This March, Enterprise Ireland will be showcasing the best Irish technology at South by Southwest (SXSW) conference. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, SXSW is widely recognised as the premier destination for the most ambitious digital media companies to showcase their technologies (Twitter launched here just a few years ago), mix with the key players in the interactive media, film and music industries to ultimately drive their business forward. Convergence is happening. And SXSW is at its center.

• Our Space is 1135, Exhibit hall 3. Trinity Street Entrance is closest.
• Networking: Tuesday, March 15, 4:00pm – 6:00pmWe are hosting our SX networking event during the SX Block Party Tuesday, March 15, 4:00pm – 6:00pm.   Please attend and encourage your  contacts to stop by.
• International Technology Panel: http://sxsw.com/techsummit/ Please attend on March 17th.  Delegates include:  Moderator Mark Little – Storyful, Matt Bonner from Trezur and Michael Geraghty from Ticket  Truck, panelists.March 17th3:30pm – 4:30pmHilton Salon F (more…)

Great opportunity for global iPad & iPhone developers

Irish Laas Seeks Foreign Companions

NovaUCD Company Launches App Localisation as a Service to Help Software Developers Access Multiple Language Markets

Tethras Technologies, an Irish technology company based at NovaUCD, has launched a localisation service aimed at enabling global communities of iPhone and iPad developers to publish their Apps in multiple languages.

The global Apps industry has experienced massive growth in recent years and is estimated to be worth a staggering $4.4 billion by the end of 2011. However, the vast majority of Apps, many of which are developed in the US, are only published in English, missing out on lucrative markets such as France, Germany and Spain.

Read full article.

If you hit the snooze button a few too many times last Friday, you’re in luck. SXSW decided to accept late entries for the SXSW Interactive Awards competition until December 31.

So if you missed last week’s deadline or your new digital work just launched, don’t fret. You can still enter this year’s SXSW Interactive Awards until 2011 kicks off.

Then come to the SXSW Interactive festival in March and attend the Interactive Awards Ceremony on its new night, Tuesday, March 15 to see how takes home the Internet’s top prizes.

Enterprise Ireland Delegation details coming soon. For more information immediately please contact Simone Boswell at Simone.Boswell@enterprise-ireland.com

Dear Contact: Send Cash
For one start-up, the secret to financing was a mass appeal on LinkedIn

ELIZABETH GARONE at the Wall St. Journal

When Frank Hannigan needed to raise a first round of financing for his software start-up earlier this year, he didn’t want to waste time with endless calls and meetings with potential investors. “Every day you spend selling equity in your business is a day you are not selling the output of your business,” he says.
Journal Reports

His solution? A note to 700 of his contacts on the business-networking site LinkedIn.

The message, which he hashed out with company founder Gerard Hartnett, was simple. Goshido, an Irish outfit that makes project-management software delivered over the Internet, was looking for 10 investors to pony up €25,000 (about $35,000) apiece. In return, they would each get a 2% share in the company.

Within a couple of days of sending the note through LinkedIn’s email service, Mr. Hannigan had 200-plus responses that ranged from requests for meetings or conference calls to lists of questions and quite a few messages that said, “No thanks, but I’ll pass it on.”

Read full article at Wall Street Journal

Renee Blodgett was a guest blogger at the recent Dublin Web Summit and filed the following post and video interview on her site Down The Avenue.

[youtube width="400" height="315"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0U3knkVMcU[/youtube]

While social utility Weedle may be based in Dublin, it has a growing user-base in the U.S., says CEO Iain Mac Donald, who I had a chance to chat with at the F.ounders conference last week.

Free to use, Weedle enables a better way for you to get found by people who need your skill and also, to find people who have the skills you need. Think lawyers, shoe repair, accountants, hairdressers, piano teachers, tutors, photographers, web designers and more. Leveraging social media with semantic technologies, they’re combining both with their own search and social graph algorithm, to increase the effectiveness of a match that is right for you — whether you need the skill or you are promoting yours to the world.

Because it’s based on your personal community, you learn about people who have a particular skill inside your network and can see who in that trusted network has used a person and what they think. It’s the kind of service that essentially anyone can benefit from; give it a try as it only takes a couple of minutes to get started. CEO with a personality — Iain Mac Donald — tells us more.

Havok has made its first technology product acquisition, adding Irish-made Kore Virtual Machine (VM) to its portfolio.

