by admin | Mar 25, 2015 | Event, IT, Jobs in Ireland
Collins McNicholas was a very proud sponsor of the Innovating West Summit on Friday the 13th of March. This Friday the 13th was most certainly not an unlucky day as the event went off without a hitch with all in attendance being engaged in thought provoking conversations all day. The morning was kicked off by John Breslin and Dave Cunningham the co-founders of the summit; they introduced the main aims of the day, which were to highlight how world class teams can be built in the West of Ireland and how to create a series of innovating ecosystems in the West. The first panel discussion consisted of the people which are the corner stones to Connacht Rugby; Eric Elwood, Domestic Rugby Manager, Pat Lam, Head Coach, Willie Ruane, CEO and James Duffy, Elite Player Development Officer. Through the discussion it became obvious what has made Connacht Rugby progress to where they are today. It began with a vision and via the passion which the individuals involved poured in to the club and a lot of hard work they have gotten where they are today. The audience were no less then inspired by the enthusiasm which Pat Lam expressed, he shared the reason why he chose Connacht over the five other offers he had at the time, he saw that his passion and drive were in line with Connacht’s and then and there made a decision to join the team (while later figuring out where Connacht was located). For this panel they did not see the location of the West as a barrier to the progression of their organisation and alternatively they posed the question of why not The West? As people make an organisation they saw Galway as a prime location with its strong sense of community and passionate people. The topic of the following panel was what makes an innovative team; the panellists on this discussion consisted of Norah Patten, International Space University / University of Limerick, Oliver Daniels, CEO Insight Centre for Data Analytics and Fiona McCarthy, Executive Director HR, Dell. One point which arose from this discussion was having a diverse team coming from various backgrounds be it educational, of career wise to bring a variety of experiences to the company. Communication was another key factor of establishing an innovating team this allowed the facilitation of the flow of ideas and interaction. Of course to have an innovative team you must source innovative employees; with both a University and an IT Galway has over 20,000 students residing in the area providing an excellent talent pool. The next discussion was surrounding the creation of an innovation district and ecosystem in the West. Maurice O’Gorman, Galway Chamber / Former COO NCB Capital, David Silke, VP Juniper / Big Innovation Centre UK and Liam Hanrahan, Senior Executive Officer Galway City Council made up the panel. Being part of a successful decentralised team was the next area for discussion with the panellists Tom Forde, Digital and Activation Lead Bank of Ireland, John McGuire, CEO GAME GOLF, Paul Duggan, Global Account Manager Google and Paul Mockler, Business Tourism Manager, Fáilte Ireland all having enormous experience in this area. Again the panellists emphasised the importance of regular communication with reference to the form of communication; it was stressed that phone calls and facilities like Skype are much more effective forms than email and is key to the success of a decentralised team. Another aspect mentioned was trust and resisting the urge to micro manage your teams; from mutual trust and respect you get the most out of your team and they feel valued in their positions. Lastly they spoke about managing your time effectively, when working across different time zones this can be difficult and personal time must be put aside to keep an even work life balance. Overall this was a fascinating event with a lively pace and interesting speakers throughout the day. It was a real melting pot of business professionals from Galway and generated a great buzz for the future innovation centre. We look forward to following the success of this venture and will definitely attend next year. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all involved in the organisation with particular mention to John Breslin and Dave Cunningham. Donal O’Donoghue, Recruitment Consultant for IT/Software roles – 091 706706 Collins McNicholas Recruitment & HR Services Group, Galway Sign up for IT job alerts here...Read More
by Niall Murray | Mar 12, 2015 | Event, IT
Efforts to create a Silicon Docks in the west of Ireland were discussed at the TechWest conference in Dublin last week. The event, organised by Collins McNicholas, featured talks by figures from successful IT businesses in the west, including Aongus O hEocha from Girt Mobile in Galway, Paul Montwill of Magico from Ennis, and Pat Henry of Cora Systems from Carrick-on-Shannon. TechWest was chaired by The Sunday Business Post’s Connected editor Emmet Ryan, and featured two panel discussions on the challenges and opportunities for IT businesses in the west of Ireland. Enterprise Ireland divisional manager Kevin Sherry said the roll-out of high speed broadband was crucial to enabling businesses in the west to address the global market. For more information on TechWest, contact Michelle Murphy on 091 706706. PHOTOS: (view full gallery here)...Read More
by Niall Murray | Feb 23, 2015 | Event, IT
