This Should Have Been Yesterday
June 17, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Brightspark was 7 years old yesterday. I was busy getting out the door with my new baby boy to catch some rays and have the usual celebratory lunch (this time sans alcohol!). I really intended to get something up here to mark the cycle of 7, here is something I found that is kind of nice:
Spinning, laughing, dancing to her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong Is all aloneEyes wide open, always hoping for the sun
And she’ll sing her song to anyone that comes along
I won’t sing my song to anyone these days; 7 years of being in business has made me more discerning than that. But definitely dancing to my own tune these last 7 years of self employment has made my heart sing.
Enjoy the music, even if it is a bit high on the cheese quotient:
Tags: 7 years internet marketing business, brightspark birthday
Robert Winston in the Science Gallery This Thursday
April 1, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I have a science hero and he’s coming to Dublin’s Science Gallery next week. Whoever comes up with the talks and speakers down there needs a prize, they’re always interesting to a wide and varied audience. You might know Robert Winston not as a gangster actor but as the mustachoio’ed gentleman who presented “Child of Our Time” on BBC TV around 2000. He’s in town next Thurs (8 April) giving a talk about:
BAD IDEAS? An arresting history of our bad inventions
Professor Winston will take a fresh look at man’s greatest discoveries and innovations and asks whether our dependence on science and technology has led us into a precarious situation which is doomed to become worse before it gets better? As well as tracing the history and fall-out of our very worst ideas, he also advocates the merits of scientific progres.
Professor Winston has an international reputation for his researches into human reproduction and has pioneered advances widely used in fertility and IVF treatment. He is committed to scientific education and regularly writes or hosts popular science programmes for the BBC, Discovery and ABC networks.
I’m personally interested for two reasons:
- I am surprised that it’s not possible to save stem cells from the placenta when one has a baby in this country. I would have thought that if the technology is available that people would go for it. I see it as an insurance policy against awful diseases that mother nature can throw at your little one, but it seems I’m alone in my thinking. I wonder what Robert has to say on this subject – I shall listen carefully.
- I love learning about child psychology and when Prof Winston’s “Child of Our Time” was on BBC some years ago I watched it religiously. I’ve even been known to quote some of the experiments! Now that I’m about to have my own child, I’ve been trying to get a hold of a copy of this DVD – but have not been able to. Not even Dublin City Library has a copy – or the dustiest corners of Ebay. If you know of anyone who has a copy of Child of Our Time, please lend it to me.
UPDATE: how funny and Freudian… I just wrote the whole post about Ray Winston coming to town thinking “I mustn’t mix up Ray and Robert cos it’ll make me look really stoopid… it’s alright to do that kind of thing in my head, but no way in blogland” – until John Braine (check out his blog – the pic re. the passport office is so funny!) kindly pointed out the error of my ways. Just so you get how poles apart these two are, here’s Ray (on the left) and a rather more kindly looking Robert (on the right). I’m playing the Pregnancy Brain card on this one. 
Tags: child psychology, Prof Ray Winston, Science Gallery Dublin
Flashmob Friday | Galway
March 19, 2010 at 7:21 am
Good on Galway – they had a flashmob on Shop Street last Saturday. I love hearing the excitement from onlookers:
Tags: flashmob galway
Wordcamp Review
March 8, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I was there for Saturday’s Wordcamp and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Big congrats to Sabrina and Katherine who made it happen – I believe they may be persuaded to do it all again next year. Despite being in charge, the lovely ladies did not come over all Nazi like and bossy, dinging bells to mark end of time, etc. And yet, every talk I went to started and ended on time. This proved to me that Wordcamp was about sharing and learning and not egos. I like that.
Langtons was a lovely venue, although the greenhouse that I was giving my presentation in got hit with adverse weather… who would have expected such sun in March? A lot of light made the screen rather difficult to see. This meant that my *lovely* presentation that I spent hours of Friday on, didn’t get to be shown. Resorting to marker, memory and flipchat, I gave my talk on ‘how to write for blogs’. Lucky I knew the material because I was doing it from memory.
