INVENTORIUM

NEWSLETTER
ISSUE 2
DEC 2010
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
OPENING EDUCATION 3 - 5
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP OVERVIEW 6 - 7
INSPIRATION: PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION 8 - 12
EVENT REVIEWS 13 - 21
Wellbeing of the Older Person Workshop 13 - 13
The Digital Rural Economy Workshop 14 - 14
The Long Debate 15 - 17
Future of Tourism Workshop 18 - 18
Mobile Apps Workshops 19 - 21

UPCOMING EVENTS 22 - 24
HELLO
Welcome to our second Newsletter of 2010. From its launch in Dublin in March this year,
As the year fades out we look back on Inventorium has grown from strength to
the achievements we at Inventorium have strength, with many delegates seeing their
made, working closely in partnerships and ideas come to commercial and successful
potential partnerships with a wide spectrum fruition. Since our inaugural Newsletter,
of entrepreneurial interests. we have held successful workshops on:
Health (on 14th September in Bangor);
For our new readers, here is a brief reminder Digital Economy (on 23rd September in
following the well-received success of our Menai Bridge); The Future of Tourism (on
first Newsletter. Inventorium is a partnership 16th November in Llandudno Junction);
between CAST Limited in Bangor, North The Long Debate (on 11th November
Wales and NDRC in Dublin, supported by in Dublin); and a series of Mobile Apps
the EU Ireland Wales Interreg IVA Programme. Workshop (on 6/7 September, Wexford;
The partnership is built around the principles 25/26th November in Kilkenny
of Open Innovation to establish a formal, and 8 December in Bangor).
practical mechanism for the generation of
new ideas leading to the formation of new Our exciting next steps in 2011 include:
businesses and processes. Inventorium Concept Development Workshops an
also contributes to sustaining existing Education Symposia and Idea Generation
businesses, through the development of Workshops, which are featured in this issue.
new services and processes with a particular
focus on digital technologies for culture,
entertainment, environment, health, leisure,
public services, tourism and transport.

