

The Irish Tech News Podcast
Irish Tech News
Irish Tech News are Ireland's number one online tech publication and often Ireland's number one tech podcast too.
We aim to cover innovation, entrepreneurs, startups, green tech, clean tech and tech for good that aims to help the planet.
If you have a good story drop us a line.
We aim to cover innovation, entrepreneurs, startups, green tech, clean tech and tech for good that aims to help the planet.
If you have a good story drop us a line.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 18, 2021 • 31min
Solving peoples pain Patrick McDermott Co-Founder & CEO DigiTally
Food and beverage waste is something that is still a common problem and how can we go about solving this issue? Well, DigiTally a Galway based company might have the solution. They have a software product that enables multi-site food businesses in the hospitality, catering, and retail industry to count, collate and report on their food and beverage gross profit margins. This is being done up to 72% faster with further extensive results causing a huge shift in the industry in the awakening of the pandemic.
Ronan talks to Patrick McDermott Co-Founder & CEO DigiTally. Patrick talks about his background, how DigiTally started, what DigiTally does, making count stock and inventory fun and not boring and solving peoples pain. Patrick also talks about food wastage, digitising, making it easy for the customer.
More about DigiTally :
DigiTally was formed in 2016 with the purpose of giving retailers and suppliers an easier, faster, and more efficient way to count their inventories, something that isn’t quite there yet as most businesses still use the standard and more traditional pen and paper method with Excel and double entry.
It also allows you to efficiently manage all your counts, see your profitability, instantly generate your gross profits, manage all your sites, keep track of your counts electronically and instead of spending a full day counting your inventory, how about imagining that it could only be one or two hours.

Jun 17, 2021 • 21min
Creating a better world through the power of technology
According to a recent survey, nearly two-thirds of full-time employees indicated that their financial stress has increased since the start of the pandemic. To engage and retain productive employees, companies must help foster a culture of financial wellness and support to help their workforce better manage their finances and plan for the future. Providing access to financial wellness benefits can become a key differentiator when the labor market is tight; it can also positively impact the organization’s bottom line by relieving employee financial stress.
In this episode of One Vision, Theo and Bradley chat with Rebecca Liebman, co-founder and CEO of LearnLux on her entrepreneurship journey, and creating a better world through the power of technology.

Jun 17, 2021 • 24min
Why protest music remains important, even as it constantly changes and evolves, Aileen Dillane, Ethnomusicologist
In this podcast Amir and Aileen speak about protest music and the initial origins of it, as well as how social media has contributed to the development of protest music. And finally the future of protest music, in regards to if it will continue to grow.
Aileen is a Ethnomusicologist, Global Irish musics specialist, and Popular Music scholar with research interests in ethnicity, identity, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the traditional and popular music’s of Ireland, UK, North America, and Australia. She has a PhD in Ethnomusicology, from the University of Chicago. She has won various awards such as the HERA travel award in 2015 and the Fulbright Alumnus award in 2018
Twitter - @aileen_dillane
Amir Najib is a Student journalist from Coventry University currently interning at Irish Tech News, his main interests are in sports, entertainment and cryptocurrency. He hopes to one day work in the journalism industry where he is doing multimedia on the subjects he enjoys. Twitter - @4mirN9

Jun 16, 2021 • 27min
Lindsey Mallon talks fashion, blockchain and diversity
Lindsey Mallon, co founder of Splyt, founder of Nadjarina and CEO of Masion Du
Growing up Lindsey was not sure what she wanted to do. She initially considered architecture as a career but a stint as an intern in a practising architects office quickly confirmed her opinion that she did not want to work in front of a computer every day. Her father encouraged her to follow her passion. Shortly after she attended an haute couture fashion exhibition in Boston, and she was hooked.
“Instant love.”
For Lindsey art is not just art, it does something. It empowers people. At the same time, she is cognisant that the actual fashion industry can be toxic in terms of how people treat each other, and the labour standards are very low.
“I would work with these factories initially where people could not afford to go home to see their families or maybe went home once a year and that really struck a chord with me and pushed me to look at sustainable commerce.”
For Lindey this concept went beyond the environment and included labour standards, community, and how people work together. The beautiful industry has a dark underbelly, but she was in love.
“It’s not just me, consumers are starting to demand sustainable practices and that is making the industry react with stores pushing their sustainable brands to the fore. Customers want ethics, giveback programmes, brands donating to charities and transparency; they really want transparency.
“Every dollar spent is a vote.”
Tune into this podcast to hear more.
Your host is Jillian Godsil, award winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Her latest book can be found at https://persons-of-interest.io/

