Get Digital

We assembled in the helix on a Tuesday afternoon for our very last conference, Get Digital. With 3 already behind us we knew the procedure, we took our seats, gathered up our workbooks and signed in whilst waiting patiently for the first speaker to take to the stage. This conference was based around digital media and included topics such as graphic response, cloud computing and even kids working towards becoming more digital.

Sean Baker, steering board chairman of the IC4, took to the stage to introduce and familiarise us with The Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce. Baker is heavily involved with this research centre that is located here in DCU. It was interesting to hear about this as I had never heard of it before and I was glad the speaker brought it to our attention as it is linked so closely to our university. It was interesting to learn that we can engage with this centre by simply attending seminars, joining the steering board or even sponsoring a project. In a room full of business and computing students I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was fully engage with this speaker and was considering getting involved with IC4.

Mary Moloney – CoderDojo

Mary Moloney, the CEO of CoderDojo, was the first to present at the conference. From the get go Moloney had my attention with her striking and colourful presentation. I had never heard of CoderDojo before and this was by far my favourite presentation of the day. I learned that CoderDojo is a global, volunteer led community of free programming clubs for kids aged between 7-17. Moloney gave us a brief summary of the history of CoderDojo, it was founded in July 2011 and the first Dojo took place in Cork. The two founders James Whelton and Bill Liao were self thought programmers and the reason behind setting up Dojo was to encourage young people to learn code in a social and comfortable environment. With 600 Dojo’s all over the world in 60 different countries kids are allowed to discover their coding side and take on a new hobby.

Moloney explained how she had her own child who constantly played Xbox and mindcraft. The speaker explained she felt it wasn’t right for children to sit and play these types of games for hours on end. She feels children should “think and not just consume”. I was surprised when the speaker said this as I had never given it much thought, I never would have realised that kids can not only play these Xbox games, but they also have the ability to think creatively and analyse and build technology. Which is exactly what Dojo enables and encourages kids todo. The speaker placed a great emphasis on the fact that coding and using technology to make a difference does not happen in school.

The 3 main reasons as to why Dojo is important are as followed:

Industry: young people are being introduced to technology at a young age and therefor will grow up with a broad understanding of coding and will be capable e to enter this industry

CSR: Dojo has a positive impact on their community

Equal Opportunity: as a free service, kids from all backgrounds are welcomed into Dojo and encouraged to express their digital side. Dojo also works strongly towards All Girls Dojo to allow equal ratio in the technology industry

Dojo is a flexible workplace for kids to work on coding at all levels. The speaker brought to our attention that Dojo focuses on child centric, meaning the kids are not forced todo anything. They enter the programming centre and are allowed choose the projects they wish to work on, be it creating an app or a game.

Personally, I really like the idea of CoderDojo. I think overall it has a very fun, cool and quirky image, even with the name CoderDojo, and must seem very appealing to kids. Moloney pointed out that one of the rules in Dojo is that you have to be cool, meaning you have to be nice to one another. What I found interesting was Moloney explained she is never had to discipline a kid in Dojo. Perhaps this is because the kids are doing something they enjoy and are not forced into doing anything. I’m delighted that I know CoderDojo exists and kids are given an equal opportunity to experience with coding. I feel that Dojo is a centre that makes up for the shortfall of technology in schools.

CoderDojo Kids!

As our last DICE conferences have pointed out, digital media, technology and computers are constantly on the rise, and I feel that it is important kids are exposed to the creating side of this and not only consuming it. Moloney shared a few stories of the kids she has worked with in the past and it was incredible to hear about how so many have come out of their shell and expressed their personality in such a creative way. As a business student taking a Digital Innovation Creativity and Enterprise module, I wish I attended these programming classes during my time in transition year in secondary school. I would really recommend anyone in TY who knows they want to study business or computing, and fit the age criteria to get involved or even become a mentor! Throughout this module we have learned to create an app, a blog and a poster and I feel attending Dojo workshops in my past really would have benefited me in my future.

I am the type of person who likes to view both sides of things, and as much as I agree and admire the idea of Dojo I do feel it should only act as a hobby for kids. I still feel playing outdoors and engaging with other kids is a key development point for children at such a young age. However in saying this, I also feel strongly that creating technology should replace consuming technology for hours on end each day. Overall, I support Dojo and find what they are doing inspiring and very important. I have never heard of any programming centre for young kids and I’m proud that it started here in Ireland and also takes place here in Dublin City University.

Richard Garsthagen – Oracle

Next up was Richard Garsthagen,the Director of Cloud Business Development EMEA for Oracle. Garsthagen spoke about a complete;y different side of digital than Moloney did. The second speaker discussed Cloud Computing. After just presenting our research poster on Cloud Computing, it was interesting to hear more about it from Garstahgen. Oracle is an American multinational computer technology company, Garastaghen put it very simple- they design databases in which large amounts of information can be stored.

What I found striking about this speaker was his ability to simply define cloud computing. In our previous conference, Get Started, one of the speakers placed a huge emphasis on how he felt that if you cannot explain something simply, it will not work. And in my opinion, Garsthagen gave us an excellent understanding of something very complex. The speaker defined Cloud Computing as a way of transforming your business in a way you can simply consumer and deliver it while keeping up with the digital age. The speaker further explained this by comparing a business to a restaurant and the menu being a cloud. The menu being presented in an orderly fashion easy to choose from and consume from! The speaker believed that Cloud Computing should enable a business to become more efficient while saving money,time and effort. Oracle allows this as its Cloud service offers:

• Instant access to full functionality of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Database, Compute, Storage & Network
• Automated Backup, Recovery, Patching & Upgrades

Love the cloud

With the digital age booming, I feel Cloud Computing will become a necessity for businesses. I have always felt this was and felt even stronger about it when Garsthagen announced the top 5 reasons to love the Cloud:

1. Simplify IT
2. Re-Engineer the Economics of IT Spending
3. Accelerate and Optimise your Business Processes
4. Drive Innovation
5. Enjoy world-class security and compliance

Later the speaker discusses many statistics, the speed of Cloud Computing and the importance of driving innovation. But what I thought was really interesting was Digital Disruption. I had never heard of this before and learned that it is “ the change that occurs as new digital technologies or business models affect the value proposition of existing goods, services and markets.” In other words, these new companies/ideas built on these new business models are challenging and threatening other companies out there who are yet to get involved with new digital technologies. Garsthagen mentioned that these other companies may be gone soon if they don’t drive digital innovation.

I think I understand this topic well as I already had an opinion on digital technology, like I already mentioned I feel that its moving so fast and the companies that don’t keep up will fall behind and decline. The speaker put this into perspective and made it easier for us to understand as he illustrated the idea through examples of businesses that the majority of us are well aware of. These companies have “totally disruptive new ways of doing business” and they include:

• Netflix: “ They totally embraced a service orientated cloud architecture”
• Amazon: “They think of themselves as an “IT company selling books, airline tickets, electricity or films etc.” ”
• Uber: “They milk their enterprise wide big data analytics investment over and over”

These companies have a disruptive competitive advantage and serve customers on a convenient and personal level. I found the speakers presentation really informative as it simplified many complex topics through relative examples and excellent graphs and diagrams.

