Reminder:
SAPs database technology, SAP HANA is a tool for companies to manipulate large volumes of data and to build faster analytics. SAP is keen to engage with SMEs of all kinds to exploit its potential and has established a Start-Up Focus Forum to invite companies of all sizes and stages of development (up to 40m turnover) to get involved.
SAPs founder said that the Start-Up Focus Forums were the best initiative the Group took last year. SAP is strategically committed to facilitating SMEs access to this high speed, big data platform. Dublin has again been chosen to host a Start-Up Forum on Wednesday 22nd May which this year will run along the lines of a Showcase of SMEs. Ultimately, if an SME successfully develops its solution on the HANA database they can get access to SAPs customers.
14 EI clients presented last year, 8 of whom were accepted onto SAPs Accelerator Program. Ostia, one of the 8, say “Our experience of SAPs Start Up Focus Forum was entirely positive. SAP took an approach which was more like that of an innovative SME sized organization than a large corporate. With the credibility of being able to partner with SAP in this way, we have generated a significant number of opportunities which we are working on with SAP”. Head of Sales & Marketing, Ostia Software Solutions Ltd
There is potential for more companies to partake this year as, taking on board feedback, the Program has been made more SME friendly and involves access to a virtual resource centre. To get started e-mail or call: andrei.grigoriev@sap.com or call +353-87-790-7267.
This is a guest post from Denise Fay of AchieveMarketing, one of the organisers of Dojo Conf 2013. Dojo Conf is a meetup aimed at new and existing Coder Dojo Mentors.
Enterprise Ireland proud to have sponsored James Whelton as he started CoderDojo , and is proud to support the Mentor meetup as part of ItsHappeningHere, highlighting the thousands of available jobs in the tech industry.
People at client companies who want to share their tech skills and mentor at CoderDojo are enouraged to drop a line to conference@coderdojo.com
Founded as a volunteer-led club for providing free and open learning in programming technology to young people, the global CoderDojo movement now has over 180 CoderDojos in 23 countries where kids can have fun learning to code in a safe environment. Mentors have taught over 16,000 children the joy of programming and coding.
The CoderDojo phenomenon relies on the voluntary work of mentors. DojoCon is the only international conference aimed at mentors and potential mentors. Now, in its second year DojoCon 2013 will provide mentors from across the globe the opportunity to exchange new ideas, explore cutting-edge technologies and share ideas on sustaining and strengthening the CoderDojo movement when the conference runs on April 12th.
 James Whelton gets some practice in for DojoConf 2013 Slane Bringing mentors together in one place is the aim of the conference organising team. As CoderDojo has come through an amazing growth phase , to make it sustainable, we need to share what works, while keeping the buzz that has made it so successful.
Diverse Keynote Speakers
This year, the conference has a number of distinguished keynote speakers. These include Ireland’s own Jerry Kennelly, an award-winning entrepreneur who started as a photojournalist in Co. Kerry and sold his company (Stockbyte) when it had grown to over 10 per cent of the market for Royalty free photo’s worldwide. Jerry will share his passion for IT in education and the work he is doing with schools country-wide.
Another keynote will be Bill Liao, co-founder of CoderDojo and an early investor in the social networking site XING. As Bill recently told the EU Parliament “The World has a shortage of Coders”. Bill will be speaking on how CoderDojo can help fix this, in the process inspiring a new generation of programmers to create apps and websites limited only by their imaginations.
A capstone talk will come from Kimberly Bryant of Black Girls Code. Flying in from the US, she will be sharing her experiences about gender balance in coding and discuss the sensation that is a complementary club to CoderDojo.
The Informative Schedule
This year’s schedule will feature more than 12 formal and 10 informal sessions with talks covering three main streams. The first stream is Education which will discus new techniques and how CoderDojo differs from the school approach. The second is Technology where mentors will learn about Advanced Scratch, robotics, gaming, audio and more. The third stream is Running a Dojo with tips and ideas on starting and sustaining a Dojo. In addition, there will be a number of panel discussions on mentoring and collaborating both locally and globally.
Ignite on Friday Night
New for 2013, DojoCon is kickstarting the conference on Friday night with a series of ‘Ignite talks’. These fast paced talks in an informal setting will set the scene for the weekend. Over a dozen thinkers, coders and educators will have 5 minutes to inspire fellow mentors.