1
HELLO
Caroline Thompson, Inventorium, Business
Liaison Manager posted the following on
the Inventorium blog on 21st November:
“Vantage point is the most important
thing when starting along an innovation
process,” announced leading innovator and
government advisor, Charles Leadbeater,
to delegates at Beyond2010 in Birmingham
this week. In a session discussing radical
thinking and the stimulation of innovation
within public services, Leadbeater said...
Many of the challenges we face are things
we need to create solutions to, rather than
deliver services to solve. A service can
only solve a little bit of most of the problems
we face. You cannot solve complex problems
like a family in crisis or an old person with
a chronic condition and who is socially
isolated by delivering a pizza-like service
that goes in and out. You need a service
that
Tom can
Tauke, work
Verizon with
Executive Vice that complexity.
President of Public Affairs, Policy,
Google Public Policy Blog
If Leadbeater’s statement is taken out of
context, its sentiment is highly relevant
to the work we do in our workshops -
with delegates analysing often complex
opportunities and problems from innovative
perspectives, to produce useful, workable,
commercial solutions. We look forward to
continuing this momentum and helping
more enterprises succeed.
With Seasonal Greetings and best wishes
for a successful, innovative and profitable
2011.
Inventorium Team
www.inventorium.org
2
OPENING Interviews with Martin Owen, Inventorium
and Director, Smalti Technology and
EDUCATION
Dr Teresa Dillon, Events Planning Manager,
Inventorium on what they see as future
directions within education and how this
relates to events planned for the Spring
2011 programme.
Lord David Puttnam said a few years ago,
that if a doctor could be pulled out of a
British hospital from the year 1900 and
taken through time into a British hospital
in the year 2005, the transformations in
medicine, technology and patient standards
he would see would limit his ability to
practice as a doctor without significant
retraining.
Martin Owen
However, if a teacher was similarly taken out
of their school in 1900 and placed in one in
the year 2005, they would see that little had
changed in terms of delivery of teaching
methodology, culture and standards of
student learning.
Clearly these words will offend some head
teachers and some schools, but the reality
is, says Martin Owen, “that in principle,
education standards and culture have not
changed fundamentally in Britain for more
than 100 years.
Martin and Teresa have both worked in
various educational settings from primary
and secondary schools, through to higher
education, research labs, government
and public sector bodies.
3
Martin sees the three key issues facing
education in the UK as:
1. “We as a country still produce too many
NEETs (Not in Employment, Education
or Training) in teaching by continuing to
make the important subjects of science,
technology and mathematics boring, by
lacking conviction and creativity in the
classroom.
2. Education fit for the 21st century is
‘education enabling technology’ that
needs to be at the core of delivery, and
we are not making appropriate use of the
technology available to us.
3. We fail to place fundamental, tangible,
playful experience, at the centre of early
learning. The foundations of mathematics
and reading are about playing with
objects, words, stories and numbers.
In the rush to ‘adultise’ our education
system, not only do children suffer a
reduced playful childhood, but their
learning quality is reduced. The view
that Scandinavian countries and South
Korea enjoy the most successful
education systems, comes from the
OECD (the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development) run
PISA (Programme for International
Student Assessment) research, which
recommends formal teaching methods
should not begin until age 7.”
Teresa agrees with Martin and many of the
same points can be translated to the Irish
experience. Although Ireland’s education
system is less extensive in systematic
testing of children than the UK, it is still wed
to formal methodologies. The Irish system
is fundamentally a very conservative
educational system and underfunded,
particularly within the fields of early years,
primary and special needs education.
Albert Einstein
4
Key policy documents, which have
influenced the Irish education system
over the last ten years include the Green
Paper, Education for a Changing World
(1992) and the White Paper, Charting Our
Education Future (1995) as well various
EU Directorate General Education and
OECD reports.
Although a state education system in
Ireland was established in 1831, it was
not until 1998 that a comprehensive
education act was actually passed.
Since then there has been a number of
significant reports, as noted above and
pieces of legislation, which have radically
improved within Ireland, the provision of
education for all, particular for children with
special educational needs. Despite such
advances, which have taken place against
a backdrop of unprecedented economic
growth within Ireland, research shows that
the recommendations set out in the White
Paper in relation to literacy and numeracy
targets, have not been meet.
Teresa points out that within the Irish
education system differences in how
the curriculum is approved are school
or even teacher dependent. Although
Transition Year for 13 to 14 year olds is
now commonplace, during which students
are relieved of a classical syllabus, ceasing
pure academic education and focusing on
assessed life skills instead, there has been
little challenges to mainstream educational
provision. In comparison to the UK and
Wales, who have adapted and tested
various learner-centred approaches to
education, in Ireland there is an overall
dearth of such research and practice.
Where does Inventorium fit into the
education space?
Inventorium is examining the contributions
it can make by bringing together a variety
of specialists and stakeholders in to the
education and knowledge economy, with
one major remit - to create new ways of
doing things, with new businesses to do
them.
If businesses are to develop in the
‘education space’ the potential lies in
changing the way young people learn
to read and use numbers.
Within the UK and Wales, Martin thinks that
the two key policies that will have a long-
term effect are:
“First, in Wales is the pre-19 year old
programme of:
• Learning Through Play, the Foundation
Phase for 3 to 8 year olds.
• Learning Pathways, for 14 to 19
year olds through the Baccalaureate
replacement of A Levels, so students
benefit from combining traditional
academic and vocational subjects.”
Scotland’s government is implementing a
similar system, but England is re-trenching
the traditional model.
“Second, in North West Wales, the
announcement by the British Government
on 6th December 2010, of a national
roll-out of universal broadband to all
communities, at a minimum speed of
20mbps. The impact of fast broadband
for schools, communities and private
homes cannot be over-estimated and will
create new opportunities for learning by
not following the pathways and models
of 19th century education. This is where
Inventorium can create the biggest impact.”
Einstein is quoted as saying “it is a miracle
that curiosity survives formal education.”
Martin Owen seems like a man on a
mission to find and apply innovative
technologies to help children rediscover
their curiosity and drive to overcome the
limitations of modern formal education.
Dr Teresa Dillon agrees that igniting
children’s and young people’s creativity
and imagination at an early age is vital to
their continued development and growth.
Investing in early years education sets
someone up for life, it provides him or
her with adaptable thinking strategies.
Developing tools and viable business
within education needs the creative and
innovative energy of makers and doers,
who have different skills and mindsets;
at Inventorium we hope to help people find
such business partners.
5
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
The Inventorium Concept Development
Workshops are now planned for 2011,
and are an essential stage in the process
of bringing an innovative digital technology
idea from concept to commercial realisation.
This process will comprise of a structured
set of progressive 1-day or half day
workshops. They will be run in Wales under
Caroline Thompson, and in Ireland under
Evert Bopp, both experienced facilitators.
The practical purpose of these workshops
which are run along the Nesta Creative Suite
toolkit lines, is to help individuals (the Idea
Champion) or groups (the Idea Group) to
follow a filtering and building process to turn
an idea into a commercial, deliverable,
sustainable and profitable reality.
Workshops will focus on providing the idea
groups and owners of ideas who wish to
work with others, with support to develop a
workable technical specification and robust
business plan and work to address issues
such as ‘intellectual property’, ‘how to
market your product or service’ and ‘how
to generate sufficient revenue to succeed
commercially’. A useful example might be of
a potential community tourism business idea
- Inventorium staff will help a group develop
its idea into a self-funding operation.
The workshop focus is on ‘making it
happen’ as can be seen from its place in
the flow of activities described in the new
Inventorium brochure: Sharing Ideas and
Solutions, Creating Cultures of Innovation.
The workshops are aimed at groups and
individuals who have an idea and are serious
about turning it into a successful commercial
venture.
The individual commitment is to sign up
for the programme of workshops, which
progressively refine the owner’s idea until it
can realistically proceed to market within a
workable business plan.
6
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
Each workshop is expected to have an
appropriate expert or business person who
has been through the startup process, as a
guest speaker to pass on the benefits of his
or her own experiences.
Inventorium staff insist that at the end of the
workshop series, delegates will have their
business plan completed because it will be
crucial to their success in going forward and
seeking investment and customers for their
business.
The whole workshop programme is seen
as an indispensable process on the road
to success, acting as both a motivating
escalator of idea refinement and reality filter
to weed out weak propositions.
These workshops are best suited to Idea
Groups and owners of an innovative
digital technology idea who wish to work
with others and feel ready to begin the
commercialisation of their idea. The
geographical extent of Inventorium’s area of
operations is the North and West of Wales,
and South East of Ireland.
The Concept Development Workshops for
2011 are planned for March and April in
both Ireland and Wales, with specific dates
to be confirmed soon. These dates will be
published on the website at
www.inventorium.org
For any further questions, please email:
Wales
Caroline Thompson
caroline@inventorium.org
Ireland
Evert Bopp
evert@inventorium.org
7
INSPIRATION:
PERSPECTIVES
ON EDUCATION
With each Newsletter, we like to include
an ‘Inspiration’ section to reflect the
views, in thoughts and words, of groups
of people living and working in our world
of technological innovation. These views
come directly from interviews with unbiased
participants in Ireland and Wales, and their
unedited words are used to colour and
inspire.
In our last issue we talked with four
entrepreneurs who had taken part in
our workshops and benefited from the
Inventorium process. In this issue we have
spoken with two professionals with different
involvement in and perspectives on the
Welsh and Irish Education system, and how
technology fits into their lives and views. We
have also spoken with three young people
who are attending different schools across
Ireland and got their views on the Irish
secondary school system and what they
would improve.
8
 1. What is the current approach to learning 4. What vision of learning do you have for
and teacher training in Irish schools? Irish education in 2020?
Traditional and conservative. My vision for 2020 is simple: holistic,
collaborative, contextual, cross-curricular,
2. What is positive about the current supported by technology, producing people
Irish system? who are critically minded thinkers. A good
Irish education has served us very well for model of such a school is High Tech High
the last thirty to forty years, especially as in San Diego. Education should be meeting
the Celtic Tiger was coming of age and the needs of the individual, not engaged in
joining the EU. the mass production of human widgets.

