Category Archives: Events

Luka Bloom at the NCH this Saturday

I heard this song on the radio this morning and have probably listened to it 20 times since. I’d forgotten how much I love his voice, his lyrics, his interpretations of the songs of others and above all his style of guitar playing which happened about when he had to alter his method due to a serious round of tendonitis.

So who is Luka Bloom? Well he’s the younger brother of Christy Moore born Kevin Barry Moore in Kildare in 1955. The stage name is a marriage between Luka from Suzanne Vega’s song ‘My name is Luka’ and Bloom from James Joyce’s Ulysses.

He has released a stack of albums over the years with his own rather unique flavour of folk/soul/jazz running through them. Luka is live in the National Concert Hall this Saturday with Eddi Reader as part of the ESB BEO Celtic Music Festival 09. Check out more of his music on lukabloom.com or say howdy on Facebook.

I happened upon this video below earlier when indulging in some of his live clips on YouTube. It was filmed as part of a documentary about him called ‘My Name is Luka’ a stone’s throw from my house in Ballyvaughan, Co.Clare where he apparently spends quite a bit of time. He talks about how songs can connect people and places even if they’ve never been there before. Got some gorgeous shots of the beach in too – look forward to visiting it at the weekend.

The Ray D’Arcy Show All-Ireland Quiz Show

spar-radio-2So SPAR and The Ray D’Arcy Show on Today FM have teamed up to organise the ‘All -Ireland Quiz Show‘.

Essentially, there will be four provincial events with 50 teams of 4 at each competing for a place in the on-air quarter finals, followed by the semi-finals and live final event in Dublin on Friday 23rd of October. The big prize at the end is a rather tasty €4,000.

You can enter your team (along with subs) here. Sounds like a bit of fun – who’s with me?

Darklight viral video workshop & discussion

On Saturday I went along to the full day workshop & discussion on viral video making and distribution organised by Darklight and the EU Commission. For anyone completely new to the term ‘viral video’ it was particularly useful with a good mixture of speakers from video production to digital marketing to the legal side of media production and an even broader group for the panel discussion at the end of the day.

The entire event was streamed live from Dawson St and you can catch up on the presentations and discussions of the day via the U-Stream channel page or clicking on the videos below. If you want to hit on a specific part of the day, check out the schedule here. For information on the film competition being run by Darklight & the EU, check out www.darklight.ie/democracy.

Next BTW event on Sept 3rd

BTW
BTW

The next BTW is happening on Thursday September 3rd at the Kudos Bar @ Clarion Hotel, IFSC.

If the finger food and 2 for 1 cocktails weren’t enough to get you signed up how’s about finally getting to put a face to that blog you’ve been dipping in and out of for the past while? Or that Twitterer you’ve been having a bit of banter with – drop the @ and have a drink and a laugh face to face instead!

I’ve really enjoyed the last 2 BTW events and this next one should be wicked – hoping to push the turnout to about 150 this time so spread the word, register some friends!

Sign up here and hopefully see you on Sept 3rd.

Upcoming design conferences & workshops

Designer's toolbeltThere seemed to be a lot of different design/development conferences, workshops and events type things popping up in my email and rss reader with the last while.

I thought I’d put some order on them & see what’s going on at home and abroad that might be worth checking out.

FOWD Tour

Tagline: We’re hitting four UK cities in September 2009 to bring you FREE web design tutorials, an afternoon of great talks from some of the UK’s best known web designers and speed networking. Don’t miss out.

Location: Belfast (also Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds). When: 02 Sept. Cost: £59. [see you there!]

dconstruct

Tagline: dConstruct 09 brings together leading thinkers from the fields of ubiquitous computing, interface design, gaming and mobile to explore the challenges of designing for tomorrow.

Location: Brighton, UK. When: 04 Sept. Cost: £115.

idea 2009

Tagline: IDEA2009 brings together the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners: sharing the big ideas that inspire, along with practical solutions for the ways people’s lives and systems are converging to affect society.

Location: Toronto. When: 15-16 September. Cost: $250 – $550.

FOWA London

Tagline: We have a fantastic line up from some of the industry’s leading professionals. You’ll be hearing from: Mozilla, Twitter, TechCrunch, Facebook, digg, Merb, jQuery, 280North, Virgin and more.

Location: London. When: 30 Sept – 02 Oct. Cost: £385.25 – £569.25.

Adobe Max

Tagline: We are in a software revolution fueled by social computing, client and cloud, and the spread of rich media across screens and devices. For four unforgettable days this October, MAX 2009 will bring together thousands of designers, developers, and decision-makers to shape the future. Join us.

Location: Los Angeles. When: 04 Oct – 07 Oct. Cost: $100 – $1,795.

There’s a range of events being organised as part of Design Week around Ireland in November, including Offset 2009 – a full blog post about that is in the works but do check out the Design Week site for info.