If you weren’t there, but you’d like get a condensed version, Jon Jacob accosted me with a video camera immediately after I’d given my talk. Here’s the 4 minute version on how to write for blogs! [Must remember to top up my lipstick next time I get a video camera on me!]
Check out Jon’s other post about building online communities - he really does write rather well. Needs no tips from me. Is a natural.
PS – here are the slides transferred from Flash to retro PPT.
Tags: how to write for blogs, wordcamp ireland
Give It Up For Mary Of O’Connell Street
March 1, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I remember a Dublin that was populated with individuals. Anyone who knew Dublin ‘back in the day’ would remember the lady who used to dance on O’Connell Street. She’d always be there, dancing away to her own tune, smiling, being herself. Her name is Mary and I came across a Facebook Fan Page for Mary at the weekend.
Who Remembers The Woman That Dances On O’Connell Street Beside The Anna Livia
It’s got 13,661 fans and growing. It seems lots of other people remember dancing Mary of O’Connell Street. The wall is full of tributes to this lady (who is alive and well) and is 83:
New York has the naked cowboy and we have Mary
She was part of my childhood memories going into town with my parents … never failed to make me smile.
We can all learn something from her approach to life…. she has and is living hers to the max…while not hurting or taking away from anyone, in fact she has given so much to so many people. Thank you Mary.
Used to see her all the time when I worked in Town . . . she always looked so happy . . . Fair play to her!!!
If you remember Mary and you’d like to take part in a Facebook organised get together, turn up this Sunday at Mary’s old dancing stop at midday. There’s going to be a tribute to the lady who danced her way into so many people’s hearts and minds. Rumour has it she’s going to be there. Here’s hoping it’s a really fine sunny day.
Tags: facebook fan page, mary of o'connell street
Digital Festival Review
February 24, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Late on 23rd February, I answered a tweet from @johnbreslin and scored myself a free ticket to the Digital Festival taking place in Dublin the next day. With an impressive line-up of speakers, clearly not the usual ones dragged out for digital events this side of the Irish Sea, I was very pleased with myself.
Sadly the Digital Festival did not live up to expectations.
My take on it is because the festival organisers did not work hard enough on briefing their world-class speakers. I’d go so far as to surmise that they didn’t brief them at all. I think they booked them, gave them a topic, then left it at that. The result was that:
- Shel Israel merely promoted his book. I’m not going to promote it further here, but it’s a book about happy stories coming out of Twitter. I sat there seething that this man was blatantly promoting his book instead of inspiring me – and thought we have plenty of happy stories from Twitter here in Ireland. We don’t need an American to fly in and tell us about it.
- Martin Bailie from Glue gave an interesting talk that touched on things like memory and how we learn. Very interesting but off brief. He even started his presentation by saying he’d been asked to talk about ‘digital consumers… they don’t exist’ so he promptly spoke about stuff that interests him.
- Russell Davies on blogs? Nope. He talked about everything and anything but blogs. But what a wide topic to give to someone – talk about blogs – ridiculous!
Other failures on the part of the organisers included:
- Technology break-down when the sole Irish speaker was about to give his talk. OK that can happen, but surely an experienced event organiser would reshuffle the speakers so that someone (like the ones listed above) who weren’t technology dependent could go on and talk while the techies worked to solve the problem. Instead, Tim Duggan from Mercury Girl Inc, delivered a very poor performance talking through his powerpoints. I felt sorry for him, so I stayed in the room, but when it became apparent that said talk was merely a lengthy description of his portfolio, I left the room and went to grab a coffee.
I’m all in favour of doing more with less – the mantra of succeeding in Ireland these last few years. But there are some things you just don’t scrimp on – refreshments and wifi at a conference are two of them.
- Yeah yeah I know I didn’t pay for my ticket to the Digital Festival, but for those who did, they were left with a bitter taste in their mouth… it certainly made up for the one course rice and chicken meal that was the all included lunch. No starter. No dessert. I paid €2 for a plate of biscuits to share with my table.
- Biggest failure of all – no wifi. You could pay for bitbuzz or you could go to the hotel reception and ask for a 1 hour voucher. That’s totally scabby and shit. If you’re running a conference for digital people, surely to God you know that buzz will be created by said people tweeting your event while it’s on?
