Eason’s Virtual Book Shop

This week sees one of Ireland's most recognised high street names take a bold new step in the world of retail. Eason, Ireland’s leading bookseller, who started its retail legacy with news stalls in train stations across Ireland in the late 1800s, is returning to its roots as it launches Ireland’s first ever Virtual Book Shop at Connolly Station in Dublin to allow commuters to buy bestselling books by simply scanning QR codes with their smartphones.

The Virtual Book Shop resembles the shelves you'd see in an Eason store, displaying images of book covers with corresponding QR codes. Once scanned they will bring users to an online mobile shop where they can purchase the book. Everything from bestselling Sport, Food and Drink, Kids and Fiction titles will be available to purchase at the Eason Virtual Book Shop including a pre-order option for what are expected to be some big hits for Christmas.

Speaking about the Virtual Book Shop, David Field, Group Head of Marketing and Retail Development, Eason said, “We’re delighted to be bringing the first ever Virtual Book Shop to Ireland. While the traditional physical store is still very much at the heart of Eason, we recognise the ever-growing need to further develop our online shopping experience and to create a concept that is not only innovative and a first to Irish market but that very much demonstrates that we are as contemporary multi-channel retailer. To bring the Virtual Book Shop concept to life we’ve put social at the heart of the solution by deeply integrating with Facebook.  Not only can people shop in a totally new way, they can share their experience via Facebook, make recommendations and see what titles their friends have bought which really brings that word-of-mouth marketing to social platforms.”

Also speaking at the launch of Eason’s Virtual Book Shop, leading Irish author, Cecelia Ahern said, “As an author there is no greater feeling than seeing your book on the shelves. But today seeing my new release One Hundred Names available in Ireland’s first ever Virtual Book Shop – it’s really exciting and I am delighted Eason has invited me to be part of this.”

Developed by VendorShop Social, the Eason’s Virtual Book Shop takes integration with Facebook a step further than most brands by using the Facebook Open Graph as a key part of the mobile store application. The result is a much more personalised experience for users and a more viral solution for Eason.

“We all know the power of word of mouth marketing and Facebook’s Open Graph functionality enables a business to embed word of mouth into their marketing and e-commerce activities. Open Graph is an extremely powerful tool to turn people’s interactions with your brand and products viral, but many businesses simply don’t realise what is possible”, said Chris Small CEO of VendorShop Social.

Ireland’s first ever Virtual Book Shop will be situated in Connolly Station from Monday 22nd October until Christmas with plans to bring the mobile shopping experience to other locations throughout the country.

Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award: SmartThings

€100,000 prize awarded on main stage at the Web Summit

Yesterday, Thursday 18th October, Electric Ireland announced that SmartThings are The Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award Winner 2012 at the Dublin Web Summit. SmartThings is the recipient of the Spark of Genius €100,000 prize.

With over 1,000 startups competing in The Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Competition, SmartThings battled with 3 other finalists, pitching to a panel of international investors and industry heavyweights in front of a full audience on the main stage at The Web Summit yesterday.

SmartThings makes it easy to connect the things in your physical world to the internet via your smartphone.  Using SmartThings you can control your air conditioning, lock your doors or get an alert when things go wrong. 

Speaking at the announcement, Margaret Colton, Head of Marketing, Electric Ireland, said, "We are delighted to present the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award to SmartThings. At Electric Ireland, we are committed to powering the innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit that is inherent in start-up companies. We wish SmartThings all the best of luck and congratulate the team.”

Dublin Web Summit Founder Paddy Cosgrave said, “SmartThings is a well deserved winner of this year’s Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award. This competition is an incredible platform for startups to pitch to the world’s top investors and media and we are delighted the winner was announced at the Web Summit, one of Europe’s biggest tech events. On the back of winning the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award in 2011, Redeem & Get have enjoyed huge success with a launch to a global audience”.

“The Web Summit is committed to helping emerging technology companies get off the ground. As well as the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius final, we have also showcased 260 leading technology start-ups from Ireland and abroad at the Web Summit. The last two days have been an amazing opportunity for emerging companies to showcase their products to some of Europe’s leading technology figure”, added Cosgrave.

The Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Competition, now in its third year, focused on the most promising high potential Irish startups. 1,000 initial entries were shortlisted to a top 100, who then pitched from one of four separate stages – social, mobile, consumer and enterprise- to leading international investors (Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Atomico, Accel and many others), industry leaders, startup experts at the Dublin Web Summit. From these 100 finalists, four finalists were chosen for a final stage of judging before SmartThings was announced as the final winner.

