Started

Before the conference, I really did not know what to expect. I felt the conference was just going to relate to all the business students seeking to set up their own company, rather than the computing students in the DICE module. But I must say it was beyond inspiring and I really was intrigued at the idea of setting up my own company after listening to the speakers. Heres what the speakers had to say:

Niamh Bushnell –  Dublin’s first Commissioner for Start Ups

Niamh spoke to us about her journey to how she got to where she is now, I was quite disappointed with Niamh’s speech due to the fact that she wasn’t very interactive, it was like she was just reading from a biography about herself. There was no movement around the stage which really made it hard to focus on the speech. Although the information about her life was rather interesting, she spoke about how she co-founded her first company Pan Research.

Niamh then went on to discuss her about her 16 years living in New York, whilst in New York she was involved in 2 start ups. I was a bit disappointed at this stage because the idea of starting up my own company really appealed to me but I felt I would have to move to another country to do well, which I would not have been comfortable with but Niamh reasured us that Dublin is recognised as a great start up city.

Niamh also acknowledged the help DCU provide such as the UStart incubator to help undergraduates. I was really happy this was mentioned because I do feel the help from DCU could really motivate and support us the students. Niamh then went on to discuss a daily newspaper which she was working on to help attract start up companies to come here to Dublin, to allow for more employment opportunities.

Heres a video of Niamh discussing her journey:

David McKernan – Founder of Java Republic

“Keep innovation, stay relevant, grow like hell”

David was the next speaker, and I must say was my favourite of the afternoon, I really engaged with Davids story, due to the fact I had knowledge of his company and also he added humour into his speech which always appeals to an audience. David started out at the bottom as an employee at a well known firm “Bewley’s” Irelands number 1 coffee industry for years now.

David was inspired by Café Aroma in San Francisco, he spoke with the manager of Café Aroma to gain a bit of inside before starting up his own company. Now look at where he is Java Republic is Ireland’s 2nd largest coffee firm. David described his journey as a “ruthless roller coaster” I learnt from David that starting up your own company comes with its ups and downs, for example in 1999 Java Republic was going by 20% every year until 2008 when the recession hit and caused problems for most businesses in Ireland. But David didn’t give up when he encountered a fall, he worked hard and it eventually passed.

David mentioned a key factor to starting up your own company is capital, David warned us about getting capital from relations as it can lead to fall outs. David told us a story about when he went to his father for money and he gave him €50,000, David insured us he father was not well off and that €50,000 was all his savings, luckily enough Davids company was a success and he could pay back his father.

David also mentioned angle investors, these are people that see potential in your idea and agree to help fund it. I must say after this speech I was beyond inspired, I never expected to have an interest in becoming an entrepreneur, but after Davids speech I had a change of heart.

Heres a quick video of by David discussing the 3 key factors for small businesses:

Next we had 3 speakers; Richard Stokes, Ronan Furlong and Eoghan Stack:

Richard Stokes – Director of Innovation in DCU

Richard has been in business for 30 years, and ensures us all that the support is there now to help students, he mentions the support there to help students like us to start up companies within Ireland. Since Richard became involved in business he’s managed to be involved in 4 start ups which is a huge accomplishment.

Richard spoke to us about the Invent building on campus located just beside the library, I have passed this building many times and was always curious what the purpose of it was, but Richard informed us that it was set up in 2001 to help students get advice and the support needed to start up their own businesses.

Richard also mentioned that from around 100 people that came to the Invent building so far 11 have managed to succeed which is unbelievable. I feel these stats would really inspirer more students to go there and try make something happen.

Ronan Furlong – Executive Director of DCU’s Innovation Campus

Ronan was our next speaker and his discussion was all about the Innovation Campus which is located only 800 metres from DCU. Ronan is in charge of the development done to the campus, such as the facilities available on the campus. Both large and small companies are found within the campus.

Ronan also mentioned Cleantech, Cleantech focuses on products, services and solutions across all industries that seek to optimise the use of natural resources for long term commercial, social and environmental sustainability. These products, services and solutions range from advanced batteries to carbon trading to water treatment technologies.

