You could be somewhere nice

My old Gran, God bless her, had many pearls of wisdom and ironic sayings. Its hard to beat irony well placed. (That said I've noticed that its a form of humour for advanced class members only.)

Having dispatched our daughter on a Sunday School Weekend, we were able to take in Belfast resplendent in the sunshine. As my old gran would have said, 'you know, you could be somewhere nice!'.

Music: These Days by wonderful Belfast singer songwriter  Brian Houston (available on itunes).

I have said it many times before, I love my City. This weekend it was clear that many other citizens and maybe an even greater number of visitors agreed.

like herding cats

Renowned author, guru and speaker Ken Thompson, a great Presidents' Club supporter, has reached new heights. Ken is just back from telling NASA that cats can indeed be herded!

I would encourage you all to have a look at Ken's Swarm Team and bioteams sites. His business tools and insight have been helping many creatives in the Music industry to communicate better with their fan base. It is fascinating stuff with many business applications. 

linkedin

Monetizing our advantage in Digital Content

On the front page of the Irish Times today is a story about information overload as the world's Digital Content rockets.

Presidents' Club Trustees and members from both sides of the Atlantic are actively engaged in the leadership of the NI Digital Content Initiative which is exploring the exciting potential for Belfast and Northern ireland to become a worldwide hub for Digital Content.

Only last week a number of us met up in New York with some of the industries brightest stars. Steve Masur, a 'rock star' in the world of Entertainment Industry Lawyers is working with some of our talented legal eagles to flesh out how we are going to 'monetize the opportunity'.

Steve is penning a book on ISP Licensing that will launched in Frankfurt in 2010 for the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers.

Meanwhile other PC bright lights are working to make the most of Project Kelvin which connects Northern Ireland to USA via a £28M fiber optic cable giving direct high speed massive bandwidth connectivity. 

It is often said we are the 51st State of USA, well now we are physically attached! It must be stressed, Northern Ireland has one of the best IT and telecoms infrastructures in the world and enjoys a distinct advantage over our cousins in the Republic of Ireland and GB.

Now we must MONETIZE our advantage!!

      

Cathedral Quarter Belfast City Life - a Midtown Moment

I first described Belfast as no longer a city of two halves, now its is a city of seven Quarters - from Titanic Quarter in the East to the Gaeltacht Quarter in the West.

The most mature of our Quarters, with so much going on, is Cathedral Quarter, an established centre of excellence for Creative Industry, Digital Content, Wireless technology, Business ICT, professional services and art & design.

Its success stems from a unique high quality environment with a rich heritage of culture and arts. Cathedral Quarter is a fun place to work, visit and live - a cool quarter with café society, chic cobbled street and lanes, attractive work space and hyper-connectivity.   

From April 30, culminating last night, we had the 10th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival as well as the fantastic street Festival of Fools. Congratulations to Directors Sean Kelly and Will Chamberlain respectively.

With the festivals over the action continues day-in-day-out.  With the onset of Summer, we have the Summer Sundays programme to look forward to.  Midtown Center presents a few highlights from the weekend past to give you a flavour! 

We look forward to welcoming you to Midtown Center. Come and enjoy the summer and the craic of Cathedral Quarter! 

ireland world champions @ A1 GP

First it was the 6-Nations at Rugby....an all island sporting triumph.

Now Team Ireland, a fantastic all-island initiative with Portadown's Adam Carroll at the wheel and Mark Gallagher at the helm, wins the A1 GP World Title at Brands Hatch today.

Mark Gallagher is principally known for his 9 years working as part of the senior management team at Eddie Jordan’s Formula One team and subsequently head of sponsorship for Jaguar/RedBull Racing. Widely respected within the industry Mark now heads his own sports management company.

Adam Carroll was until recently a F1 test driver for Honda (which has morphed into early season leaders Brawn GP) and must now be destined for Formula 1 with the new cost cutting rule changes likely to lead to the introduction of new teams - speculation suggests both Lola and Dave Richards of Prodrive are preparing an onslaught.

Whatever the future holds, we are delighted to see the hard work pay off and Team Ireland get the success it deserves.

As one of the team that brought WRC Rally Ireland to the island, creating a worldwide TV spectacular at Parliament Buildings in Stormont in Novermber 2007, I think it would be great to see a PROPER motor racing circuit built on the island.

This could attract the best events and underpin the engineering heritage and the jobs of thousands of Irish (north & south) employed in this cutting edge crucible of technology - including important R&D into environmental and road safety technology.   

Proud to be Irish!

irish brands to be dropped by Tesco

What a fascinating front page piece in the Irish Times today. 

Are we now witnessing 'Tescoization' following Globalization.  The Irish Times report suggests the range and volume of traditional Irish brands is to be cut from Tesco shelves. If so, this may be a really interesting by-product of the current tide of RoI domestic spending flowing into NI.

I wonder how some will respond to a large [English] multi-national company shuffling out iconic Irish brands. We know how many in Northern Ireland respond to perceived erosion of Britishness.

The Irish Times say it understands that Tesco is engaged in an experiment to test how loyal Irish shoppers are as they pursue value for money. Hitherto Irish shoppers have been considered to be more brand conscious than their British counterparts. This all comes only a few months after Finance Minister Brian Lenihan questioned the patriotism of shoppers flooding North and Norn Iron Deputy First Minister responded forthrightly. 

Meanwhile, to add to the mix, my good friend Andy Pike UK Consul and NI rep in New York tells me he was at a St George's Society dinner a week last Friday when Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy was one of the honourees and his first remarks were drawing attention to his Irishness (he was born in Liverpool of Irish parents, I think)

Watch this space...! 

Meanwhile I am off to New York for a few days midweek, where many of my friends love a good cup of Barry's Tea!!