http://www.createireland.ie/blog The Create Ireland Digital Media Startup Blog Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:29:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's surprising how my one-to-one meetings generate ideas and leads. I don't consider them enough: Make sure your web site is straight to the point, looks good and easy to use It's a good reason to stick to pricing structure if you have a new, unique, and innovative product. Entrepreneurs need external group ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2010/08/20/business-issues-discussed-over-last-2-days5-meetings/ Here are my thoughts: Digital Media sector needs more consolidation, partnerships, and discussions as my competitor is interviewing individuals who didn’t make our short-list. Selected companies for 2010-2011 applied with prototype and/or ever-changing business plan Cluster effect managed via Create and developed over 6 years needs to be fully exploited Group mix can be ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2010/08/17/outcome-create-epp-recruitment-2010-2011/ After 6 years of training and mentoring entrepreneurs, Create is moving into more personal mentoring services to companies. For 2010-2011, services will be: 1) Assignment of strategic advisors to each company. A pool of advisors will guide each entrepreneur depending on their needs. Pools might change over a 12-months period. 2) PR + ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2010/07/19/4-new-services-from-create-epp/ Because of vlab.ie and an unexpected out of office period, Create EPP has extended its recruitment phase till Friday July 30th. All individuals/companies that have submitted applications will be contacted and be allowed to amend their current application. Note that interview period will be scheduled for early August with start ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2010/07/01/create-epp-recruitment-deadline-extended-till-july-30th/ IADT's business training and mentoring programme Create is open to recruit 10 companies in their early stage of business development. Create provides free and personalised support over 12-months, a period of time sufficient to prove the first service/product sale or to confirm viability of a prototype. Think about Create like an extra man on the ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2010/05/21/create-is-recruiting-to-train-and-mentor-10-new-companies/ To whom it may concern, Please find my personal submission to the IT Task Force below. It has not been fully developed for the time being but I would welcome an opportunity to meet the task force to further expand my recommendations. My submission is based on my education and professional experiences ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2009/10/02/my-submission-to-innovation-task-force/ - Don't market your services in exchange of shareholding in client companies - Define R&D strategy both as an Incubator and as a broker for client companies - Get your consultants/contractors to engage with potential client companies in your pipeline and spec services over 12 months period.  - Sort out your current systems: ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2009/09/01/suggestions-for-business-incubators-in-ireland/ I attended FP7 info session for SMEs (FP7-2010-1 Call Promotion) yesterday. Very good presentation from EI's Sean Burke I thought. The EI FP7 team seems to do a good job. Here are my notes: - IRL tops 09 call - 70% of SMEs were micro-enterprises (less than 10 employees I think) - Direct SME ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2009/08/28/sme-funding-from-the-eu/ More than 25 topics will be covered by the Create Programme between September 2009 and August 2010. The outline below is being developed specifically for small digital media companies that need to kick-start their business development asap. It also covers areas of growing importance - innovation, policy-making for the ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2009/08/18/25-topics-for-digital-media-start-ups/ I've met most of new Create participants for one-to-one assessment meetings before the programme begins in September with my induction session. I'll introduce participants in September. The Create Enterprise Platform Programme is starting its 6th year in September and has now significant number of past participants to fully-develop clustering objectives like ... http://www.createireland.ie/blog/2009/08/11/create-training-mentoring-call-for-2009-2010/