After only hearing about this place that day, I was shocked at all the big companies involved with the Innovation Campus such as Siemens and Fujitsu. Overall I found Ronans speech to be quite interesting and it gave me a greater insight into start up companies.

Eoghan Stack – Member of the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship

Eoghan was the most inspiring of the 3, his personal story of how he became an entrepreneur was quite interesting he said that he has always wanted “to be my own boss” and I too wish for that.

The idea behind the DCU Ryan Academy really appealed to me where an amazing company like Ryanair work along side DCU filled with upcoming entrepreneurs, they aim to help develop entrepreneurs mindset. They supply people with key tips to success.

DCU Ryan Academy can help link both academia and entrepreneurial practice through partnership between Ireland’s leading young university and the family of one of the greatest entrepreneurs, Tony Ryan.

I know now where the best place to go is, if I need professional and experienced advice.

After the 3 speeches, all 3 panelists came back on to the stage for a Q & A, one question that was on my mind was asked and I was pleased it was. It was “Are entrepreneurs born or do they develop it?” I was curious about this, because If it came to the stage where I became interested in the idea of setting up my own business would I have to have grown up surrounded by the idea instead of one day just coming up with a company and making it happen. But the 3 lads ensured me that people come to them in all different shapes and sizes with all different types of knowledge about entrepreneurship and they support them to the best of their abilities and this for me is very reassuring and I am glad this question was asked.

Kealan Lennan – CEO and founder of CleverCards and CleverBug

Kealan CleverCard idea is amazing and simple, it allows the user to customise a greeting card online and then create this card and CleverCards will send it to where you want, the great thing about this app is that you can link it with Facebook and it will notify you when an important person in your life for example Mother, Father, Sister, Brother etc and will remind you a week before their birthday and you can then create a card and have it sent to them on their birthday.

My favourite thing about CleverCard is the trouble it saves people, personally I have been at that last minute situation where I must run to the shop to pick up a birthday card, and just struggle to find the right one at least with CleverCard there is thousands of templates to choose from.

Kealan really showed a different side to entrepreneurship compared to the other speakers, I personally preferred Kealan idea as there is a big aspect of technology involved which is the area I’m interested in. I do hope that one day I can achieve what Kealan has.

Sean Ahern – Founder of ThankFrank

Einstein – “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects”

Sean always had a passion for useful application of IT, Sean set up a consultancy called Legal IT Solution, where he helped solicitors practices go digital and paperless. In 2004 the Personal Injuries Assessment Board erased huge chunks of most practices business overnight, which put Sean out of business.

Sean was still motivated to work in IT, Sean went into Project Management and became PRINCE2 certified in 2005. Sean worked for 2 years as Project Manager, but then moved on and took a job with Accenture. Then a year later he joined Microsoft as a global program manager.

Then in 2012 Sean quit Microsoft to start up ThankFrank, the aim of ThankFrank is to share meaningful social currency that rewards people for doing good things for others. The goal is to collect as many Thanks as you can and at the end of each month you will be rewarded credits that can be spent on vouchers for shopping or they can be donated to charity.

Personally I loved how Sean got to where he was, its similar to David McKernans journey, it shows us that you have to start somewhere to make it big. Sean also added to be prepared for 3 or 4 years of “rainy days” this is interesting because it also relates back to David saying that his journey was like a “ruthless roller coaster” this is just warning us all that you will encounter difficult situations. After hearing this I will be prepared.

Heres a quick introduction:

Paul Kerley – Entrepreneur and Investor

Paul was a graduate of DCU and I was pleased someone who was in our position before was here to speak to us. Paul Kerley served as the CEO of Norkom Technologies, a global financial and compliance solutions. Along with technology companies including Fenergo, SmartBin and MindConnex Learning. Paul has done amazing things and is a true inspiration to us all, besides having done all that he also was named Technology Person of the Year by the Irish Software Association in 2009 and Ernst & Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000.

