Players can view the aspiring entrepeneurs’ pitches, and then decide if they are ‘out’, ‘in’ or assess the projects for equity. The aim is to scale the ranks on a live online leaderboard and bcome the sixth dragon on the panel : )
The app was developed to profile Bank of Ireland’s SME portal www.allaboutbusiness.ie and to demonstrate Bank of Ireland’s support for business in Ireland.
This game is a nice forerunner of TV based engagement, and heralds a future where television viewers will no longer be passive. EightyTwenty/4d have put together a nice story board of how they developed this campaign http://www.eightytwenty.ie/project/dragons_den_game

Created by: BusinessDegree.net

Instant Opinion, the brainchild of Aidan Kenny, claims to be the world’s first system for realtime collection of customer feedback.
It is initially focusing on the hospitality/hotel sector as people in this business understand the importance of customer service, Kenny explains.
Currently customers of hotels using Instant Opinion can text (for free) or email feedback. The duty manager assigned receives the message immediately and can act on it. This means the customer leaves happy rather than complaining in a feedback form or on an online forum days later.
Apps are in development but for the moment “we find SMS is a technology people are comfortable using,” says Kenny who also runs a service design company Servitize.
Instant Opinion was demonstrated at the recent Techovate conference as a means for delegates to ask questions – just one of its many potential uses.

A new magazine for the tech community, available on digital platforms, is to be launched on Thursday.
Idea magazine, explains Publisher Martha Rotter, will be free and will be available online and formats such as ePub. “It’s all web standards-based so it looks great everywhere,” she says.
The magazine will provide coverage of start-ups and individuals at the cutting edge of Ireland’s tech industry. “The audience is people who are working in the tech community; we’re trying the things that would be interested primarily with them.”
Rotter, a freelance developer who formerly worked with Microsoft, had noticed a gap in the market for such a niche publication when she moved to Ireland four years ago.
The Idea magazine team includes Design Director Stewart Curry and Editor-in-Chief Niall Kitson.
Go to readidea.com to sign up for notification of the magazine’s launch – the ideas for upcoming issues are very promising!

The bi-annual advertising spend study from IAB Ireland and PwC found that Irish online advertising recorded its highest level of growth at 20.5% in the first half of 2011.
Online now ranks number three in total media spend, outperforming radio, outdoor, cinema and magazine.
The breakdown of online spend is as follows:
•    Display (34%)
•    Paid search advertising (45%)
•    Classified advertising (21%)
Strong growth in display has been witnessed in IAB adspend studies in the UK and across Europe as brands embrace online advertising in growing numbers.
For the first time an estimate of display adspend on mobile has been provided in the adspend study. Mobile advertising is still a relatively new platform in the digital media mix. The dramatic increase in smartphone penetration and usage has contributed to increased interest in mobile advertising. Display adspend on mobile is estimated at €1.6m in H1 2011.

One of the topics for the 9am slot is what the new Facebook timeline is about. Charles Dowd, Developer Relations, EMEA, Facebook is one of the first speakers at the summit which includes Prosperity MD, Gary Mullan and nine speakers from 9am to 4pm.
Topics covered include how to improve online conversion, future-proofing e-fulfilment, building and keeping trust, planning to succeed, how process beats price and product, SEO vs PPC, importance of brand strategy, unlocking the secrets of e-commerce.
Meteor, Retail Excellence Ireland and Happy Treads will tell their tales of e-tailing in the afternoon. The day includes two SagePay workshops and exhibitions. Sponsors of this conference from The Sunday Business Post include e-celtic, Celebros, Magico, Clipper, Retail Excellence Ireland and Prosperity. Visit http://www.internetretailing.ie/schedule/ for further details.

The team behind Intercom is CEO Eoghan McCabe, COO Des Traynor, CTO Ciaran Lee and David Barrett, front end developer.
“It’s for anything people log into – web apps, websites,” explains Traynor. “It’s moving to competing on quality of service.” The concept is that human level of contact can’t be left behind and this is where it differs from other CRM tools.
“It’s not enough just to see the messages from your user,” says Traynor. “It lets you get to know your users, greeting them when they log in, exposing certain things about users for example their Twitter account or LinkedIn profile… We tell you everything about them; we group the entire conversation history you have with the user.”
See intercom.io to sign up for free during private beta.

Neylon says jobseekers can use their own websites to highlight what they do well. The firm’s summer offer allows people to register a .me domain for just €5.99 a year.

“The .me domain name is perfect for a personal site. For example, if you’re a designer and you want to set up a simple portfolio website or an architect who wants to show your past work, you can use the .me domain,” says Neylon.

The .me domain name, which comes from Montenegro, gives people the opportunity to build cool concepts with their own site, says Neylon.

“By registering your own domain name you have 100 per cent control over it. You can move it around and maybe use it to create a simple, yet attractive CV at a minimal cost,” he adds.

Being chosen as the Irish representative at the competition is a great honour for the NovaUCD spin-off, which launched its service earlier this year. HeyStaks provides a social layer on top of all mainstream search engines, allowing people to search more collaboratively.

The company wants web search to be more social and its apps make this possible for mainstream search engines such as Google and Bing.

Prof Barry Smyth, co-founder of HeyStaks, says winning the national stage of Mobile Clicks is a fantastic opportunity for the firm.
“It’s a strong validation of the HeyStaks product-set and our business opportunity, and it shines a global spotlight on our unique approach to social search,” he says.
Smyth says the company plans to build upon its product-set in the coming year to cover all major browser platforms, social networks and app platforms.

The idea came primarily from Beth Cocher, the company’s social media manager, who after a skill-share class about Arduino machines, wanted to use the technology creatively. Arduino machines are self-made robots that tie in with a computer using Arduino cards.
In this case, Brando used a gumball machine which dropped sweets every time somebody tweeted #tweetsweets. Occasionally it threw a ‘curveball’ and staff had to do challenges such as charades, which were streamed online via a webcam.
Brendan O’Flaherty, owner of Brando, says it showed what the firm does as a digital advertising agency.
“The campaign was launched around lunchtime on Thursday and ended at close of business on Friday. During that time we interacted with people from 30 different countries, as far away as Brazil and China.”
Some 5,000 people watched the webcam at the same time, while 61pc of those visiting Brando’s site were new visitors.