Drogheda on the Boyne offers the perfect opening location for DojoCo. The river Boyne, where once the Salmon of Knowledge swam, provides the ideal backdrop of the venue for the Friday night Ignite talks. Inspiration and shared experienced will feature heavily in Bru Bar Bistro.
The conference is organised by a core group of volunteers from CoderDojo in Drogheda, Dundalk, Navan, and the Science Gallery, Dublin. The whole team of organisers are really excited about having Dojos from California to Belgium and New York City to Sweden in Drogheda for the weekend. We hope it will attract more software professionals in this area and in all towns around the country to volunteer or start a Dojo and help more kids learn how to code.
If you’re interested in becoming a mentor or finding out more, visit the DojoCon2013 website for more information – http://conference.coderdojo.com/
Starting a new company based on technology research is one clear success we can all relate to. However, as with the creation of any new company, this is a challenge to achieve successful.
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish Stage Agency with responsibility for maximising the commercial outputs from publicly funded research.
The successful creation of any new company depends on its team and the health of its entrepreneurial heartbeat. Frequently, in the case of new companies striving to emerge from this publicly funded research system, it can be a challenge to marry the company’s technology talent with commercial experience in a way that supercharges the opportunity.
Enterprise Ireland recognises this as a challenge and has created the Business Partners Programme to identify, engage and support experienced entrepreneurs’ to partner with talented technical teams from Irish 3rd level ecosystem in creating new business.
A Business Partner has excellent business credentials, a stuffed contacts book, a good nose for commercial potential and the vision to translate new technologies into excellent businesses.
The Business Partner Programme has a track record of successful partnerships that have led to new start up companies and have benefited all participants while also adding to the Irish state’s confidence in research commercialisation.
View the Business Partner Programme video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyQpkF8jKnk
Watch the Dublin Web Summit ‘Live’ here on Wednesday 17th & Thursday 18th October 2012.
Over 200 international speakers and 3,000 plus attendees from 50+ countries will descend on Dublin. This event is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland. There are 5 concurrent sessions which you can watch live from 9:15am - Main Event, Cloud Session, Digital Marketing Stream, Developer Stream and Interviews.
For the first time there will be a dedicated Digital Marketing Stream .
Digital Marketing Stream Schedule
Wednesday
09:15 – Cillian Kieran, Founder & CEO of Folio & CKSK
09:30 – Alan Coleman, CEO of Wolfgang Digital
09:45 – Andrzej Moyseowicz, Strategy & Innovation Director at Saatchi & Saatchi
10:00 - Ronan Harris, Senior Director at Google
10:15 - Joshua March, Co-founder & CEO of Conversocial
10:30 – Hubert Grealish, Global Head of Brand Communications at Diageo
10:45 – Mark Henderson, General Manager of LivingSocial Ireland
11:00 - BREAK
11:30 - Niall Harbison, Co-founder of Simply Zesty
11:45 - Dharmesh Shah, Co- founder & CTO of Hubspot
12:00 - Stephen O’Leary, O’Leary Analytics
12:15 - Joe Stepniewski, Co-Founder of Skimlinks
12:30 - Jon Myers, Commercial Director at Marin Software
12:45: Silje Vallestad, CEO & Founder of Bipper
13:00 - LUNCH
14:00 – Gregor Poynton, Political Director (UK) at Blue State Digital
14:15 – Alexis Dormandy, Founder & CEO of LoveThis
14:30 – Mark Dewings, Brand & Marketing Communications for SoundCloud
14:45 – Aubrey Sabala, VP of Marketing & Communications at Sailthru
15:00 – Scott Belsky, Founder & CEO of Behance
15:15 – Mark Kornfilt, Co-founder of Livestream
Thursday
09:15 - Joanna Lord, VP of Growth Marketing at SEOmoz
09:30 - Caroline Ghosn, Founder & CEO of The Levo League
09:45 - Maya Baratz, Senior Product Manager at ABC News
10:00 - Bas Van Den Beld, Founder & Chief Editor of State of Search
10:15 - Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite
10:30 - BREAK
11:00 – Sarah Wood, Co-founder & COO of Unruly Media
11:15 - Rachel Tipograph, Director, Global Digital & Social Media at Gap Inc.