Jun 16, 2021 • 19min
Creating cocoa that is good for human health, Alan Perlstein, California Cultured
California Cultured is a company that produces cocoa intended to provide cocoa which is less bitter and require less sugar. The company's product entices cocoa cells to grow by stimulation by food ingredients that are found in any grocery store and produces cocoa cells that is good for human health, enabling customers to avail premium quality cocoa products.
Amir Spoke to Alan Perlstein who is the CEO of California Cultured. He has been in the food technology industry for over 20 years, in which he has been a part of start-ups such as Miraculex back in 2014. He has now ventured into cocoa with California Cultured, which he hopes to produce cocoa that is better for the environment as well as innovating technology for the future consumers.
Amir Najib is a Student journalist from Coventry University currently interning at Irish Tech News, his main interests are in sports, entertainment and cryptocurrency. He hopes to one day work in the journalism industry where he is doing multimedia on the subjects he enjoys. Twitter - @4mirN9
Links –
Website - https://cacultured.com
Twitter - @CaCultured
Instagram – CaCultured

Jun 16, 2021 • 21min
Intensive Care Support for Patients using Voice Activated AI Telemedicine Tool with Dr Arne Peine
In our chat today with with Dr Arne Peine, MHBA he tells us about this AI hospital tool that will not only bring functionality and support to the ward but a safer way to store data onsite.
Listening to the growth of Mona in such a fast time has only gone to prove just how much needed this was.
Dr Arne Peine
Dr Peine, born 1986 studied medicine and business administration and is the co-founder and CEO of the medical technology start-up Clinomic. As an intensive care physician, he himself experienced the enormous challenges that intensive care medicine is already facing today, and which will have to be mastered in the future. Therefore, as a technical visionary at Clinomic, he is doing everything in his power to revolutionize the treatment of critically ill patients with Mona, the first intelligent and voice-controlled assistance system for intensive care medicine.
Mona
Mona is an innovative, voice-based assistance system of the latest generation, which supports patient care directly using algorithms, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine. Mona is the key to cost-controlled, evidence-based, and data-driven intensive care medicine and brings intensive care specialist expertise to every hospital bed. By means of the bedside system, the quality of the detailed documentation and an increase in the quality of treatment and an optimization of the treatment processes are achieved.
About Clinomic:
Clinomic was founded in 2019 as a spin-off from RWTH Aachen University. The company develops innovative solutions for critically ill patients and combines translational medical research, data science and computational intelligence. The company brings artificial intelligence directly to the patient's bed to support doctors and nursing staff with precise decisions, evidence-based treatment, and efficient use of time resources. With over 50 employees in Aachen, the company developed the medical product "Mona", which is now implemented in over 8 European countries in 40 hospitals. "Mona", short for "Medical On-Site Assistant", is an intelligent assistance system for intensive care medicine that supports doctors and nurses with treatment directly at the patient's bed. The device facilitates voice-controlled documentation, identifies relevant data, and thus contributes to the faster and better treatment of the critically ill. Mona is also used internationally to generate telemedical networks quickly and securely and thus to provide nationwide expertise in the field of intensive care medicine

Jun 15, 2021 • 48min
How to succeed in corporate Digital Makeovers, insights with Dr Marie Taillard
Minter Dial catches up with Dr Marie Taillard, who is a French-American senior marketing academic and business leader, faculty member at ESCP Business School and co-author with Béatrice Collin of the brand new Digital Makeover: How L′Oréal Put People First to Build a Beauty Tech Powerhouse, Wiley Press. In this conversation, we discuss her book and the digital transformation process that L'Oreal has undertaken over the last decade. Is it top down or bottom up? How will the changes and accelerated transformation imposed by the pandemic stick? The role of the Chief Digital Officer and how to make it work in a large organisation. We also look at the changes to marketing, the importance of social media and the collaborative mindset.
I'm Minter Dial and I serve my clients by elevating the energy and connecting people and ideas. I relish being an engaging professional speaker on leadership, transformation and branding with a specialization in digital transformation since 2009. I'm known for being someone who walks the talk and delivers on or above expectations. I'm the author of three award-winning books, including my last book Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence that won the Book Excellence Award 2019 and was shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. My newest book on leadership just launched, You Lead, How Being Yourself Makes You A Better Leader. It is published by Kogan Page and is available at all fine e-tailers as an audiobook, ebook and paperback.
I'm also the producer of the award-winning book and film The Last Ring Home and co-author of Futureproof that won the Business Book Award 2018.

