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After 4 years at the helm Fergal O’Byrne, IIA CEO, is moving on
Friday 24th July, Dublin – The Irish Internet Association (IIA) announced today that Fergal O’Byrne will be moving on from the his post in the IIA in September. Fergal will become the new CEO of Remote Video Technology company Sonru.com.
During his 4 year tenure O’Byrne has overseen the substantial growth of the association. He leaves the organisation in the strongest position it has been in, since its launch ten years ago. The board is confident that the next CEO will continue to build on the excellent position the IIA is in today.
O’Byrne is due to officially step down at the association’s AGM on September 10th. He will continue in his current role until a new CEO is identified and to ensure a smooth transition to the new CEO.
Maeve Kneafsey – Chair, IIA and MD, Elucidate said of O’Byrne’s record at the IIA, "Fergal has built the Irish Internet Association into one that provides real value and expertise to its membership and is recognised as the authoritative voice of the Irish Internet industry.
His commitment, professionalism and understanding of both the internet sector and the needs of our membership has been exceptional. On a personal note I have greatly enjoyed working with such a talented CEO, and will miss his input which has seen the membership grow by over 50%, the establishment of 8 active working groups and the engagement in joint industry activities such as the Internet Growth Alliance and the Failte Ireland E Business Development Initiative. I am also confident that the strength of the association will attract some very strong candidates that will see the association further develop services to members, representing the interest of the Internet industry and fulfilling our mission of connecting, informing and educating."
Fergal O’Byrne, IIA CEO, announcing his departure, commented, "This has been a fantastic organisation to be involved in. I have met many enthusiastic business people over the last four years who are committed to making the internet an integral part of their business. I am proud of the work the Association has been able to carry out thanks to a very encouraging Board, chaired by Maeve Kneafsey, an amazing team in Roseanne and Irene, and a membership that has continually supported the work we do."
How to Apply?
The association is calling for expressions of interest in the CEO position. Simply email vacancy@iia.ie with the word CEO Job in the subject line, from an email address that we will use for all further communications with you on this matter. The process will be made available on the IIA website and blog shortly.
Applicants should consider their suitability for the position based on some of the evaluation criteria listed below:
1. Ability to secure and manage sponsorship and sponsors (experience over minimum of 3 years)
2. Experience in building a membership
3. Ability to understand, work on and monitor financial reports and budgets (minimum budgets of 1m and over 3 years experience)
4. Ability to manage staff
5. Events organisation and management experience (minimum 3 years similar events/training)
6. Experience in managing an organisation with similar stakeholders and understanding of the political tensions/vested interests (experience at senior level over minimum of 2 years)
7. Understanding and experience in working in the Internet industry (experience at least 4 years in internet industry across variety of disciplines)
Read the full CEO Job Specification here and view the Recruitment Process & Timelines here.
WEB RESOLUTION IMAGES
Further Information
Craoltóirí Gaeilge: Tá Gaeilge líofa ag Roseanne Smith má’s mian leat agallaimh a dhéanamh léi.
About the IIA
The Irish Internet Association is the professional body for those conducting business via the internet from Ireland. It has been and remains one of the driving forces behind the adoption of the medium. Established in 1997, the IIA provides leadership to enterprises and society conducting business in Ireland. The IIA is a strong voice for its 550 plus company memberships. The aim of the Association is to Connect, Inform and Promote.
Contact Details
Roseanne Smith Communications Manager 01 542 4154 Email Roseanne |
Fergal O’Byrne CEO 087 683 8922 Email Fergal |
Guest Blogger, search engine optimisation
Does an Ethical Online Business Make a Successful Online Business?
This is a guest post from Ann Donnelly of O’Mahony Donnelly E-Business Development who are IIA Members based in Clonakilty, Co. Cork
This week there was a big buzz online about an article posted on Tech Crunch “The Time Has Come To Regulate Search Engine Marketing And SEO”. In the opinion of the anonymous guest author: “Due to Google’s dominance — and the fact that it controls such an enormous amount of consumer behavior through paid and organic search listings – the company in essence governs commerce on the web.” This is a topic that has come up time and again over the past few years in webmaster forums and search industry conferences, but in many cases the complaint comes from those that are looking for short cuts to get results through search engines or those that are focusing on one aspect of online marketing success instead of developing a full, well rounded online marketing plan.
