Important update

Due the current travel restrictions Guy Kawasaki is unable to travel from the United States, we regret that The Irish Times Spotlight event will be cancelled and a date later in the year will be set.

All ticketholders will receive a full refund

Many thanks, for your booking The Irish Times

Introduction

The Irish Times in association with Prosperity is proud to launch, 'Spotlight'. Breaking the boundaries is the first in the series of Spotlight events, delivering quality, innovative and motivational speakers from home and abroad. Breaking the Boundaries takes place on April 23rd in the Mansion House from 2pm to 4pm.

Keynote speaker

Guy Kawasaki

Venture Capitalist

Guy Kawasaki is the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine.He established his professional reputation as a software evangelist at Apple Computer Inc. back in the 80s. He now leads a peripatetic existence and counts blogger, venture capitalist, author and speaker amongst his credentials.

Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way..

Also

John Dunne - Chief Marketing Officer

Intune Networks

John co-founded Intune in 1999 with Tom Farrell following EU-funded research work at University College Dublin. From 1999-2004 John was CEO of Intune and led the company successfully through its early development phase. In 2005, John took up the position of CMO. He is currently responsible for Product & Market strategy, Product Management, Release Management and all Marketing activities. John has a first class honours electronics degree and a PhD in the field of tunable lasers from UCD and has spent 14 years working on the application of these devices into telecommunications systems. He is a co-inventor on some of Intune's core intellectual property on network systems.

Santina Doherty

VP Commercial Development, Hostelworld.com Ltd

Santina joined WRI in December 2008 as VP for Commercial Development.  Santina joined from Ryanair where she spent 10 years over the course of which Ryanair's route network grew from 50 to 500 routes.  Over that period Santina held positions of Media and Advertising Manager and Head of Ancillary Revenue. 

Web Reservations International is a global market leader in online hostel and budget accommodation. It was recently acquired by private equity investment firm, Hellman and Friedman LLC.  Through its flagship brand, Hostelworld.com, WRI has over the course of its 10 years, revolutionised online travel through its simple business model, creating a global internet success. 

Iain Mac Donald

CEO, Weedle

Iain is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in the development of high-growth ventures.  He is now co-founder and CEO of Weedle, a technology-based internet company founded in 2008.  Currently in beta test mode, the company's internet platform enables a better way for you to connect with people who need your skill and also, to find people who have the skills you need.  Weedle is free to use.  Leveraging Social Media and semantic technologies and combining them with Weedle's own search and social graph algorithm, Weedle aims to deliver a uniquely effective experience for the company's community of users, instantly and accurately connecting people with skills to those that need them, within a trusted environment.

Moderated by

Mark Little

Mark Little has been a journalist for almost 20 years. He was RTE's first Washington correspondent, and covered every US election since 1994. He returned to Dublin in 2001 to take up the post of RTE's Foreign Affairs Correspondent before joining Prime Time in 2002.

He took a leave of absence from RTE in December 2009 to set up a new online platform specialising in coverage of the world through social media and digital technology.

Mark wrote and presented the documentary series Who's Afraid of Islam? (2006) and American Dream: Dead or Alive (2008). He is the author of three books, Turn Left at Greenland, Zulu Time, and The New America.