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Get started BlogOn Tuesday November 21st, DCU Business School in conjunction with IC4, DCU Ryan Academy and DCU Alpha hosted its annual “Get Started” mini-conference in Mahony Hall, The Helix, Dublin City University. As a student enrolled on the DICE module, I attended the conference to get some ideas for our group gamification project and our own personal entrepreneurial future. The conference kicked off at 2pm and finished at 6pm. The conference had 8 different speakers covering various backgrounds in the business world. These speakers focused on starting your own enterprise, whether a social enterprise or otherwise. It featured talks from many award-winning start-ups and successful entrepreneurs, who shared their experiences of starting their own business. They gave us a background on who they are, why they are doing what they are doing and the pros and cons of starting up a company Speakers on the day:Speakers on the day include:Niall Dennehy, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, AID:TechJoe Cullinance, Adjunct Professor, DCUAndrew Kavanagh, Founder and CEO, Kavaleer Productions LimitedAnn O'Dea, CEO, Silicon RepublicDC Cahalane, CEO, Republic of Work?ine Kerr, Co-founder and COO, Neva LabsAlex Hamilton, Co-founder, KubicleMarissa Carter, Founder and CEO, Cocoa BrownMaeve Kneafsey, Co-founder, CloudKPIIn this blog, I will choose four out of the eight speakers and discuss their talk in detail. I will entail what the speakers current position is and what they do, what they discussed in their talk, and then I will finish off with my reflection. In my reflection, I will give my thoughts on what the speaker discussed including what I found surprising, what I disagreed with and what I found out from further researching the speaker. At the end of each speaker, I will apply the lessons I have learned from their talk and discuss how I can relate it to DICE, my course and my future career.?ine Kerr Kerr is the Co-founder and COO of Neva Labs ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a2mkl8sai9f","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}NevaLabs,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“NevaLabs,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":27,"uris":[""],"uri":[""],"itemData":{"id":27,"type":"webpage","title":"NevaLabs","URL":"","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",12,2]]}}}],"schema":""} (“NevaLabs,” 2017). Neva Labs is a new Irish start-up based in Dublin set up by journalists who want to take personal control of newsfeed online.In her talk, she told us about her career path where she started off with Irish newspapers such as the Independent, Times and the Examiner as a reporter on news and political reporter and a political correspondent for the Irish Independent. During the middle of the recession, she decided to move into a new avenue of work and moved to the US to start work with Storyful as a political and managing editor as well as head of content during her time there. She then worked at Facebook for a while before setting up Neva Labs. Her change in roles within the media industry over time from print to online highlight the quick evolution of media since she started working with the Irish Times in 2005. She also tells us about her education where she received a Bachelor of Education (B’ED) and a Masters of Journalism (MAJ) with Dublin City University [DCU].One of the main reasons she set up Neva Labs was to tackle the topical issue of FAKE NEWS made prominent by the 45th President of the United States. Her aim with Neva Labs is to show the real news to the readers in a way that makes efficient use of their time. She believes that todays newsfeed is cluttered with fake news and that it is turning people off the news as they are getting a poor quality of content. As we are frustrated by these sites so frequently, we prefer apps that we use less often that give us what we want from it when we use it. She wants Neva Labs to deliver the news in this method to maximise its reviews. Her creation of Neva Labs showed us how to start a new project as she explains the risk and the work involved when starting up a new venture. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a1rrfak59kj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Slattery, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Slattery, n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":32,"uris":[""],"uri":[""],"itemData":{"id":32,"type":"webpage","title":"Mark Little media venture Neva Labs aims to be Netflix for news","container-title":"The Irish Times","abstract":"Dublin company with global ambition wants to burst artificial intelligence ‘filter bubble’","URL":"","author":[{"family":"Slattery","given":"Laura"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",12,2]]}}}],"schema":""} (Slattery, 2017)ReflectionI really enjoyed ?ine Kerr‘s talk as she highlighted what is needed in the media industry to give a high-quality content of news while not wasting the readers time. I believe this is the future of the media industry as people’s life’s get busier they want to maximise their precious time, so this platform will become more prominent. She also tells us why she decided to start this company by illustrating the advancements in media since she start working