The annual Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP), which has just commenced at NovaUCD, assists UCD academic and research entrepreneurs in bringing their innovative ideas from intellectual concepts to fully developed and sound commercial businesses.
Just under 190 new ventures and 290 individuals have to date completed this programme which has run since 1996.
The programme culminates with a high profile Awards Evening which will be held in November. At the end of this event the UCD 2012 Start-Up of the Year Award will be presented to one of the participating ventures. Former winners of this prestigious Award include companies such as BiancaMed, Equinome, Logentries and RendezVu.
This year a prize fund of over €35,000 will be available to the 2012 CCDP award winners. In addition to cash prizes and 6-months free NovaUCD desk space, Aristo, Arthur Cox, Delaney Financial Consultancy, Deloitte and Newmarket Partnership will be providing professional services. AccountsIQ will also be providing a free 1-year subscription to its accountancy software.
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, University College Dublin, Communications Manager (Innovation), e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: + 353 1 716 3712

The competition was inspired by an initiative of senior executives at Pepsi. They saw the value of engaging with early-stage digital companies that might help to provide insights and innovation to the soft drink maker. The PepsiCo10 competition was born out of this, and run in conjunction with Highland Capital Partners, and a participant of Highland Capital Partners is now working with the Irish Times on The Irish Times Digital Challenge.
There is a major bonus to the winner of The Irish Times Digital Challenge in the access their innovation will have to Irish Times users  – up to several million per month. Each finalist will receive marketing to the value of €10,000 while the overall winner will receive investment funds to the value of €50,000. To assist the finalists in developing their path to market, NDRC LaunchPad will run a mini-startup incubator inside The Irish Times over eight weeks. In addition to extensive mentoring, there will be €10,000 worth of free legal, accounting, and taxation advice for the finalists over the eight weeks. Enterprise Ireland will also be offering support during this phase.
To register your interest - http://www.irishtimesidealab.com/

The venue is the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, and the seminar runs between 8.30 am to 10.00am

To book and confirm your place on this Breakfast Briefing you can register your interest here -  http://www.sureskills.com/social_media_for_business_briefing.html or you can email registerme@SureSkills.com

The nominations were announced earlier this month and it is a hotly contested field with a lot of great contenders across 6 headline categories. The length and quality of the nomination list reflects the mainstreaming of Social Media across many different media platforms, including video, mobile apps, blogging, Twitter and Facebook.  While many categories will decide who makes BEST use of these platforms, there are headings that award the Effectiveness, Integration or PR value of campaigns. There is even a category for our Obama wannabes - Best Use of Social Media in an Election.

You can check out the nomination list here - http://socialmediaawards.com/ , you can follow Social Media Awards on Twitter for all the latest news - @socmediaawards and the official hashtag for the event is #sockies.

It promises to be another great night, so get your tickets early

Four Irish and six international teams from Israel, Brazil, US, China, Romania, Lithuania and Poland selected from over 150 international applicants, will pitch their start-up businesses to a global panel of over 100 investors.
These new businesses have a good chance of job creation thanks to the Startupbootcamp model. Eoghan Jennings who is behind the Dublin initiative explains: “what we’re trying to do is build tomorrow’s employers.”
The programme focuses on creating sounder businesses rather than focusing on funding. They create traction with customers before seeking funding or hiring people.
“Some of the mistakes we’ve made in the past, if we’ve funded an idea before we reached the product/market fit, jobs aren’t created and funds evaporate.”

Online and technological innovators will rub shoulders over canapés and cocktails at the end of the month at this start up mixer in the nation’s capital.
This is an event for everyone from investors to designers, hackers, media professionals, students, developers – in fact anyone involved in ever-evolving online businesses  in Ireland.
According to the organisers you can:
•    Expect upwards of 300 people at this event.
•    Get the technology conversation started over a tipple.
•    Witness some exciting interactive demonstrations.
•    Be inspired by Ireland’s early stage start up community, who believe they’re standing on the verge of something big.
This is the third event of its kind for Dublin Beta and takes place at Lost Society on 30 April. Register online at dublinbeta.com.

While the ticket prices for the actual summit are not yet available entry to the launch is free (once you book online first).
The cavernous venue will be transformed into a technology village for the 17 April launch. It will be further divided into streets, alleys, avenues, squares and lanes. These will each be dedicated to communities in Dublin relevant to the DWS audience: start-ups, social media, developers, investors, techies etc.
Free tickets can be booked at Websummit.net as can tech village exhibitor tickets (not free). An earlier talk by the chairman of WPP and a panel of entrepreneurs is already sold out.

Jordan Casey was the youngest developer to have his iPhone app Alien ball v’s Humans approved in the Apple app store in Europe, earlier this year.
He is organising the awards to showcase the talent of young Irish people when it comes to developing apps, games, websites and so on
He has requested help with:
•    Spreading the word
•    PR and Media
•    Helping with organisation
•    Sponsoring the event
•    Judging the categories
•    Helping out on the day
Sponsors, advertisers and volunteers can make enquiries by emailing the address on Irishkidstechawards.tk. Jordan’s vision for the awards as well as his explanation of the difference between sponsors and advertisers can be seen on the fundraising page for the awards or on the irishkidstechawards channel on YouTube.

“We’ve sourced the best speakers from around the world who specialise looking at the trends in the media,” says Jack Murray of MediaContact.ie about the rebranded Media Future conference which takes place on 14-15 May with early bird tickets available until Friday, 30 April.
Who’s the conference for? “If you work in the media and you want to get a glimpse into future and see what’s happening around the world.”
The conference includes four workshops on the afternoon of 14 May – two of which are social media related. Josh Macht, Group Publisher, Harvard Business Review (HBR), has lots of lessons from the HBR’s digital journey to share in How to Get Results from Social Media.
Why Social News is Transforming Information Consumption will explore how 75% of all online news is now accessed through shared news from social networking sites or email.

Paul Campbell, one of the organisers of the aptly named Úll (the Irish word for apple) explains: “We’re planning on bringing top class international speakers, a few local speakers and the best of local catering suppliers to create an intimate event with a focus on quality: the kind of quality we expect from software on Apple devices.”
The conference, he explains, is for anyone interested in developing software on or for Apple products: “from initial concept, through design, programming and the business of selling itself. The speaking lineup reflects this, as will the structure of the conference itself.”
It includes: Ireland’s foremost iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith and a workshop with Josh Clark from Tapworthy Mobile Design and UX and author of ‘Tapworthy, designing Great iPhone Apps’. Úll runs in Dublin from 27-29 April 2012. Visit http://ull.ie to find out more.