The Irish Tech News Podcast

In this podcast Melanie Boylan is speaking to Ireland Manager Vincent Kennedy about SITA, the air transport industry and the upcoming plans for the Letterkenny facility. Vincent Kennedy is a Director of Software Engineering at SITA, with a focus on product development for the SITA AT BORDERS portfolio. In addition to this, Vincent is also the Location Lead for SITA Letterkenny. Vincent joined SITA in 2003 as a Project Manager following the acquisition of Eland Technologies. Since then Vincent has served SITA in many different roles both in Ireland and in the UK. Originally from Co. Donegal, Vincent studied Mathematics at Ulster University before joining Eland Technologies as a graduate engineer. More recently Vincent completed an Executive MBS in Leadership and Innovation at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

We talk to Des Ryan Director of the Microsoft Ireland Specialist Teams Unit, to learn morn about cyber security risks, supporting your work force and clients, and how to keep innovating during a lockdown . Des is the Director for Microsoft’s Specialist and Technical Sales teams. In this role, he is responsible for driving new business opportunities and solution sales growth, providing leadership to the solution sales and technical sales teams enabling them to thrive and perform at their best. Des also works with customers and partners to understand their key challenges, empowering them to digitally transform and stay relevant within a rapidly changing technological landscape. Des joined Microsoft on returning to Ireland in 2018. He brings a wealth of international experience having spent twenty-five years working internationally with stints in USA, Singapore and Australia. During that time, he held senior executive roles in the partner community focused on Consulting, Managed Services and Solution Sales. He has also served at board level. Des has a technical heritage and so is comfortable in both technical and business forums. Des has a BSc in Information Systems from Limerick Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Des Ryan, Solutions Director for Microsoft Ireland, said: about digital security ->  “Cyber hackers are opportunistic, skilled, and relentless. They have become adept at evolving their techniques to increase success rates, whether by experimenting with different phishing lures, adjusting the types of attacks they execute or finding new ways to hide their work. While our physical work locations may have changed, our responsibilities in protecting organisational data and complying to data regulations have not.  Now is the time to address this with an increased investment in cybersecurity, secure devices, tighter policies, increased support, and education for employees so they can play an important role in not only protecting themselves but also their organisations.”

Remote working has increased greatly because of the pandemic and what was once a pipe dream is now a reality. Ireland is taking a lead in this and Remote has recognised this in their 2021 Remote Influencer Report. The report lists the top 25 Remote Innovators with five Irish people on the list. Ronan talks to two of the Irish People on the list, Jonny Cosgrove CEO & Co-Founder The Meeting Room, and Rowena Hennigan founder of RoRemote and a lecturer at TU Dublin. Jonny and Rowena talk about the report, how the Irish have been leading the charge, why remote working is good for the environment, and how it’s now possible to start a business remotely that can compete on a global scale. They also talk about the different education initiatives coming out of Ireland, how the last year has been transformative, Ireland inc and how the pandemic has helped the Meeting Room. More aboutJonny and Rowena: Jonny Cosgrove is the founder of MeetingRoom, a tech company which through virtual reality (VR) technology, provides virtual meeting rooms in the cloud allowing global teams to meet and virtually gather around a table from anywhere, on any device. Rowena Hennigan is the founder of RoRemote and a Remote Work Skills Expert, with the unique experience of designing and delivering University accredited courses. She works remotely as an educator, speaker and consultant and recently published an eBook, Better Breaks: Gentle exercises to replenish and recharge your remote work day.  

Informative and interesting conversation with one of the modern day heroes of the internet Jimmy Wales, we cover Wikipedia and the challenges of monetising it, his ongoing passion for innovation and entrepreneurship, the value of being raised in Alabama, Werewolves and his thoughts on the future of media and society. Internet and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, is founder of the online non-profit encyclopaedia Wikipedia and co-founder of the privately owned Wikia, Inc. including its entertainment media brand, Fandom powered by Wikia. Wales serves on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organisation he established to operate Wikipedia. In 2019, Jimmy launched WT Social - a news focused social network. In 2006 Jimmy was named in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ for his role in creating Wikipedia. Jimmy's photo used with permission from here https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Jimmy_Wales-4.jpg/4096px-Jimmy_Wales-4.jpg

How do you build something that delights customers?  Conventional wisdom would say that we need to talk to the customers and better understand their needs. But let’s be honest. Beyond the endless surveys, when was the last time your bank actually talks to you, the customer? In this episode of One Vision, Theo and Bradley talk to Billie Simmons, co-founder of Daylight. To Billie’s point, LGBT+ is not just a marketing segment. It is also a community with unique needs that incumbent financial institutions have largely failed to address. It’s about time we change that.

In today's podcast Melanie Boylan sat down and spoke with co-founder of The World Nano Foundation Paul Sheedy, who is based in Dublin to talk about how nanotechnology is transforming healthcare, engineering and many other sectors. We learn about how the infrastructure works and hear brief clips of information on what's to come in the months and years ahead.   The World Nano Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, which works and collaborates with a wide variety of partners. Maximising support and funding to bring the science of the ultra-small to the world and commerce. Aimed at aiding entrepreneurs, inventors, professors and professionals from a business-up perspective, the Foundation is a medium for nurturing, developing and commercialising ground-breaking new nanotechnologies to revolutionise the world and how we interact with it.