On Thursday 19th February, Michelle and I attended a Start-Up Galway Tech Meetup event on Social Entrepreneurship held in Busker Brownes – guest speakers were Iseult Ward (CEO, Foodcloud) and Colman Farrell (Co-Founder, SSE Ireland) and the event was sponsored by Bank of Ireland. Iseult Ward is co-founder and CEO of Foodcloud. She explained that Foodcloud is a community-based social enterprise which brings food businesses and charities together through an easy-to-use and reliable platform, matching those with too much food with those who have too little. To date, Foodcloud have facilitated the redistribution of 123 tonnes of surplus food to a growing network of charities right around Ireland. She was listed in Time Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders for 2014, and along with Foodcloud co-founder Aoibheann O’Brien was the Irish winner at the Ben & Jerry’s and Ashoka “Join Our Core” competition in 2014. Colman Farrell is co-founder and Director of Learning at the School for Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, supporting individuals who are starting and growing social enterprises and community organisations through action-learning courses. Before SSE Ireland, Colman was the co-founder and CEO of Suas Educational Development, a multiple-award winning Irish education focused non-profit supporting programmes in Ireland, India and Kenya. Colman received a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Award in 2005, was a member of the International Visitors Leadership Programme in 2009, and received an Arthur Guinness Fund Award in 2010. There was a good turnout at this event hosted by Barry O’Sullivan, CEO of Altocloud, with some networking and light finger food served. Caroline Dowling, Recruitment Consultant Collins McNicholas Recruitment & HR Services Group...Read More
by Niall Murray | Nov 13, 2014 | Economy, Event, IT, Recruitment
Last week’s Dublin Web Summit, or ‘The Summit’ as it is now called, was a tremendous success. In just its fourth year, the three day event has grown to encompass 22,000 attendees. This includes 100 tech CEOs, 1,000 investors, 2,000 start-ups and 500 guest speakers, not to mention celebrities such as Eva Longoria, Bono, and Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, to name a few. The event was reported on by as many as 800 tech journalists who covered all of the action at the RDS and its 200+ satellite events. With such an influx of people from across the tech world it was a great networking opportunity. I couldn’t believe the buzz around the lobby of the Herbert Hotel on the second day as I sat there having my morning coffee. It was like an epic version of speed dating with business cards. In a way the rapid growth and success of the Web Summit mirrors the remarkable expansion of the tech sector in Ireland. There has been over 17,500 jobs created in the last three years and there are now over 105,000 ICT professionals working in Ireland. Demand is expected to grow at 5% per year through to 2018, and a further 44,500 job openings will be created in the sector in the next four years. This represents an incredible opportunity for Irish people to create an exciting, challenging, and financially rewarding career in this dynamic industry. There are a range of skills in demand in the ICT sector and Ireland benefits from its involvement in many different types of activity. Everything from software engineers, to systems administrators,...Read More
by Niall Murray | Oct 2, 2014 | Entrepreneurship, Event, IT, Recruitment
On Tuesday September 30th I had the pleasure of attending the latest installment from www.startupgalway.org in McSwiggans, Galway. Startupgalway.org was set up by Barry O’Sullivan the former VP of Cisco and John Breslin of NUIG. Their goal is to make Galway a hub for ICT start-ups in the same way it has become a medical device hotspot. This was a well-attended event with everyone excited to hear the key note speaker. Our speaker was Christopher Byrne, a tech entrepreneur, transatlantic sailor and runner who lives in Dingle, County Kerry. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of SensorPro, a messaging and feedback platform that has served many brands including Pampers, Brown Thomas and Family Dollar. In 1992, he co-founded Cashbook.com which pioneered electronic payment and reconciliation solutions on the IBM AS/400 and Microsoft platforms. The products were distributed worldwide by SSA, now Infor. Cashbook.com was acquired by e-procurement firm Clarus Corporation in 2000 for $60 million. The event took the form of a Q&A session with Christopher being asked a wide range of very interesting questions on his experience with starting a venture and the struggles along the way. The event was later opened up to the audience, mostly consisting of developers and techie professionals. It also included many considering starting a business or those who have recently started a small venture. Some of my key take points included: While a great product is crucial you must also focus on the sales and marketing side. Many start-up technical companies spend too much time producing the “perfect app.” If you don’t focus on sales and marketing the product, your business will...Read More
by Niall Murray | Jun 10, 2014 | Event, IT
On Thursday 5th and Friday 6th of June, my colleague Aileen Lalor and I attended the Localization World Conference in The Convention Centre, Dublin. We were fortunate to have a stand in the main foyer as people gathered to enter the main exhibition and various seminar halls, this enabled us to network with the 600 plus attendees and get an understanding of the companies they worked for. Thursday morning started fantastically as we spoke with a number of highly influential people in the Localization industry. We had a coffee and in depth chat with Ulrich Henes (President, Localization World) who explained the general format of the conference and what he wanted to take away from it – it was extremely motivational to hear an expert in his field speaking with such passion about the industry. We thought the day couldn’t go any better until we attended the key note speech by Magnus Lindvist (Pattern Recognition). Magnus is regarded as one of the top 3 most influential people within the Localization and Change Management arena. His passion, enthusiasm and general charisma had the 600 plus audience hanging on his every word as he used layman’s terms language and metaphors to explain the current trends and patterns in business around the globe. I suppose the best way to describe his performance and speech would be a mix of razor sharp wit mixed with business savvy expertise. It was fitting that he received a standing ovation at the end and I would encourage anyone to jump at the opportunity to see him speak, as you will leave with a better understanding of business trends and...Read More
