Its takes talent, technology and tolerance to grow an economy. O’Conall St Summer School II

Professor Richard Florida is a great advocate of creative economies. Not places making all their money from arts and culture but societies which are capable of transforming knowledge into product and attracting new people from outside to do likewise.

He argues that three key conditions are necessary for a successful creative economy; talent, technology and tolerance.

Here in the north we have the technology and the talent. Big question – when will we start being tolerant?

O’Conall Street’s virtual summer school launched: Hans Rosling on global population growth with Ikea props

Am going to post thought provoking lectures and articles I like during August; like we were having a virtual summer school on O’Conall St.

Here is Hans Rosling’s latest TED installment, this time on global population growth with Ikea props!

The Hurricane came to an end in South Belfast

It’s a sad morning in South Belfast. A quiet, unassuming, ailing resident who would nod a hello at the bus stop or on the road has gone.

His death is world news. Last night Alex Higgins trended on Twitter yet for many who knew him in recent years his greatness will not have been immediately evident.

I hope the city finds a way of acknowledging his passing. He won his first world championship the year I was born. He was a fixture throughout my childhood and I suspect that of many Irish and British children of my generation. He spanned the great divides. Another working class hero like this city has produced before.

Alex Higgins may you rest in peace.

Happy birthday Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is five. Happy birthday Ariana.

NI needs to embrace innovation and think big like Toshiba does

This is the sort of innovation we need regionally.

On a tweet and a prayer

Friends in the aid community tell me Twitter is being used to facilitate communications between aid workers on the ground in Haiti and coordinators in the US and Europe.

The agencies have asked many of their staff to close their networks allowing only colleagues and other aid workers access to their tweets. This has created a virtual communications network which is private to the outside world but allows the flow of vital information within the stricken country and to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile in Haiti the failures of man are at the heart of this tragedy. Government has utterly failed, the people have nothing to turn to but prayer.

Little’s future & old news

Mark Little, the retiring RTE anchor and old youth politics colleague, delivered an interesting talk to the IIEA last week on the future of news. Well worth a watch and thanks to Piaras for the link.

What’s the story Rory?

My old man was called Rory and was a bit of a story teller.

He could capture the imagination of a group of six year olds for a good hour as he made up entertaining fables.  He passed away four years ago today but will live on in family legend as the man who made children smile.

His niece, my cousin, has made a living out of story telling as an Irish Times columnist and blogger,which brings me to her friend the other Rory. A Dubliner like myself who has made Belfast his home too.

Rory Og (with a little help from his partner Anita – my cousin’s old classmate) has invented what I think could well turn out to be a very fun game indeed. Take a look;

 
I’ll be throwing a few Rory cubes this Christmas remembering Dad who I miss and in the certainty that a good yarn and the endless possibilities of the human imagination live on forever.

Ps; As Piaras Kelly has just reminded me there is an iPhone app too.

Nintendo is your homework!

If I could tell my nine year old boy that he had Nintendo DS for homework  he might even begin to relish the late afternoon revision.

Now, at least two schools in Ireland are starting to view the pocket gaming device in a more positive light. In urban Tallaght and rural Clonlisk, lateral- thinking adults are using the children’s own channels for learning, and the Nintendo DS is proving a profitable platform, the Irish Times reports today.

Unlike a laptop computer, which costs hundreds of euro, poses numerous technological and security challenges and cannot fit into your pocket, the Nintendo DS is small and easy to operate and thousands of Irish children have one.

Woooo Hoooo!

This is a bit of trumpet blowing but it is great to work for a company at the top of its game.

Last night the UK Public Relations Consultants Association named Weber Shandwick International Agency of the Year and Weber Shandwick Technology as Specialist Consultancy of the Year. Weber Shandwick Financial won the PRCA’s Best Financial PR Campaign award.  

Just a fortnight ago PR Week named us International Agency of the Year – a double whammy that is a first for us or any other agency in our business.