11:30 - Kathryn Parsons, Co-founder of Decoded
11:45 - Jan Rezab, CEO of SocialBakers
12:00 - Cindy Gallop, Founder of Make Love Not Porn & IfWeRanTheWorld
12:15 - Brian Wong, Co-founder & CEO of Kiip
12:30 - Omid Ashtari, Director of Business Development at Foursquare
This is a guest post from Andrea of BatCat Games, who is utting together the Dublin GameCraft event. For more news follow Andrea on Twitter @RoundCrisis. This is the follow up to the successful event in Feb – more on the previous event at Zombies, Students and Professional Games Developers welcome in DIT
What is it?
Dublin GameCraft is a game-jam held in the city centre. What that means is that around one-hundred game developers (designers, writers, coders, artists, sound engineers and so on) come together in teams or as lone-wolves and try to make a game from scratch in twelve hours.
At the start of the day the judges announce a theme and then you’re let loose to make the most fun game you can think of based on that. Use any technology, any equipment and any number of people you want to squeeze onto your team; essentially do whatever it takes to turn that theme into a fun game inside of your twelve hours!
When is it?
The next GameCraft is being held on Saturday the 17th November from 9am to, well, to the end of the day (twelve hours of developing, followed by some mingle and judging time).
Where is it?
November’s gathering is kindly being hosted by the folks at http://www.engineyard.com/
How do I find out more?
The internet! Come find us at http://dublingamecraft.com/, like us at https://www.facebook.com/dublingamecraft or follow us over at https://twitter.com/DublinGameCraft
How much does it cost?
Nothing! Thanks to our kind sponsors, such as Digit Gaming, Microsoft, BatCat Games and BitSmith –Games, all you have to do is register (which you can do from the website) and bring along whatever gear you want to use on the day (laptop, desktop, whatever).
Why come along?
Well, you’ll get an intensive day of experience. You may even get a game out of it. You’ll be surrounded by folks from the industry (organisers, judges and other participants) with whom you can network. Heck, two companies formed because of last Gamecraft; you could be next! Also, while the judges judge you can mingle and show off your day’s work. And of course, prizes!
 
Enterprise Ireland would certainly like to thank Rory O’Connor of Scurri.com for his comments about iGap. For more from Rory, please to Scurri’s blog.
22 June 2012
Today I looked back on some of my notes about the original ideas I had for Scurri.com and I realise how much I have learned and how the business idea has developed since then. What I have also come to realise is how much I have learned about starting an internet business and that Scurri.com would more than likely have failed by this stage only for a very important decision I made in the early stages of the company. That decision was to apply for the iGAP programme.
My first iGAP workshop set the bar extremely high and to be honest it was a pivotal moment for me. We had Eric Reis who talked about the lean startup, I had never heard of Eric or the lean startup. I knew about lean in manufacturing and I knew about agile but after a few minutes of Eric talking the whole concept seemed so logical. After the presentation Eric came around individually to each of the companies and discussed where we were at. At the time I was about 2 weeks from launching a prototype site and we a payment engine to sort out. Eric convinced me to launch as he bet that I would not have anyone through the site to payment before we had the payment process sorted. To cut a long story short I launched there and then and Eric was right. We had a lot of sorting to do before I got my first paying customer through the site.
The guys in EI and the Internet growth alliance pulled out all the stops and the contributors just got better and better, Paul O’Dea, Sean Ellis, Justin Kenecht, Scott Reafer, Oren Micheals and Brian Caulfield. Each of the contributors were world class and they really are cutting edge.
I noticed that iGAP4 has been launched and I thought that I could share with potential iGAP participants 10 reasons why they should consider the programme.
1. Contacts and Connections
Enterprise Ireland, the Internet Growth Alliance Members, Paul O’Dea, The contributors, your peers, the past participants and the mentors provide you with access to a pretty awesome bunch of contacts that will help your networking and connecting in the Irish Web and tech scene and beyond.
2. Learning
You will be exposed to the latest cutting edge practices and strategic thinking in the industry. The contributors to the programme have done it, know what they are talking about and are probably doing it again. This is not academic learning, this is real practical stuff that you can implement in your business today.
3. Your fellow iGAPers
You will be in with the brightest of the Irish internet, games and tech scene. There are fantastic opportunities to build up lasting relationships with teams at the same, earlier and later stages than you are at. Knowledge is freely shared and the collaboration is fantastic amongst your peers.
4. Time to Think
You are so caught up in developing your business and more than likely you do not feel you have the time to spend thinking about your business. The workshops give you the time, structure and support to do this.
5. The Contributors
To get access to the likes of Eric Reis and Sean Ellis alone these days is almost impossible even if you are in San Fran. An as a bonus you get access to a whole bunch of other contributors that may not be as famous but are equally as knowledgable in their own fields.