I was glad that Paul was our last speaker as he showed us that anything can happen and if you work hard you will be rewarded for it. From his speech we can see that he was certainly rewarded because he was in the same position as me one day and managed to make something of himself which is beyond inspiring.

Get Mobile

“Ownership of first mobile phone is getting younger”

Dr. Theo Lynn – Business Innovation Platform Director at DCU

Dr. Theo Lynn opened the conference giving us an overview of what was being discussed today. The statistics he mentioned were very shocking but once I thought about what was being said and related it to myself, my friends and family. I realised that everything being said could actually be true, for example Theo told us that 96% of people between the age of 18-35 own a smart phone. I found this hard to believe because I always thought the older generation hated the thought of using such advance technology, I remember a few years back when my Mother refused to get a smart because they were to complicated to use …. Now she has 2 iPhones. I was left thinking after Theo mentioned that that ownership of first mobile phone is getting younger.

I sat there trying to think when I got my first phone, I was pretty sure I was in 6th class with one of those crappy Nokia phones that were indestructible, showed how much my parents trusted me. I then remembered seeing a girl at a fun day where I live no older 8 with an iPhone 5 and I had to ask was it hers and she replied “Yes”. It’s absolutely shocking that I wasn’t even aloud have a phone at that age and even when I was finally aloud one it wasn’t as near the price of an iPhone. Theo then mentioned about people using their phones on the toilet and that 57% of people use their phones on the toilet and there is a higher percentage of women, which I wasn’t expecting because in fairness I’m guilty for doing it.

“Celebrities drive fashion trends”

Dr. Mark Hughes – CEO of Digifye

Dr. Mark Hughes was the next speakers at the conference and he was here to discuss Digifeye. Digifeye uses both computer vision and machine learning to help and change the visual content and create it into content that can be purchased. This method is called augmented reality. Augmented reality is used in many different ways but Digifeye just focus on items that can be purchased in a shop. For example another way augmented reality can be used is for people to find additional information using computer vision, QR codes are an example or augmented reality. I must say I was very intrigued to what Mark was trying to accomplish, I thought the idea of capturing an image of something you were interesting in buying and right before you eyes was information to where you can purchase that item and also similar items you could prefer.

I think Mark was dead right when he said, “Celebrities drive fashion trends”. Personally I remember a few years back when the show “Geordie Shore” first came out everyone wanted “Jack Wills” just because Gaz on the show was wearing their clothes, and I personally never heard of that brand until I watched the show and yes I did start buying Jack Wills clothes. But thats just one example I don’t know on about all women’s fashion or who sets the trends I just know it works the same way and thats what Digifeye are trying to do in a way, help users find what they are looking for and they even try show products similar but cheaper because everyones knows celebrities didn’t buy their clothes in Pennys. More information about Digifeye: http://digifeye.com

“These mobile devices can know more about us then we know about ourselves”

Dr. Cathal Gurrin – Lecture at DCU

Dr. Cathal Gurrin was up next and his main focus was on wearable computer devices. Dr. Cathal Gurrin discussed the different types of wearable devices, but lifelogging seemed to be his number 1. Cathal talked about the functions of lifelogging cameras which I was already familiar about. Lifelogging cameras wrap around your neck and take record of your everyday moves, by capturing images and audio throughout the day.

After the talk I sat there thinking would I ever consider lifelogging and to be honest it can useful for people that suffer from memory loss and other disabilities but I just don’t like the idea that if my files could be leaked that anyone could see them. The files may contain a lot of personal information about me and maybe even other people, even for security reasons such as people knowing where I live my daily routine that sort of information could really be dangerous in the wrong hands. I also feel that my family and friends wouldn’t like the fact that their pictures and what they are saying is being captured and recorded. I think they would start avoiding me for those reasons. But thats just my opinion I just don’t like the idea.

Eoin Cruise – Head of Microsoft mobile devices

Eoin Cruise was the next speaker at the conference and I must say I really didn’t enjoy his talk! Eoin was here speaking to us about how Microsoft and Nokia joined together to create their own smart phones. The reason why I didn’t enjoy it as much as the others was the fact it felt like Eoin was just there to try and sell us the new Nokia Lumia. Discussing the prices, size and features that really didn’t appeal to me.I didn’t find it interesting at all. It was like Microsoft sent him there to get us all to buy their phone. I know its harsh what I’m saying but there was nothing even slightly interesting to write about his talk.