Havok has now taken over all technical and commercial functions and will be providing all support, licensing and services for Kore VM

Kore VM was developed by Irish company New Games Technologies. It’s the smallest and fastest virtual machine for consoles on the market. Its toolset is designed specifically for console game development.
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Irish company, Active Mind Technology, who is developing technology in the sports industry aimed at monitoring and improving a golfer’s game, has won the €10,000 top prize in the the SCCUL Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2010.

Based in Galway, Ireland and San Jose, California, Active Mind Technology won the overall award for its imeeGOLF.com product, incorporating a consumer device, an online platform as a service, social media and gaming and location based elements.

Founder and CEO, John McGuire, is presently in Silicon Valley opening an overseas office in the Irish Innovation Center based in San Jose. This location allows McGuire better access to investors and CEO’s of leading companies in the categories of online gaming, mobile payment solutions, search and location based services.

“Brands such as Callaway, Nike and others in the golf industry, alongside high profile investors, recognize that imeeGolf.com is a game changer, we are dragging golf into the 21st century,“ said McGuire. “I respect the traditions and etiquette of golf, but we will be offering a new experience for all that play the sport. Golf will no longer be just a good walked spoilt, there is much more to come!”

(more…)

Looking for promising entrepreneurs

Atomico Ventures will visit Dublin as part of their Open Office Tour. Throughout the year Automico visits European cities with exciting technology startup scenes. This is an ongoing initiative to connect entrepreneurial communities across Europe and to find rising technology stars. Recent cities have included Amsterdam, Paris, Stockholm and Berlin. This will be the first Open Office event in Dublin. “Ireland is one of the most exciting entrepreneurial markets in Europe. The Atomico team will meet with 20 local entrepreneurs to provide them with an opportunity to seek commercial advice and solicit feedback”, says Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype and founder and CEO of Atomico.

Atomico will also be hosting the opening dinner at Founders, a conference organized for some of the top international technology entrepreneurs, financiers, politicians and influencers to discuss the development of entrepreneurship in Ireland and across Europe. Founders has attracted some top names to make the journey to Dublin including Chad Hurley (founder of YouTube), Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter), Michael Birch (founder of Bebo), Tariq Krim (founder of Jolicloud), Matt Flannery (founder of Kiva) among many others.

In order to encourage and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs in Ireland, Niklas will also be speaking about entrepreneurship at the finale of the Dublin Web Summit on Friday 29th October at Trinity College.

About Atomico
Atomico is a leading technology investor, formed in 2006 by Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype, Kazaa and other companies. Atomico seeks to deliver outsized returns to its investors by being the partner, and investor of choice, for fast growing technology companies. Atomico invests in real opportunities, builds real businesses, and realizes real returns. Atomico has to date invested in over 30 companies, and in March 2010 launched the $165m fund Atomico Ventures II. www.atomico.com

Last year CES was host to eleven Enterprise Ireland client companies attending and displaying in categories ranging from the connected home to hands free texting. Does your company have an offering that fits?

When: Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

Get ready for Showdown 2011

Does your app have what it takes to face off against others?

Yes, you say. Then see how you can become a contestant.

It’s not too early to submit your app to next year’s Showdown.

Submit your app now and enjoy an early-bird saving (and early-bird exposure on this site).

More info: akanarek@earthlink.net
(800) 553-2399; (949)422-9399

Check out our other big CES event, Last Gadget Standing.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/9735853[/vimeo]

Print Magazine (www.printmag.com), a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design, has featured a story about Ireland’s burgeoning and resilient animation scene. According to the articles author John Canemaker, “Irish animation has held its own economically while attracting international admiration, including three Academy Award nominations.”

Canemaker spent two weeks in Ireland as a guest fellow at the National Film School Institute of Art/Design/Technology (IADT) in Dun Laoghaire teaching and working with students and industry professionals. The article is an excellent overview of the evolution of the Irish animation industry going all the way back to 1909, tracing its modern roots beginning in the 1960s, to today  and its positive trajectory into the future.

From the article…“That’s good news for young Irish animation talent, such as Stephen Duignan, a gifted designer/animator who was one of my students at Ireland’s National Film School’s IADT. “If the industry keeps going the way it’s going,” he recently emailed, “I’ll probably be able to [work] somewhere here in Ireland. “I think the recent awards and nominations really only serve to highlight the possibility of employment or even a career in animation in Ireland. So its reassuring to be going out into a workplace like that.”

Read the full article, entitled ‘Tis A Grand Day at PrintMag.com

Video above, The Secret of Kells.  Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards® 2010