John Massey – SAP Ireland

John Massey, the Business Development Director EMEA. Johns presentation was short but sweet and gave us a brief introduction to SAP Ireland. SAP stands for Systems, Application and Products in data processing. It is one of the leading companies in the IT sector and one of the largest independent software companies in the world. I had heard of SAP before but wasn’t fully sure of what it does. Massey explained it produces the software that helps some of the worlds best and most successful companies in the world.

Massey explained that the company employees 1,650 people here in Dublin and in Galway. Wit the average age being 34 years old I gathered that SAP focus a lot of their attention and believe in ‘early talent’. It was interesting to know that the company is keen to accept graduates in courses such as computer science, maths etc and also those studying languages!

I found this presentation very relative to the audience as people who surrounded me were probably considering SAP for the internship and it was nice to understand what they do and how they employ graduates. Like the previous speakers, Massey placed a huge emphasis on Cloud Computing. We were told Masseys company has invested millions into the adaption of cloud computing. Again, this speaker sees its potential and believes people should be trained and educated on how to use new technology to benefit from it. Massey spoke about how he felt Mary Moloneys presentation was very important and relevant to the future and admitted his own son is a part of a local Dojo!

Another point Massey made was that when they are hiring they recruit a lot through LinkedIn, which was useful to know for many of us! Although I amen’t extremely interested in the database and data analytic side of business it was still useful to know about this country and how they are focused on Cloud Computing like many other companies.

Speaker 4 – Shay Garvey- Frontline Ventures

Shay Garvey took to the stage to finish up as the last ever speaker for DICE 2014/2014 mini-conferences. Garvey is a partner in Frontline Ventures, which is a venture capital firm that invest in big data, internet, mobile phones and cloud services. During this presentation Garvey discussed the cloud and its the implications for raising and investing venture capital. The speaker discussed how there has been a major increase in productivity and demonstrated this through the following figures, In 2012 it took only 6months for 60% of companies to generate over 250 thousand dollars while in 2005 it took 18months for only 20% of companies to achieve this growth. This shows it is easier now to become more profitable than it was several years ago.

However, the speaker stressed that that does not mean you instantly become successful. In order to become successful you must engage with new technology and build on new business modules.

What I found captivating was when the speaker gave 4 tips when you present to VC. They included;

1. Make initial contact early
2. Within the first 3 minutes of the meeting outline the Situation, Problem and Opportunity
3. Ask yourself certain questions such as what is your unfair advantage
4. Turn “No” into honest feedback. If you have not gotten a call 3 days later, it’s a no

Overall I found this presentation somewhat confusing and a little harder to follow than the others. I have not got a huge interest for finance and I reckon this may be the reason I wasn’t fully engaged with this speaker. However it was still interested to see how things work from a venture capital firms point of view and when I went on todo some more research by viewing their website, I found the firms website really straight forward and easy to follow.

Overall the Get Digital conference was very different from the rest with a lot of focus on cloud computing. I enjoyed every speakers presentation and got me thinking a lot about new technologies and the importance of keeping up with them. I’ve learnt a lot from all four conferences and glad I attended each one and completed a blog post on each one. Even though I enjoyed some more than the others it was great to go to all of them and see all the different aspects of a business.

Get Started

Three weeks into our second semester and our third conference had arrived, Get Started. This conference gave us an insight in to what it is like to start your own business and be an entrepreneur; thehardship, the struggles and most importantly, the rewards. Overall I really enjoyed this conference, as like GetMobile, it was a topic of discussion I have a lot of interest in and was keen to learn more.

Niamh Bushnell – Dublin Commissioner for Start Ups 

To kick off the event, Niamh Bushnell was welcomed to the stage. To get started Niamh gave us an insight into her life so far and the journey she has been on and the journey she has just begun. Bushnell began her career in Frame Technology in the early 90s, she described this business as one that was ahead of the curve, one that had no real market at the time and one that produced great technology. In 1998 Niamh took on a new career by joined Enterprise Irelands New York Offices. Here she began the role as the Vice President of software. Niamh spent 16 years in the states and when she started out it was the end of the boom and start of the dot. Start of the dot referring to the boom of the internet! By the sounds of things, it was an ideal time to be in the USA and to be in a job where you have money to lend to people looking to start up their own businesses. Niamh admitted that her focus was on encouraging, helping and guiding Irish firms into the US markets. The speaker

Throughout her life Bushnell has been involved in numerous start ups such as TechResources and Orbiscom which has now been taken over by Mastercard. Like many of the other speakers on this day, Niamh explained how it wasn’t easy doing what she did and getting where she is. She struggled a lot and found that you really have to believe in what you are doing in order for it to become successful! One of the first start ups Niamh was involved in failed, 60 grand was invested over a year and a half, yet they still had no scale in the market. After many years of hard work and commitment Niamh could finally start to pay herself. She stressed that, although for the first while when you are starting up a business you may lose a lot more money than you earn, that’s if you earn any at all, it is important that at some stage you do begin to earn; otherwise it just becomes an expensive hobby!

Niamh left her job in New York to return to Ireland and begin her new role as the Dublin Commissioner for Start Ups. Niamh admits leaving her old job and company behind was really hard, and is delighted to still hold a stake in the business but has no involvement in the day to day management. I can only imagine how hard it would be to leave a business you have invested so much time and money into behind. The main role in Niamhs new job is to promote Dublin as a great place to start up, internationally, and to get people mentioning Dublin as a region worthwhile starting up in. Niamh believes people in Ireland have a real “can do attitude” and that everyone is willing to help one another. In order to attract people into Dublin a newspaper has been set up to answer any questions or queries about Dublin as a Start Up region, people looking for funding will also be addressed in this newspaper. The newspaper is set to launch in March. Personally I think this newspaper is an excellent idea and it will really offer potential investors reliable information on what Dublin is like.

To finish up Bushnell encouraged us to get out there and fix any problems that annoy us. The speaker also mentioned how Irish firms only approach other countries when they’re product is finished, but Niamh disagrees with this style of expansion. She believes that it is more powerful and recognisable to enter markets before you have a finished product. I learnt that you will not get anywhere without having the courage to propose solutions, put yourself out there and make things happen. Niamh Bushnell believes this is a fundamental learning experience and I agree with her, it seems as thought it is all about making mistakes, taking risks and continuously learning.

David McKernan – Founder & CEO of Java Republic

Personally, this presentation was my favourite from the day. I found the speaker extremely engaging. From his speech, it was clear he was dedicated and felt passionate towards his business, Java Republic, which made his time on stage enjoyable to watch and interesting to listen to. Listening to someone speak confidently about something they strongly believe in is so interesting and you believe every word they say!
It was evident that McKernan had huge self-belief, and he made it clear that he thought this was a key factor to success. Java Republic was set up in Celbridge county Kildare in 1998 with a mission to “delight coffee and tea drinkers ,everywhere!” And since then they have done exactly that.

