Tag: IT@Cork2006

IT@Cork, Technology

it@cork on Confabb

I know I said the it@cork conference was really good – well, I’m not the only one who thought so!

Over on Confabb, Salim’s conference site, there are lots of good reviews of the conference and of the individual speakers.

This is going to be a very useful resource for it@cork (and the individual speakers) moving forward as we’ll be able to point back to Confabb to show how much value the attendees got from the conference.

If you were at the conference and haven’t left feedback on Confabb, please do so. Thanks.

IT@Cork, Technology

it@cork 2006 conference review

[At the outset, let me say that any comments I make on this event will be coloured by the fact that I was one of the organisers!]

Ok, with that out of the way, I think yesterday’s event was a tremendous success! There were over 250 people attended (Catherine can give me exact numbers but I think 250 is pretty close to the ball park).

The speakers were almost all great, both in terms of the content and the delivery. Tom Corcoran sums the day up nicely on the RAI Centre blog.

The speaker’s slides will be up on the it@cork site in the next couple of days and I hope to get the recordings of the talks from the a/v company and podcast them on the it@cork blog in the coming weeks.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the day the great success it was.

IT@Cork, Microsoft, Technology

it@cork 2006 Conference – Jacques-Etienne Grandjean

Jacques-Etienne Grandjean is the Senior Director, Comm Sector Western Europe of Microsoft. Jean-Etienne’s presentation title is “Are Desktop Applications the way of the past?”

Jacques-Etienne is unfortunately doing a sales job on Microsoft Live rather than addressing the actual title of his talk. Not once, even when discussing search, did he mention any of Microsoft’s competitors.

Shame really ‘cos, while Microsoft are behind in this space, a couple of their Live offerings are quite good but not mentioning the better products of their competitors, devalues all of Microsoft’s Live offerings.

IT@Cork, Technology

it@cork 2006 Conference – Eddie Hobbs

Eddie Hobbs led off the talks at the it@cork conference this morning. His talk focussed heavily on energy and the coming energy crisis. What is the Irish government’s plan when oil reaches $200 per barrel? [Hint: it is up there with their dealing with an asteroid hitting Dáil Eireann plan].

The average distance food travels in the US from field to fork is 1,500 miles. How will the rise in oil hit that? If you are in airline stocks, get out of it!

Money will flow to businesses that help businesses become more energy efficient. Also there will be a move to longevity in products – repair rather than dispose of faulty goods.

When selling to investors, avoid tech jargon, put the financials on a CD and concentrate on telling a compelling story.

IT@Cork, Technology

Salim, the early bird…

The first of the speakers for the it@cork 2006 Business and Technology conference flew in last night.

Salim Ismail, founder and CEO of Confabb (coincidentally a conference aggregation site!), is taking a couple of days before the conference starts to drive around beautiful West Cork and Kerry.

Salim will be arriving back in Cork tomorrow evening in time for the blogger’s dinner which is on in Luigi Malone’s (don’t judge the restaurant by the website!) at 8pm.

The conference line-up is impressive (but then again, I would say that having sourced several of the speakers!) and I can’t wait to hear what the speakers have to say.