A small number of these people are using techniques that some would consider unethical to promote their own websites, or are using these techniques to provide such services to others. Some are using ethical techniques, but using dishonest or hard sell marketing to promote their services. This sort of behaviour happens across all industries (we all trust used car salesmen, right?), but in our industry the consumer is particularly vulnerable, as he often feels he doesn’t have the technical knowledge and doesn’t listen to his own common sense – and there is such an enormous amount of bad advice out there.
It may sound harsh, but those people that have knowingly chosen these methods will probably laugh at what I am saying here and will continue in the same manner, full throttle, and may get very rich from it. On the other hand, I have met a number of people in the industry that honestly feel that these are legitimate methods and don’t see that they are limiting the type of results they will get from their businesses. Why do I care about these people? Their behaviour causes consumers to distrust the industry as a whole. A customer that has had a bad experience shopping online will avoid shopping online again. A business that has gotten poor results with their website because the web developer they chose was inexperienced, will just feel that online marketing won’t work at all for them.
There are also a large number of young men and women, as well as those recently made redundant, that are starting up their own businesses and are looking to those of us already established in the industry for guidance on the way to go with this.
It’s up to each business owner to decide what sort of methods he will use. Do you want to sign on a large number of customers that will use your services once or over a short period of time or do you want to develop longer term relationships built on old fashioned, good service and hard work?
If you choose the first method and are tricking people into signing up for your services, not providing good value and are not getting results for your customers the bad news will get around quickly enough and you may end up out of business. This is especially true with so many people using social networking web sites. News of bad service travels much faster than good reviews.
Are you providing the best products and services? If not, are you providing better value for what you do? Do your customers fully understand what they are getting for their money? Take a look at your business and see if you can develop a business model that’s good for your customers as well as for yourself.
Let’s go back to “Big, Bad Google”. They state on their Corporate Overview page: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” They do this by providing “an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.” Looking just at the search side of Google’s businesses the changes they have made over the years have all focused on returning “relevant results” not because they are really nice guys, but because that is what makes people come back to use the Google search engine again and again. Focusing on this has brought about the “dominance” that is resented by their competitors and search marketing professionals that are looking for short cuts to success.
This resentment is even stronger now that Google AdWords have brought financial success as well. Google has made their products and services easy to use, with full documentation and helpful videos. They now have staff speaking at most industry conferences and using social networking tools to more fully communicate and assist users of all of their products.
This shows the importance of setting the right mission statement for your business and, once you have done this, maintaining your focus on that mission to bring best results for your business. What do you want to achieve in your business? Are you looking to just make a living or are you looking for greater satisfaction in helping others achieve their business goals; or do you need to be the best (in number of sales, awards, publicity)? Are you looking to build up your business to a point where you can sell it on to another bigger business? Your goals are going to be based on the type of products/services as well as what your personal needs are. I am not judging any of these goals, just saying that it’s important to define them and remain focused.
By developing the best mix of products and services with the right pricing structure you then have a business that is financially viable and, hopefully, lucrative with a base of happy, loyal customers (as well as happy, loyal suppliers) that are with you for the long term and referring you to their friends and colleagues – working with you to build a successful business that is around for the long term. Just have a look at “10 Things Google Has Found to Be True”.
Ann Donnelly has her own blog with News and Views on SEO, Web Development, Online Marketing and the internet in general — and maybe some other posts on business and life itself.
Her business O’Mahony Donnelly E-Business Development specialises in Search Engine Placement &
Offering a full line of Online Marketing Services:
– Web Design & Development
– Shopping Carts & Payment Processing
– Search Engine Placement
– Email Marketing
– AdWords Campaign Management
– Social Networking (Blogs, Forums, etc.)
– Online Customer Service
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Welcome Paul Griffiths to Team BrowseAloud
Paul Griffiths is the new addition to the BrowseAloud team. Paul is responsible for boosting the BrowseAloud community within Ireland (North and South) and Scotland. Paul has had great success to date securing large governmental organisations, health authorities, educational establishments and corporate organisations, despite our tough economic climate.
"I firmly believe that everyone, regardless of ability/disability, should have a positive experience on the web," says Paul. "My role within Texthelp allows me to host seminars, in association with industry experts, to spread the word about web accessibility. Ultimately, my goal is to encourage website owners to enhance their website by making it accessible to as many people as possible."
Paul developed his keen interest in website accessibility during his role within one of the UK’s leading search engine organisations. A large part of this organisation’s operations were carried out online and, having direct contact with many of their clients, Paul witnessed first hand that you didn’t have to be registered with a disability to have trouble accessing information online.