3. What is negative about the Irish system?
“It is past its sell-by date and is not fit
for purpose. Technological determinate
arguments are incredibly dangerous and
should be resisted at all costs. Technology
has a role to play in teaching and learning,
but must not dominate. It is best used to
empower when engaged in learning and
open-ended constructive activities. It is not
about communication but about students
5. What role do you see technology
playing in this vision?
Supportive and facilitating, not determining
needs or policy because there is the danger
of industry seizing the initiative and agenda for
themselves.”

Brendan Tangney
Fellow Trinity College Dublin
Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science & Statistics
Co-director Centre for Research in IT in Education.
Brendan Tangney’s research addresses the use of technology to
mediate learning, with specific interests in environments for learning
music, math’s and programming, ICT policy and evaluation and
distributed computing. Within Ireland he has received numerous
awards for his teaching and educational programs.
doing things for themselves. An example
might be using smartphones, mobile phones
with apps, for measuring distance and
volume for doing mathematics exercises.
The teacher then becomes a mentor while
the student carries out practical and applied
activities engaged in mathematics. My
mantra is about empowering students to
make and do things.”.

9

John Whittaker
Science Teacher
Ysgol Friars, School
Bangor Wales
John Whittaker is a school teacher in Wales with a special interest
in technology-based teaching tools and methods. His development
work in 3D educational resources has received considerable interest
from all sections of society, and therefore on the basis that, “a picture
speaks a thousand words” he has created three short U Tube clips
about his work and tools, for public viewing, links to which are given
on the next page.
1. What are you thoughts about teaching
in Wales today?
I have taught Science since the 1970’s
and have seen a full cycle of emphasis
from mixed ability teaching involving
practical skills to a content led curriculum
of National Curriculum targets from 21
–down to 17 and then to 4. It has gone full
circle to an unrealistic expectation, back
too far, to an extreme pupil centric skills
based curriculum, which will not deliver the
content or requirements for GCSE, A-levels
or University. DCELLS (Department for
Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and
Skills) is out of touch with the classroom.
Pupils need to be able to relate their
attainment in the classroom to marks and
not to an array of comments about skills.
We need a more balanced approach
where skills and content deliver the needs
of a balanced interesting and stimulating
curriculum and where assessment relates to
attainment.
2. What is positive about the current
system?
The pupils are now competent with the new
technology and presentational, research
and communication tools available to
them. They are not daunted by finding out
and researching their own answers to big
fundamental questions.
3. What is negative about the Irish system?
The system has constraints, particularly
financial, which stifle and do not encourage
or allow professional development.
There is a massive underfunding in the
classroom in comparison to English schools.
Pupils in this area of Wales are formula
funded differentially and unfairly even within
the same catchment area. Parents are
unaware that pupils attending a school only
across a road from each other can receive
up to three times more capitation in the
same education authority. This has an impact
on resources and unfair competition.
4. What vision of learning do you have for
Welsh education in 2020?
I see that schools will reach out their
resources and communication to the
home. We may even see whole schools/
centers of learning existing virtually and
more opportunities for community based
learning. We will inevitably see that schools
have to adapt to provide more vocational
courses. Wales is ranked lowest of the
UK countries and is now cast adrift from
England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Out of 67 countries taking part in the OECD
Programme for International Students
Assesment (PISA), Wales was ranked 38th
for reading, 40th for maths and 30th for the
tests for science. In order to compete in
a modern world it is important that Wales
needs to stop trying to lead and tweak
educational initiatives but start to follow what
works in other countries - it is important that
communication is central to progress with
English, Maths and Science
10
at the forefront.