6. The Mentors
You get a great group of fellow participants together in a cohort and you get a Mentor who will help you get the most out of the programme. The mentors are amongst the most experienced industry experts.
7. The Kudos
iGAP is certainly seen as one of the premier accelerators in Ireland and with just cause. It certainly opens doors with VC’s and investors when you mention you have been on the iGAP programme.
8. Investor Ready
Of course the idea of iGAP is to ensure that at the end of the programme you should understand the key elements of a startup business and you will have all the elements necessary to build a killer deck. Whats more you will also have the chance to pitch and practice that pitch.
9. Enterprise Ireland
If you raising investment in Ireland you will probably be talking to EI. iGAP gets you into the EI radar and you will have developed a relationship with the agency that is going to help you realise your vision.
10. Increased ambitions
Simply hanging around with the right people and getting exposure to the opportunities that are out there will increase your ambitions and make you see the possibilities when you have access to a global market.
Finally I have to recommend iGAP as it really has been pivotal to Scurri.com and if your thinking of creating a startup business its a must.
What have AMCS, Storyful and Cloudium Systems got in common? They are all successful Irish companies who were started by entrepreneurs who were previously employed in senior management positions and successfully transitioned to self-employment.
Enterprise Ireland is interested in assisting commercially experienced individuals in making the transition from employment to entrepreneurship. We are presently considering launching a new programme targeted at those who are interested in starting a business but who are not just ready to give up the “day job” just yet.
In the present economic climate the notion of setting up your own business may be a daunting one but it’s the ideal time if you have the right idea. Learning how to go about doing this is the first step for any potential entrepreneur. If this type of programme is something that you may have any level of interest in we would be very grateful if you would click and submit the following survey (which should take no longer than 5 mins of your time).
Please visit the survey on https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ProposedETP or share this if you think it could be of interest to friends/contacts.
Everyone will still be talking about football on June 18th but we want to use the EURO 2012 championships as an opportunity to highlight links between Polish and Irish startup communities, and to discuss opportunities for the startups in their respective export markets. Enterprise Ireland, the Guinness Enterprise Centre and Huge Thing (the leading accelerator for start-ups in Poland) have teamed up to host a video conference event to give Irish and Polish start-ups a chance to learn from each other and participate in a pitching competition.
Date: Monday 18th June
Time: Lunch at 12.30 followed by the video conference at 1 pm;
Venues: Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin and Centrum Konferencyjne POLSKA 13 in Poznań
If you are interested in participating, please register via email to naghmeh.reilly@enterprise-ireland.com, and please feel free to pass this invitation on to others who may be interested. If you’re not able to make it we’ll be providing extensive coverage on Twitter, hashtag is #startupbridge.
   Some rights reserved by Steven2358
Agenda
12.30 – Lunch, GEC Conference Room 3
13.00 – Welcome and introductions, Eamonn Sayers, Manager at the Guinness Enterprise Centre
13.10 – “Huge Thing in Poznan – preparing startups for global success”, Arek Hajduk, Co-founder and CEO at Huge Thing
13.25 -“Ireland’s Startup Ecosystem, EI’s role”, Naghmeh Reilly, Senior Marketing Executive, Overseas Entrepreneurship at Enterprise Ireland
13.40 - Dawid Piaskowski, CEO and founder of Booklikes.com, “Doing a global startup from Poland”
13.55 – “Assistance for Startups in Ireland”, Richard Morton, Venture Consultant at DBIC
14.05 – “Polish startup’s experience in Ireland”, Mike Sikorsky, CEO and founder of Huggity
14.20 – Q&A
14.30 – Pitch Contest
- 6 teams (3 Dublin, 3 Poznań)
- Dublin: TextMeADrink; Cluey; 45Sound
- Poznań: Lorneta; Moodup; Pocademy; Sellbox
15.20 – “Seed Investing in Poland”, Bartek Gola, Managing Partner at SpeedUp Venture Capital Group
15.40 -“Scaling for Global Success”, Benetel
16.00 Wrap-up
As part the 2012 series of lean events, Thousand Seeds are hosting two half day workshops on 1st and 2nd May focused on practical ways to be customer centric to achieve sales. Delivered by Brant Cooper (author of ‘The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development’), the sessions build upon the earlier successful events hosted by Thousand Seeds. Enterprise Ireland sees these events as supporting entrepreneurs who want to grow and prosper, bring as they do, key actors to Ireland to share their experience.
