iQ Boot Camp On The Way

The annual iQ Content Boot Camp is on the way, taking place in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin from April 22nd to April 24th. Early bird registration passes today but if you’re working in the web industry in Ireland (or anywhere else for that matter) and you’re available to attend, it would be well worth considering given the variety of courses on offer.

Here’s the lineup over the three days, with full details of each course available here.

Tuesday 22nd April

• Killer Web Applications
• Web Analytics 101
• Kick-start Your Web Strategy
• Email Marketing
• Writing For The Web 101
• Practical User Testing
• Search Engine Marketing 101

Wednesday 23rd April

• Writing For The Web 202
• Personas - Getting In The Head Of Your Customers
• Accessibility For Web Managers
• Web Analytics 202
• iQ FutureNow Seminar
• Apres Boot (mid conference drinks)

Thursday 24th April

• Information Architecture That Works
• Web Governance
• Online Advertising
• Content Strategy
• Website Healthcheck
• Web Project Management
• Search Engine Marketing 202

There are also free iQ Clinics running where you can make use of one-to-one sessions to answer any questions you may have regarding your own website.

How much? You’re looking at three-day packages starting at €1,100, with tickets also available on a one day or two day basis. For pricing and registration details see here or phone Liz on +353 1 8170768.

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Waterford Institute of Technology Open Day

Waterford Institute of Technology, where I spent four fantastic years between 2001 and 2005, are holding an open evening for CAO applicants and undergraduates on Tuesday week, April 22nd.

If you’re considering studying at WIT, make your way to the main campus on the Cork Road between 5:30pm and 7pm on the evening to meet and talk with students, course leaders and lecturers about the options available at WIT.

There will also be information available on accommodation services, career paths based on your course choice, clubs and societies and more. There are three information sessions scheduled to run as well at 5:30pm, 6:15pm and 7:00pm with tours of the campus also available. Refreshments are rumoured to be offered afterwards.

If you’re interested, you can register your attendance by emailing schoolsliaison@wit.ie or by phoning 051 845533.

While I might have changed certain elements of the course I did in college, if I had to do things all over again I’d still pick WIT. It is a fantastic college with great resources, staff and students alike. Here’s to hoping too that they eventually pick up the much sought-after university status.

Get Your Grill On With Open Coffee BBQ This Summer

The Open Coffee collective is moving away from coffee and biscuits in a cosy hotel / coffee shop / business centre / technology centre for one day this summer and switching the biscuits out for burgers, sausages and everything BBQ’able.

• Where: Terryglass, Tipperary (Lough Derg)
• Why: Sure why not? An outdoor gathering of Open Coffee attendees, fans and anyone up for a lake-side networking session and chinwag, possibly under the watchful eye of the country’s All Ireland BBQ Champion!
• When: This summer, but you have to vote for your preferred date between June and July.

Whatever date it falls on will likely be midweek at some point in June or July which will mean you’ll need to free up some hours out of the office (should be no problem to regular Open Coffee attendees). Plus, word has the area will be that bit quieter midweek.

I think I can safely say I’ve been to Terryglass on just one occasion, but wouldn’t mind going back for a feed and a meetup in the summer. Anyway, didn’t you know that fresh air is good for you?

Evert has all the details here so click on to find out more.

MySpace, Record Labels Team Up For MySpace Music

The much rumoured and often spoken about ‘MySpace Music’ service has come to light, as I read this morning that MySpace have officially announced their new ‘MySpace Music’ service, a partnership between News Corporation and “three out of the four top record labels”.

The service is looking to become a one-stop shop for everything music; DRM free downloads and music sales, ticket sales for gigs and tours, band merchandise, ringtones - everything and anything goes.

It is a good move for the record industry and a great play for MySpace whose existing music service is used by millions of bands worldwide (I’m even in there) as a platform for showcasing music, listing gigs and connecting with fans.

Couple with that the ability to sell your tracks, merchandise and tickets directly through MySpace and you really have a powerful promotional tool for aspiring and established artists.

That said, with the deal seemingly focusing around the participation of three major record labels (EMI were holding out as of Friday), I would hope the the tools established by the service would be available to the smaller bands and those unaffiliated with record labels.

While the record labels look for ways to dig into online sales and catch up with the rest of the world, independent artists have been steaming ahead, safe in the knowledge that you don’t need a record label in order to release music. I’ve worked with enough bands over the last few years to see first hand you don’t need a record label to succeed and gone are the days of needing millions of dollars, pounds or Euro in order to record, launch and promote a single, EP or album.

Thomas Hesse, the President of Global Digital Business at Sony BMG Music Entertainment said in Thursday’s article on CNET that they are simply “aligning our efforts to reach fans through every conceivable platform”.

I haven’t seen any indication of what percentage of the market they’re trying to grab, likely away from Apple’s iTunes service, but here’s to hoping they don’t forget about the independent artists and make their new resources available for everyone.

Stumbleupon, Spammers and Wordpress 2.5

While I’ve had a manic enough week in the office, I grabbed some time yesterday to poke around recent web stats and tackle personal email building up in my inbox. The two things I noticed?

Four out of five blog posts I’ve penned recently have been picked up by Stumbleupon users, so - welcome SU users. I hope you’ve enjoyed the articles you’ve found and have been reading - plus I hope the assistance with the Popularity Contest plugin has helped, though Alex King will be releasing a fully WP compatible version shortly.

The other thing I notice, as I sift through my email, is that the spammers were certainly out in force this week - trackbacks and comments alike. Clear out Akismet and it’s slowly but surely begins filling up again - and again, and again and again. Is there an issue with Akismet or has there just been a global increase in spam activity for the week?

Finally, I will say that I’m enjoying the use of Wordpress 2.5. The media gallery has taken some getting used to but functionality-wise and from an end-user’s point of view I think it’s bang on.

Now, it’s time for the weekend.

Irish Microsoft Technology Conference Tomorrow

The 2008 Irish Microsoft Technology Conference gets under way tomorrow April 2nd to Thursday April 4th. Kickoff is 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday) in the Cineworld Complex on Parnell Street.

The IMTC 2008, is an 8 track, 40 session extravaganza covering a breadth of Microsoft’s latest emerging technologies. Throughout the festival there will be numerous networking opportunities, coffee and session re-runs.

Now in its third year, the IMTC 2008 is the second of seven major technology conferences in IrishDev.coms IxTC Series 2008. Co-organised with the Irish Microsoft Technology User Group and First Port Jobs, it’s an event by the Irish technology community for the Irish technology community.

The event delivers 40 Developer and IT-Professionals including LINQ, VS 2008, SBS 2008, Virtualisation, Business Intelligence in SQL 2008, SQL Server 2008, Sharepoint, Silverlight, WCF, Scrum, Volta, CSharp, Next generation Web Apps, XNA, BizTalk, XML Web Services, OCS, IIS for ASP.NET, Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008.

Full information and details on how to book to attend

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