Connected

Connected is back with two great guests and veterans of the IT industry. Michael Conway has been running Renaissance for over 30 years while Dave Feenan is the network manager for Technology Ireland/ICT Skills. The duo join Emmet Ryan on the Connected podcast to talk about the hot topics to pay attention to in cyber security and how you can best protect yourself, all ahead of Cyber Expo Ireland and Cyber Con Ireland on 26 November.

Eric Finn is Ireland's third best player of FIFA games while Josh Juliano was the only Irish player to make the finals of the Fortnite World Cup, where he finished 58th. These two talented gamers joined Emmet Ryan on the big show to talk about life as a top level player and the small matter of balancing it with school.

After raising €1.6 million in July, Buymie chief executive and co-founder Devan Hughes joins Emmet Ryan on the big show. Hughes has quite the start-up story, with Buymie going through the growing pains and runway issues that so many founders can relate to. Now, with a partnership with Lidl and significant growth in the online grocery sector globally, he tells Connected why this is the time for Buymie to strike it big and make a push into continental Europe.

Richard Barnwell, chief executive and founder of Digit Games, joins Emmet Ryan on the big show to talk about an Irish grown success story in the games business. The Dublin-based studio developed the wildly successful mobile game Star Trek Fleet Command and Barnwell's business was recently acquired by industry giant Scopely. Barnwell talks about the challenge of pleasing gamers and Star Trek fans, the work involved in building a game in this day and age, how Ireland is seeing a boom on the creative side of gaming, and what's next for Digit. Connected is produced and edited by Jack O'Kennedy which we're including in the text here because Emmet forgot to mention it during the interview. Live long and prosper.

Barry O'Sullivan of BBDO joins the big show to talk about a truly fascinating campaign he put together that ended up being amongst the rare Irish creations to get nominated for a Webby award, the internet's version of the Oscars. O'Sullivan and his team put together a virtual reality experience to make people see through the eyes of a drunk driver. O'Sullivan talks to Emmet Ryan about the concept behind the campaign, the technical challenges, and how IT is changing the thinking within the advertising industry.

Cassie Delaney of Tall Tales podcasts joins Emmet Ryan on the big show to talk about making a business out of talking. Running her own podcast network out of Dublin and producing commercial podcasts for big brands, Delaney talks about what goes into making a show work and how she finds topics that resonate with people and companies alike. It's a deep dive into the work behind podcasting that you won't want to miss.

Aoife Mulqueen of Vodafone Ireland joins Emmet Ryan on the big show to talk about how companies need to think broader about how they hire and retain staff. From unconscious bias through diversity and inclusion, she has plenty to say about how doing the right thing for potential hires is going to help your business save time and money while enabling growth.

In the latest Connected Podcast, Emmet Ryan talks to Enterprise Ireland's senior vice-president of digital technologies, Máire Walsh. She is impressed with the amount of talent and technology coming out of Ireland, but says some Irish companies could improve their marketing, especially when they are trying to break into the US market.

The big show is back as Connected gets a pharma buzz going in its latest episode. Emmet Ryan is joined by Andy Dundon of GSK to talk about all things around the pharmaceutical industry and technology. Andy is a fascinating guest as he has to take on one of the tougher challenges when it comes to explaining what he does. The importance of tech in pharma is easy for anyone to get, knowing what it involves and how it is evolving the industry is another matter entirely. On this episode he breaks everything down brilliantly in what is a really informative episode of the big show.

The big show returns from its long slumber and we're joined by the OG of European Young Scientist winners Grace O'Connor, who took the first title all the way back in 1989. O'Connor joins Emmet Ryan to discuss the EU Competition for Young Scientists coming to Dublin in September and why she still cares about the contest nearly three decades after winning. O'Connor, who now runs her own pharmacy chain, talks about how she still cares about her original project, what she learns from the youngsters taking part in the competition these days, plus why she wants you to rock up to the RDS to see all the projects in mid-September.