Check John’s work: http://www.youtube.com/user/
JJFLASHMEDIA#p/u/14/RtIvHiHC8XI.
In this link John explains more technically and graphically, how he
has created a focal point classroom plus alternative classrooms
in the sky (for different subjects or regions) by linking a 3D user
interface with Schools Moodle VLE to create Sloodle. Sloodle
is an Open Source project aiming to bring together the learning
support and management features of web-based LMS (Learning
Management Systems) with rich interactive 3D multi-user games
technology such as Second Life or Open Sim.
5. What are you thoughts about teaching
in Wales today?
Technology is developing rapidly and
my opinion is that games technology will
integrate its processing power with voice
and movement activated interfaces with
superfast broadband speeds to deliver
more intuitive access to resources and
faster communication. Easier and faster
access to the resources of subject areas
via 3D interfaces will enable even our
weakest pupils to be involved and more in
control of their learning and progress rather
than struggling to cope with the basics.
Experimentation involving haptic devices
which provide the look and feel of reality
will become part of science as well as art,
design and music. The technology for the
future is interesting but we must see how
other countries like the Far East are using
it now for educational purposes and try to
stimulate our pupils with similar desires to
learn and progress.
We are already seeing the integration of
multimedia technology, TV, video games
consoles and social network sites like
Facebook onto single platforms. This is
the way the students of tomorrow will be
interacting and learning from and with each
other.
6. What technological infrastructures have
you developed for your school?
I have developed a 3D school server based
model which enables the school to be in
control of its resources and securely protect
its users. My 3D virtual school application
also allows the integration of Chat rooms,
Facebook and Internet. It is currently in the
development phase and will require more
than just one person, a commitment from
the school and external funding.
I have also set up a social networking
site for pupils to access resources and
communicate with each other in lessons
and outside hours. This is in regular use
for GCSE Media Studies and we even
have one remote student who has kept
in touch with the course this term and is
due to start in our school after Christmas.
The site has links and access to
presentations and video resources, a joint
whiteboard, video chat room, Facebook
and Twitter integration. In the Y11 forum
2010-11 sample examination paper you
will see evidence that the students have
been jointly preparing answers to sample
questions for their mock examination in
preparation for their external GCSE module
in January. There are 28 posted responses
and 198 views from a class of only 22
pupils. I am sure that you will agree that
this is evidence of effective use and
voluntary engagement by the students.
11
Q1. What do you think of secondary school in
Ireland? What is good about it, what is bad?
Aron: “The range of subjects is good; you
can choose from a lot in transition year,
like woodwork, drama, music. The bad is
teachers can’t be fired if they are useless.
We get stuck with the same teacher for three
years and if they are incompetent we don’t
learn and can’t do anything about it.”
Cian: “The good things are we have lots of
extra-curricular activities like football, debating
and sports. The academics are mostly good
and technology and the interactive web is
good. What is bad is that many teachers
don’t check the homework so why bother
with quality work?”
Elle May: “The teachers are really friendly. I
can’t think of any bad things to say.”
Q2. How could you improve the school
system?
Aron: “I’m in transition so I don’t have
homework; it’s a fun year because I play
a lot of music, but it has its bad points when
there’s lots of time doing nothing. I’d prefer
to be given more work.”
Cian: “Improve the checking of our
homework.”
Elle May: “I don’t know. There’s not much I
could improve. I really like my school.”
Q3. What technologies do you use in the
school?
Aron: “We have two computer rooms with
25 computers in each, that are fairly new
and use Windows 7.”
Cian: “We’ve got interactive technology
such as the drawing board for teachers
in every classroom. Great for projecting
film clips for English and religion, but
Accountancy still uses an OHP.
We can use the PCs in the computer rooms Q5. If you were to organise and run a school
and they are always supervised.” how would you do it?
Elle May: “We have a weekly computer Aron: “Give iPads to all students.”
class and we’re taught Word and Excel. Cian: “Go for as much technology as possible
Most kids know some of the things we are in all classrooms, plus individual laptops to
taught because we’ve learned the tools at replicate a working environment. I’d also
home.” like to see technology in sport so we could
analyse our performance on say, video.”
Q4. How do you think schools in Ireland Elle May: “I’d have teaching slates like the
could use technology better? iPad and more computer classes, and learn
Aron: “By having more. Smartphones for how
maths and other subjects would be good. to use the internet better.”
I’d like us to iPads but can’t see that
happening. I’d also like more freedom and
access to use our computers because we
only get two classes a week. We can’t use
computers for our school work.”
Cian: “By giving all students a laptop with
access to printers. We bring in homework
on USB sticks at the moment.”
Elle May: “By teaching about the internet
and safety first, rather than applications first.
12
We don’t use any computerised projectors
in class, only the old overhead projectors.”

WELLBEING OF
THE OLDER
PERSON
WORKSHOP
The population of the UK is ageing - as
shown by the government’s Office of National
Statistics. The ‘Baby Boomer’ generation
is now becoming pensionable, between
1901 and 2003 the proportion of people
aged 50 and over rose from 15% to 33%
and is projected to rise to 41@ by 2031. Life
expectancy for men is predicted to rise from
76.4 in 2004 to 80.3 by 2024, and for women
from 80.7 to 84 years in
the same period.
Whilst this ageing population is better served
by society than its predecessors in many
ways, serious concerns for health care costs
are growing. The reality is that everyone who
does not die prematurely will grow old and face
the questions of health and wellbeing at some
stage in old age.
During the day speakers clarified and explained
some of the buzzwords used increasingly in this
sector such as: active third age, remote patient
management, remote diagnosis, online support,
assisted living, telemedicine, and telecare.
Speakers during the day were: Maldwyn
Roberts of Age Concern Gwynedd and Ynys
This proved a useful idea since delegates
enjoyed overlapping sector knowledge and
Mon who spoke about issues concerning older could dig deep into their analytical discussions.
people in Wales; and Gareth Williams, director One idea was selected from each table, worked
T-Cubed of Parc Menai, who spoke about the through in more detail and finally presented to
provision of personalised Telecare services. the room.
Inventorium’s Health Workshop: Wellbeing
Delegate tables were organised to create a The second activity was a critique phase
of the Older Person, held in Bangor, on 14th
dynamic mix of policy-makers, technologists adapting Edward de Bono’s ‘Six Hats Thinking’
September, reflected those concerns as well as
and ‘end-users’. The usefulness of the technique. Here each person was nominated
the interest in the innovative opportunities this
workshop centred around activities drawing to ‘wear’ one of six meaningfully coloured hats:
market offers. Inventorium delegates included
out extraordinary, creative and critical thinking red for intuitiveness, blue for process control,
Local Authority and NHS policy-makers and
at each table. The key to most solutions was green for imaginativeness, yellow for positive
end users, technologists, software experts,
to find innovative uses of technology at the and black for negative critical attitude, and white
local charities such as Age Concern Wales,
point of care, within a care environment, for a for data and information focus. Delegates had
Betsi Cadwaladr Universal Health Board,
carer’s use, or for the benefit of older people to convincingly play their role, often a character
Voluntary Services and the Arts Council. This
not yet needing care. It was generally accepted they were not themselves. This was difficult
was a packed workshop for which 40 people
that people now in their 60s were more to begin with but powerful ideas and critiques
registered and 31 attended.
technologically aware if not computer literate, quickly arose as players found they were better
and therefore more comfortable with the use of understanding some issues with characters and
The Health Workshop focused on these key
technological facilities and solutions. Those in attitudes of some colleagues back at their own
questions:
their 70s and over were much less adept and workplaces. The final outcome was to come up
so needed a different, traditionally less cost- with a powerful poster for their idea.
• How can technology enrich our later
effective and more human approach.
years?
Online documentation of this event is
• How can digital technology help provide
The first activity was the popular Inventorium available on Facebook: facebook.com/album.
better care in old age?
Poker, adapted for this workshop to include php?aid=581271&id=390314135376
• Can digital technology help support
Wild Cards on which delegates wrote their own
13
carers?
sector-specific issues.