by telling us about her career.It came as a surprise to me to realise that there is no such thing as free news and even sites which seem free, I am in fact the product. Sites selling goods and services that you have visited online have cookies that you accept when you visit their websites. These adverts then follow you around the internet and the advertiser’s pay the news sites for their adverts.The one point she made that I disagreed with was that people would want to pay for their news if they knew it was from a reliable source. I think people will counteract this by making sites that use adverts for revenue and contain the same reliable news content.From my research of ?ine Kerr online, I realised she has had an exciting career that has allowed her to see the world and cover some of the biggest news stories of the last decade. I also researched the future of media online and it is very close to the aim of ?ine Kerr but one concern that faces that idea is a balance of interest within the media which will be necessary to make sure both sides of the story are shown and from that the reader’s can make up their mind self-consciously where they stand on a particular issue.What I learned from her talk that I can take onboard for DICE, my course and my future career is that we need to take chances at time to move on up in my career and to make sure to only use and reference efficient and reliable new sources.Maeve Kneafsey Kneafsey is the co-founder of CloudKPI ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a6m5epam17","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}CloudKPI | Key Performance Indicators | Empower Business,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“CloudKPI | Key Performance Indicators | Empower Business,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":31,"uris":[""],"uri":[""],"itemData":{"id":31,"type":"post-weblog","title":"CloudKPI | Key Performance Indicators | Empower Business","URL":"","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",12,2]]}}}],"schema":""} (“CloudKPI | Key Performance Indicators | Empower Business,” 2017) which she set up in 2016. CloudKPI is based in San Francisco, USA and is a cloud-based analytics solution that sits on top of other business solutions such as QB, Salesforce, Hubspot, Stripe etc. delivering advanced analytics to predictive and benchmark performance and makes recommendations. It was designed to help SaaS businesses scale fast.In Maeve Kneafsey’s talk, she discussed that she doesn’t come from a business/entrepreneur background as she studied History and Philosophy in Trinity College but somehow ended up creating her own business. Like Aine Kerr, she gives us a background on her career path and how she became a director for many different organisations.Unlike Aine Kerr, Maeve Kneafsey focuses more on what has been crucial to her success so far. She explains that nonstop reinventing is necessary to stay ahead of the pack in the business world. She highlighted failure as vital for the growth of any product as it allows you to learn from your mistake and to develop a better product that will be more successful. Maeve Kneafsey points out that sometimes entrepreneurs can get it wrong as they get arrogant about their product. They use their emotions instead of their practical thinking side of the brain. Some great ideas never took off since the entrepreneur never listened to the market before making it public.She also told us that she needed to get other investors involved to develop the company. She explains the challenges she faced with keeping the individuality of the idea whilst having multiple shareholders. At one stage she sold equity to subsidise the rent for their offices. The money was welcomed as she knew it was essential for the business to expand outside of Ireland to make more money in the long run.ReflectionI thought that Maeve’s talk was very informative and interesting as she gave advice on what it is like being an entrepreneur starting out and what you should expect. I liked the way she made it feel that owning and a business was accessible to everyone. She points out that there will be problems along the way, but it will develop you as a person through the decisions you make which will ultimately shape your company. What I was surprised about was the fact she came from a background of history and psychology and ended up running a business that helped companies to scale up fast. This shows that there are no boundaries to the business world once you apply yourself. I did not disagree with anything she said as all her points made sense to me and I will take them on board in my future career if I ever decide to pursue a business venture. What I can take from her talk is that I shouldn’t be afraid of failure in any part of my life as I can use it to improve my work and myself as a person. She emphasises to always be yourself and not to change because someone tells you to. Also, it is crucial to keep on reinventing yourself in the business world in order not to fall behind your rivals.I found out that she also is director of the charity organisation when I researched her online which shows she gives her precious time back to society. This charity focuses on the mental health of youths in different countries around the world.DC Cahalane is the CEO of Republic of Work ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a2nlv495of1","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}Home,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“Home,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":36,"uris":[""],"uri":[""],"itemData":{"id":36,"type":"webpage","title":"Home","container-title":"REPUBLIC OF WORK","abstract":"Coworking in Cork, Ireland and a new home for business innovation","URL":"","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",12,2]]}}}],"schema":""} (“Home,” 2017)which is a company that creates business environments for companies to work in. The company was set up in Cork to be a new co-working office to help start-up and other companies cut costs. They rent out desk spaces to many companies at their property. They sell passes for these desk spaces with the same concept as gym membership.He discusses that Ireland is a very entrepreneurially friendly country but to succeed you must have a plan in place to be successful. He highlights that his first company sold for €43 million because he had a plan in place for it to be great. It was his clear goal that he had faith in that enabled him to create a multi-million-euro company. He says he and other entrepreneurs could not work for others as they rather work on their idea than help others as they see things different and feel that they know the winning formula.What has been so successful for him is creating a distinctive image and brand for his companies as it differentiates them from their rivals. To do this he has been very creative with marketing campaigns as it is key to the success of any good organisation as people recognise you.He preached to the audience that first you should dream big then to work around it, then you will have to make sacrifices to make your dreams a reality. He also hinted that if you base your idea off other platforms you will be successful.-63500ReflectionI thought that DC Cahalane gave us a lot of facts about how to make your product different from others in the market. I feel that this is valuable information for someone starting up a new business and that DC would be a good mentor for the CEO of any start up as he seems to be very insightful and knows what he is saying. What surprised me about his talk is that nowadays to get reviews in the media you need to meet journalists and tell them your story, so they can share your company. I did not disagree with any of his points. From studying his LinkedIn, I found out that he is involved with many different organisations and is very active in the IT and enterprise sectors in Ireland.What I can take from his talk is to dream big in whatever I do and to always work hard and with a stroke of luck I could be successful too.Niall Dennehy is the Chief Operations Officer at AID:Tech and also the co-founder of AID:TECH. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a1abqpahoaq","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}What We Do | Aid.Technology,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“What We Do | Aid.Technology,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":38,"uris":[""],"uri":[""],"itemData":{"id":38,"type":"post-weblog","title":"What We Do | Aid.Technology","abstract":"Addressing issues of identity & access, AID:Tech delivers digital entitlements to the world's underserved with international NGOs, governments & corporates.","URL":"","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",12,2]]}}}],"schema":""} (“What We Do | Aid.Technology,” 2017) . AID:TECH is the first company in the world to successfully deliver aid to Syrian refugees completely transparently using Blockchain technology.He gave a brief background on his life and why he has chosen to go down this path. He speaks about how his enterprise works with the UN to provide legal ID for refugees and that the partnership helps society in total.He is alike DC Cahalane in telling the audience to dream big. He wants everyone to strive to change the world around them to better society in general.What I was surprised to hear him say was that there is 2.4 billion people on the planet without a legal I.D.ReflectionI agreed with Niall that we should all strive to make a change in the world. I think that Niall was a very inviting speaker who grabbed the audience’s attention and at the end of the talk I felt invigorated and was motivated to make a change to the world. I did not disagree with any of his points in the talk. After the talk, I researched AID:TECH and was interested in their work. Hopefully one day if I get the chance I’d like to work with this organisation or one similar to benefit society.I learned from this talk that it is important to give back to society as not everyone has been gifted with the same set of circumstances as me. I hope to get involved with more social enterprises in my future career.Bibliography ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY CloudKPI | Key Performance Indicators | Empower Business, n.d.Home [WWW Document], n.d. . Repub. WORK. URL (accessed 12.2.17).NevaLabs [WWW Document], n.d. URL (accessed 12.2.17).Slattery, L., n.d. Mark Little media venture Neva Labs aims to be Netflix for news [WWW Document]. Ir. Times. URL (accessed 12.2.17).What We Do | Aid.Technology, n.d. ................
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