McKernan explained that the reason behind setting up this business was simply because he loved coffee, he got the idea from Café Roma in San Francisco, as well as coffee David is also a big fan of the states. McKernan had a good bit of knowledge within this sector as he worked with Bewleys for 12 years. David spoke about how he didn’t go to school but worked for a company for 12 years, not the typical entrepreneur way. In 2002 McKernan brought his coffee brand into DCU and it is still here to this day. Its clear that McKernan is a risk taker, even by the name of the company, around the time of the troubles up the north was around the same time David started his brand. People told him choosing a name like Java Republic was too risky and perhaps too much of a delegate time. However, the entrepreneur decided to ignore everyones opinions because he himself really liked the name Java Republic and he felt it would work well. And so it has, Java Republic is now the second largest coffee company, Bewleys being the first.
McKernan believes the reason why Java Republic worked so well was because of
• His never ending drive
• His love for coffee
• The people that he surrounded himself
• The fact that coffee is a product that people want

However, the speaker made it quite clear that he did not stroll to success. He admitted to having some horrible, tough days and the majority of the journey was a struggle. What the speaker also made clear was that enough though he had a lot of horrible days, he would not take back any of it and does not regret a thing. The speaker compared the journey to setting up your own business to a rollercoaster. You encounter many ups and downs. Yet, McKernan still feels strongly about getting out there on your own and just go for it, as he encouraged us to do so. What I found interesting was how he was so passionate about inspiring us to go on our own, he even discussed how it annoyed him when people moan about their day to day job yet they don’t do anything about it. McKernan stuck to his job for 12 years before leaving and starting his business adventure, so I guess he is speaking from experience. Coming out of his comfort zone from his secure job, and entering a world where you are constantly faced with tough days where you don’t even want to leave your bed, yet he still prefers that life. When you look at a man who admitted to crying after a meeting with AIB and whose house was on the line at one stage of his life, you think that he would never go through it again. Wrong, he quite clearly stated that he would most definitely do it all over again. Even though AIB rejected him, Bank Of Ireland backed him, along with Enterprise Ireland who lent him seed capital. Although, he was chased by these investors for months and was in a hole for quite some time, and even ended up borrowing from a family member. Along with people told he looked like shit, was unemployable and needed at least one million euro to get him out of debts by David O’Brien. But then you look at him now, the CEO of the second largest coffee company in Ireland that grows by 20% every year, and you start to believe that all of these horrible, tough times really don’t last forever. The rewards such as being your own boss, deciding your own hours and going ahead with your own ideas may seem small but for David McKernan they certainly overlook the negative periods in his life.
McKernan explained how he reengineered his brand, got rid of the yellow in the packaging and came back in January 2015 and the brand relaunched itself. Java Republic currently sit comfortably in the market, however this is not enough for the business owner. McKernan put it very simple, he Is never happy. He wants to get bigger and go internationally. So whats next for Java Republic? Well in the words of David McKernan, he wants to “keep innovating, stay relevant and grow like hell!!”

According to McKernan the following traits are crucial to be a successful entrepreneur:
• Hard worker
• Good story teller
• Be ruthless
• Be humble
• Learn to delegate
• Keep fit & healthy (if you smoke you will never have a job at Java Republic)
• Resilient
• Intelligent

Out of all the presentations at this event, this was by far my favourite. After seeing McKernans journey through life, how hard it was but how successful he is now and how he wouldn’t change a thing in the past, I have been left feeling motivated, hopeful and confident that I will not sit comfortably in an office job, instead ill go out there take risks and keep his advice in mind, You will keep getting kicked in the face, but you just got to keep getting back up! I think a lot of my fellow students took away the same message as I did, go for it, never give up and its completely worth it in the end. The entrepreneur had some amazing advice on how to get started, how to overcome tough times and even how to stay successful. I have no doubt that David will go on to build a coffee empire around the world and I look forward to following up on his journey!

Richard Stokes- Director of Innovation in DCU

Richard is the Director of Innovation here in DCU. This speaker gave us some information on Invent, which is DCUs innovation and enterprise centre. Not only does invent work with DCUs researchers, but it also works with external companies to promote innovation. Stokes spoke about how they have seen many flakey ideas, but they will screen them all to give everyone a fair chance. It was great to hear more about the Invent centre in great detail. I think it is an excellent organisation and will really help to encourage young people to get started. Throughout this conference we have been encouraged numerous times to get innovative and fix any problems that we encounter, and with an Invent centre like this it will help transfer our ideas into reality. Stokes also brought to our attention the facilities at the Invent centre, which include:
• Lab space
• Board rooms and video conferencing rooms
• High speed networking
• Flexible and purpose office built space along with space for feasibility study to be carried out

Richard then highlighted the technology platforms which included:
• High end computing
• Data analytic
• Cloud computing
• Separation science

Ronan Furlong – Director of DCU Innovation Campus 

Ronan Furlong is the Director of DCU innovation campus, which is located adjacent to the University. It stretches across 10 acres and has been opened for about 6-8 months now.

The Innovation Campus is home to ten companies which vary from start ups to multinational companies, such as Fujitsu. Furlong described the campus as a cluster of like minded people where interesting things happen. Again it was interesting to learn about our local services that can help us in the future.

Eoghan Stack – Chief Executive at DCU Ryan Academy
Eoghan Stack is the chief executive at DCU Ryan Academy. This is a non-profit joint venture between DCU and the late Tony Ryan family which aims to transform your idea into a business. The Academy believes it achieves this through training, leadership and funding initiatives. Stack also spoke about the Ustart programme that is held in DCU and gave us information on the grant and accommodation.

The last three speakers were all very similar to me, providing a centre to help students start their own businesses, offering them top quality facilities and opportunities to liaise with MNC’s. I found it interesting and I think that it will be useful to many of us who were at the conference in the near future.

Kealan Lennon – Founder and CEO of Cleverbug

Our next speaker at the event was Kealan Lennon, the founder and CEO of Cleverbug. Cleverbug is an app that was launched 18 months ago with a vision of being thoughtful and emotionally connected with friends. The app allows you to personalise cards known as Clevercards, for your friends and family that you are connected with on Facebook. You can also set reminders so you don’t forget anyones birthday or special occasions. As well as being able to set up cards to be sent well in advance of the actual occasion so you are on top of them all. The cards can be delivered online or in person at a cost of around €4.

Lennon got his idea as he felt people were losing touch and becoming less social, so he thought that he could try take advantage of the fact that people spent so much time online and turn it into a good thing. I got the impression that this app was really useful for people who are busy and constantly on the go, or for people who are in different countries and want to send cards home to relatives. The fact that you can personalise the card gives it more of a personal touch, making more people download it. However, you can also enter peoples details into the app and they will recognise the occasion themselves and send out a general, non-personailised card. Card types come in many different categories such as Mothers Day, Birthdays, Weddings and Fathers Day. Lennon spoke a little about his target audience and mentioned that the majority of the downloads were women.

