Media 2020

Natalie Bagnall
Head of Acquisition
Google

Natalie Bagnall is the head of Acquisition, in Google. She is responsible for driving revenue through the acquisition of new companies to Google’s products particularly Adwords, Display, Mobile and You Tube across North and Central Europe. Based at Google’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Natalie joined Google in early 2007 and has focused on growing revenue for Google by managing a team of sales reps in new and existing markets. Natalie has also been involved in monetising mobile search.
 She has worked in various sales management roles across Europe, including four years in Italy, for Viacom Outdoor, followed by three years in the newspaper business in Ireland as Group Sales Manager for Associated Newspapers.

Matt Locke
Commissioning Editor Education & New Media
Channel 4

Matt Locke is Commissioning Editor for Education and New Media at Channel 4. He works with the Education team to commission online services that will deliver informal learning in innovative and exciting ways to teenage audiences. Before Channel 4, Locke was Head of Innovation at BBC New Media & Technology. He was responsible for developing and running research programmes within the BBC and external partners, including developing academic and industry partnerships, and open innovation initiatives including BBC Backstage and BBC Innovation Labs. Before joining the BBC, Locke worked as a curator and writer, specialising in the social adoption of technology and the cultural impact of digital technology, and still continues to write regularly about these themes.

Jonathon Moore
Mobile product Manager
The Guardian

Jonathon Moore is a passionate believer in putting the user at the heart of product development. He has launched numerous award-winning digital properties for multiple brands - both big and small. He's held senior product roles at the BBC, where he worked across all key web properties and helped set up the organisation's mobile services, and more recently was Director of Products across a range of top-tier VC-backed start-ups. He currently runs all mobile products & strategy at the Guardian Newspaper Group and fits in some free digital consulting for worthy causes.

Ian Forrester
Senior Backstage Producer
BBC

Ian Forrester heads up the BBC's Backstage, a developer/designer network like no other. His role as head of BBC Backstage includes working with internal and external developers/designers to express their creativity through BBC feeds and APIs. Backstage makes available as much BBC data as possible for any member of the public to republish, remix and mash-up under a non-commercial license.
Ian is also well known for geek social events, including London Geekdinners, BarCampLondon, Hackday, Mashed, Edinburgh TV Un-Festival and Over the Air. He works for the BBC's R&D department where he focuses on open innovation and new opportunities.
He also finds time to blog regularly about a whole mixture of topics at his personal blog cubicgarden.com.

Mark Little
Journalist

Mark Little is currently heading up a global online news initiative in 2009. Prior to that he presented Prime Time on RTE. He became the station’s first Washington correspondent in 1995. He has covered four US presidential election campaigns.  He also worked as RTE’s foreign affairs correspondent, during which time he reported on major world events from Iraq, Cuba, Lebanon, Indonesia and Russia. In 2001, he was named Television Journalist of the Year for his reporting in Afghanistan.  He wrote and presented the documentary series, Who’s Afraid of Islam and American Dream – dead or alive? He is the author of the books Turn Left at Greenland, Zulu Time, and The New America, which examines fundamental social and political changes in the United States.

Fiach MacConghaill
Director
Abbey Theatre

Fiach MacConghail has been Director of the Abbey Theatre since May 2005 where he is responsible for the artistic programming and strategic management.  He has produced plays by Brian Friel, Tom Murphy, Marina Carr, Sebastian Barry and Sam Shepard. Prior to his appointment, Fiach was Arts Adviser to John O’Donoghue, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism (2002-2005).
Fiach graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in Politics and Sociology. He was awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship in 2004 and currently sits on the board of Theatre Forum Ireland and is a member of the University of Limerick’s Governing Authority.
He produced the feature film ’Studs’ (1996) by Paul Mercier and starring Brendan Gleeson. 

Cillian Barry
Digital Media and Marketing Consultant
Feep Marketing

Cillian Barry has been working as an online marketer in Ireland and the UK since 1999. He has been involved with Pigsback.com since its early days in Ireland and its launch in the UK. In 2006 he set up Feep Marketing which has worked on the digital marketing strategy for companies such as ESB, UCD, Diageo, Roomex, McCann Erickson, Jameson Dublin Film Festival and 1800hotels.  He writes a monthly Digital Media & Marketing article for the Sunday Business Post and is part owner of a competition and community website for horse racing fans, Racecaller.com.

Katarina Skoberne
Co-founder
OpenAd Group

Katarina Skoberne helped set up OpenAd Group www.openad.net in 2003, the first online marketplace for buying and selling advertising, marketing and design ideas.
At Open Ad, she is responsible for working with clients to implement strategy and development within their company.
She began her career in media in 1993 at a Slovenian ad agency, the Vision Factory, which she helped found. She was subsequently offered a job creating and hosting the country's weekly advertising programme, CikCak, which she did for eight years.
She has also lectured in advertising at the University of Ljubljana.
In 2008, Katarina was named one of the 1000 Most Influential People in British Business by the Daily Telegraph.

