SiliconRepublic.com Ireland's Technology News Service

Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Eamon Ryan was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 2002.

At the conference, he spoke about how investment in broadband infrastructure is more vital than roads and confirmed the search for a Government CIO is taking place.

Watch highlights of Eamon Ryan's talk here:

Chris Horn, co-founder and former CEO, Iona Technologies

Chris Horn is co-founder and former CEO of Iona Technologies, which had the fifth-largest IPO in Nasdaq history. Horn is a member of the Irish Government's Innovation Taskforce and board member of Trinity College Dublin. He is chair of a range of technology companies, including Cloudsmith and Gridstore. He currently serves as chairman of Cloudsmith, a cloud-computing company

John Herlihy, vice-president, Global Ad Operations, Google

As vice-president of Global Ad Operations, John Herlihy drives Google's online advertising operations and support globally by providing small business solutions to advertisers.

Herlihy told the conference attendees that desktops will give way to mobile in a few years.

Watch highlights of John Herlihy's talk here:

Colm Long, director of online operations, Facebook

Colm Long is director of online operations at Facebook in Ireland and is responsible for leading the company’s European operations from its new Dublin hub. He has comprehensive experience with multinational companies and joins from Google, where he held several senior roles, including director of online sales and operations for Northern Europe and director of sales operations for emerging markets.

Martin Murphy, country manager, HP (Ireland)

Martin Murphy is managing director for HP Ireland, and is responsible for driving HP's business growth in the Irish market. In 2003, he successfully steered the Irish operation through the Compaq merger, one of the largest in the history of the state. In addition, Martin has spearheaded various global acquisitions locally. Murphy also serves on the board of the Institute of Directors in Ireland. At the conference, he spoke about how Ireland's challenge is to articulate why firms like HP and Google have chosen to put roots down in Ireland.

Dylan Collins, CEO, Jolt Online Gaming

Dylan Collins is the CEO of Jolt Online Gaming, a leading online games publisher focused on North America and the UK.

Collins spoke to the conference about how Ireland needs to focus more on generating a larger number of internet start-ups.

Watch highlights of Dylan Collins' talk here:

Dr John Breslin, NUI Galway, co-founder Boards.ie

John Breslin is co-founder of Irish community website Boards.ie, and is a lecturer at the Department of Electronic Engineering in NUI Galway. He is also an associate researcher and leader of the Social Software Unit at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute at NUI Galway, researching semantically-enabled social networks and community portals. He has received a number of awards for website design, including a Golden Spider for Boards.ie, and Net Visionary awards in 2005 and 2006, from the Irish Internet Association.

Eamonn Fallon, co-founder, Daft.ie

Eamonn Fallon is a co-founder of Ireland's most successful property website, Daft.ie. Daft was recently recognised as being the busiest website in Ireland, accessed more than 27 million times a month. In November, Daft was ranked 8th on the 2009 Technology Fast 500 list, Deloitte’s ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Damien Mulley, Mulley Communications

Damien Mulley owns Cork-based Mulley Communications and teaches organisations and enterprises how to communicate amongst themselves and with the greater world. He is also the organiser of the Irish Blog Awards and Irish Web Awards. Mulley Communications specialises in media training, online marketing training, online PR training, business blogging and presentation training.

Kim Majerus, director - Ireland, Cisco UK & Ireland

Kim Majerus heads up the Irish Operation for Cisco. She has worked in the technology industry for more than 20 years. She has been with Cisco for more than seven years, joining in the Channel organisation in the US. In 2006, she moved to the UK and Ireland operation to lead the Network Integrator team. Prior to joining Cisco, Majerus held a variety of roles at Motorola and Harris Corporation. She was born and brought up in the Chicago area of the United States but now lives in Dublin.

CHAIRMAN: Damien McLoughlin, professor of marketing, UCD Smurfit School

Damien McLoughlin is professor of marketing, director of the Marketing Development Programme and head of the marketing subject area at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Known as a strategic marketing specialist, McLoughlin is a former dean of UCD Smurfit School, and a regular media contributor, contributing to the likes of Sky News, The Financial Times, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Independent and Newstalk 106.