The speaker mentioned a quote which I thought was funny and stood to the company, “theres one thing I know that Amazon doesn’t. I know when its your birthday”. Besides comparing themselves to other companies, Cleverbug were mentioned on the Today Show in America which led to more downloads. This type of recognition must have been really beneficial to the company, having celebrities across seas speak highly about your company is always a good thing!
After the speakers talk, I downloaded the app. Since I have deleted it, not because I thought it was a bad app, I actually thought it was a really good app. I just didn’t dedicate enough time to entering in everyones birthdays or linking it up to my Facebook. I personally thing that if you were to set it up properly it would be an amazing app and a nice gesture to give to someone. Now that everything is so digital and online, I don’t see how Cleverbug is a bad thing. Kealan spoke more about the company and the idea rather than the starting of the his business. I found it a little similar to a sales pitch but I still found it really interesting and I think its an excellent idea that will certainly grow and expand into other countries!

Sean Ahern – Founder of Thank Frank

Towards the end of the conference Sean Ahern took to the stage. Ahern is currently in the process of starting up the Thank Frank button that he hopes will become viral. Sean is now two and a half years working on this idea, which is a button that will allow people to Like your web page for two reason – Firstly to show how many people saw the page you shared and secondly how many people acknowledged it. But the main idea behind this is that every time you get a Thank, you get a monetary reward. This reward may be a voucher or you can choose to donate the money to charity.

Personally, I like the idea of this. I feel the fact that it is for charity is a good thing but in my opinion the vouchers as a reward system seems a little pointless to me. I am not sure how long this idea will last, maybe if it was just a short term idea and used as a way to raise money for charity it could do really well. Other than that I don’t see much of a need for a Thank button. But I am still excited to see how this idea progresses.

After informing us about his idea, Ahern went on to explain what he felt was 3 important factors you should bare in mind when coming up with ideas, they include;

1. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. Don’t keep ideas to yourself either, its not your idea that will make money it’s the execution of your idea that will make money

2. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”
3. “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success” Surround yourself with people better than you

The speaker then went on to discuss the Best Bits about being an entrepreneur and the Worst Bits. He also read out quotes that related to these. I wrote down a few of my favourite ones;

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people wont. So that you can spend the rest of your life like most people cant”

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail”

“ I believe anything is possible, I see opportunity when others see impossibility, I take risk ,I’m focused, I hustle I know that nothing is unrealistic, I feel overwhelming love I embrace my childlike wonder and curiosity, I take flying leaps into the unknown, I contribute to something bigger than myself, I create, I learn, I grow ,I do, I believe its never too late to start living a dream. I am an entrepreneur.”

“Whether you can think you can or think you cant you’re right”

When mentioning the Best Bits about being an entrepreneur Ahern stated;
• “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not people or objects”
He feels that theres more than just going to word, it should be something you are working towards
• “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behaviour is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction” Ahern admitted that he feels most people he words with are better than him. You have an excuse to surround yourself with amazing people, why not do it

I really enjoyed this speakers presentation. Although I wasn’t fully convinced by his actual idea, his self-belief demonstrated towards the end made me more engaged and has left me feeling curious about the next steps for Thank Frank. If you feel the same and want more information about Thank Frank you can follow up with some extra reading by clicking here.

Paul Kerley – Entrepreneur
The final speaker for the day was Paul Kerley, an entrepreneur who left school at 16 as he wanted to control his own destiny. Kerley ended up going on to study the Leaving Cert at night time, then working in electronics for 4 years, followed by commerce for 4 years and finally computer science in DCU. The entrepreneur believes the lessons he has learned through life has helped him in many ways. He now works alongside many technology companies where he offers support,advice and leadership from his experience over the years.

Paul was also the CEO of Norkom technology. This is a service provider which allows companies detect financial crime. Paul spoke about his journey through life and the ups and downs he has faced. It seems that he has had a rough time. Kerley also admitted that his “big house is a trophy to the failure and money he has lost”, I was confused by this as I didn’t know if he was happy or sad about it. Either way it seems the entrepreneur has come a far with since he dropped out of school in his teens and is clearly very intelligent.

Overall I really enjoyed this conference, it was a great experience to hear the stories from successful entrepreneurs and learn what they thought was key to starting a business, how they stayed focused and how they survived the ups and downs. The conference left me inspired and confident, I now also know the services available to me here in DCU and I look forward to the future! I hope you enjoyed this blog post!

** Some images were taken from Google **

Get Mobile

On the 11th of November the Get Mobile mini-conference took place in The Helix. This conference was based around mobile phones and application technology. I found it really interesting to see how reliant people have become on their smart phones and how advanced technology is becoming. Sometimes it is hard to see how quickly mobile technology is moving as we do not analyse it in much detail but after this conference I have a clear idea of just how reliant people are on their smart phones do a huge amount of work for them. I also learned a lot about how companies are preforming in relation to mobile advertising and it was interesting to see different factors that may hold businesses back this type of advertising!

Dr. Theo Lynn

Like the last conference, Dr. Theo Lynn, the Business Innovation Platform Director at DCU, was the first speaker to the stage. He introduced the speakers for the day and also shared some interesting statistics in relation to mobile phones and their users. The main idea behind Dr Theo Lynn’s presentation was that our mobile phones are our constant companions.

  Ownership of someones first mobile phone is getting younger and younger as the years go on and currently 96% of Irish mobile phone owners between the ages of 18-35 have smart phones. To think only 4% don’t have smart phones is worrying as I know myself from owning a smart phone that it is easy to become addicted to your mobile phone. When Dr Theo Lynn said 90% of mobile phone users check their phone immediately when they wake up I was not that surprised as it’s the first thing I reach for when I open my eyes! 87% of people use their phone when on public transport and I am a witness to this as I get the train and bus to college every morning and there is rarely anyone talking or even reading the newspaper, most people just have their eyes glued to their phone screens. You know our mobile phones really are our constant companions when 57% of people take their phones to the toilet, this is crazy and demonstrates exactly how obsessive people are with their phones. Rather we would like to admit it or not the majority of smart phone users are over dependent on them and take their phones everywhere they go, even to the toilet.

When Dr Theo Lynn had 5 slides in a row titled “What about..” and different types of technology and applications displayed on each slide such as Google Glasses, the Apple Watch and Geo Reminder, it made me think how technology and apps were really starting to take over and leave little amount of work to humans. It becomes scary when you think about it for a long time as there is very little a human will do now a days without the use of some sort of technology!

Dr Theo Lynn gave an excellent and informative presentation which really got me engaged and with all of this in mind I was interested to hear what the rest of the speakers were going to discuss!

Dr. Mark Hughes

Next up was Dr. Mark Hughes, the co-founder and Chief Technical Officier at Digifeye. Digifeye is a discovery and sales platform that has teamed up with some of the worlds leading brands to enable people to purchase what they see from a photograph. Before this talk I had never heard of Digifeye, but as a frequent online shopper I am excited to try it as I found this presentation extremely interesting! Thanks to Digifeye, you can now buy from images online, so if you spot your favorite celebrity in a perfect pair of boots that you need this season, Digifeye have got you covered and can also offer an alternative product in a different price range if you feel you aren’t in the same budget as Kim Kardashian!

This simple yet innovative idea came about when Mark created the app ‘Style-Eyes’. Mark noticed his girlfriend was sprawling the internet for weeks to try and find a coat she seen on a girl one day while she was out shopping. To combat his girlfriends problem Mark created this app which worked by allowing you to take a photo of a clothing item and then the app suggested a particular piece of clothing similar to the photo you took. From this Digifeye was set up.