Eoin just demonstrated how Nokia was once the highest selling phone brand and how they are hoping to achieve that again. Eoin then continued to speak about the constant improvements that they are trying to make. Over the past 4 years their shares went from %11.8 to %1.9 and now up to %11.6 so yes they are making a comeback but I still think Apple have it with out a doubt for easily the next 8-10 years. Although I came across this video which really summed up what Microsoft/Nokia are really trying to accomplish.

“Can Watson treat cancer”

Paul Davey – Mobile Leader at IBM (International Business Machines)

Paul Davey was up next and I must say I actually learnt something from him. Paul opened up by questioning who knew what IBM did? I had no clue, I’ve heard of it before but never knew what or who they were. Paul informed us that they were the people who created ATM’s, Swipe cards and relational database. I think this was a shocker to everyone. Paul mentioned a thing called “Watson Technology” this was new to me I had never heard of it before. This video explains it all and proves that Watson can change the world:

Paul then moved on to talk about apps, which is what I’m personally interested in. Paul discussed the key features an app needs to do well. He mentioned an app must be available on many platforms, it should be managed as in updated regularly, it should be secure and finally it should use analytics to improve processes, save costs and enhance revenues.

These things had never crossed my mind before. For the past year or so I have been thinking of making my own app and I’ve come up with several ideas but I never took into consideration the things Paul mentioned and I must say it has been one of the best talks so far from both conferences, because it really related to an area I’m interested in.  Paul even supplied a website called “bluemix.net” that can help with building apps.

“SMS is dead”

Alex Meisi – Chair of Wiforia and mobile agency Sponge

Alex Meisi was our final speaker of the even and I must say it was a very factual talk but some very shocking, humorous and interesting facts for that matter. For example Alex said that more 5 year olds know how to use a smart phone than tie their own laces. Heres a shocker for all the Irish, 2/3 of people would give up alcohol then a smart phone, I’d have to think hard about that one. This I found hilarious but don’t think a French person would be too pleased, in France more people have a smart phone then a toothbrush, now that says a lot!

Alex then went on to talk about how SMS is dead, and to be honest I agree people now get free messages throughout many apps available on a wide variety of platforms such as “WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger”. Alex mentioned that last year in the UK 145 billion texts were sent now thats nothing thats 6.5 texts per person daily, compared to a few years ago i’d say the stats would be shocking and these numbers are going to continue to drop.

Alex then gave some fearful information he believes that within the next 5 years 4/10 shops will shut down, I’m curious to what this will cause economically, but I totally agree with him why would businesses bother renting when shopping online is going to be the future, but Alex mentioned and I have had similar problems, is buying clothes online but contemplating whether to purchase because you don’t know if you’ll like it in person or whether it will size wise. But once they figure out a way to over come this problem, it will be the next big thing without a doubt.

 

Get Social

Dr. Theo Lynn – Business Innovation Platform Director at DCU 

Dr. Theo Lynn opened the discussion by talking about how social media has grown massively over the pass few years and how companies are beginning to us social media as a business platform to advertise their business. Dr. Theo Lynn told us a shocking statistic about the death of Nelson Mandela and Paul Walker who died within 3 days of each other, he then questioned who people talked about more and it happened to be Paul Walker which he claimed to be “Interesting but wrong”. I agree completely with Dr. Theo Lynn as Nelson Mandela help change the lives of millions of people whilst Paul Walker was just an actor in a trilogy of movies. So its crazy to think that Paul was talked about more than Mandela but it’s because of social community.

Dr. Theo Lynn then goes on to discuss about gathering information from social media on product features and what people want such as discussions on phones and how then can be improved cameras etc. Companies want to use this information as a strategy to help and improve their products. Dr. Theo Lynn moves onto a more serious topic “Cyber Bullying” and begins to discuss how they can find speech patterns in data to identify when cyber bullying is taking place and then its possible to intervene and prevent it happening. This is only one of many projects going on at the moments.

