Connector Podcast - Makers, Movers & Shakers

Conor first encountered Will Meara when he was a high energy student representative at DIT and was immediately impressed with his capacity to get lots of cool shit done with a smile on his face! Always a guy we are keen to collaborate with at Connector! Will is an adventure traveller who trots the world experiencing countries through the people he meets rather than the top 10 things to do on TripAdvisor. When William is not trotting around places like Pakistan and Iran, he finds himself putting on early morning dance raves with yoga, massage, mcs, djs, performers dancers and a whole lot more. If that wasn't enough, his latest creation Bingo Loco has taken the country by storm, with a national tour and circuit of Irish festivals. Bingo Loco is a bingo rave with conga lines, bizarre prizes, party vibes and table stomping banter! Connect with Will on ReadyForRoad.com

Conor went to Futurescope on 10th May 2017 to learn about Current Trends and Future Insights and to meet the Irish tech community. Futurescope from HBAN is a platform to foster engagement and collaboration between Ireland's entrepreneurial community and innovative multinational companies. Here are some of the very interesting people he met on the day! Links - www.futurescope.ie / www.hban.org

Brendan Courtney and Lorna Dufy visited the Connector Studio in Temple Bar for a chat about fashion and technology. Connector is delighted to be at the intersection of technology and so many markets and Conor was keen to learn more about fashion and get some style tips from our highly fashionable guests! Brendan Courtney is a famous Irish television presenter and fashion stylist. He hosts his weekly chat show The Brendan Courtney Show since 2006 on TV3. With his friend Sonya Lennon, Brendan launched their new fashion line called 'Lennon Courtney' in 2013. Brendan Courtney and Sonya Lennon are also very interested in digital. Indeed, they have launched Frockadvisor.com at the same time. FrockAdvisor is a social commerce platform which will connect communities with an avid interest in fashion. Lorna Dufy is the founder of top fashion blog Fashion Boss. Fashion Boss aims to show fashion lovers where to find the latest trends and the best buys. Lorna Duffy is a fashion enthusiast. She has worked at numerous fashion events in the last four years in both London and Dublin such as London Fashion Week and the Dublin Fashion Festival. We hope you enjoy our chat!

Connector was delighted to exhibit the 3XE Digital conference last week in Croke Park that focused on “Social Media and Content Marketing”. The conference boasted an impressive line-up, with experts from Digital Marketing Institute and leading bloggers giving presentations. On the day there was a mix of presentations, workshops and plenty of time for delegates to network with their peers, exchanging case studies and best practices. We did plenty of networking on the day and got to chat to Jeff Bullas, who was one of the highlights of the day. Jeff is a blogger, author, strategist and speaker. He works with a number of companies to help them optimise their online personal and company brands with digital, content and social media marketing. Connector was delighted to have opportunity to record a podcast with Jeff’s on the day to discuss his blog, which documents all things social media including, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and email marketing. Connector also bumped into Roz Purcell on the day who was also speaking at 3XE Digital. Roz is a favourite client of Connector and we most recently worked with her, on re-building her website Natural Born Feeder. As well as a stellar career as Ireland’s top model, Roz is a successful writer and blogger. On the day, Roz spoke about how she has successfully used social media to drive her business, Natural Born Feeder and has used the power of the internet to document her love for cooking. On the podcast we also interview Roz, Cian Kennedy from Uber, Anthony Quigley from the Digital Marketing Institute and Greg Fry, Training Manager with our sister brand SocialMedia.ie Overall, it was a great conference, full of informative presentations. To keep up to date with Connector’s latest digital marketing news and learnings, be sure to follow us on Twitter and/or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Greg Fry is the new Training Manager for SocialMedia.ie, having worked with the company for several years. Greg is an international social media trainer delivering LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and social business strategy training and workshops. Clients include institutions such as the Digital Marketing Institute, SureSkills and the Digital Skills Academy.

Matt Quigley is the founder of Yoga Hub in Dublin. Matt has a background in yoga and is now the owner / manager in a thriving yoga studio (Yoga Hub) and food business (Happy Food) in Dublin city centre. He set up the Yoga Hub in June 2012 in a small studio space at the back of a house (not his) in Ranelagh with no money and not much experience of running a business. We spoke about how he has used self-study to learn the new skills required for his managerial role. Learn how Matt has achieved his success and how he has stretched to achieve his goals ;-) About Yoga Hub A modern, welcoming studio, with fresh and challenging yoga classes, YogaHub is a space to work you out, open you up and let you breathe. Friendly teachers are creative, attentive and fun; we have classes for everyone – from beginner to guru. YogaHub is a vibe, a practice, a lifestyle.

Larry Bass is the founder of Shinawil in Dublin. Larry Bass has a really interesting career in Irish TV and is responsible for producing some of the biggest TV hit shows in Ireland ever. Conor speaks to Larry about his career which kicked off when he was 13. We talk about TV industry, TV show formats and what is coming next. One interesting insight was that it was Larry who introduced Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell to TV talent shows many years ago. About Shinawill Set up in 1999 specialising in entertainment, factual entertainment, live event programming and now scripted drama, Screentime ShinAwiL is one of the largest and most successful independent production companies in Ireland. In 2009 ShinAwiL opened its first UK office and 2012 saw its first BBC NI commission, Undercover NI. ShinAwiL is the production powerhouse behind some of Ireland’s biggest entertainment series’ including The Apprentice, Dragons’ Den, MasterChef Ireland and most recently The Voice of Ireland.