€100,000 in training for members over last 2 years – what about the next 2?

Published by Alison on February 23, 2010 in General. 0 Comments

We’ve been working hard to draw together a great application for Skillnet funding so that our members can have access to technical training at a subsidised rate (50%)

There are a lot of Skillnets competing for the available funding and we have to have an excellent application to be in with a chance of securing any.

We need to prove the committment of companies – that they will access the subsidised training and pay the subsidised rate for the courses. We need companies to fill in a letter of intent and send it to us before Friday to include it in our application. Companies can also make sure that their training needs are included in the application by filling out the online survey.

In the last two years €100,000 worth of training was delivered in Cork through the Software Skillnet. If we get what we’re looking for twice that amount could be delivered. However without the help of member companies we run the risk of not being able to access any funding.

Please help us to secure this funding for you!

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The IT Sentiment survey results are in and they’re really positive!

Published by Alison on November 9, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Key stats:

  • 52% of respondents think the Global Downturn is Over the Worst and 25% that it is Near to the End
  • 83% of respondents think that the Technology sector will play a Significant Role in the Recovery of the Economy
  • 40% of respondents plan to Recruit IT/Technical staff in the next 12 months
  • 48% of respondents think the Opportunities for Growth in the IT Industry are Increasing and 46% Stable

From the open ended questions:

The key role for IT in economic recovery was seen as the technology sector’s ability to enable other sectors to become more productive and cost effective. Also identified were the areas of technology usage to support business decisions and processes; green and clean technology and the generation of innovative and new technologies in general.

The key areas identified as having opportunities for growth were: green technology; cloud computing; virtualisation; mobile phone applications; data warehousing / data centres; and selling online.

We’re hoping that the theme of this year’s conference Recovery Through Technology reflects the confidence within the sector. Topics will include cloud computing; innovative products; competitiveness; and raising financial capital. We have Liam Casey of PCH International, opening the conference with ‘New Opportunities in the Global Economy’. (Casey was one of the speakers at the recent Global Economic Forum in Farmleigh.) and Mike Fitzgerald of Altobridge (this year’s Ernst & Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year) will discuss ‘How to Create an International Success from Ireland’.

It’s great to see that the sector is so optimisitc and confident! Thank you to everyone who completed a survey and congratulations again to Bob Grantham of CIX for winning the free place at the conference!

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Congratulations to Bob Grantham of CIX, winner of the draw for a conference place!

Published by Alison on November 4, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Thank you to everyone who completed our IT Sentiment Survey – we had 63 responses in total. Bob Grantham’s was the lucky survey number to come out of our randomizer and wins a place for the Recovery Through Technology Conference on November 18.

The findings of the survey will be summarised and put up on the website soon.

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Win a conference place! Take 5 minutes to complete our IT sentiment survey

Published by Alison on October 30, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Please take five minutes to complete our IT industry sentiment survey below and be entered into a draw for a ticket to the it@cork Recovery Through Technology Conference on November 18 – worth €195!

The survey closes at midnight on Tuesday November 3rd.


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Congratulations to this year’s Leaders Awards Winners!

Published by Alison on October 27, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

The winners of the 2009 it@cork Leaders Awards were announced on October 22nd at a ceremony in the Vertigo Lounge of Cork County Hall.
Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, made the keynote address commenting that awards such as the Leaders Awards where nominating and judging is performed by peers were held in high regard nationally. This year the judges again spoke of the high standard across the categories and how this positively reflected the vibrancy of the IT sector within Munster.

The winners in each category were:

Excellence in Education: Knockaclarig National school, Rockchapel, Mallow, Co. Cork

Chris Murphy, EMC, Tom Roche, WINNER - Excellence in Education Award, Knockaclarig NS, Rockchapel & Micheal Loftus CIT
Pictured are: Chris Murphy, EMC; Tom Roche, Knockaclarig NS; Michael Loftus, CIT

Green Technology: EMC

Jerry Sweeney, Chip E Services, Alan Cooney, EMC, WINNER, Green Technology Award and David McAuley, SEI, Sponsor of the Category