THE DIGITAL
RURAL
ECONOMY
What will life on
Anglesey be like in 10
years time?
This was the big question addressed during
this Anglesey Business Week workshop.
Anglesey Business Week is a week-long
event organised by Anglesey County Council
from 20th to 24th September 2010. The
Inventorium workshop was held on the
afternoon of Thursday 23rd at the Victoria
Hotel in Menai Bridge. Of the 28 people
registered, 16 attended - all business people
from Anglesey, concerned about their future
amid fears that Anglesey will continue as an
under-resourced and under-developed local
economy within the UK.
The key issues addressed by Inventorium
revolved around the question: “Will
an investment in wireless broadband,
accessible in every village, make a
difference?”
Led by Martin Owen, the session was
orientated towards examining the
opportunities technical innovation might
bring to the local economy. The key issues
discussed and worked on were about the
implementation of wireless broadband -
that by whatever means, it will come; how
will it change ways of doing business and
services provided; how to make and save
money from it.
The keynote presentation was given
by Peter Curnow-Ford, Chairman
of Bluenowhere Ltd, who is working
with Anglesey County Council on their
broadband strategy for the island.
Peter spoke about the difficulties of Another useful analysis game played was “Pain
implementing broadband on Anglesey, and Gain”. In this activity, players were given
particularly the problems of topography, an example, such as a B&B owner, and had to
population/business distribution and describe the ‘pain’ he/she was enduring by not
concentration, and the ‘not-spots’ where having broadband, and then describe the gains
broadband currently is unavailable. He which would arise from having fast reliable
explained how fast evolving wireless broadband. This game would be equally useful
technologies were poised to overcome to business owners in Gwynedd and other
Anglesey’s difficulties. His company parts of Wales where broadband speeds are
Bluenowhere has considerable experience in notoriously slow and pressure from businesses
the area of working with local government and can be applied to government for an
business communities with what are known improvement of the broadband infrastructure.
as ‘high quality fixed and nomadic broadband
connectivities’. Initially planned by Inventorium as a ‘taster
session’ this mini-workshop’s value and
The afternoon programme was full and success has led to general agreement that
intense, and included workshop activities future full day workshops will be held.
such as the evaluation game -
Inventorium Poker. In this game players were
grouped at tables and played with a card deck
comprising three suits of cards: different business
contexts, different types of people, and different
technologies. Each player was dealt three cards
- one from each suit, and from these, had to
produce a creative business idea to present to the
others in the group. Players were very creative and
able to relate their ideas to their own context of
Anglesey business.
14
THE LONG
DEBATE
A key event in Dublin’s Innovation Festival
was the Long Debate, held on Thursday
11th November at the NDRC in the Digital
Hub at Crane Street. It followed the March
2010 publication of the government’s
Innovation Taskforce report setting out
recommendations for developing Ireland
into an ‘International Innovation Hub’,
through developing the country’s creative
and smart economy.
This 3-hour event was packed with over
150 delegates listening to 21 speakers who
What do they think would be a systemic
approach to the development of
were introduced as: “twenty one of Irelands
finest thinkers, academics, entrepreneurs,
innovation cultures within Ireland?
creators and makers, coming together to
look at the question of innovation.”
What are the right actions to take to
develop systemic innovation?
The evening was planned to be a How we do these things – with emphasis
presentation of 21 profound ideas and on practical tools and interventions?
personal perspectives, which against
the present backdrop of economic belt- Each speaker took their turn, presenting in
tightening, would generate lively discussion
and networking opportunities for everyone
quick succession their viewpoint on these
questions with the aim to facilitate an open,
involved in any form of innovation looking to
Ireland’s future.
public conversation on these issues.
Taking the Innovation Taskforce report as
the start point, each speaker was asked
to respond to the questions in a 5-minute
perspective:
15
EVENT
REVIEWS
THE LONG
DEBATE

