The Irish Tech News Podcast

Whether you are an incumbent or a fintech startup; a community bank or a credit union, our industry’s goals should ensure that there are better financial outcomes throughout the lives of every customer and every community — beyond those already privileged and already profitable. Tune in to this week’s One Vision episode, where Theo and Bradley chat with Ramsey Alwin, CEO of National Council on Aging, on the role the financial services industry can play in making economic security a reality for older Americans and beyond. We have the technology and the capacity — to design a more inclusive future for every person and every community — now we just need the will to do so. It is not only the right thing to do, it is also a smart business decision. Aging well for all is a matter of equity. A matter of dignity. And a matter of justice.

Melanie Boylan spoke recently to Ken Finnegan the Chief Executive Officer at Tangent, which is described as Trinity’s Ideas Workspace about how Tangent has created a platform that elevates an entrepreneurs concept to a reality.  Hear about their most popular courses and plans that will make educating people between 17 to 70 a reality. Tangent is a transformative learning environment that fosters creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship at all levels for Trinity, our partners, lifelong learners, and anyone brave enough to  take the first steps to turn their ideas into  impact. Tangent is a collaborative environment for all people who are open to new possibilities. Tangent aims to bridge the gap between the university and the wider start-up ecosystem. We collaborate with companies large and small who play an active role working with our start-ups, our students, and on our educational  and training programmes. Previously Ken was the Chief Technologist with IDA Ireland. While in IDA Ken advised and supported organisations with regards to Irelands technology skills, supports and ecosystem.

Growing up, a native of South Africa, Shadrack Kubyane was born in the platinum belt and should have by default ended up working in the mining industry. Instead he ended up in consultancy and when you hear him talk you can understand why – he has a compelling oratory gift, and one which almost made me want to give a standing ovation at the end of our conversation. His story is also unusual as it focuses on the blockchain – salon – hair extensions industry – not necessarily a combination one might have put together. Yet it makes sense, compelling sense. In terms of business, Shadrack was responsible for providing the consultancy that scaled an informal sales entity into a company turning over $2 million in revenue in just 36 months.  The company was the hair extension salon company in question and the informal sales consisted of the founder touting hair extensions from her handbag at busy taxi ranks directly to punters. Today that same business has bricks and mortar shops as well as two concessions inside five star hotels. Find out more about the passion for blockchain and trade in Africa - and find out how many weeks until Africa's population doubles from 1.2 billion to more than 2 billion.... Jillian Godsil is an award winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Her latest book can be found at https://persons-of-interest.io/

We catch up with Jan Huitema to learn more about what the circular economy is, and what the European Parliament are doing to help achieve more sustainable results. More about Jan Jan Huitema was born on 5 July 1984 as son of a farmer in Heerenveen.  He obtained a Bachelors degree in Animal Sciences and a Masters degree in Animal Production Systems, from Wageningen University. Jan Huitema is a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Netherlands since July 2014. He is a member of the People Party for Freedom and Democracy, part of Renew Europe. He was re-elected in 2019. During his first term from 2014 until 2019, Huitema was a member of the AGRI Committee, where he served as rapporteur on fertiliser products and water reuse. During his first term he worked on a change in the definition of animal manure and prevention of the patenting of plant-properties. In 2019, he joined the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Jan Huitema was nominated rapporteur on the Circular Economy Action Plan in September 2020. Follow him on Twitter here. https://twitter.com/jhuitema 