"Joining Texthelp has given me the opportunity to work in an environment where I can make a difference; it’s really very rewarding."
Uncategorized
Vote, vote, vote!
Elections for the IIA Board have now opened and we have 12 smashing candidates from all walks of internet business. You can read all about them on IIA.ie and if you are an IIA Member you are encouraged to cast your vote before 5pm 30 July 2009.
A personal plea from the IIA staff: these people will be our bosses. You’ve met us, we’re nice people. Do right by us and make your choice wisely 🙂
Each member company has one voting user. If you are a member please login to find out who this is. Click on Members Network and the information is displayed. If this person is no longer with your company please email members at iia dot ie with the following details:
Company name, full name, position and email address of the individual you wish to hold the vote.
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IIA Board Elections: Members please cast your votes
The IIA Board elections are running until 30th July 2009. Each fully paid-up IIA Member company has one set of 5 votes. The voting user in each company is responsible for casting these votes.
Please read on to find out more about this year’s candidates.
Candidates
Peter Callan: DigitalWorx
Peter Callan is managing director of DigitalworX limited, the digital division of The Irish Times Ltd which runs Ireland.com, MyHome.ie, irishracing.com and its interest in entertainment.ie and Electric Media.
Peter joined The Irish Times in 2004 and previously held the role of group financial controller.
He qualified as a chartered accountant with BDO before spending four years with the Techrete group as financial controller. He also held a number of senior roles over a five-year period at electro mechanical group APW, including vice-president of finance for Europe Asia and South America, and general manager and finance director of its Dublin operation.
Peter Clerkin: TV3
Peter joined TV3 in 2008 and currently manages TV3s digital web properties. During this time TV3.ie won 2 prestigious Eircom Golden Spider awards and was a finalist at digital media awards 2009.
With over 17 years experience working in the multimedia and internet industry Peter is an experienced consultant in digital sector and has managed the re-design of some of the world’s largest web portals. Former Head of Creative for AOL Technologies Ireland, Peter has worked with leading brands such as Warner Bros., Netscape Corp and Creative Labs and has served as a director with a number on Irish online start-ups.
Gary Conroy: Realex Payments
Gary Conroy is the Chief Operating Officer of Realex Payments, having been with the company since 2005.
Gary has over ten years experience in International Financial Services. Prior to joining Realex Payments, Gary managed Commodity Operations with London-based investment banking giants Goldman Sachs International, and delivered Banking Software Implementation projects around the globe for MISYS / Kindle Banking Systems.
In his work with Realex Payments, Gary helps Irish Internet businesses to optimise their online revenue potential. To this effect, Gary has authored White Papers on the area of Online Payments Strategy.
As the Chief Operating Officer of a Software as a Service (SaaS) organisation, Gary is ideally placed to facilitate sharing and developing best practice for Cloud Computing and SaaS organisations.
Suzanne Delaney: OgilvyOne worldwide
With over twenty years International experience and a comprehensive background in new media and relationship marketing Suzanne heads up Digital division of Ogilvy in Ireland. Digtal is at the heart of Ogilvy, a fully integrated discipline across the three brands, Ogilvy & Mather, OgilvyOne and WHPR .
As Interactive Digital Director she is responsible for marketing strategy across clients which include IBM, HSE, GSK, Cadburys, Kellogs, Superquinn, Peter Mark, Safefood, AXA Insurance and Vodafone Global.
Prior to joining Ogilvy Suzanne spent twelve years in Sydney, Australia, as Group Account Director for Rethinking – an interactive agency. Accounts included Accenture, AAMI Insurance, Pfizer,Toyota Global, Telstra, St George Bank, BATA, SOCOG many Government bodies. Prior to Rethink Suzanne was a founding Director of New Toys Multimedia which was sold to Spike Networks and successfully floated on the Australian stock exchange in June 2000. Suzanne was made Director of OgilvyOne in January 2009.
Please visit Suzanne’s blog to find out more what she would contribute to the IIA as a board member.
Clare Dillon: Microsoft Ireland
Clare Dillon joined Microsoft in 2003 and currently heads up Microsoft Ireland’s Developer and Platform Group. The Developer and Platform Group works with Microsoft’s customers, partners, local software companies and particularly the broad developer community to help them get the most out of Microsoft’s latest technologies.
Before joining Microsoft, Clare was product manager with Havok, the market-leading games software provider and prior to that worked as a product manager for five years with IONA technologies. Clare holds an honours degree in Pure Mathematics and a Higher Diploma in Education, both from Trinity College Dublin.
