Redcert Podcast redcert

Last year, I met Heather Brunner, CEO of WPEngine in Lisbon. In an interview broadcast on Midlands 103FM we chatted about WPEngine's investment outside of the US, in the UK and Ireland but in this extended version we talk about a lot more.

What has powered the growth of WPEngine since 2010? What's life at a tech company in the Silicon Hills of Austin, Texas? How WPEngine's customer focus is in their DNA and the importance of WordPress in democratising publishing in a new media world.

Recorded at the WebSummit, Lisbon, 2016 | Produced by Andy O'Donoghue

Licence: CC BY-NC 3.0
You may broadcast, edit and transmit this audio content, but if you do, you must attribute it to the original producer and you may not charge for the content, or sell it, or offer it as part of a subscription only service.

This year, Cartoon Forum was held in Toulouse, from September 13-16 with 950 participants including producers, broadcasters and investors. 2016 was the inaugural year a special 'Focus on...' country, with the selected country being Ireland.

Cartoon Forum is a pitching & co-pro forum for animated TV projects. 3 days, producers have the opportunity to pitch their project in front of 900 broadcasters, investors and other potential partners from 30 countries. Since its creation in 1990, 680 series have found financing, with a total budget of 2.3 billion EUR.

Images by and © Cartoon Media

Interviews:
Annick Maes: Director of Cartoon Forum Director
Paul Young: Animation Ireland & Cartoon Saloon, Ireland.
Eileen Bell: Enterprise Ireland
Deirdre Barry: Salty Dog Pictures, Ireland.
Cliff Parrott: Salty Dog Pictures, Ireland.
Nayoung Cho: Anyzax Animation, South Korea,
Zsuzsana Krief: Director, The Adventures of Candide - Popfilm, Hungary.
Ben Harper: Creative Director, Giant Animation - Creepers, Ireland.
Adrian Mulvey: Producer, Keg Kartoonz, Ireland.

Produced by: Andy O'Donoghue

Licence: CC BY-NC 3.0
You may broadcast, edit and transmit this audio content, but if you do, you must attribute it to the original producer and you may not charge for the content, or sell it, or offer it as part of a subscription only service.

Fitbit was established in 2007 and dominates the fitness tracker market
They’ve just announced revised versions of their Flex and Charge trackers and some Fitbit execs were in Dublin to officially open their new EMEA HQ, where they say they’ll employ 50 people by the end of this year.

I sat down with Chief Business Officer, Woody Scal and we discussed gamification, new products and how companies might be able to unlock the potential of fitness tracker data for the benefit of customers, health services and society as a whole, but first, I asked Woody about this significant investment for Fitbit, outside the US.

License: CC BY-NC
This Podcast may be reproduced, or broadcast but should not be sold and should include attribution to the producer.

Produced by: Andy O'Donoghue
Recorded at: FitBit EMEA HQ, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Recording Date: 31-August-2016

I've been buying razor blades for two decades, and have never given any thought to the science & engineering that makes shaving possible. In a Podacst recorded last year, I had a fascinating conversation with Dr Kristina Vanoosthuyze, from Gillette's R&D facility on follicles, prototyping, women in science and how shaving has evolved.

Recently I got to chat to Charly Lester for the Midland 103 Tech Special, but a chat with Charly is more about life, society and love, than tech.

The founder of 30datesblog.com and the UK Dating Awards, she's a regular on BBC Radio 4 and Editor-in-chief of The Guardian's Soulmates website and Global Head of Dating for Time Out - she knows dating, online and off but I think she knows you and me, and that's what makes her insights so lucid.

The first people I knew that fell in love online were a couple of CompuServe users in the early 1990s - where there was a maelstrom of unmoderated poking, flirting and propositioning across the Atlantuc. CompuServe's 'channels' were the Wild West of dating and thankfully things have matured since then - not only the interface! So in Podcast 21, I asked Charly how she started her blog 30Dates, Tinder's pricing strategy for older users, the truth about the 'Hook Up Generation' and, if you are online looking to connect, her top tips for finding love in the wires.

Image: charlylester.com

Tonight was Dublin Beta 15 - that, in a transient world is consistency.

I haven't been for a while and this seemed an appropriate evening to rekindle things in The Hangar on Dublin's Andrew's Lane;

Fingal Enterprise Week started today and by lunch time I'd met hundreds of people planning on starting small businesses and tonights Dublin Beta was a The Startup Gathering edition.

John O'Rourke Russell Banks and Gene Murphy make Dublin Beta happen once a quarter and although this is a mature event there's still a lovely Indie feel to it - there's a rawness and a swagger to the event that's helped it retain its audience and it has similarities not so much to London events, but to start-up events you might see somewhere like Berlin,

So, I headed off to Andrews Lane, and found that FIntech had found its way in to Dublin Beta - food and drink, hospitality were there but the first pitch that caught my eye was Daire O'Neill's A5 Technologies……