This ‘Style-Eyes’ app has now grown to become a sales platform known as Digifeye where advanced technology allows a computer to automatically detect pieces of clothing. However, this simple and creative idea did not develop easily. As there are millions of different types of clothing Digifeye faced several problems which Mark kindly outlined.

Firstly there are several misleading tags online which can throw off a computers search. Also, Mark said there were a lot of costs involved but to cut one of the major costs Digifeye integrated with other platforms so they did not have to cover all costs themselves or do all of the work themselves, instead they could link consumers onto other sites where they could then make the purchase. Another challenge was that computers had to be trained how to detect faces and also how to tell which one was male and which one was female in order to suggest the right piece of clothing to the right gender, easy for a human but a little more difficult for a computer. As Mark explained these challenges I was eager to see how exactly they overcame them. To help identify clothing the computer had to be fed thousands of images which were characteristics of clothing along with thousands of images that were not characteristics of clothing. This seems like a large amount of work but definitely has payed off as Digifeye are now doing exceptionally well and have teamed up with well known brands and companies such as Vogue, InStyle and Cosmo.

I thought this presentation and idea was fascinating and kind of contracted how I felt at the end of Dr Theo Lynns presentation. After the first speaker I felt phones and applications were doing too much for humans but then Marks girlfriend was a prime example of how sometimes no matter how hard we try ourselves to find something we aren’t capable of it and I found this amazing that an entire business idea blossomed from this!

Dr. Cathal Gurrin

Dr. Cathal Gurrin, a lecturer at the school of computing in DCU and a researcher for the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, spoke next. It was clear Dr. Cathal Gurrin really believed that mobile phones are constantly changing and developing. His point was outlined when Gurrin explained that the iPhone 5, that many of us use on a day to day basis, is 60,000 times more powerful than the computer which lead Apollo 11 to the moon, back in 1969. This mind blowing fact demonstrates just how advanced technology has become, a small, slim, light phone that sits perfectly into your pocket is more advanced than the large, bulky computer which landed two humans safely on the moon!

Gurrin stated how we have shifted from using desktops to laptops to now smart phones and tablets. The speaker also believes that in 3-5 years from now we will look back at our smart phones we currently own and view them as bulky and unadvanced, just how we view the nokia/blokia phones today! At first I slightly disagreed with this point because I don’t think it can get any better than a phone that unlocked itself by finger print recognition. However, then I thought back to the original iPhone that was released in 2007 and remembered how amazing and high-tech I thought it was, and how my opinion on it today is very very different!

Leading on from this, Dr. Cathal Gurrin then explained how he believes the next stop is wearable technology. Gurrin predicts these mobile devices, such as Google Glass, will be the next big thing and will shortly define the decade we are in. Before this conference I wasn’t fully aware of any form of wearable technology but Gurrins presentation gave me a clear understanding of how Google Glass works. As I had heard about them before, but never actually seen them I was intrigued to see how they looked and worked.

Google glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format, with natural language voice command support as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. These glasses offer a wide range of services, one service Gurrin spoke about in particular was ‘Lifelogging’ . The glasses can take pictures every 8 seconds to enable the person wearing them to keep a record of everything they encounter, thus creating a ‘lifelog’. The idea behind lifelogging is to keep a record of everything you see and hear as you go through life, this data is then stored on a computer instead of in your own personal memory.

On one hand I think this is absolutely genius, a pair of glasses, soon to be released to the public, that can keep a record of your life. However, when I think more into it I become slightly sceptical. At this moment, I already believe people are overly reliant on their phones or laptops todo a lot of work that could be done by themselves. Everywhere you go people are becoming less and less sociable as they are so caught up with technology and I think Google Glass could further this problem and decrease human interaction even more so! Although, by no means am I saying Google Glass shouldn’t be released, I think they could benefit certain people. Perhaps marketers could use them to analysis what they see on a day to day basis to help them compile a unique marketing strategy. Or maybe someone suffering from memory loss! I just feel it would be a bit overwhelming if every regular person started to wear these glasses for no real reason. Our own brain is so powerful and we have come this far already without a device recording historic events, so why do we need them now!

Slightly off topic but what comes to mind when I think about the idea of Google Glass is how I feel when I attend concerts. Recently I was at a gig and instead of everyone embracing the moment and enjoying themselves, the majority of the people had their phones out and were recording the act. Why not just live in the moment and take it all in while you can? I understand the odd photograph but videoing every single song is a waste of time in my opinion. You’re paying to see this act live, not to watch it on a screen when you go home, so enjoy it while you can!

Gurrin briefly spoke about a man who has already been diagnosed as a Google Glass addict. This itself sums up why I don’t exactly feel so strong about the device. I researched this further myself as I was interested to learn more. I found an article on the CNBC news website. An American man in his thirties was checked in to the U.S. Navy’s Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program to be treated for alcoholism but the doctors discovered he wasn’t only suffering withdrawal symptoms from alcohol. The man was also suffering due to the removal of his Google Glasses, that he previous wore for 18 hours a day. The article read, “when the therapist would ask him a question, he would have this repeated movement of placing his index finger to the right side of face, similar to trying to turn on the Glass.” It is worrying to think about the negative effects of technology, like this Google Glass addict, and I would like to think Google may consider limiting the hours one can use Google Glass on a daily basis!

However, I really enjoyed this informative presentation. It got me thinking about all the positives and negatives of wearable technology and even persuaded me into researching this topic further myself. An excellent presentation spoken about in an engaging manner!

Eoin Cruise

The fourth speaker for the day was Eoin Cruise, who is currently the head of Microsoft Mobile in Ireland. He has been working with Nokia for the past 10 years and has witnessed the acquisition by Microsoft which was fully confirmed in April of this year.

Cruise spoke about how he has watched Nokia phones decline in the market over the last couple of years but he was also very positive about the future for Nokia phones. Since 2011, Nokia have been working hard alongside Microsoft to develop smart-phones with unique features such as OneDrive, Skype, Xbox and Office 365.

In 2013 momentum picked up, going from 1 million Lumia customers to 2 million within the year. In 2014, Cruise explained the main objective for the company, was to consolidate their brand and expand their product portfolio in order to compete with other smart-phone companies in the industry. In order to satisfy this objective the people at Nokia and Microsoft aimed to focus on marketing their devices as high-end, affordable smart-phones. From Nokia First to Nokia Lumia the image Nokia phones are giving off seems to be getting better and better.

Lumia is said to be a personal smart-phone, built for business which can now support an array of apps, however Eoin admitted it is still not possible to compete with Apple. These Nokia phones look cool, have Windows software and contain many features similar to Apple phones, so what is it that is holding people back from buying Nokia phones? I wasn’t exactly sure but I wanted to know more! There is no doubt that Apple customers are extremely loyal to the brand (for example the ones camping outside Apple stores overnight to get their hands on the new iPhone 6 which is costing them near enough to a thousand euro). Over the last few years Apple have acquired a large share of the mobile phone market by carrying out powerful marketing campaigns and charging very high prices, giving their brand a luxurious and affluent image. This combined with how well advanced their phones are, has allowed Apple to continue charging top prices for their devices and maintain a large amount of loyal customers.