Niall Feely: eircom
No Information available
Donal McGuinness: Zapa Technology
Donal Mc Guinness is Business Development Director of Zapa Technology. A former winner of the Mobile Internet Net Visionary Award, Donal was a co-founder of Itsmobile back in 1999.
Itsmobile developed and and sold award winning mobile payment and eCommerce products and services on a global basis. Payzone acquired Itsmobile in 2004 and Donal¹s attention turned to offering online payment processing and fraud management solutions in Ireland, Sweden, Belgium and Germany.
Donal currently sits on the board of a film distribution company, Dublin Film Distributors, and is resposbile for their new content acquisition.
Donal is particularly interested in joining the Board of the IIA to help champion the area of Content 360; essentially enabling businesses to reap the benefits of using content across all media; internet, mobile & TV.
Niall McKeown: Ion Online Marketing
Niall McKeown setup Ion Online Marketing in Belfast at the age of 26, some 10 years ago. The company has grown to be a leading provider of online marketing strategies and software tools to companies like Goldman Sachs in New York, ESPN in London, Encyclopedia Britannica and Jet2.com as well as many businesses in Ireland.
Niall lectures throughout the UK and Ireland on the virtues of online marketing and writes a blog on the same topic. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and advisor to CIM Ireland on the topic of online marketing.
Niall is married with one child and another on the way. His passions include long distance running, cycling and socialising.
Alan O’Hara: Nokia Ireland
Alan O’Hara is the General Manager of Nokia Ireland ltd. Alan has over seven years experience in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry. Prior to joining Nokia Alan worked in the software industry holding a number of financial positions.
Jason Roe: Jason Roe
Jason Roe is an Internet Consultant who specialises in web development, search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media. He has been working in the Internet and Technology sector for the last six years and was previously involved in a number of high profile projects such as CRO.ie, Independent.ie, Herald.ie and more recently in social media innovations by Enterprise Ireland.
Jason is a strong advocate of blogging, coworking and the development of regional events, networking and training opportunities. He is active at the grassroots level and is involved in organising BTW meetups and Bizcamp.ie. See Jason’s IIA election manifesto.
Dorothy Ryan: Dotwebs Internet Solutions
Dorothy Ryan began designing websites in 2001 and set up Dotwebs Internet Solutions the following year. She has worked with clients across a diverse range of businesses and organisations.
Passionate about helping to raise standards in our industry by educating business owners on the effective use of the internet, Dorothy writes blog articles with advice and information both for the business owner and fellow web designer. Having lived and breathed the Internet for the past eight years, Dorothy brings a wealth of hands-on experience to the Irish business community.
Dorothy previously worked in the audio post-production industry. She is married with two children and loves running, cycling and cooking.
Read more about how Dorothy would like to contribute to the IIA
Catrina Sheridan: Mtld Top Level Domain
Catrina Sheridan brings more than 19 years of experience in the telecommunications and fast-moving consumer goods sectors to her position at dotMobi as Vice President of Products and Marketing.
Her responsibilities include shaping and deploying dotMobi’s product and service portfolio in the global marketplace across product management & operations and marketing & public relations.
Prior to joining dotMobi, Sheridan was Strategy & Marketing Director at British Telecom (BT) Ireland, one of the world’s leading communication companies. She was also global Head of Market Strategy, Planning & Intelligence at BT’s international division, BT Global Services. Before this she worked for Dublin-based Edward Dillon & Co. Ltd. as Marketing Director for a portfolio of globally celebrated brands such as Hennessey, Gordons, Bacardi and Wolf Blass. She has also held management positions at Unilever / Best Foods (USA and UK) and Market Facts, USA, (now Synovate).
Ms Sheridan, holds an B.Sc (Mgmt) and MA from Trinity College, Dublin.
Catrina is currently seeking election to the board of the Irish Internet association.
Find about more about Catrina’s election manifesto at http://catrinasheridan.mobi on your mobile phone or http://catrinasheridan.com from your desktop.
