The Irish Digital Industry Association Inaugural Dinner

Popped along to Paul Walsh’s launchpad dinner for the Irish Digital Industy Association (not a hard and fast name as it turns out). Dinner was excellent as usual (Jaipur’s india food rocks) and with Microsoft and Blacknight picking up the tab it tasted even sweeter.

Discussions kicked off after Dinner with Paul laying out his vision for what the society could be in terms of representing the digital sector in Ireland, providing networking opportunities and giving the that part of the sector that is not well served by either the ISA or the IIA a voice of its own.

Much discussion followed and the general consenus was,

• The idea of an association is sound
• We need to gather a group of people together to draft a more concrete mission statement and set of goals that are well aligned with the interests of the sector
• We need a clearer definition of the constituents

Brian Caulfield made a good point about establishing a key set of “unmet needs” that the organisation should address and Conn O’ Muineachain followed up with a comment that maybe there is a business to be had in serving this sector.

We wrapped up by getting feedback for each of the atteendees. Denis Neery Deery made the best suggestion which was that we need to establish a concrete set of goals using a smaller group and then present these back to a larger gathering.

A useful night, I would suggest a few improvements for the next meeting,

1. Less food and more talking, the early part of the night was great, but it was meet and greet stuff.
2. More formal presentations to seed the dicussion, Paul ended up responding to many of the queries and a there should be more people available to cover that ground.
3. Aim to finish before the pubs close so we can retire to the Long Hall for a more informal debrief
4. Post a list of actions the next day and set a date for the next meeting

There are other reviews from Paul Campbell and MaryRose.

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