In recent times I have been lucky enough to meet lots of new people in whole new areas for Connector. I have found myself miles from my digital marketing homeland and over in what could be best described as an interesting but alien socio-political-economic landscape. On my travels I have been connecting with an assortment of non-techies, technophobes and luddites which is nice for a change and makes me feel oh-so nerdy!
In 2009, I am sure I was not the only one to be utterly depressed at the sorry turn of global events and the international pounding our once proud celtic tiger economy was taking. This was in the back of my mind as I set out to become a full time connector in the midst of a recession in February. I wanted to travel a new road and see where it took me and here are some of the connections along the way as I have ben a very lazy blogger lately!
As a recent graduate of the 6 month long (part-time) Common Purpose Meridian Programme, for the first time I encountered many senior civil servants and politicians and visited several ministeries and even Mountjoy Prison. Only yesterday at an alumni event we were presented to by the most senior civil servant of them all, Dermot McCarthy, Secretary General to the Government & the Taoiseach.
I was also recently chatting to the Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation, Conor Lenihan TD at the annual showcase for the excellent Computer Clubhouse project in the Liberties (pictured above). Conor had great craic with the kids and remarked that they were better hecklers than the guys in the Dail! I was then very happy to be involved in a small way with helping Padraig McKeown promote the Martin McAleese brainchild ‘Your Country Your Call‘ campaign at a Connector Event in the Science gallery – this competition is now at the exciting judging phase.
And now I see I missed the recent launch of Gateway Ireland and on the same day I assume, I walked by Gabriel Byrne and regretfully not running after him to say hello! This project looks quite exciting too and a welcome offspring of the Farmleigh conference of 2009. I see from their web site & video they are also about connecting the Irish dots … ah now lads, shor I’ve been doing that with Connector for over 2 years now! ;-0 I wish them all the best in their endeavours to promote Irish business, tourism, culture & education and the team of advisors they have assembled is first class.
As another 2009 connection, Colm Long from Facebook, said on the RTE News site, “the company has been working with John McColgan since shortly after the Farmleigh event nine months ago. He says that Facebook got involved because connecting people all around the world is its business. He says that connecting with the country’s diaspora will be key to the success of the site.”
Gateway Ireland – An Introduction from Fountainhead on Vimeo.
So what is it with this sudden burst of economic nationalism? While the dire state of the state’s finances is well known, there is a fight back coming on strong. There is a very exciting turning of the tide underway and I hope it hits the country’s shores in 2010.
With all my talks to small businesses recently including at the Entrepreneur Show, I see a realisation that the time to energize and digitize the nation is now, as Joan Mulvihill iia CEO championed so well recently. People are fighting back and connecting with each other at networking events the length & breadth of the country. However thankfully the country’s heavyweights seem to be up for the fight and are grouping together to collaborate. The international connections with the Irish diaspora hold the key but it is us at home who must do the hard work.
A final new connection this week was a really enjoyable conversation with Andrew McLaughlin who is the Director of the Masters in Organisational Behaviour in the IMI. On Thursday he just published a very timely and fascinating research report for the IDA called ‘Innovation & the Irish Mind.’ As Steve Jobs from Apple said, “creativity is just connecting things” and Andrew has found that the Irish executives and entrepreneurs have a unique mindset that could be just perfect for the ‘conceptual age’.
In a great supporting article in Decision magazine, Andrew writes that the ‘conceptual age’, from Daniel Pink’s book ‘A Whole New Mind‘, will require new skills of which Ireland might be perfectly equipped to prosper once more. The Irish entrepreneurs have a preference for social connections and associating with others who have larger social networks. They also have a tolerance for ambiguity which indicates independent idiosyncratic innovative minds!
I am doing a disservice to this vast subject area and 80 page report by summarising it into a paragraph via a 2 page article, but the full report was co-written by Megan Burgdorf and can be found at ‘Innovation & the Irish Mind.’ However as the government has also produced an several ‘knowledge economy’ style reports, it is the actual implementation of good ideas that will get us back to our rightful place punching above our weight on the global stage.
The fact that this community of Irish economic nationalists has formed is very encouraging and will it have the desired impact? If you have any comments or messages of support for these initiatives, please leave a comment below.
Words by Conor Lynch / Photo by Pavla K Smidova