Dr. Deirdre Hogan – Senior Research Scientist in the School of Computing at DCU

Dr. Deirdre Hogan was our next speaker who focused on a project which she has been working on with CNGL (Centre for Global Intelligent Content) called “Gajo”. The target of this new development is to create a quick and easy way to find your target audience on social media, and to prevent costs of advertisements. The Gajo platform identifies the most relevant audience and targets an audience and supplies them with a suitable advertisement.

Deirdre then begins to give a few examples of where this Gajo platform can take place on social media. Take for example someone put up a tweet questioning where they should travel to in Mexico on a vacation. For a travel agency this is a smart opportunity to attract customers by giving reliable and professional help in hope that they would consider booking through the company, although straight away I thought to myself how would they manage to find relevant tweets, Deirdre then cleared up that question on everyone’s mind.

Companies would use keyword targeting to find these relevant tweets, although with keyword targeting people may encounter difficulties and may be faces with thousands of tweets with the same keywords but have zero relevance to their company. This is only one of many examples of how Gajo works. Personally I think Gajo would be both beneficial to customer and company, and I look forward to seeing this in the future.

Jane McDaid – Owner of Thinkhouse 

Our next speaker was the owner of a company called “Thinkhouse”, the aim of Thinkhouse is to try to connect big branded companies with people between the ages of 18-35 by creating interesting campaigns through multimedia. Thinkhouse works with big branded companies such as Heineken, Coca Cola, Three, Lynx and many more. Jane summed up with statistics why she thought Thinkhouse was a good idea, for example:

• More than 1 billion users use YouTube monthly.
• They watch up to 6 billion hours of content.
• 52% of users are more inclined on buying a product after viewing a video on that brand.

There was many more that she mentioned but I think these statistics are enough to show any company that online media is the way to go in order to advertise their brands and that’s what Thinkhouse are there to do by making these videos enjoyable to watch so that people would be inclined to share with their friends through different social media which would only lead to more views and shares. Jane told us a very touching story about how they managed to raise half a million euro through social media to help a family to travel Texas to seek help for they’re dying son who has been fighting cancer for 3 years.

Just from this you can see how powerful social media can be and it all depends on the content. All and all I really enjoyed this talk and I think something around this field of work would really interest me.

Click here to check out ThinkHouse webpage

Lucy Campbell – Marketing Director at RTE Digital

Lucy specialises in content marketing to try and connect viewers in and outside Ireland to RTE’s content. Lucy shared with us a lot of statistics about the huge growth in multimedia and how the use phones, laptops and tablets have over taken over television. So Lucy is trying to optimise content on multiple platforms which is a great idea so that users can stay in touch with their favourite programmes even on the move. Lucy mentioned that 73% of Irish phone users have smart phones, which gave RTE the opportunity to create an app for free that could be downloaded on all smart devices. 85% of online video watched in Ireland is on demand this is an incredible percentage so RTE used “RTE player” allows users to watch content on demand which has been a huge success to keep up to date with their favourite programmes like “Love/Hate” and “Damo and Ivor”. Lucy then moved on to discuss “GAAGO” which is RTE’s premium quality online streaming service for Gaelic games outside of Ireland and it’s been very popular as it has been streamed in over 150 countries worldwide. I must say it was a very interesting talk and it was a shock to see most of the statistics they just seemed unbelievable.

Alan Coleman – CEO of WolfGang Digital

I must begin be saying that Alan Coleman speech was very inspiring as he demonstrated that if you set out goals in life and work hard they will come true. Alan came across Google AdWords and immediately fell in love with the idea so he decided to look in to it a bit more and started doing tutorials online and eventually set up a Google AdWords agency for online marketing called “WolfGang” and he started out small but once other companies started to see his success in this area and they began seeking out his help.

Alan mentioned to use that online user is second in Europe just after TV but Alan in convinced that by next year online will be first. So this will be huge for him as companies will be more focused on looking for agencies like WolfGang to help and get their advertisements out on the online world.