I left before the last speaker, I’d had enough. It was a waste of a day as I didn’t learn anything and I was so hungry I couldn’t muster the energy up to network properly.
My advice for anyone planning on putting on a digital festival:
- Sort a deal with the hotel for free wifi
- Go the extra mile and provide a proper lunch
- Work hard to push your speakers to deliver talks that will stimulate and inspire
- Sit back and cream in the cash!
The Digital Festival organisers only achieved 1 out of 4. #FAIL
Tags: digital festival dublin, how not to run an event
Google Dublin : Website Clinic
February 15, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Heard about this from Jason Roe of taking on Ryanair fame. It’s on Thursday 25 February in Google Headquarters from 7-8pm, and is free!
- Any business owner with their own website
- No particular online experience required, all you need is a website
- It’s completely free
- The event is limited to 50 participants only on a first-come, first-served basis
Definitely worth it if you can get a place. Sign up here.
Tags: Google Clinic
In Need Of A Laugh?
November 4, 2009 at 7:48 pm
It’s dark, it’s November, and the Budget is getting more air time than even The X Factor. What can you do to bring a smile to your face?
You could join me at the “Zest4Kidz Love-In” on Tuesday 24th November in the Laughter Lounge. It’s going to be a night of comedy, music and a chance to find out about opportunities to get involved volunteering for Zest4Kidz.
Tickets cost €25 and that includes a free cocktail on arrival for anyone who gets there before 7.30pm.
Bookings can be made by email or by picking up the phone – 01 206 3872. And you can keep an eye on their site for the full line-up.
In case you didn’t know, Zest4Kidz is one of my favourite charities. They bring light into little lives through play. They run projects helping children in three main areas:
- Child Soldiers in Africa
- Children in slums and on streets in India
- Children in Prisons and in Orphanages in Eastern Europe
They find children who have had difficult lives and spend time with them to show them someone cares and that they are not alone. While in these places they make a full needs audit of the orphanage/shelter and help meet ongoing needs for the children.
Next time you’re wondering what to do with the week’s leave you’re obliged to take, why not consider volunteering with Zest4Kidz? More information on this important work.
Here’s footage of the Christmas Stocking trip to Belarus:
Tags: Zest4Kidz Comedy Night
Great Value Training – Web Writing
September 24, 2009 at 8:00 am
From time to time I do training for the Europa Academy – yes the one that Bill Cullen resides in. They offer great value training courses, from excellent trainers (not just me!), in a lovely venue. The next training days I’m doing for them are in October.
Great value training days
Writing for the Web: 15 October | €195
Internet Marketing: 13 October | €195
Tags: internet marketing training, online copywriting, web writing training
Greenhouse Incubator BizCamp | Oct 11
September 14, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I’ve just registered for the Greenhouse Biz Camp, taking place in Limerick on October 11th. It’s a free unconference event taking place on a Sunday, ideal for you if you’re stuck at work during the week and can’t make any of the other myriad help-you-get-started events that are taking place around the country.
In particular, this one is aimed at people who are self-employed, starting their own business or thinking about starting their own business.
What happens is that there’s a whole load of people who come along and give talks on what they have expertise about. It’s an ad hoc session, and it’s open to anyone to take part. That’s the unconference element to it – you can put yourself forward to give a talk, you don’t have to be invited.
So far there’s going to be speakers on:
- Digital Marketing
- Market Intelligence: “know your competitors”
- “Old Skool PR is dead”
- The ins & outs of intellectual property legislation
- Company registration, filings & compliance issues
- “How to profit through innovation”
- Patent applications & trademarks
- The legal implications of cloud computing
- Shareholder agreements, equity, share options etc.
I’m going to give a talk that case studies all the marketing activity that went into Simple Assembly Me Hole and will share what worked and what didn’t. I use these tools and techniques marketing for clients, but am not always able to share in gripping detail the results. Obviously if something really works well, a client doesn’t want me to blog about it because then their competitors will find out about it. And if something doesn’t go quite as I had expected, I’m not going to be jumping from the rooftops either!
There. Now I’ve committed to it. Therefore I will do it. See you in Limerick on 11 October.