Jun 15, 2021 • 30min
We are making power sexy, Caroline Swords Director of Operations at myVolts
Everyone hates buying, using and disposing of batteries and despite drives to recycle, 100,000,000 kilos of batteries end up in landfill each year in the EU alone. As we are becoming ore environmentally friendly, how do solve this battery problem ? Well myVolts Ltd, an Irish company based in the heart of Dublin City has come up with the perfect solution, Revolt.
Ronan talks to Caroline Swords Director of Operations at myVolts about what myVolts does, ReVolt their latest product, what problem and pain it is solving, and their kickstarter campaign for ReVolt.
More about myVolts:
myVolts is a small Irish company, based in Dublin, focused on providing modern and innovative power solutions for home, mobile and professional devices - mainly for musicians and other mobile creatives.
With 12 years' experience in online retail and power, both customer engagement and product expertise are at the heart of their business. They aim to provide well-designed and flexible power delivery solutions to exactly meet the needs of many customers who pass through their checkouts annually, and myVolts has served over 1 million customers to date.
They are also right at the forefront of changes in power technology, exploring the possibilities and keeping their users in mind all the time.
With the introduction of USB-C and USB 3.1 PD standards, more and more is possible with USB power, and they are looking ahead at how these changes can benefit their product, and ultimately, their users.

Jun 14, 2021 • 32min
Hackathons, Internet, Stars, Miniature Technology and Equality With Dr Niall Smith, Head of Research MTU
Speaking recently with Dr Niall Smith was an education. He spoke about the Cassini Hackathon happening before the end of the month and how and why he is part of this hackathon which is taking place in 10 different global locations simultaneously. He will be working alongside the team at the National Space Centre as well and looking for hacks in Space Technology. Be sure to mark your calendar for 18-20 June 2021 to join the first hackathon.
He also touched on how important low-earth-orbit WiFi is important on a global scale that can see an improvement in education and personal and even national circumstances.
Then we ventured into Einstein, Star Shades and Miniature Moon Rovers and more. If you're into Space, listen to this.
Dr Niall Smith
Niall studied astrophysics at UCD, and became CIT’s first Head of Research in 2005, now providing strategic oversight of a budget of €14m per annum across disciplines from science and engineering to arts and music. He led the establishment of a Researcher Career Framework for CIT researchers, which was central to the Institute being awarded the EU Commission HR Excellence in Research badge. He is the Founder-Director of the award-winning Blackrock Castle Observatory (BCO), which celebrated its 12th anniversary with over 1.2 million visitors. BCO staff have trained over 800 teachers to use space in the classroom, have engaged with over 35,000 primary and post-primary students in formal science workshops and an additional 40,000 in informal workshops, with over 120,000 members of the public attending events at BCO. In 2017, Niall was the host site lead for the International Space University Space Studies Programme, which is the largest conference programme ever to come to Cork, lasting 9 weeks and involving over 320 global space experts. The conference published a document entitled ‘A Roadmap for Emerging Space States’, which helped to catalyse the development of a National Space Strategy for Enterprise. Niall was the HEI representative on the National Steering Group for the space strategy. He focuses on space topics including ultra-high precision photometry and the use of small satellites in low earth orbit for a range of functions from high resolution imaging to space cybersecurity to rural broadband. He has secured over €1m as PI on competitive grants, €400k as co-I, and through BCO approximately €2m for outreach. Niall writes a monthly column in the Irish Examiner called ‘Skymatters’, and is a Board Member of the National Sculpture Factory and a member of several national committees.

Jun 14, 2021 • 30min
How can finance can save the planet, explaining decarbonisation, climate change, and more with David Carlin, UNEP Finance Initiative
The financial sector goes hand-in-hand with climate change, and you can’t discuss one without the other.
Rachel talks with David Carlin about how the two areas are moulded by each other, how climate scenarios and decarbonisation pathways are used, and the impact that COVID-19 has had on his work. David discusses what climate stress testing is and how it is used, recognising that climate risks are financial risks and whether they vary in different parts of the world, and what decarbonisation really means.
David leads the TCFD program for UNEP – Finance Initiative. He recently managed a banking pilot with over three-dozen global financial institutions on the topics of climate scenarios, climate risk assessments and climate governance.
Rachel is a Journalism student at Coventry University, currently interning with Irish Tech News – which marks the start of a partnership between the two institutions. Rachel’s main interests are politics and conflict, human rights, animal welfare and the environment.


