The dot conf 2013 – they've done it again!

The dot conf 2013 at NCI in Dublin was a great event – for the fourth year in a row they managed to gather amazing speakers with excellent topics and create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere (that might have something to do with the conference “being in touch with its inner toddler” to quote the  MC Karlin Lillington).

The speakers were absolutely fantastic and the selection of talks and deep dives ranged from cloud computing, social media, digital trends, to fashion and Open Source

It was an amazing opportunity for anyone hoping to make a living from their passion for online as they had a chance to listen to talks and panel discussion by Naoise McNally (co-founder – One Fab Day), Andrea Magnorsky (co-founder – BatCat Games), Kirstie McDermott (Frillseeker), Rory Nugent (showbizgeek.com), Jennie McGinn (Prowlster). They talked about the different ways of monetizing the passion, the importance of choosing something you feel strongly about, not taking things personally and also the responsibility that comes with the first hire in your start up.

Jon Morter , the “social media hellraiser” provided the audience with invaluable tips on what not to do with your company Facebook page in the funny and informative talk “Lessons From a Condescending Corporate Brand” – btw, you can like the FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/corporatebollocks

James Whelton, co-founder of Coder Dojo, who finally made it to the dot conf to deliver the keynote speech, decided not to talk about the usual “puppies, rainbows and kids coding” but to touch on a couple of other important issues. He started off with saying that people used to need to learn to read and write in order to make progress, but to make further changes we need to code. What if doctors, lawyers, policemen etc. could code, he asked, what amazing new developments could we see then?
James also expressed concern over politicians making decisions that influence technologies they do not understand (extreme example – senator Fidelma Healy Eames and ‘fraping’ ) censorship of the internet (Pirate Bay being blocked by Irish internet providers), and the much discussed in recent weeks – privacy issues, the dangers of our personal data being available to governments, and thus to “randoms” like Edward Snowden, people we know nothing about, have no reason to trust and would never share private information with if actually asked for permission.

The dot conf 2013 was absolutely great, and if NCI organise their courses as well as their digital conferences then you absolutely have to check out what they have to offer here

Karolina Martyniak – Prosperity