The evening was moderated by highly
experienced and respected journalist
and columnist Kevin Myers from The Irish
Independent. His view of this event is
important: “I’m a layman, that’s why I’m here.
The systemic approach to innovation is one
of those buzzwords we hear about in the lay
community.
I love events like this
when minds come
The first speaker was Alan Costello, Managing
Director of Ruby Consulting, who concluded
his presentation with: “...we tried deadline
strategies and funding strategies to fuel
innovation. I believe we do innovation well,
and the question is, how do we improve it a
little more? Lets look at the evidence of what
we are doing well, and lets not just wait for the
last person out to turn off the lights.
As in other parts of this Newsletter, recalling Kevin Thompstone, Economic Development
This sombre warning was taken to refer to
the recent press reports of threats of worried valuable words of some of the speakers best Practitioner and Consultant: “Where do we

together.
After the formal presentations there will be
a free-for-all and that has the makings of a
wonderful interchange where there is serious
talk and exchange, and out of the exchange
you get the exciting things, when atoms
explode and collide and new things happen.”
educated and trained young Irish people
looking to go abroad for work, taking their
skills elsewhere and depriving Ireland of their
contribution to future economic success.
reflects the passion, creativity, divergence
of opinions, and breadth of commercial
want to go? What the Innovation Taskforce
is saying is that we’re looking for a highly
interest in Ireland’s potential for innovation. attractive incubation environment for the best
Karlin Lillington, Irish Times put it eloquently entrepreneurs in Europe and the world. We
with: “You will hear some points that you will must invest ahead of demand not wait for it to
agree with, and then you’ll hear a completely be created.”
oppositional view and you’d see validity in
that argument…We’ll all learn something from
each other.”

16
EVENT
REVIEWS
THE LONG
DEBATE
There is a very very strong body of evidence
that what actually differentiates the success
of centres of systemic innovation from those
who have put in the capital and expertise,
are the soft factors - the culture, attitude and
particularly relationships.”
Dan Crowley, Head of Commercial Operations, NDRC
Cairin O’Connor, Development Director of the
Bolton Trust and Dockland Innovation Trust:
“I believe clustering will happen and I would
like to see more incubation centres across
Ireland, especially more specialised centres
for mobile, cloud, nanotech and biotech etc.”
Jean Byrne, Design 21st Century:
“Something that is systemic, we must be
providing for from an early age. I don’t believe
we are providing enough creative thinking
that allows innovation to flourish at an
early age in schools. There isn’t that much
mystique to innovation - it’s just a big word,
but really it is about imagination.”
“The function of
education is primarily
social reproduction.
Education is also an
incredibly trans-
formative space
and we can see
that education
must be integral
to the innovation
eco-systems.”
Mick Wilson, Dean of GradCAM
(DIT, NCAD, IADT, UU):
Dierdre De Burca, Former Green Party
Senator and Entrepreneur: “Finance is an
essential element of supporting any innovation
culture. There’s also a tendency to romanticise
innovation sometimes, to say it will succeed
despite all the obstacles and against all
the odds. I think that’s true of small scale
innovation to a certain extent, but when you
look at the restructuring of the Irish economy
and what is proposed in the Taskforce report,
you’d have to accept that major investment
and financing will be necessary.”
The last word goes to Steve Gotz,
Commercial Development Manager,
Centre for Next Generation Localisation,
who succinctly brings together Ireland’s
current economic situation with its talent
for innovation: “Lack of resources forces
people to innovate.”
Online documentation of this event
is available on:
Site: Inventorium.org
Vimeo: vimeo.com/user4167125
Facebook: facebook.com/album.
php?aid=573512&id=390314135376
17
EVENT
REVIEWS
THE FUTURE
OF TOURISM -
TOMORROW’S
TOURIST TODAY
The travel industry is renowned for constantly
changing. It segments into overseas and UK-based
tourism. Inevitably overseas tourism is driven with
‘push agendas’ with industry operators focusing
on: packages for new destinations, a new trend
for bespoke adventure itineraries, budget airlines
opening up new accessible destinations in Europe,
promoting city-break attractions etc. UK-based
tourism is similar, only with local perspectives.
The Future of Tourism event focused on tourism
in Wales and our delegates reflected the import-
ance of the workshop, coming from diverse
interests such as: local Tourist or Food enterprises,
Arts and Culture and Environment and Heritage
organisations, Digital Technologists, Tourism
Communities, and people seeking to start a new
enterprise or expand their current activity.
Over 50 people registered and 42 people attended
the busy workshop in Llandudno Junction on
16th November. Martin Owen spoke at the start,
introducing ideas on niche markets.
Technology has given the individual tourist more
choice and control by increasing awareness
of options, access to shopping around to take
advantage of real competition, and importantly,
access to information about destinations and a
range of activities which might suit families,
young people or mature tourists.
Innovation in local tourism is vital to the lifeblood of
Wales and its local economy. The agenda for the
day was explicit: to find innovative ways to address
four key questions using digital technologies for
maximising Wales’s assets. The four questions were:
Change often happens as a ‘pull response’
by market forces triggered for example by:
an economic downturn, unexpected natural
disasters, local outbreaks of disease such
as Foot & Mouth, new tourist profiles as
population age and wealth concentrations
change, but most often by leaps in
technology.
• How will tomorrow’s customer choose
•
their holiday?
What will be there for them to choose?
• How will they make their buying decision?
• Why choose Wales?
The questions were addressed through a
combination of a talk by keynote presenter Ed
Parsons a Geospatial Technologists from Google,
discussion groups and practical idea generation
activities led by the Inventorium Team.
Issues specifically addressed were: increasing
revenue and promoting delegates’ tourist
businesses, reducing the effects of seasonality,
using new geographical locative web and mobile
technologies to enhance visitor experience, and
enhancing visitor service information and reservation
facilities.
Ed used many examples to illustrate his points.
One suggestion was linking renowned artefacts now
in national museums with their local origins to expand
tourist interest. A good case is the Mold Cape,
presently on display in the British Museum in London
and recently featured in the BBC’s British Museum
project “A History of the World in 100 Objects”.
The Cape’s extraordinary workmanship and
uniqueness reflected an artistically sophisticated
Bronze Age society living in the Mold area nearly
4,000 years ago.
Whilst the workshop focused on innovative
technology applied to tourism in Wales, some
delegates with business interests or ideas beyond
the borders, were thinking hard about widening
their view to the bigger more lucrative possibilities
of overseas tourism.
18
EVENT
REVIEWS
MOBILE APPS
WORKSHOP
Two Mobile Apps workshops were held in
Ireland and one in Wales during this quarter.
Mark Kearns, Inventorium Project Director Ireland,
opened the first workshop at the Carlton Mill
Race Hotel in Bunclody, Wexford on 6-7th
September 2010. With these commercial and
powerful words Mark said: “I think the mobile
apps space has astounded everybody with
the amount of growth that it’s seen. You’re
looking at over €2 billion in revenues being made
by mobile app developers at the moment.”
This review of the one and a half day Mobile The next was Shane McAllister, Founder
Apps workshop reflects mainly on what was MobaNode, who said during his presentation:
said by speakers and participants, to give a “As at February 2010 there were around 4.2
flavour of just how useful the event was for: billion mobile subscribers in the world - more
than all TVs and computers combined. The
• Understanding how Inventorium can help market is really only 18 months to two years
individuals develop their ideas. old, and people are jumping on to the app
• Pushing participants hard through a series bandwagon. Your actual market place is
disruptive thinking activities, to exercise enormous and growing bigger all the time as
their creative minds, draw out refinements devices become more and more capable.”
and see new opportunities in their
own ideas. Andy Goodman, Inventorium, led the first
• Networking, challenging and sharing ideas exercise. “The core focus of this workshop is
with like-minded potential entrepreneurs. to generate as many ideas as possible, then
select a subset of those ideas through an
The first guest speaker was Richard Rodger, interesting process. At each stage critiquing
CTO FeedHenry Ltd, who spoke about the the ideas, improving them and improving the
basics: “This is about the landscape for communication of that idea with a final aim of
building mobile applications, how you go having a well-framed, pitchable idea that can
about it if you are an entrepreneur who has be used to present to investors, and other
an idea and wants to get in to the mobile
application space. Based on the iPhone or
end-users, and potentially to recruit other
collaborators.”
Android - how are you actually going to go
about it.”
19
EVENT
REVIEWS
MOBILE APPS
WORKSHOP
The exercises went very well and participants
enjoyed their hard work.
“You’ve got a lot of people here with great “I came to the work-
Zoltan Kovary a participant said: “So far it has
ideas. I’d say half the people are idea people shop to get engaged
really fulfilled my preconceptions. Basically they
are very well organised. I really liked the time-
in need of some structure and some process with what is happening
keeping being strict which forces you to work to help funnel, filter and distil the ideas nationally and
as hard as you can.”
into a discipline that would be practical. internationally, to find
Teri Morris, another participant, reflecting on
the day said: “I feel that the mobile device is so From that practicality people get a more out what the thinking
important these days. It’s a pervasive device
that is involved with everybody. Everybody has
intuitive and more developed learning is and how it can be
one, everybody uses one, it’s a very personal
device, and this really is the future of the way
experience.” applied to my field.”
applications are going. I think if you want Damian Eames summary of the Wexford event Eileen Coleman, a participant in the
to produce a website or an application or Kilkenny event
business that is relevant, you have to have a
mobile application, and then you have to start
thinking about mobile devices.” The second workshop to be held in Ireland was The workshop was moderated by Martin
held at the Hotel Kilkenny in Kilkenny, over 25th Owen who started the first morning off with the
and 26th November. ice-breaking game ‘Conversation Cascade’.
Participants pair up with someone they had