 

During Eoin’s presentation Apple and Microsoft were compared several times, I was eager to get home and research more about the two companies myself. I came across the following article, Nokia Lumia 930 vs iPhone 5S, on http://www.teachradar.com . The article outlined the features of both phones under many headings such as Camera, Price, Battery, Design and Screen, which for me both seemed very similar. However Nokia Lumia 930 went for delivering a full package whereas Apple went for a headline feature on their iPhone 5s, the fingerprint scanner. I also noted the battery life on the Nokia Lumia was said to be far better than that on the iPhone 5s, and as an owner of the iPhone 5s I can safely say the battery is in fact awful! With a longer lasting battery, a cheaper price and a far better camera you would presume the Nokia Lumia would be far more popular than the iPhone. However this wasn’t the case, I couldn’t find any concrete evidence that the iPhone Is more popular but when I thought about my family and friends I couldn’t think of any Lumia phone users! In the end I think it comes down to what people prefer in relation to software, the Windows 8 or the iOS 7. I also came across this funny/cheeky advertisement by Windows which I found amusing, check it out below!

From Eoin’s presentation I could sense the frustration trying to make a break in this highly competitive field caused. The Nokia smart-phones seem to be well advanced but trying to compete with other well established phones is obviously a struggle. Eoin admitted that there plan is to enter the market with an affordable smart-phone image as they know themselves they cannot get away with charging high prices like Apple can. Eoin pleaded with the audience to give Nokia Lumia a chance when we see it, he said to pick it up and have flick through. From this presentation and carrying out my own research I believe if people were to actually give Nokia phones a chance they could become very popular. But trying to get consumers to do this is the hard part. After seeing all of the features on Nokia lumia I would happily try one out and see if I could manage shifting from Apple to Nokia!

Overall I really, really enjoyed what this speaker had to say! Not only was I informed bout the features of the Nokia smart-phones, I also then went on to gain more knowledge about the differences between Nokia and Apple phones, their features, followers and advertising strategies myself.

Paul Davey

After Eoin Cruise we took a short break and then headed back to our seats to welcome the second last speaker to the stage, Paul Davey, the mobile leader for IBM in Ireland. Although I would instantly recognise the IBM logo and have heard the name before, I was never exactly sure of what they did. However, after Paul Davey spoke I got an excellent insight into what IBM do.

Firstly, I learned that IBM were the first to create a smart-phone (see photo below) and they also invented ATM machines! Since they created there first smart-phone they haven’t made another one since, instead they stuck to working with the technology behind mobile phone devices.

Davey spoke about IBM Watson. I had never heard of Watson before and was amazed by it! Watson is artificially intelligent computer system that can answer questions in natural language. This computer thinks like a human and is capable of many things, one thing in particular that Watson has been highly recognised for was its ability to help doctors make better choices in regards to cancer treatment. In my opinion this is an amazing example of how technology can be used in a positive way! Watch the video below if you are interested in learning more about this and how exactly it works!

Paul Davey also gave his opinion on how he thinks apps are very important to a brand and how a lot of brands don’t exactly have the best apps, and to combat this problem IBM created technology that allows one app to work across a variety of software such as iOS, Android and Blackberry. I think this will benefit a lot of companies looking to create apps as I can only imagine how much work it is to design an app not only for one software, but for many others that are now available on phones, but IBM have reduced that workload!

During this presentation, I also learned that IBM have partnered up with Apple to transform enterprise mobility. I was interested to learn more about this and found information on it on the apple website! This global partnership was announced in July of this year after 8 months of negotiating and meetings! Overall the services that will come from this partnership will help many firms adapt to the mobile world and become more effective. I enjoyed this presentation and learning about IBM and I’m excited to see what is to come in the future from IBM and apple!

Alex Meisel

The last speaker for the day was Alex Meisel, a man who has been doing digital for 25 years and was ready to share his many experiences with us. Alex co-founded Sponge, the UK’s most successful mobile agency, in 2002. He also launched WiForia earlier this year, WiForia is a company focused on in-store engagement through WiFi, an excellent and innovative business that is highly relevant today. Alex finished up the conference by talking about Mobile Marketing, when I heard his presentation was based around marketing I knew I would be really interested and became instantly engaged as I have a keen interest in marketing and love learning more about it!

Meisel started off his presentation by listing off some statistics that gave us an overall idea of the current mobile market. 2/3 adults say they would give up alcohol over their mobile phones, while 1/3 adults would rather give up sex than their mobile phones! However it is not just adults hooked to their phones, more 5 year olds can navigate their ways around an iPad yet they cannot tie their shoes!! Perhaps slightly worrying for our future generation! Even more worrying is that there is more phones in the UK than there is toothbrushes!

As well as previous speakers, Alex displayed a photograph that showed St. Peters Square in 2005 and 2013 during the Papal election. You can see the photo down below, this photo highlights my point from earlier. How, instead of embracing the moment people are too worried about capturing the event on a camera/phone!

What I found really interesting was when Meisel stated several misapprehensions and then spoke through how each one was not entirely true. For example:
1. “SMS is dead” – Alex disagreed with this as he believes the figures from 2013 show clearly that although there are many apps now that allow messaging, such as Whatsapp, Facebook messenger and Snapchat, there was still over 140 billion texts sent last year!
2. “Mobile Advertising is trivial” – Again the speaker disagreed with this as he believes mobile advertising will overtake newspaper advertising by the end of this year! Which I must admit I agree with, there has been enough statistics in this blog post to prove how obsessive people are with phones (not even leaving it down when they use the toilet ). Alongside this, its also clear technology is growing rapidly and companies like IBM and Apple are helping companies create successful apps. News apps are already widely available today so I do believe its only a matter of time before newspaper sales start to decline.
3. “Retailers are screwed” – the rise in online shopping cannot be overlooked and many would say retailers are screwed, but again Alex doesn’t think so. To demonstrate his point Alex used John Lewis as an example of how retailers are not screwed due to the popularity of online shopping, but can instead use it to their advantage. In 5 years, John Lewis increased their spending by 600%. Their well executed omni-channel, delivers 3 times the amount of sales per customer, which has lead to their overall sales being doubled in 10 years in $16 billion!

However there are still some companies getting it wrong, and the factors that contribute to this are perhaps fear, uncertainty, doubt, age and attribution! Following on from these points Alex gave us a further insight into wrong doings by firms. One that stuck in my head the most was that the percentage of time spent in media was significantly higher than time spent on mobile. From out last conference we got a clear idea of how social media can bring many benefits to businesses. But on the other-hand from this conference we just learned how mobiles can bring just as many advantages yet only 4% of advertising spending in the UK is aimed at this market. We spend a large amount of time on our mobiles and I feel if businesses exploited this opportunity as much as they did with social media then they could enter an entire new level!

