Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
Cristiano Ronaldo looks set to make his Real Madrid debut in Ireland. The Portuguese star is expected to complete a €92 million transfer from Manchester United in time to line out alongside his new €65 million teammate Kaka´ for a friendly against Shamrock Rovers at their new Tallaght Stadium next month.
Ronaldo and Kaka´ will be accompanying their new team-mates – including Spanish internationals Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, and Dutch stars Arjen Robben and Ruud van Nistelrooy – on a ten-day preseason training camp at Carton House in Maynooth, organised by Fintan Drury’s sports management company Platinum One.
‘‘The Ronaldo story was fantastic news for us,” said Eamon McLoughlin, head of football at Platinum One. ‘‘We knew from speaking with them early on it was their intention to bring in some top, top players. We’ve done Barcelona in Scotland for the last two years, and all the top players were there: Messi, Henry, Xavi and Iniesta. We cannot know what will happen with injury or illness, but 25 players from Real’s first team squad will be in Maynooth.”
McLoughlin said that Real Madrid would play one match against an Irish team during their trip, but could not yet confirm the date or opposition.
‘‘We are talking to the FAI and the clubs and to South Dublin County Council, before we can release details of the date and the match times,” he said.
It is understood, however, that the game will take place on July 20, and that extra temporary seating will be installed at Tallaght Stadium to allow a 10,000 attendance.
McLoughlin said that Madrid’s Irish trip – which takes place from July 13 to 22 – would form a key part of new first team coach Manuel Pellegrini’s preparations for Madrid’s 2009-10 Primera Liga and Champions League campaigns.
‘‘It is the hardest part of their pre-season, with twice daily intensive sessions,” said McLoughlin. ‘‘It is too warm to do those in Madrid at that time of the year. The new manager’s fitness coaches were in Ireland this week.”
McLoughlin said that Platinum One would be covering all of Madrid’s costs for their time in Ireland.
‘‘We will cover everything from chartering the flight to the training pitches, to the food, civic engagements in Ireland, security and everything else,” he said. ‘‘From the minute they get on the plane in Madrid, to the minute they touch down on return to Madrid, we will control everything. Quite a bit of planning has gone into it.”
In return, the company gets to market all the team’s activities during the training camp, including TV rights for the game, McLoughlin said.
‘‘All management, commercial and media issues around the game would be covered by Platinum One,” he said. ‘‘We will run daily press conferences at Carton House, where we would expect 100-plus media from around the world. The game will be live in Spain and, with the sort of players they are signing, there is a fair chance it will be live in quite a few countries.”
Monday 15 June 2009
Ronaldo to make his Madrid debut in Ireland
IFI to get €1.7m facelift and redevelopment
Sunday Business Post - Done Deal page - Jun 14 2009
Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) has announced plans to invest €1.7 million in the redevelopment of its premises in Dublin’s Temple Bar.
As part of the project, said IFI director Sarah Glennie, the Eustace Street facility will get a new 60-seat cinema to screen films and documentaries. The institute already has two cinemas as well as onsite retail, pub and restaurant facilities.
‘‘This is much-needed work for the IFI. We are very tight at the moment, with two screens. This will really let us expand our activities and show new films for longer, as well as different seasons and sorts of programmes,” said Glennie.
The new cinema would have digital projection technology enhancing historical and independent screenings from the Irish Film Archive and emerging Irish filmmakers, Glennie said.
‘‘We are the home of the Irish Film Archive, which is an incredible resource of Irish heritage. We will be able to really expand the amount of material for people to experience. We will also look at more education programmes and courses,” she said.
The design for the revamp, by O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects, follows an earlier upgrade to the Eustace Street facility by the same architects, dating back to 1992.
‘‘The feeling of the merging of the modern with the old listed building will remain, but the experience will be better,” said Glennie. ‘‘On entering the building, you will come into a dedicated film and bookshop, which will really signal what the IFI is about. The bar, which is a very important source of income for us, will have a much-needed facelift, and there will be new washroom, box office and information facilities.”
Glennie said that funding for the €1.7 million project had come from a mix of public and private sources.
‘‘We were awarded an access to capital grant of €1.2million from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism in 2007. We then had to secure matched funding. We got an anonymous private donation, and the remaining amount came from ourselves,” she said.
"Building work will commence on the site on July 6.The cinema will remain open for the duration of the project. We will be open throughout the summer in the evenings and all weekend. The build work will be revealed in stages and finally complete by the end of October,” said Glennie.
The IFI’s most recent published accounts, for the 12 months of 2007, show turnover of €1.7 million. It employs 60 staff.
The IFI is preparing to host the ‘Stranger than Fiction’ documentary festival, which opens on June 18.
‘‘There is a very strong programme of new international and Irish documentary films. The highlights include the Irish premiere of the Michael Moore-style corporate infiltration documentary, The Yes Men Fix The World,” said Glennie. ‘‘It will also mark the world premiere of a very interesting film called ‘The Liberties’ by young Irish film-makers, which looks at the history and key characters of Dublin’s Liberties area.”
Trusting open source
Sunday Business Post - Computers in Business Magazine - June 7th 2009
Ten popular commercial open source applications...
Alfresco
Alfresco is an open source enterprise content management system, which includes content management functionality, along with collaboration and interoperability tools, and a menu of services and training options. It is available in community (free) and enterprise (paid-for) versions.
Canonical / Ubuntu
Canonical is the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, a communitybased operating system based on the original Linux open source OS. The company offers paid-for 24/7 support and professional services, engineering services, and hardware and software certification around the Ubuntu system, which itself is free to download and use.
JasperSoft
JasperSoft's open source business intelligence suite includes reporting, analytics and integration tools for SMEs. It's available in either standalone or SaaS editions, and offered in community (free) and enterprise (paid-for) versions.
Liferay
Liferay Portal is an enterprise open source portal framework, offering integrated web publishing and content management, an enterprise service bus and SOA for application integration, and compatibility with all major IT infrastructures. The standard edition can be downloaded free, the paid-for enterprise version comes with support, training and services.
Magento
Magento is an open source enterprise-grade eCommerce application for managing online stores, which includes marketing and catalogue management tools. The community version is free, while the paid-for version with extra functionality, services and support starts at $8,900.
MySQL
MySQL is the world's most popular open source database. It's free to download and use, and many companies (including Sun, which ownsMySQL) offer a range of paid-for support and services - Sun's MySQL Enterprise Server and Production Support product costs $599.
Onepoint
Onepoint's open source project management software integrates project planning, controlling, monitoring and reporting into a single web 2.0-based project leadership software solution for project-oriented companies. Onepoint Project 8.1 for a single user costs €149, while five-user versions cost €1,499. Meanwhile, larger enterprise solutions are costed on a peruser basis.
Openbravo
Openbravo is a fully functional open source integrated web-based open source enterprise resource management (ERP) system, with procurement, financial, reporting, sales and project management and many other modules. SME users pay €1,500 plus €400-€500 per concurrent user, while the enterprise edition costs €500-€700 per concurrent user.
Red Hat
Red Hat provides Linuxbased operating system software along with applications, management, and middleware solutions.The basic subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux costs $349 and offerings range up to the premium Subscription (24/7 phone support, web support, unlimited incidents) at $2,499.
Sugar CRM
Sugar CRM is the world's largest provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software. Sugar Express costs $499 for one to five users, while the Sugar Enterprise edition is $600 per user.
This list was a panel for a longer piece I wrote for CIB looking at the increasing availability of business-ready open source applications. Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