Alan then gave us all a shock and added some humour in to the conference and started talking about how they are the agency that runs the sex shop to drop ship dildos to the people of Ireland. They really got into the whole idea and began looking at toys, iPhone cases and they looked certain criteria such as the average transaction value, big brand competition and people wanting to buy online. All and all it was a huge success and they even opened up a sex line in the office.

Alan believes that social media has a huge impact to drive awareness for advertisement companies. Alan discussed about the battle of the internet giants between Facebook and Google for advertising and studies show that there is a 51 times more click rate on Facebook ads than Googles. The reason for this was that in June 2013 Facebook decided to move ads from the right hand side of the screen and placed them in the centre within the news feed and this caused a huge number in click rates to rise. So this shows how simply the position of the ads can affect the acknowledgement of the ad.

Click here to check out WolfGang’s webpage

Nicolas Cappiello – Sales Director EMEA Marketing Solutions

Nicolas was our next speaker and he was here to talk to us about LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the worlds largest professional network with over 300 million members from across 200 different countries. Their mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. Huge companies such as Dell, HP, Adobe, Microsoft, Samsung are all customers of LinkedIn, trying to help find their audiences.

Nicolas spoke to us about decision making and how content is very important for an audience before making a purchase, Nicolas mentioned that 60% of people go through the following steps before making an online purchase. First is the research, the customer searches for content online through a search engine they come across multiple pages and must click into which one they feel is suitable, secondly they scan through content on the these pages to try and make a decision on whether or not this is what they are looking for, and finally it’s the brand contact information to allow for them to feel secure with sharing their details and eventually go ahead and purchase the product.

Nicolas then ended the presentation with a quote from the CEO of LinkedIn Jeff Weiner – “Our longer term vision is … to build the world’s first economic graph… to visualise every economic opportunity in the world, every skill required to obtain those opportunities”.

Click to check out LinkedIn

Eric Weaver – Chief Social Officer, Mediabrands Worldwide 

Eric was our last and finally speaker, he opened by talking about the history of the browsers like in 1994 netscape first came out it was amazing and the youth of today would just turn their head if they saw it. People could check out businesses online and send emails to on another, Eric told us that at this time he had a discussion with the president of his agency to change to this type of communication, and he replied why do we need the internet when we have a perfectly good voice mail and fax machine. I found this very amusing because no person in todays world would fax something over sending an email.

In 1996 then everything exploded and everybody was talking about the web, trying it out and by 2001 everyone was using it in one way or another. Then once everyone started using it people began to stop because they lost interest. 2006 podcasting started which was something new for people, by 2007 Walmart put out the first fan page but it was called a discussion group at the time. Then in 2009 Oprah joined twitter and people realised the amount of acknowledgement she was getting and people started to join and began twitting as well.

Then in 2010 the first iPad came out and apps became a huge thing. So 2011 it was big, 2012 people needed something new and the whole campaign for Oreo they set up a glass office in times square and everyday these people working for Oreo would design a new Oreo cookie every day for 100 days based on the news that was being discussed on social media and then posted on their pages on Facebook and Twitter, it was called the “Daily Twist”. So from just a boring cookie Oreo managed to get 230 million impressions from this campaign.

Eric then moved on to talk about fan bases and asked us the audience would it be more beneficial to have 1 million fans or 10 thousand fans could be more powerful. Shockingly you would be better off with 10 thousand fans because they could be fans that like, comment and discuss your content. Eric then informed us that if a company creates a Facebook page for example and posts a picture and gains loads of likes and the people just look away and continue what they were doing, then the company wants to change their approach and they post about a controversial topic that gets people discussing but they didn’t click like, but they want people to both like and discuss so that they gain the most media value.

So the main thing is all based on the content and the approached, and the power of social media can then do the hard work for you, all they want is to be intrigued to your content. So you must be smart with what you are posting and make sure you are gaining the most loyal fan base. Eric’s speech was very interesting and he showed us how powerful social media can be and how companies can maintain the perfect fan base.