In order to take advantage of this opportunity companies must ensure their websites are optimised with mobile phone devices. I know from experience when you are browsing online on your phone and enter a site that has a standard website and not optimised for mobile phones or tablets I will instantly click away because its too confusing to look at!
Companies must also ensure deeper engagement with their customers and build a strong relationship with them. This can be done by offering shoppers personalised discounts as they enter the store and can also be done in an effective time manner, perhaps a lunch meal deal around 12 noon! Due to uncertainty and doubt many people wont buy directly from their phone, however this type of advertising deals with mobile advertising but in store buying!! I think this sort of advertising is amazing because its relevant to todays market and also gives the consumers a valuable and successful feeling because everyone loves a good bargain!!

This sort of engagement can also be done in a very different way, Alex showed us this video and I still think this is one of innovative and creative ways of advertising via mobile!! Take a look below!

What I took away from Alexs presentation was that due to the large number of mobile phone users, mobile advertising is an extremely successful way of promoting products or brands. Due to several barriers that I have listed above, some firms are not fully connected with mobile advertising and perhaps haven’t got the swing of it yet. But those who have know exactly what there doing and are more than likely surpassing their sales targets all thanks to investing some time and money into what people are actually using every second of the day, mobile phones!!

 

I really enjoyed this conference and learned a lot from it. Sitting and listening to the speakers is one thing, but going home and writing a blog enables me to think further into each presentation which allows me to develop deeper opinions and thoughts on the topic! It also has made me access several external sites where I can read even more about subjects that the speakers discuss!!
A fantastic conference which left me eager to get started on my blog post!! I look forward to the Get Started conference in February!! If you missed my previous blog post on the Get Social conference you can read it now by clicking here.

** Some images were taken from Google **

Get Social

On the 14^th of October our first mini-conference, Get Social, was held in the Helix. As we arrived eagerly to the venue that afternoon, we were assigned seats where we meet the rest of our team members and our two project managers. The Get Social conference included seven guest speakers who outlined how their businesses interacted with social media. As the majority of the audience in the Helix that day were all social media users, we were excited for what was to come.

 

To kick off the event, Dr Theo Lynn, the Business Innovation Platform Director at DCU, was welcomed onto the stage. He spoke about the power of social media, what people talk about on social media and why they talk about it. What struck me the most during Dr Theo Lynn’s presentation, was when a slide showing a photo of Paul Walker and a photo of Nelson Mandela appeared. Dr Theo explained to the audience that Paul Walker and Nelson Mandela both passed away within 5 days of each other and surprisingly more people spoke about the death of the young, American actor and not the highly influential first black president of South Africa. This fact stuck in my head and made me think, what was it about Paul Walker that made more people talk about him over social media. Perhaps it had something to do with the age group of social media users. Another topic discussed by Dr Theo Lynn was who was influential on twitter. When asked, who is more influential on twitter, Enda Kenny or the meerkat from comparethemeerkat.com, most of the people in the room raised their hand for the meerkat. And worryingly they were correct. The fictional meerkat had an outreach level of 7 out of 12 whereas the Taoiseach of Ireland had an outreach level of 3 out of 12. Again this made me think of the age profile of social media users.

Sadly, along with social media comes cyber-bullying. Dr Theo Lynn brought an amazing Cyber-bullying Prevention platform to our attention during his presentation. This platform was launched by CNGL in September at a National Cyberbullying conference. What this platform can do is amazing, it collects data and trains systems to detect bullying. In my opinion I think that this is an outstanding idea and I am delighted that I was informed about it, I urge everyone to gain awareness of it also! I really feel all second level schools should have access to this platform in order to combat cyber-bullying.

Up next was Deirdre Hogan who spoke to us about Gajo. Gajo is a platform designed by CNGL and funded by Enterprise Ireland, to easily target your audience on social media. This was one of my favourite talks of the day as I found the idea amazing and can only imagine how helpful it is for businesses to target their audience with highly relevant advertising. Deirdre spoke about key word targeting and also audience targeting with regards to a case study they carried out. The case study was that Teleceom wanted to accquire new customers by targeting consumers who were likely to switch from their competitor service providers. When trying to do this by key word targeting there are some problems. One of the problems is that you may find highly irelevant data when you use key word targeting. Deirdre used the following as an example, if the key words “cancel contract vodafone” are used to find tweets suggesting potential customers you may not be given potential customers, you may only be given people tweeting with the words cancel and contract, yet they may have no intention in switching network providers. They could simply be talking about how they are happy they didn’t cancel their contract.

However, Gajo deals with audience targeting which means this business to business service can find more relevant data. Again in relation to the case study, Gajo can target an audience such as “consumers on social media likely to switch service providers”. This pulls up a group of people that may have been complaining about their current provider, enabling the compaby to send a specific and personal ad to that person. I think that audience targeting is a much better method to use. Gajo filters streams of social media data and selects potential consumers based on the content of their posts on social media. Deirdre’s presentation slideshow was simple and easy to read, which made her talk even more enjoyable. Like I said this was my favourite talk as I find this business to business service incredible and it can help generate better conversion rates and higher CTR!

The third speaker was Jane McDaid from THINKHOUSE. THINKHOUSE is a youth communications agency. Jane explained about how THINKHOUSE work with major brands in the UK and Ireland to connect with people from the age of 18 to 36 by creating innovative ad campaigns through both digital and traditional media. Some of the brands that THINKHOUSE work with include Coca Cola, RTE, Ebay, Dove and Three. I really enjoyed this presentation as Jane showed us a number of different short video clips designed by THINKHOUSE. I found the presentation attention grabbing and different to the rest. At THINKHOUSE, video advertising is split up into the following categories:

• LOL
• EPIC
• EMOTIVE
• WTF?
• ZEITGEIST
• NSFW (not suitable for work)
• INFORMATIVE

Jane showed us an example of each type of videos but the one that stuck in my head the most was Volvo Trucks Epic advertisement. This advertisement was not created by THINKHOUSE but was an exampe of an epic video advertisement. I really enjoyed it! Watch it below!

Personally I think working with this agency would be very enjoyable, especially if you are interested in media production, advertising or even communication studies. The work that they do at THINKHOUSE seems to be varied as they work with many brands, and I think that this would enhance the job satisfaction!

Next to take to the stage was Lucy Campbell, the marketing director at RTE digital. Lucy explained that working in RTE digital is “essentially working in the bit that isn’t television and that isn’t radio.” RTE digital was set up as a devision in 2012 to lead RTE’s digital stradgey. I found this talk interesting as I never knew RTE digital existed and I was looking forward to hearing about the type of work that they do. At RTE digital they have five key objectives in relation to optimizing their content acorss all of their different social media platforms, they include;

1. Meet audience needs on digital platforms
2. Drive innovation
3. Supporting leadership in Ireland’s digital economy
4. Support RTE’s commerical goals
5. Create a digital organisation culture

   Lucy provided the audience with many statistics that demonstrated how many people are digital users, such as 73% of Irish mobile users have smart phones and that people of the age 15 to 24 spend, on average, 187 minutes per day online. During the presetation Lucy gave a large number of facts and statistics and the information we received would make it hard to believe that people still watch television and essentially that is why Lucy has her job. RTE digital provide people with a choice on where to view the content, be it on phones, tablets or even game consoles. With all these different platforms available companies, such as RTE, must ensure that they have a devision set up to reach their audience on all of these platforms. Although we might not be aware of how fast technology is moving, Lucys presentation was thought-provoking as it made me aware of what companies have todo to ensure they are not left behind or forgotten about. We consume 30% of content via mobile phones, meaning companies were forced to adapt to this, and RTE did exactly that with over 73% of their traffic coming from mobile servies. As digital users grew, RTE identifed an opportunity to provide a product that was most defiitaly demaneded. RTE set up a key market leading digital product, RTE player. This product is now Irelands number 1 video on demand player.