20
never met before, to discuss their work, mobile
apps and their ideas.
EVENT
REVIEWS
MOBILE APPS
WORKSHOP
Two extracts from presentations are of
particularly memorable significance.
Dermot Daly, of Tapadoo told his audience:
“The amount of time you actually spend using
your app is actually 20 to 30 seconds unless it
is something very engaging - which means an
app has got to do something, and do it well.”
Darren Morris, of App Bits told his audience:
“Almost 2/3rds of development time is taken
up by the design process. So I give you
three tips:
1.1. Read the guidelines, buy the device and separate sessions.
get used to working it.
1.2. Use the apps that come with your device The first session provided three innovation
and buy some more to use.
1.3. Hire a designer, get a professional; they
know what’s going on and how to do it.
Valuable advice indeed. The other elements of
the whole app package come together through
the applied exercises we at Inventorium provide
during workshops. Then the whole process of
bringing together ideas with the people who will
help “make it happen” is through the Concept
Development Workshops described earlier
in this newsletter. They are the gateway to
commercial success.
The third workshop was held in Bangor at
Technium CAST on 8th December, for which
36 people registered and 35 attended the three
industry speakers:
• The user-need perspective,
by Jonathan Jones-Morris.
• What makes a great app? by Andy Wigley.
• How do you get your app in the spotlight?
by Paul Levy.
Session two was activity based using the
“We created the
Inventorium poker game as a successful
creative fun tool for generating new ideas.
presentation on screen,
Session three was activity based working on
developing and critiquing ideas, similar to that
then recorded it for
the demo. It made
used in Kilkenny - then making a 30 second
product advert.
you focus on what you
The first stage was for groups to create posters
showing the key factors which arose from wanted to get across,
earlier analysis and discussion in Session 2,
such as: the people who would use the app, to understand what the
the context of use, the technology required,
the features applied to their idea, and the
customer really needed
business model. for the product, and
A member of the group would present the ideas what you wanted to
and a vote taken to select the best. The next
stage was to create a 30 second advert distilling satisfy that need with”
the idea into a communication piece. The
purpose of this exercise was to get the group said Stephan Downey.
to focus in more detail on the end user, and the
As Caroline Thompson, Business Liaison
customer to whom they would sell the idea as a
business pitch - in a short space of time. Manager, Inventorium, Wales noted: “A variety
of good ideas came forward, whether tourism
One group product example from Kilkenny, based, entertainment/leisure based or an
was for a GeoNanny app, for parents who were informational platform for someone’s existing
concerned to know where their children were. business”. Over 2011, Inventorium will be
supporting some of these ideas to reach their
full potential.
21
UPCOMING January 2011

