Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Take a dozen Irish technology entrepreneurs, digital enthusiasts, marketers and journalists. Place in a large Indian restaurant. Sprinkle in a smattering of venture capitalists, Government representatives, Enterprise Ireland executives. Add wine liberally. Stir vigorously for two hours. Result: curry 2.0.

curry 2.0 is a new regular networking event based in Dublin. Each month, top-tier executives will meet over delicious Indian food to connect with peers, to share knowledge and discuss/debate hot topics of interest.

Primary goals are:

• Learn about startups, technology and industry trends
• Meet and connect with interesting people
• Eat, drink, & have fun

Membership of curry 2.0, which includes invitations to dinners each month, is just €150 per annum. The first networking dinner is June 18th and sponsored by BT and Hosting365.

Networking dinners for members will cost €40 and €55 for non-members. I’m not expecting many to become a member for a while, so I’ll try to secure sponsorship for the first few dinners - to give attendees a taste for the event.

I’m hoping to turn curry 2.0 into a regular event like Rob Loch’s Internet People in London. I didn’t even come up with the idea to copy someone else’s idea. Fergus Burns suggested I evolve curry 2.0 so it was more inline with Internet People - thanks to them both for the inspiration

Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to learn more about upcoming dinners, or how to become a Founding Member for €50. Founding membership is open until end of September.

Look who’s coming to dinner on June 18th - this one was invite-only

• Brian Caulfield, Non-Executive Director, PutPlace
• Caelen King, Founder/CEO, RevaHealth.com
• Campbell Scott, CEO, IGOpeople
• Daniel Becker, Founder, GlowDay
• Dylan Collins, CEO, OMAC Industries
• Ivan MacDonald, CEO, Dial2Do
• Joe Drumgoole, Founder/CEO, PutPlace
• John Collins, Journalist, Irish Times
• Marcus Macinnes, Founder/CEO, pix.ie
• Martha Rotter, Technology Evangelist , Microsoft Ireland DPE
• Martin Kelly, Partner EMEA, IBM Venture Capital Group
• Mary Rose, Consultant, Brightspark Consulting
• Paul Walsh, Founder/CEO, Segala & wubud
• Sean Sullivan, CTO, Dial2Do
• Sorcha Moore, IA/UI Designer, Pocketkings
• Stephen McCarron, Founder/CEO, Hosting365
• Tom Murphy, Head of Public Relations & Citizenship, Microsoft Ireland

• 200 registered attendees
• 5 Sponsors: BT, Blacknight putplace, Segala and wubud
• Popcorn provided by Cineworld! (party venue - arranged by IOTC)
• Lots of drink and nibbles
• Good coverage online

The Irish need to live up to the great name we have for partying so come and help us generate the loudest Mozilla PARTY around the world to celebrate the Firefox 3 launch.

The party is being sponsored by BT, Putplace.com, Blacknight Hosting, Segala, wubud and Mozilla is sending over lots of prizes/swag for us to give away on the night.

Registration to attend is required. Over 100 people have already registered so make sure you get your name on the list before it’s closed. Register here.

I’d like to thank Barry Alistair from IOTC for helping us secure the venue. The party will be streamed live thanks to intruders.tv. Bookmark the page where you can view the party live.

This is a great opportunity to network with the Irish tech industry.

I’m delighted to announce June 12th as the date for the next gathering of Top Cats. We’re testing out Adam Street private members club for the next gathering - One Alfred Place was good, but a 21:30 finish is a little early.

If you’re a Top Cat, pencil it in now. Please don’t register your interest just yet - I just wanted to give you a heads up. I received a response from 70 Top Cats within 24 hours of sending out the invite for May. So, make sure you’ve got your finger on the ’send’ button.

Sponsored by

Our thanks for June’s sponsorship goes to TH_NK

How to become a Top Cat

The purpose of the event is to forge greater collaboration between London’s Internet startup, Web design, interactive marketing, mobile, TV and advertising communities at the highest level.

Top Cats are now permitted to recommend up to 2 new members each month. To become a member of this exclusive club, you’ll need to be recommended by another Top Cat. Less than 20% of recommendations make it however, so please don’t be offended if you don’t get accepted

Sponsorship opportunity for future gatherings

Get in touch if you’d like to sponsor a future Top Cat event. Email paul@segala.com

WEBPAGEIRELAND is likely to be the worst designed Web site I have ever seen. Seeing is believing. I twittered it moments ago and at least 20 people replied. That’s a decent response. So, I’ve setup an unbiased/responsible poll to solicit your opinion.

It’s not all negative. I’m going to write a post about the best designed 404 page I’ve seen. Sounds a little sad, I know, but it does demonstrate how this particular company has thought about the usability of its entire Web site. It rocks.