In this podcast Melanie Boylan spoke with Tomas Flanagan about their latest news and innovations coming up in an array of sectors.  Irish creativity at its best! Tomas Flanagan is the CEO of ÉireComposites. He joined ÉireComposites as a Marie Curie senior research fellow in 2014 and subsequently held the position of R&D director before becoming CEO.  He has managed over €7 million of research funding and concerning innovative manufacturing, novel materials and processes, aviation, space, and renewable energy.  Tomas obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge for research focused on design project planning and management with special emphasis on simulation and risk analysis. He previously worked in roles as Turnaround Project Manager at BP Norway and Offshore Construction team lead in BP Angola. He has also held roles in change management and in-house consulting within BP. Tomas has lived and worked in several countries and has a keen interest in sports, especially soccer, running, and hiking. ÉireComposites is an innovative design, manufacturing, and testing company, involved in lightweight, high-performance fibre-reinforced composite materials, with an international blue-chip customer base of over 70 companies in the aerospace, renewable energy, and automotive sectors. ÉireComposites has established accredited aerospace composites manufacturing and testing facilities in Galway, Ireland, and has significant intellectual  property in manufacturing and tooling for composite materials. It manufactures over €2 million of primary structure aerospace components for Spirit AeroSystems annually and supplies components for Bombardier and Airbus aircraft.  In addition to aerospace, it manufactures wind turbine blades, tidal turbine blades, and catamaran hulls. The company was founded as a spin-out from NUI Galway and maintains a strong  research and development focus. ÉireComposites has managed over €20  million of EU FP6, FP7, and Horizon 2020 projects relating to composite materials for wind turbine blades, aircraft structures and space launchers. The most notable of these are Powderblade (manufacturing technology for very large wind blades), FloTEC (Floating Tidal Energy), SEABOAT (Novel Materials for zero-emission Boats) Airpoxy (novel  Aerospace materials), and LEAPWind (leading edge erosion protection for wind blades). In addition, ÉireComposites has three ongoing projects related to space programmes.

Following hot on the heels of Kava's latest partnership announcement with Chainlink, Irish Tech New's crypto expert, Jamil Hassan caught up with Brian Kerr from Kava to learn more about it all.  Kava, built on the Cosmos SDK, is quickly gaining momentum as the most trusted DeFi platform for institutional clients around the world. Kava plans to take another major step forward towards that end through an integration with Cosmos’s recently launched Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC). Kava will then use IBC to make Chainlink's widely used and secure decentralized data feeds available to blockchains across the wider Cosmos ecosystem. Kava To Use IBC to Make Chainlink Data Available Across Cosmos More about Brian Kerr Brian started his career as Founder and CEO of Fnatic Gear, a company that Forbes valued at $175 Million, makes peripherals and hardware, designed by the world's best Gamers. As a gamer himself he found value in the premise of NFTs and gaming which lead him to the world of crypto. Soon he saw the demand for open banking where he created Kava, a decentralized finance platform for crypto. About Brian: https://disruptmagazine.com/kava-ceo-brian-kerr-shares-the-top-five-crypto-trends/ 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. For Questions: Email Jamil at jamil@jamilhasan.com or info@jamilhasan.net See more on his website here.

In this podcast Melanie Boylan speaks to Aisha Raheem of Farmz2U.  Aisha is the founder of Farmz2U which is a agtech enterprise based in Nigeria and serving Sub-Saharan African markets.  In this podcast we discuss what steps it takes to make the largar advances in AgTech. Farmz2U uses its software solution to enable precision agriculture thus empowering the modern African farmer  Farmz2U was recognized as a leading startup by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020 and was Nigeria’s National Nominee for the World Summit Awards in 2019. Farmz2U is currently working with the United Nations Development Program on the Cultiv@te program, exploring innovation in agriculture using data. They build data-centric products that automate the farming process to increase yield and profit. Increasing smallholder farmers’ (SSPs) access to market services including finance, input suppliers and produce buyers is also essential in improving SSPs’ livelihoods.