Pictured are: Jerry Sweeney, Chip Services; Alan Cooney, EMC; David McAuley, SEI

High Growth Company: AMCS

Dan Barry, Enterprise Ireland, Frank Reen, AMCS, WINNER of the High Growth Category & Denis Kennelly, IBM sponsor of the category

Pictured are: Dan Barry, Enterprise Ireland; Frank Reen, AMCS; Denis Kennelly, IBM

Sustained Excellence: GxP Systems

JJ Kett, VoiceSage, John Wall, GxP Systems, WINNER, Sustained Company Award & Laura Carroll, Verkom, Sponsor of the category

Pictured are: JJ Kett, Voicesage; John Wall, GxP Systems; Laura Carroll, Verkom

R&D project: yougetitback

Declan O'Mahoney, Firecomms, Pat Lynch, Yougetitback, WINNER R&D Award & Dan Barry, Enterprise Ireland

Pictured are: Declan O’Mahoney, Firecomms; Pat Lynch, yougetitback; Dan Barry, Enterprise Ireland

IT Department: Musgrave Group

Ruth Buckley, Cork City Council, Tony Griffin, Musgrave Group, IT Dept Award WINNER & Fergal Murray, Dell, sponsor of the category

Pictured are: Ruth Buckley, Cork City Council; Tony Griffin, Musgrave Group; Fergal Murray, Dell

High Potential Start-up: Avego

Shemas Eivers from Client Solutions, Micheal O' Gorman from Avego winners in the High Potential Start-Up Category & Martin Corkery, Enterprise Ireland

Pictured are: Shemas Eivers, Client Solutions; Michael O’Gorman, Avego; Martin Corkery, Enterprise Ireland

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Congratulations to our 2009 Leaders Awards Finalists!

Published by Alison on October 13, 2009 in Awards and Leaders Awards. 0 Comments

Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on October 22

The finalists in the Green Technology Category are:

* EMC
* Novartis Ringaskiddy
* Avego

The finalists in the High Growth Company Category are:

* SouthWestern
* Cubic Telecom
* AMCS

The finalists in the Sustained Excellence Category are:

* Eirteic Consulting
* PFH
* GxP Systems

The finalists in the R&D Project Category are:

* YouGetItBack
* Avego
* Newsweaver

The finalists in the Excellence in Education category are:

* Knockaclarig National school, Rockchapel, Mallow, Co. Cork
* School of the Divine Child Lavanagh Centre, Ballintemple, Cork
* St. Patricks Boys National School, Mallow, Co. Cork

The finalists in the IT Department Category are:

* CIT
* Musgrave
* Schering Plough

The finalists in the High Potential Start-up Category are:

* ProcessMaster
* Avego
* WaveBreak Media

Congratulations to all our finalists!

You can now purchase tickets for the Ceremony taking place in Vertigo Lounge, County Hall, next week!
Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, will be making the after-dinner speech. The evening includes a champagne reception from 7.15pm followed by a three course meal. The Awards will be presented after the meal. Tickets are €80 per person for members and €100 per person for non members. Tables of ten are also available. To make a group booking please email alison@itcork.ie
Dress code: suit/cocktail dress

The event is proudly sponsored by Airspeed Telecom, DELL, IBM, Enterprise Ireland, SEI, Verkom & EMC

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Presentations from java@cork – Sept 30

Published by Catherine Wall on October 1, 2009 in events. 0 Comments

Many thanks to Software Skillnet for their support of this event and to DeCare Systems Ireland, for sponsoring the student fund. We had students from WIT, Tipperary Institute, Tralee IT, UCC and CIT!
Please take a minute or two to review the event on our website and tell us what kind of Technical events you want in the future! Scroll to the end of this page to review

First up was Simon Ritter from Sun Microsystems.

Java Future S Ritter
View more documents from catherinewall.

Next we had Ben Hale from SpringSource

Building Modular Dynamic Web Apps Ben Hale
View more documents from catherinewall.

After the coffee break, Manik Surtani, JBoss was up:

Infinispan The Future Of Os Data Grids Manik Surtani
View more documents from catherinewall.

Finally we had Kevin Noonan’s Presentation:

Cannibalising The Google App Engine
View more documents from catherinewall.