Carolyn Odgers
Director of Strategy
Chemistry

Carolyn Odgers joined Chemistry in 2005, having spent the previous four years in Diageo as Senior Planner for Spirits brands and for Social Responsibility.Prior to Diageo, Carolyn worked for Leo Burnett in London for eight years, the last six as Board Director, on accounts such as  McDonald’s, Hoover, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Walt Disney.  At Chemistry, Carolyn is involved in strategic development for clients, and also in providing consumer behavioural insights from, Chemistry’s proprietary research instrument – Zeitgeist. Carolyn is Vice President of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland. (IAPI)

Ciaran O'Gaora
Founder
Zero-G

Ciarán ÓGaora is founder of Zero-G, a Dublin-based brand and communication design consultancy.  He is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design where he studied Industrial Design and Visual Communications.  Prior to establishing Zero-G in 2004 Ciarán worked with Proforma, Rotterdam and was Partner and Creative Director with Designworks, Dublin. He has worked with clients in Ireland, UK, US & Africa across a broad range of sectors including culture, tourism, science, media, financial services, venture capital, innovation, retail, health and government. He is a Director of the Corn Exchange Theatre Company and was Deputy Commissioner for Ireland’s entry at the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2006. His website is www.ogaora.com

John Healy
Former Digital Brand Manager
CNN

John Healy is the founder of DigitalEdge, a disruptive business strategy and digital product developer company.  John works as a challenger brand strategist to help media companies harness new ideas and technologies to maximize revenue. 
Over the past 17 years, John worked in New York in senior marketing roles with global client and advertising agencies.  He is a Cleo award team winner for the IBM “e-Business” campaign.  In 2006, John was appointed CNN’s Digital Brand Manager with responsibility for revenue and audience growth.  John helped to build CNN Digital as the recognized disruptive and leading media partner in its category.

Ronan Higgins
Co-founder
www.locle.com

Ronan Higgins is the co-founder of Locle, a mobile social software startup that has developed a new type of location-based “friend finder” application.  Locle has received several awards including the Eircom Web Innovation award and more recently the Mobile Premier Awards in Barcelona. Ronan has over 14 years product and project management experience in web development and online marketing in Los Angeles and Dublin.  He started his first company, Cafe.com in 2001, which was successfully sold to a publicly traded competitor in 2005. Prior to founding Locle, Ronan was the Managing Director of Funda Ireland (2006-2008), a property search engine based on webcrawling.

Colm Lyon
Chief Executive
Realex

Colm Lyon is Founder and CEO of Realex Payments. He has over twenty five years experience in payment related businesses including fourteen years in the financial service sector. In 2009 Colm founded the “Internet Growth Alliance”, a business led initiative to support the international growth ambitions of Irish Internet businesses. Also in 2009 he was awarded the Internet Hero Award at the Golden Spider Awards for his contribution to the Irish Internet Industry. He was Director and Chairman of the Irish Internet Association for over four years and in 2007 he was awarded life-time membership of the association. Colm is a graduate of University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Management Science Degree.

Alison O'Connor
Conference Chairperson

Alison O’Connor is a journalist, broadcaster, and commentator. She writes a weekly column for the Sunday Business Post and presents ‘What it says in the Papers” on Morning Ireland - RTE’s flagship radio current affairs programme.
Alison regularly appears as a commentator on radio and television debates. She is a former political correspondent for the Irish Independent and the Irish Times. She received a national journalism award for her work on clerical child abuse in the diocese of Ferns, Co Wexford which she covered for the Irish Times, and has written a book entitled: “A Message from Heaven” on the subject.

Muirne Laffan
Executive Director
RTE Publishing

Múirne Laffan is Executive Director at RTÉ Publishing, where she is responsible for the delivery of on-demand content to RTÉ audiences. She leads a successful portfolio of brands which include the RTÉ Guide, rte.ie, Aertel, RTÉ player & RTÉ News Now.  Múirne is also responsible for new product development across mobile, web and emerging platforms.  Recent successes include the RTÉ player, mobile & digital versions of RTÉ Aertel, and the rollout on News Now as RTÉ’s always-on news service on iPhones, outdoor and online. Prior to joining RTÉ in 2001, Múirne was Senior Vice President and Director of World-Wide Clients at Universal MCann, New York, She was awarded Media Innovator by Advertising Age Global magazine, and is a graduate of the College of Marketing, Dublin Institute of Technology.

Eamon Ryan TD
Minister
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Minister Eamon Ryan was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 2002. Prior to his appointment as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, he was the Green Party spokesperson for Transport and Enterprise, Trade and Employment and opposition convenor on the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Communication, Marine and Natural Resources.
Before he was elected to the Dáil he set up and ran two businesses, Irish Cycling Safaris and Belfield Bike shop. He was an active member and chairman of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, and from 1995 to 2002 he served on the Advisory Committee of the Dublin Transport Office.

Maeve Donovan
Former Managing Director
Irish Times

Maeve Donovan was appointed Managing Director of The Irish Times in 2002 with responsiblility for the strategic growth and development of the group including the newspaper and other print and digital interests. Since joining The Irish Times in 1977, she held a number of senior positions including Commercial Director. She was appointed a Director of the company in 1997.  She is Chairperson of National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), the representative body for daily, Sunday and national weekly newspapers published in Ireland. The Irish Times Group print investments include Metro, Gazette Group local newspapers and The Gloss magazine.  The company owns a range of digital assets including Irishtimes.com, Ireland.com, MyHome.ie and irishracing.com.  

Croke Park

Croke Park Conference Centre, Croke Park Stadium, Dublin 3

Not only does the Croke Park Conference Centre offer a unique venue experience, it also offers a fantastic location. Within walking distance of the city centre and on the airport route, the venue is the largest event centre in Dublin.
 
The iconic venue gives a sense of occasion to events such as award ceremonies and gala dinners; it provides an interesting backdrop for product launches; it offers expanses of space to exhibition organisers; there are breakout rooms aplenty for seminars and training courses; pitch side photo opportunities are perfect for press conferences; and, its easily accessible with lots of free car parking and adjacent 4 star accommodation at the Croke Park Hotel. 
Tailored stadium tours are available for conference delegates and a visit to the GAA Museum is time well spent during the course of a conference or event.
 
Contact the Conference Centre team on 01-819 2330 / events@crokepark.ie or visit www.crokepark.ie