Lucy displayed a very busy chart that showed a timeline of RTE’s journey from 2003 until present, with events such as their first mobile service launch in 2004 to their launch of their news app in 2008. Personally I really appreciated Lucy outlining RTE’s journey through this dynamic movement and it made me aware of the work RTE put into optimizing their content on an array of platforms.

Alan Coleman, CEO of Wolfgang Digital, was the fifth speaker. Coleman’s story was extrememly interesting, rejected by Google Alan went on to teach himself how to use, what he felt then and now, was the best marketing tool, Google ad words. His freelance business transformed from one or two clients into what is now today, Wolfgang Digital, working for many well known brands such as Brown Thomas and RedBull. Alan’s company consists of 18 “digital marketing nerds”. With all the talk about the Irish economy and little focus on the online economy, Alan and his team took it upon themselves to research Irelands online economy. Through their study they found out that in the retail and travel sectors the Irish online economy was growing at a rate of 41% per year, meaning 20-25% faster than the general Irish economy. Wolfgang were pushed into the social aspect of digital marketing by analysing the results from the Metric SEO Ranking Factors. This ranking system displays websites with good Google ratings in the organic list and also looks at what other activities they are involved. With the 7 of the top 8 factors being social signals, Wolfgang were pushed to get involved with social media. Judging by Alans talk if social media is used intelignetly it can be extremely useful.

At Wolfgang they have created what they call a ‘Purchase Funnel’ and the more thought I gave this the more I understood it. Alan spoke about how Google and Facebook are both involed in the purhcasing of products online. At the top of the funnel comes Awareness, then Interest and then Action. And where it all begins is on Facebook, the awareness stage, where newsfeed ads start to stimulate consumers journey to purchase. However, then customers head over to google where the interest and purhcase stages take place. This made me think that advertising via Facebook plays such a key role in purchasing products, although consumers may not be purchasing directly from Facebook, it is this social media platform that entices consumers to buy things. Alan explained that after looking at the Nielsen Consumer Attitude Study he noticed the top 2 factors that influence consumers to purchase was 1) Recommendations from friends and 2) Reading opinions and reviews online. And this is where Alans company, Wolfgang Digital, steps in. The company went back and looked at their ‘Purchase Funnel’ and added on an extra two steps, Loyalty and Advocacy. At Wolfgang they decided to act on the consumers attitudes and collect reviews on brands and display them on social media. This way they will enhance loyalty and also advocacy, where people talk positively about the brands. Alan explained this idea clearly and I was able to fully understand what he meant, in addition he gave a case study with regards to Abbey Travel and it outlined his findings even more so. Abbey Travel asked Wolfgang to help them promote their trips to Disneyland and Wolfgang did exactly that by using their ‘Purchase Funnel’ :

1. Awareness
2. Interest:
3. Purchase:
4. Loyalty
5. Advocacy

With all these steps in mind, they worked carefully on every stage, from advertising the trip on facebook, to ensursing people gave Abbey Travel excellent reviews to encourage other holiday goers to use this travel agency and also writing blog posts before and after the holiday.

From listening to Alan, I realised that Wolfgang act on consumer feedback and consumer behaviour. It was extremely interesting to see how the employees at Wolfgang think and how they act upon this. I came to the decision that Facebook and Google work hand in hand and not in competition, although Google may have better conversion rates, it is Facebook that drives the thinking path to purchasing. In my opinion this company seems to know exactly what consumers want and exactly how to give them just that. An amazing digital marketing company spoken about in an interesting and informative way. After this talk I felt I knew a lot more about the purchasing path online and also conumer attitudes.

Nicolas Capiello, Sales Director of LinkedIn, spoke next. I found this talk interesting although it did not fully resonate with me as I wasn’t, at the time, a LinkedIn user and was not fully aware of this social media platform. Nicolas spoke so highly of LinkedIn and how the users are now creating six times the amount of content now then they were two years ago. This statistic showed to me that this platform is clearly growing and encouraged me to set up my own LinkedIn profile. After creating my LinkedIn profile I realised why Nicolas spoke so highly of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network platform that allows you to build and create a business profile while interacting with other users. I am now proud to say I am using LinkedIn thanks to Nicolas Capiello.

  Last but not least was Eric Weaver, Chief Social Officer, G-14 Region, Media brands Worldwide. With his cool American accent Eric began by saying “What’s up Dublin?” Although Eric was the last speaker of the day and everyone was more than likely tired he did an excellent job of keeping everyone engaged and interested. The main idea behind Erics talk was that social media wasn’t cool anymore, purely because everyone is now using it! Although Eric apporached this topic of discussion in a funny way, it was true! Presented on the screen was a timeline that outlined what he called, ‘the hype curve’. The fascination of the interent and then the disillusionment of it when everyone realised they werent the only ones using it! What I remember clearly form this talk was what Eric said happened in 2012. I had not heard of this before Eric’s presentation but I was certainly interested in it afterwards. This was the Oreo Daily Twist Campaign.

 

This took place for Oreo’s 100^th birthday, they decided to create 100 pieces of content within 100 days. They did this by setting up a glass office in the middle of Times Square, and in this office was a writer, a producer, a designer and a social list tool. These people worked together to listen to the social chatter everyday, took note of what was being spoken about and then creating an ad based around this social chatter. The results were fascinating. The boring old oreo became a social media sensation and went from being boring,uncool and traditional to a modern up to date cookie brand. Oreo gained a 280% rise in Facebook shares which really highlighted the power of social media. However, Eric explained that in December 2013 Facebook changed their organic reach system, meaning free advertising took place and on average 15,000 stories would show up on your newsfeed everytime you refrehsed your page. So if Oreo were to carry out the Daily Twist campaign now, instead of in 2012, 95% of the fans wouldn’t see it daily. To get past this, Facebook created a way in which you could boost your post, meaning paying more money so that the total reach grew. A clever move by Facebook as a large number of companies want to boost their posts and automaticaly get hooked after seeing the difference between total reach and paid reach! On the otherhand this caused problems for marketers as they didn’t have the money to keep up! This is where Eric steps in to advise and help well known brands on how to control their marketing budget. This talk kind of surprised me as I never really thought about the money that goes into marketing on facebook, especially since the change in 2013 companies need to rethink how they approach facebook marketing!

In conclusion I really enjoyed this first mini-conference. Each speaker brought something different and got me thinking about social media and advertising in a number of different ways. I feel I have gained a lot of knowledge in regards to social media and I look forward to applying this knowledge to my career in the future! I hope you enjoyed reading this blog, don’t forget to like, comment and share! Also, keep an eye out for my next blog post which will be in relation to Get Mobile! Signing off for now!