Overall winners SmartThings were presented with a €100K prize fund supported by Electric Ireland, Mason, Hayes & Curran, Microsoft Bizspark, KPMG, Cawley Nea, Getty Images, PCH International and HT Meagher O’Reilly.

Electric Ireland’s Dublin Web Summit Treat

Meet The Speakers at Electric Ireland’s Tweet Café

Electric Ireland will, again, be bringing a unique coffee experience to the Dublin Web Summit. Powered by Twitter, Dublin Web Summit delegates will be able to enjoy a nice break from the talks and schmoozing by ordering simply by tweeting.

Following on from last year's extremely popular (and award winning!) addition to the summit, Electric Ireland’s Tweet Café will have lots of little doors with numbers corresponding to various coffee orders so you simply tweet the hashtag (#TweetCafe) with your order number. An electronic queuing system will then let you know when your order is ready and you simply head to the door and pick it up.

Beyond just the delicious coffee experience, the Tweet Café also provides delegates with an excellent opportunity to network with key speakers who will be available at the Tweet Café. Some of the speakers lined up include film director Barry Sonnenfeld, blogger Robert Scoble, Moshi Monsters’ Michael Acton-Smith and internet activist Wael Ghonim among others.

Speaking in advance of the two-day conference Margaret Colton, Head of Marketing, Electric Ireland said, “We’re really looking forward to this year’s Dublin Web Summit and are delighted to be powering innovation through the Electric Ireland Tweet Café. The response from delegates at last year’s summit was overwhelming and to make the experience even better this year we’ll be creating an incredible networking opportunity for delegates with some of the conference’s key speakers. The Dublin Web Summit is a wonderful gathering of creative and innovative minds and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

"The Tweet cafe is a real highlight of the summit, not only does it reward tweeters with a coffee but it is a great opportunity to meet our speakers. We're delighted to have Electric Ireland as a partner of Dublin Web Summit", said Paddy Cosgrave, founder of Dublin Web Summit

Another highlight of the Dublin Web Summit is the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award, the winner of which will be announced at the Dublin Web Summit on October 18th 2012 with a prize fund worth €100,000. The competition, now in its third year, focuses on the most promising high potential startups. Nearly 1,000 entries have been shortlisted to 100, who will be offered an opportunity to pitch to leading international investors (Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Atomico, Accel and many others), industry leaders, startup experts at the Dublin Web Summit taking place at the RDS on the 17th and 18th of October.

For information on the year’s Dublin Web Summit taking place on 17th and 18th October and to book a place visit www.websummit.net.

Big Knit 2012: Dublin’s Statues

Dublin’s statues tip their hats for the innocent Big Knit 2012

Today saw something a little bizarre happen in Dublin. The statues of Daniel O'Connell, Jim Larkin, and Charles Stewart Parnell all got kitted out with woolly hats to celebrate the start of Innocent's Big Knit 2012 in aid of Age Action.

Since 2008, the innocent Big Knit has helped to raise over €60,000 for Age Action by knitting over 180,000 little woolly hats. The hats, which range in design from classic bobble hats to Jedward hats to Santa hats, are all created by the public. So this year innocent are urging everyone to help the cause by knitting 80,000 little woolly hats to raise €20,000 and much needed awareness for Age Action.

Follow the campaign with #IrishBigKnit, check updates on the Innocent Twitter Account, through the Innocent Ireland Facebook Page or on the Innocent site.



Statues that were hatted:

• Constance Markievicz
• James Connolly
• Chariot of Fire
• Meeting Place (Two Women at the Ha'penny bridge)
• Patrick Kavanagh
• Oscar Wilde
• Molly Malone
• Phil Lynott
• John McCormack
• Henry Grattan
• Jim Larkin
• Charles Stewart Parnell
• Daniel O Connell
• Robert Emmet
• Arthur Guinness

Smirnoff Limited Edition Bottles

Smirnoff have just launched a new series of limited edition bottles. The bottles are part of Smirnoff's bid to awaken the senses through touch before taste. The innovative design concepts bring to life the look and feel of each delicious flavour inside with each design emulating the natural fruit or flavour in startling clarity. Created to capture the imagination, the bottles are crafted using pioneering design techniques.

Pick up a Lime Smirnoff Limited Edition to discover its unique lime skin texture or feel the peel of Green Apple Smirnoff Limited Edition. Blueberry Smirnoff completes the full limited edition range.

Smirnoff Limited Edition Flavours will be available exclusively at Dunnes from 15th October for six weeks.