I didn't and when I first met with David Gavin in Castletowroche, i was blowed away by his passion and by Dino Café. 

David took me to his workshop which was just something else, with creatures from the 5th element lying on the floor, sharks on the walls and talking pigs.

David has great ambition for the future including making hundreds of Dinosaurs and allowing children to learn by touching and playing. Fascinating.

See more on the Ballyhoura Country Page

That would be cool and that is what I think when I look at the next Wired Ipad app.

Hillcrest Equestrian Centre is at the foot of the Galtee mountains. Arriving on site I was welcomed by Annette O'Donnell, Hillcrest owner and her son Rodney. The centre is top class with some of the most beautiful views and horses in Ireland.

Annette had tea, scones, biscuits and sandwiches ready in an adjacent building. The charm of the place is its authenticity, the thick walls, low ceilings and Irish flair. Annette has millions of stories, people are coming to Hillcrest from all over the world, UK, France, US. Some of the most unusual and quite famous people have come here to experience real, quiet Ireland at Hillcrest. Annette is too humble to say but Hillcrest has been awarded best European riding centre by US specialists. 

Check Hillcrest page on TouristR or Ballyhoura Country

Despite miserable summers, bank catastrophies, lack of start up investments and much more... I think Ireland is a great place to start up a company. 

"Ireland is a much easier place to start a business than France, there is at least five time less bureaucracy here.."

Hashrocket office from jan blanchard on Vimeo.

Interesting presentation for all interested in the semantic web and the initiatives taken by DERI.

 

In recession era, most of us (working in small internet start ups) select carefully how to spend their “pitching” time. Pitching our business to investors is extremely time and energy consuming. Now that investments are rare, and that our business’s survival relies in our ability to generate cash, I choose to sell to customers before investors.

However when I heard that Guidewire group’s founders were coming to Dublin to meet some of us, it was hard to turn it down and I’m glad I went.
It was the most interesting pitching session, feedback from Chris, Mike and Carla was sharp and above all listening to the other pitches was very refreshing.

We face similar challenges, telling a compelling story, being clear, concise, demonstrating our market, business proposition... All the guys who presented were good and their pitches really excelled in one area, it means that I leraned something new at each pitch and that made my day.

For example, Robin with decisions for heroes had an inspiring story, Gary from Emergence had an amazing slide deck that told his story extremely well, Joe did a great product pitch, Caelen from RevaHealth and Matt from SentryWireless mastered their business proposisiton, and much more...

I am not surprised that most of us are going through the Master Class in Zaragoza. I am looking forward to it, the fact that David Sifry (Offbeat guides, Technorati) is one of the mentors is a big plus.
GuideWire is still touring Europe for applicants so check it out.

Photo credit -  Alan (toddle.com) at innovate!europe dublin - from Robin Blandford

Innovate Europe Master Class

The fact that we planned ahead was a main advantage, it allowed the team to be focus on writing codes and save time. There is no substitute for knowing what you want and being clear when you communicate it.

Overall I would highly recommend this process for building an app. It gives fresh perspectives and energy to a project.

It’s also possible to do this on a very small budget. In times like this recession, you can travel for less money and do more things on a small budget. Also if you live in Ireland, cost of life nearly anywhere else is cheaper than at home. Actually you could end up saving money spending a week abroad!

Steve says all he needs now is a vacation without an app!