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Listen to Liam Casey’s Interview on Morning Ireland – Sept 18

Published by Catherine Wall on September 19, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

We are delighted that Founder and CEO of PCH International Liam Casey has agreed to open this year’s it@cork Technology in Business Conference ‘Recovery Through Technology’ on November 18.

Liam is taking part in the Global Economic Forum event this weekend and was interviewed on Morning Ireland. You can listen to his positive interview here

Looking forward to hearing more of the same from Liam on November 18! The full programme is available on www.itcork.ie. Mark your Dairy Now!

Mr. China, LIam Casey, who will open the it@cork Recovery Through Technology' Conference on Nov 16

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Take 15 Minutes to Nominate for an it@cork Leaders Award!

Published by Catherine Wall on September 19, 2009 in Awards. 0 Comments

Nominations close Midnight this Friday, Sept 25 for the Leaders Technology Awards. Get your nominations in for the 2009 it@cork Leaders Awards – Recognising Leaders in Technology Innovation.

The Leaders Awards are open to entrants from indigenous and subsidiary companies with operations based in Munster. More info and nomination from here

Nominations are invited in the following categories:

* High Potential Start-up
* High Growth Company
* Sustained Excellennce
* R&D Project
* IT Department
* Green Technology
* Excellence in Education

What our past winners have to say:

R&D Project Award Winners 2008 Lena Ni Mhurchu, SafetyEYE Project Manager with Pilz Ireland: ” Winning helped raise the profile of Pilz Ireland in Cork, it was highly appreciated by the Cork team and great motivation. Working in the area of Industrial Automation, the high standard of software tools we produce can be overlooked – to have the product acknowledged by the software industry helped Pilz Ireland gain recognition within the worldwide Pilz group.”

IT Department Award Winners 2008 James Fogarty, Cork County Council: “The award resulted in very good publicity for Cork County Council and raised the awareness and appreciation both internally and externally of the work we do to increase the efficiency of the services the Council provides.”

Emerging Company Award winner 2007 Pat Phelan, Cubic Telecom: “Winning the award enhanced our profile amazingly, being recognised by your peers is very important, it is great to have a Cork award for a Cork company which was also noticed by our international partners.”

High Potential Award winner 2007 Ger Fitzgerald, Abtran: “The event was very well managed; winning the award enhanced our profile and led to increased press coverage”

R&D Project Award Winners 2007 Enda Keane, Treemetrics: “Credibility is very important for start-ups; winning the it@corkR&D Project Award gave us that credibility. Validation from your peers is a great boost to staff morale. Our customers noticed that we had won the award and it increased confidence in our product.”

And James Little, Cork Constraint Computation Centre (4Cs): “There was a lot of buzz about the project on the awards night; winning the Leaders Award has helped us showcase how academia and industry can work together for the benefit of the Irish economy.”

IT Department Winner 2007 Ruairi Roddy, Thomas Crosbie Holdings: “After a tough but rewarding year, to be recognised by fellow IT people as getting it right was a huge boost for us all.”

We look forward to receiving your nominations before middnight this Friday, Sept 25!

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Leaders Awards 2009 – Nominations Now Open!

Published by Alison on August 24, 2009 in Awards and Leaders Awards. 0 Comments

Why not nominate a company you know for an it@cork Leaders Award?

There are seven categories this year:
High Potential Start-up
High Growth Company
Sustained Excellence
R&D Project
IT Department
Green Technology
Excellence in Education

With the addition of the new Sustained Excellence category we think that the Awards have the potential to recognise leading companies at all stages. This award recognises ‘mature’ companies with the High Potential Start-up and High Growth categories covering earlier stage companies.

The Green Technology award sees us partnering with Sustainable Energy Ireland and will allow us to recognise a company which uses technology to help reduce its energy usage – we like to think we’re building on the success of last year’s Green IT conference with this one!

The Excellence in Education category is competitive this year so tell any schools/teachers you know who have been actively engaging with technology to submit a nomination.

The R&D Project and IT Department categories remain unchanged.

Further details on the categories and how to nominate a company can be found here on our website.

Submissions close on September 25 and the winners will be announced at the Leaders Awards ceremony on October 22.

Don’t forget if you’re not in you can’t win – so get nominating!

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