Daniel Doll-Steinberg, co founder of EdenBase “Seen a lot, done a bit, trying to make sense of it, working to ensure a beneficial cognitive revolution?” I ask about the above quote which is on Daniel’s Linkedin. His reply is that it has to be short and that he is relatively old. The former is true, the latter less so but the career in between is pretty impressive. Educated in the UK, Daniel admits he was not academic but he fell into finance and the early days of derivatives. This was a good fall as the market was disruptive and suited him well. He moved to the US and at the very young (if we are still comparing ages, although I’ve been taught comparisons are odious) age of 27 he saved a bank from being shut down by the banking committee. He moved into more disruptive sectors such as gaming, entertainment and marketing before spending four years advising the EU as a special advisor. He then turned gamekeeper to advise the British Government on the EU, continued advising the prime minister during the 2008 financial crash before getting involved in blockchain in 2016. Actually the involvement was more like a domination as the co founder of the Atari Token Project, a gaming play that took him all over the world. Around this time, the seen a lot came into play and Daniel took a deep breath. He met up with seasoned entrepreneur and ecosystem builder Eric Van Der Kleij and decided he wanted to give back and so EdenBase was born. “There is a real imperative to understand and implement frontier technologies. In ten years, maybe less, anyone not using those technologies is going to be at a serious disadvantage. We wanted to create an entity that was to help companies and make sure they achieve all they can.” Listen in to find out what he is doing to help companies do better. Jillian Godsil is an award winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Her latest book can be found at https://persons-of-interest.io/

In this episode Jamil catches up with Michael Creadon, who is Managing Director of Inveniam, and they cover a range of topics in this interesting and wide ranging conversation. The Never Ending Global Search for Market Yield As Director of Sales, Michael Creadon is responsible for expanding outreach efforts to private family offices looking to unlock value from balance sheets through the application of Inveniam’s SaaS offering. He also works closely with leading global exchanges and custodians to further expand the digitization of assets on the Inveniam platform. Additionally, Mr. Creadon is spearheading efforts with Jump Start Africa, a microfinancing charity in Uganda using Inveniam software. Mr. Creadon spent over 20 years in capital markets serving as CEO of Traditum Group, a proprietary trading firm specializing in U.S. interest-rate trading and energy-market making. As co-founder of the company, he grew the firm to 75 employees with offices in New York and Houston to become one of the most respected midtier prop firms in the industry. Prior to working in the futures and options markets, Mr. Creadon worked as a journalist at TIME, Bloomberg and Voice of America. Today, he continues to blog regularly on LinkedIn and is a widely followed thought leader on blockchain, bitcoin and numerous other topics. In 2019, he worked at DrawBridge Lending on global marketing and sales, and he is a frequent guest on podcasts and speaker at leading blockchain industry events. www.inveniam.io Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-creadon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/home iu About Jamil Hasan Jamil Hasan is a Generation X Author and experienced data intelligence technology builder with two decades of experience leading data-based teams at Fortune 100 companies, including AIG, Prudential Financial, and Ingersoll Rand. Jamil believes that skill and experience, not just age, is the most important factor required to build and lead corporate organizations. His unique story, as someone on the ground floor of the 2008 financial crisis and his role to help repay the $180 billion AIG bailout, enabled him to come face-to-face with many of the societal ills facing Generation X today and their causes. As the result of his experience, Jamil has developed a path forward for his fellow Gen Xers to restore his generation’s financial standing in society today and to rebuild the American Dream for Generation X. 

The pandemic has had a far reaching impact on jobs with some jobs coming back sometime in the future and others never coming back. By 2022 there will be a skills gap of 146,000 jobs in the I.T. sector. So how do those who have last their jobs go back into the workplace and help fill the skills gap? Their only option is retraining and learning new skills, and that is where Dublin CODING School comes in. Dublin CODING School is teaching the skills required for certain jobs in the I.T. sector. Ronan talks to Luke Treacy the general manager of the Dublin Coding School. Luke talks about his background, how Dublin Coding School started, how Dublin Coding Schoolworks, the skills gap emerging in Ireland, and not leaving their students behind. Luke also talks about how they are focused on the jobs market, some of the courses they offer, providing live and online classes, taking a leaf out of B2B training, and Dublin Coding School's future plans. More about Dublin CODING School: The Dublin CODING School provides courses that have been specifically designed with the Irish tech-jobs market in mind. Each course is led by an industry professional sharing their first-hand and practical experience.  As well as offering a variety of cutting-edge training courses the Dublin CODING School also provides graduates with access to a "Career Centre" to help them prepare for their journey to a new profession.  Courses include Data Analytics, Full-Stack Web Development, Automation Testing, Manual Testing, and the Basics of Programming.

We catch up with Emmet Ryan, Connected editor and many other things with@businessposthq, and also editor of http://Ballineurope.com, the answer to the riddle of steel We cover tech trends, the value of journalism internships, how good was the Micheal Jordan Netflix series, and why season 2 of the Wire may or may not suck. You can follow him on Twitter here https://twitter.com/emmetjryan Emmet Ryan is editor of Connected Magazine and a business & technology reporter with the Sunday Business Post. In 2009, he was named Journalist of the Year at the IIA NetVisionary Awards and won the Alumni Choice Award at the 2014 Business Journalist Awards. Some of the topics we discussed -> Beer, sport & tech, what a great combination of interests, if you had to rank them!? How do they interplay, or is it also good to simply have some diverse passions? In what areas of tech does Ireland do well, & why so? How is the Business Post & Connected evolving and moving into the digital world? Will it be a more blended approach between print & digital / what does the future look like for you guys? What trends are you excited about? What are your sources of information and inspiration from? How do you ensure you are not in a filter bubble in terms of ideas & opinions?