EVERYONE knows that the Internet is the future, so when The Irish Times launched its new site at ireland.com, it caught a large group of forward-thinking surfers in its web. This was no virtual event, however, but a realtime, press-the-flesh gathering at Conrad Gallagher's plush new Christopher's restaurant on Stephen's Green.
Ireland.com is a portal site through which Internet users around the world can access a large pool of Irish Websites. These include the already-popular Web edition of The Irish Times, a business site, a technology site, and a new Dublin Live city guide.
Logging on to Wednesday's launch were representatives from top Irish advertising agencies, corporate groups, Internet service providers, and technology organisations, including Telecom, Aer Lingus, Bank Of Ireland, Ireland Online, McConnells, ESB and Siemens. Each guest was given a free email account with their own name "@ireland.com" - the free email service is also available to anyone who visits the Website. A bank of computers was set up along the restaurant's balcony, so guests could browse the new site while sampling the excellent wine and tapas provided by Conrad Gallagher.
The Web welcoming committee included Irish Times editor, Conor Brady, chief executive and group managing director, Louis O'Neill, general sales and marketing director, Maeve Donovan, managing director of Itronics, Seamus Conaty, and editor of electronic editions, Seamus Martin.
Other guests who surfed into Conrad Gallagher's domain for a peek into the future were Tommy Higgins, managing director of Ticketmaster, which is launching its new ticketing service on the Web later this month; Barry O'Neill, head of new media publishing, at Telecom Internet; and Denis Hanrahan, head of group corporate affairs at Bank Of Ireland.