EVENTS
Mobile Apps Workshop, 1
18th January at Technium 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Aberystwyth 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Mobile Apps Workshop, 30
Following on from a successful run 27-28th January at Carton
of events in 2010, in both Ireland House, Maynooth, Kildare
and Wales, marketing for 2011 February 2011
events and workshops is now Future of Tourism 2 1 2 3 4 5
under way. 1st February Bluestone 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pembrokeshire 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
For full details of each event,
27 28
and to register, please go to: Mobile Apps workshop
www.inventorium.org/events 22nd February at Trinity College
Carmarthen
Concept Development Workshop
dates in March and April will be
notified as soon as they are
agreed.

Education Symposia and Workshops

in April and May will be notified as
soon as they are agreed.

26 27 28 29 30

22
UPCOMING
EVENTS
MOBILE APPS
WORKSHOP
How can mobile technology The Workshop Most suited to: Register now:
disrupt your life, work or Between January and February 2011, • C ompanies requiring an app for Workshops are restricted to 36 delegates
business? Inventorium will bring together: their business attending one free event at numerous venues.
• ‘End Users’ with a disruptive and
• T echnical experts from industry. demanding perspective on mobile Dates and locations:
Want to take advantage of
• Skilled iPhone, Microsoft and Android technologies.
increased revenues from developers. • Professionals working in Education, •  8 Jan, Technium Aberystwyth
1
having a mobile app? • E xperienced Graphic and Interaction Entertainment, Environment, Health • 27/28 Jan Carton House,
designers. and Tourism. Maynooth, Kildare
• Entrepreneurs and potential backers. • Actual, potential and recovering • 22 Feb, Trinity University College,
Bursting with ideas for new • Key individuals from: Education, entrepreneurs in Wales. Carmarthen
mobile apps? Entertainment, Environment, Health and • Individuals willing to invest one full day
Tourism sectors. in the event.
Visit inventorium.org to
Ambitious but unsure and register your interest or email
In a workshop to generate and work up ideas The Opportunity:
unready for entrepreneurship? for mobile apps which will be facilitated by events@inventorium.org
the Inventorium Team, with key note speakers Mobile applications are emerging that offer
from the mobile apps industry.
to find out more.
exceptional opportunities to innovate, incubate
If you thought YES to any of these questions, and initiate powerful, popular solutions in
then the Inventorium Mobile Apps Workshop unheard of volumes. Apple’s App Store
is for you.
exceeds 1.9 billion downloads; Android’s is
now over 90,000, and the forecasted market
value is $30 billion by 2015.

23
UPCOMING
EVENTS
THE FUTURE
OF TOURISM
WORKSHOP 2
How will tomorrow’s customer We will be exploring how: The Workshop Agenda: This workshop is most suited to:
choose their holiday? • New, locative, web and mobile The goal of the workshop is to develop new • L ocal Tourist or Food Enterprises
technologies can enhance tourist’s ideas, which can be taken forward with • Key people from Arts and Culture,
What will be there for them to experience support from the Inventorium team and Heritage, Environment and Entertainment
• You can increase your revenue and developed into viable business solutions, • Tourism Communities
choose?
promote your tourist business products and services. • Digital Technologists
• To enhance customer service, information • People seeking to start a new enterprise or
How will they make their and reservation facilities Participants will be led through a series of expand their current activity
buying decision? • To reduce seasonality in our tourist market Inventorium idea generation activities.
• To enhance the visitor experience and When and Where:
enable tourists to sample the best Wales The Inventorium team will facilitate the
Why choose Wales? can offer workshop with keynote presentations 1st February 2011
from Rheinallt Ffoster-Jones, People’s 09.00-17.00
Collection Wales and Graham Morgan, Bluestone National Park Resort
The opportunity and challenge is to find Spatial Consultants. Narberth, Pembrokeshire
innovative ways to address these questions SA67 8DE
and utilise digital technologies to maximise
Wales’ assets - great local produce, historical
sites, unique culture and stunning landscape. Numbers are limited.
Registration is essential.
Our aim is to help you innovate and ensure Free registration now at:
that Wales becomes a major tourist www.inventorium.org
destination in the future.

24
Inventorium IRL Team
Mark Kearns, Project Director
Evert Bopp, Innovation Commercialisation manager
Dr. Teresa Dillon, Event Planning Manager
Inventorium, NDRC, The Digital Hub,
Crane St, Dublin 8
Tel: +353 1 542 4156

Inventorium Wales Team

Jenny Dickinson, Project Manager
Caroline Thompson, Innovation
Commercialisation manager
Martin Owen, Innovation Strategy
Andy Goodman, Industrial Design
Inventorium, TechniumCAST, Ffordd Penlan,
Parc Menai Business Park, Bangor,
Gwynedd. LL57 4HJ
Tel: + 44 1248 675013

If you have any questions about Inventorium

or would like to view further documentation
of our events, please contact:
Jenny Dickinson, Project Manager
jenny@inventorium.org

www.inventorium.org

Credits
Editorial: Inventorium Team
Design/Layout: www.newgraphic.ie
Text: George Petry
Photographers: Teresa Dillon, Tim Redfern,
Jenny Dickinson, Caroline Thompson,
Jo Quinney, Ian Pearse