Scam, security
Beware of the following scam
An IIA Member has drawn our attention to the following scam. It is also being discussed on Boards.ie. As Maiken from CCD points out:
1. Revenue do not correspond by email, only in writing.
2. Revenue will ALWAYS quote your PPS number to you.
3. Revenue will never look for credit card details.
4. Revenue letterheads will always be used.
The test of the email is as follows:
From: Irish Tax & Customs [mailto:service@revenue.ie] Sent: 13 July 2009 09:52 Subject: Tax Refund Number 2009IE291771TAX48/190 ATTN: Dear Applicant, 2009 - Recalculation Tax Refund After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 284.23 EURO Your TRN (TAX REFUND NUMBER): 2 7 9 0 2 1 6 8 1 5, please fill the payment form attached in the email. Please submit the tax refund and allow us 3-9 business days in order to process it. Note: For security reasons, we recommend that you close your browser after you have finished accessing your refund status. - For security reasons, we will record your ip-address and date. - Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted. Best Regards, George Thompson Tax Credit Office Agent info@revenue.ie Telephone: 0845 300 3900 Opening hours: 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, seven days a week
However this scam is particularly convincing and includes an attachment entitled “form_payment.pdf.htm” which opens the following:
This form also includes the same ominous warnings about false information leading to criminal indictment as if getting an email from the Revenue Commissioners offering to refund you money wasn’t enough of a shock 🙂
The Revenue Commissioners have posted a warning and recommend that you delete the email and if you did go so far as to include details, you should contact your bank immediately to take steps to protect your account from the scammers.
IIA Board
Typo causing problems for IIA Board Election nominators
Photo right owned by Valeriana Solaris (cc)
Earlier this week I posted a blog post about our upcoming Board Elections. Unfortunately I mistyped the email address for nominations in the HTML (not onscreen) which caused some difficulties. I’m sorry about this and it was corrected as soon as it was pointed out to us. The correct email address is board2009@iia.ie.
Nominations are being accepted until 5pm today so you still have just over an hour to get involved. All valid nominations will be published on Friday 17th July.
training
Summer school
Oh I wish I had paid more attention in the classes where they were doing the really hard core programming stuff back when I was in college. I often wish this but I wished it even more when SQT Training recently joined the IIA and I had a chat with the charming Lily Collison on the phone and she told me about App School.
I asked Lily to tell me more about App School.
There is a business opportunity for those who can develop iPhone applications. We here at SQT Training in conjunction with Patrick Collison and Mulley Communications will present a new 5 day training course in the development of applications for the iPhone. The course termed App School teaches people how to create iPhone applications for release on Apple’s App Store.
She also told me that they have already been featured in the Irish Times and the Sunday Business Post
There is interest from all manner of people and Patrick will be giving a talk at the Irish Computer Society on Tuesday 14th July.
If you think you have what it takes to make a killer iPhone App, can you please bottle it and give some to me? Details of the course can be found at www.appschool.ie. Sign up and when you’re rich maybe you can set up a funding programme for wannabe coders like me…?
Handknit iPhone from daddytypes.com. Click image to find out how to make your own!
IIA website
Even a website needs some downtime
Between 12pm and 1pm today the main IIA.ie website will be unavailable for a period. We are adding a new module to the site that affects the functionality and the design of some aspects of the site. Although we have tested it in a live-like environment we would prefer to bash it about a bit in a live environment before releasing it completely. We hope you understand. We appreciate your patience.
You can check out our twitter feed for updates although I will of course be busy testing the new module!
IIA Board
Nominations welcomed for IIA Board
Voting in the IIA Board Elections will open on 17th July (not 14th July as previously stated due to current board members’ availability). However nominations are now being accepted. This is your chance to nominate an individual that you feel can continue and develop the work of the IIA. Our mantra is connect, inform, promote and the membership look to the board to act as advocates, promoters and experts on the online business and business online.
So if you feel that you, a colleague or a business associate has the right stuff please nominate them as follows:
- If you wish to NOMINATE someone, both you and your nominee must be paid-up IIA members. (Search the directory here.) If you wish to go forward yourself, someone else MUST nominate you. Nominations & seconded only accepted from the Voting user as per the membership details in the member network on the IIA website.
Send nomination e-mails to: board2009@iia.ie with Nominate in the subject field. - Each nomination must be Seconded by a paid-up IIA member, who should send a separate e-mail (from an address different to the original nomination) to: board2009@iia.ie with Second in the subject field.
- On receiving a nomination, a request of confirmation that the nomination is accepted will be made, and that if elected the nominee will serve on the board for a minimum of one year. (A short biographical note will also be requested by immediate return; 50 words or less).
- The Voting User in each member company will be able to user their vote online from Friday 17th July until Thursday 30th July when voting closes.
- An independent scrutiniser, the Company Auditor, will examine voting returns and confirm the result of the board elections at the AGM on September 10th followed by an as yet to be announced knees-up.
Yes you read that right – a knees-up! I will keep you posted!