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/2674070552/sizes/n/in/photostream/ More information and registration for the event is on EventBrite. Places are limited to 50 participants per workshop. Thousands seeds also share their knowledge on their blog.
This in-depth, hands-on workshop is designed for entrepreneurs, corporates and SME’s who want to be customer-centric and to raise their odds for building successful products, OR CEO’s, CTO’s and consultants who work with getting products to market. As well as including a pdf copy of Brant’s book, the workshop will cover
- Learn how to Get Started
- The difference between listening to customers and doing what they say
- How Customer Development fits into the Build -> Measure -> Learn framework
- The Stages of Customer Development
- When NOT to do Customer Development
Praise for Brandt , the workshop host, from a previous Thousand Seeds Speaker;
“Brant is one of the foremost experts in the emerging science of entrepreneurship. I’ve seen him teach about customer development and it’s practical, action-oriented, and persuasive. I’ve had the pleasure of hosting Brant at several conferences, and he always delivers.”
- Eric Ries, Author, The Lean Startup
More information on EI’s Lean Engagement for Software Companies on BestConnected.
Lean, Potential Exporters
This is a guest post from Mary Carty, a participant in IGAP 1. We in Enterprise Ireland are delighted to announce that they we are planning to run a further Internet Growth Acceleration Programme in Quarter 4 of 2012.
Participating in iGap 1 changed everything. From working with Sean Ellis, Oren Michels, Justin Knecht, Cathy Winston and Brian Caulfield many things become abundantly clear and you find yourself becoming an evangelist about lean startup, customer development and most of all, being passionate about your customers.
As well as applying what I have learned to my own company, I have been blogging about bringing this thinking to the arts and cultural sector. From this, I have been invited to mentor on Growing Pains, a business development programme for 12 Danish and Swedish female Transmedia producers. Held over six months, participants will engage in modules on developing new services, financing, media training, sales, presentation skills, business development and investment. In May, they will take part in Nordic Game, one of the largest game conferences in Europe.
 Image (c) http://www.stranger.no with thanks Growing pains came from a report investigating the barriers facing Transmedia producers when seeking government support in Scandinavia. The researchers looked at funding, management and financing among others. Research found that male and female producers site similar needs for support access to funding, mentorship, investment, networking etc. It showed that more women than men apply for government funding from this sector, yet very few of them are successful.
When looking at risk taking for example, it observed that on average, men take bigger risks with significantly larger losses, should the enterprise not work out. Men also look for larger revenue deals than women. Whereas, females are less risk averse, with often a more sustainable company over the lifetime of that enterprise. Many female producers felt they needed more knowledge and training before making the leap into business, while men on the other hand, threw themselves into the enterprise.
While these findings are not new; proportionately more men successfully accessing support and being more open to risk taking; it does point to a specific need when developing enterprise development programmes for women. Why such a large proportion of women do not succeed in accessing public supports is worth examining. Putting mechanisms in place to deal with specific skills gaps is crucial to the future success and development of these entrepreneurs.
It is also important to look at risk, how women view risk when starting a business and to challenge these perceptions. Motivation and perception are very necessary ingredients when starting out, as these motivations may differ significantly from person to person and between males and females. In understanding, supporting and challenging these issues, skills gaps and perceptions, programmes like Growing Pains will help build pathways to success for female entrepreneurs everywhere.
Why is a programme like this so necessary for Transmedia right now? Digital production and distribution has made old value chains, distribution and business models obsolete. This is a great challenge for the public support system. At the same time, this new disruptive technology is the keystone for Transmedia producers’ success; to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills, to thinking beyond public project financing, in developing and exploiting brands and being innovative in finding alternate sources of funding.
The measure of success for any new programme is the traction and buzz it gains. And Growing Pains is no different, as applications to this first programme were well over subscribed. This shows there is a definite need for programmes like this and I know that it will prove to be a valuable contribution to these entrepreneurs’ success.
I am extremely fortunate to be working with two visionary leaders in this field; Cecilie Stranger-Thorsen who devised the programme and Angeli Sjöström process and implementation coach. Both Cecilie and Angeli bring the best thinking and an in-depth knowledge of this field together and I’m looking forward to learning lots from them. The Growing Pains programme is funded under the EU Regional Development Fund in partnership with Nordic Game Resources.
female entrepreneurs, Lean Startup, Nordic, Sweden
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