In this episode we interview the authors of Farming on the Wild Side, The Evolution of a Regenerative Organic Farm and Nursery. Available to buy here. More about the book -> One farm’s decades-long journey into regenerative agriculture—and how these methods enhance biodiversity, pollinators, and soil health Northern Vermont’s Nancy and John Hayden have spent the last 25 years transforming their draft horse–powered, organic vegetable and livestock operation into an agroecological, regenerative, biodiverse, organic fruit farm, fruit nursery, and pollinator sanctuary. In Farming on the Wild Side they explain the philosophical and scientific principles that influenced them as they phased out sheep and potatoes and embraced apples, pears, stone fruits, and a wide variety of uncommon berry crops; turned much of their property into a semi-wild state; and adapted their marketing and sales strategies to the new century. As the Haydens pursued their goals of enhancing biodiversity and regenerating their land, they incorporated agroforestry and permaculture principles into perennial fruit polycultures, a pollinator sanctuary, repurposed greenhouses for growing fruit, hügelkultur, and ecological “pest” management. Beyond the practical techniques and tips, this book also inspires readers to develop greater ecological literacy and respect for the mysteries of the global ecosystem. Farming on the Wild Side tells a story about new ways to manage small farms and homesteads, about nurturing land, about ecology, about economics, and about things that we can all do to heal both the land and ourselves. You can learn more about their latest venture here -> Northwind Gardens on Facebook.

CryptoLeach is a private individual who describes himself as a crypto newbie. He invested some money into crypto two years ago and he is hoping it might earn him some extra money. He is not a gamer but he does play some online games so when he saw that he could earn crypto by playing Gods Unchained, an online collectable card game, he decided to give it a go. He connected his Metamask wallet and began playing hoping to earn Ethereum. All was going well until he spotted some free cards in the game. He was going to download them but the gas fee was too high and so he cancelled his transaction. It was only a few days later he discovered his Metamask wallet was empty – he had the guts of two thousand pounds in there. He put out some tweets. The lovely ThatMartiniguy replied and even subbed him his original amount of eth. The help desk at Unchained did their best, so too at Metamask – but no one is the wiser… What happened? Where was the hole? In the wallet, in the game? CryptoLeach managed to track down his Ethereum to another wallet which was very active for about five days until it went quiet – and empty. He tracked down another wallet which appears to be connected and that has millions of dollars in it. What is going on? How did the money leave his wallet? Had it happened while he was playing GodsUnchained – is there a connection? A hack that has yet to be uncovered? Was it anything to do with the ‘free’ cards? Where did they come from? Are there known holes in Metamask? How safe are wallets? Where else might he have been - are there known hacks to avoid - any ideas? Can you help? Check out@cryptoleach  or @MartiniGuyYT and let us know if you can help. Tell me on @jilliangodsil

2021 sees the 10th anniversary of Sober St. Patrick’s Day and a decade of changing the perception and experience of St. Patrick's Day around the world. First proposed by Irish-American theatre and television producer, Bill Reilly, in 2011 in New York City, sober celebrations of Ireland’s patron saint have been held on parade day in NYC every year since then. Ronan talks to Bill Reilly the founder of Sober St. Patrick’s Day, Tami Ellen McLaughlin the Executive Director of Sober St. Patrick's Day Foundation, and Mark Osman the I.T. Director of Sober St Patrick's Day. Bill, Tami, and Mark talk about the genesis of Sober St. Patrick’s Day, how it’s progressed over the past ten years, Malachi McCourts support, and how the pandemic changed has changed this year's Sober St. Patrick’s Day. Bill, Tami, and Mark also talk about the challenges of moving online and what we can expect at this year's Sober St. Patrick's Day The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that Sober St Patrick's Day is now going virtual. More about Sober St Patrick's Day: Since it started in 2011 it continues to grow around the world with official gatherings organised across the U.S.A., in Virginia, Long Island, Rhode Island, and in Connecticut, as well as in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Social media strategist and Irish Tech News contributor Samantha Kelly has been announced as brand ambassador in Ireland for Sober St. Patrick's Day 2021. The global online celebration on Wednesday, March 17th begins at 4.00 pm New York time, coinciding with an 8.00 pm timeline in Ireland, and can be accessed at www.SoberStPatricksDay.org. Admission is free this year, but reservations are required.