Business
Budding artist Doodles 4 Google
A five-year-old budding artist from Tuam was among the big winners at this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition. Cian Mangan from Cloghan’s Hill National School, Tuam, was the winner of the Group 1 category (ages 4-6) of this sixth annual Google contest.
Cian was up against the competition’s 74 other finalists and won the most public votes of any entry in his age category.
Five year old Cian was presented with his award at a special prize-giving ceremony in Google’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin last week by professional Google doodler, Katy Wu.
Katy, who travelled especially from Google’s offices in Mountain View, also announced the overall winner as Kelly McCabe, an eight year old student from Dublin.
As well as being named top Doodler, Kelly was presented with a Chromebook and a €5,000 scholarship towards her further studies while her school will also receive a €10,000 technology grant from Google, with her teacher, Teresa Lea, also winning a Chromebook.
The theme of this year’s event was ‘My Adventure’. Cian’s winning doodle, entitled ‘Diving for Fun Under the Sea’ was inspired by his love all things that happen under the sea and uses sharks and shipwrecks to give the iconic Google logo a creative twist.
Speaking at the ceremony, professional Google doodler Katy Wu said she was blown away by the talent and creativity shown by the entries.
“What I was also impressed by was the level of enthusiasm for the competition in Ireland. We run Doodle 4 Google in many countries across the world but number and quality of the entries from Irish students was outstanding,” said Katy.
“This is the sixth year of the competition and I continue to be overwhelmed each year by the level of public interest shown. This year we recorded over 120,000 public votes from people voting for their favourite doodle. I would like to express a big thank you to those that voted, the teachers and parents involved, and most especially the 2,390 students who entered,” said John Herlihy, head of Google in Ireland.
A panel of judges including legendary Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, creator of the iconic red and black 1968 Che Guevara poster, chose the 75 finalists for the public vote.
Over 120,000 votes were registered with the highest number of votes in each class group making it through to the overall finals.
You can view all the finalists’ doodles on www.google.ie/doodle4google
The new President of Local Ireland, the association representing local news publishers around the country, is Head of Irish Times Regionals Dan Linehan.
Mr Linehan takes over the presidency from Declan McGuire of the Connacht Tribune. His appointment was confirmed at the recent Annual General Meeting of Local Ireland at Bloomfield House Hotel near Mullingar, Westmeath.
Mr Linehan, who has served as Vice President of the organisation for the last two years, said: “The coming years are a very important time for local publishers with many important issues to be addressed, including the implementation of the Future of Media Commission recommendations, defamation reform, the role and support for local publishers in public service reporting and helping publishers develop commercial digital offerings.”
Speaking at the AGM, Mr McGuire acknowledged the work done by the Executive in the past two years under the direction of Executive Director, Bob Hughes, on several projects related to the publishing industry but most especially the successful conclusion of the long-running campaign for the abolition of VAT on newspapers.
He also wished Mr Linehan the very best in his new role as President of the association for the next two years.
Mr Hughes thanked Mr McGuire for his leadership and support during his term of office and said he looked forward to working with Mr Linehan on the key policy priorities for the association, including Government supports, Government advertising, fair remuneration for content from the tech platforms and the reform of the legislation for defamation.
Local Ireland members also elected Seán Mahon, Managing Director of the Southern Star, as Vice President for the next two years.
The shortage of affordable housing is the single biggest impediment in attracting and retaining workers in the West, according to business group Ibec.
At a ‘Regional Insights Series’ meeting in the Galmont Hotel in Galway last week, employers were told that capacity constraints and labour supply are the key challenges facing business growth in the region.
Ibec Head of Regional Policy Helen Leahy said: “There must be greater focus by government on enhancing quality of life issues such as housing and infrastructure which are driving labour shortages in the region.
“Ibec’s vision for the West is to realise its potential to become a globally competitive location. An inadequate supply of affordable housing is now the single largest impediment to attracting and retaining talented workers, without whom business investment and expansions are not possible.
“Labour shortages are a real concern for businesses in the region. People decide where to live and work based on quality of life and access to high quality services and amenities. Industry tends to follow talent, and in this regard, the region needs to have all the building blocks in place as the attraction and retention of world-class talent becomes increasingly competitive on a global level,” said Ms Leahy.
Amongst Ibec’s priorities for the West are:
- Addressing housing and infrastructure challenges
- Transitioning towards a new growth model with Net Zero energy powered by Atlantic offshore wind resources
- Adapting businesses to the new economic realities
- Enhancing capacity and skillsets to achieve sustainable development objectives
- Investment in people and skills
- Creating competitive advantage through digitalisation
- Innovation as a key driver of productivity growth
One in five Galway businesses want to go fully cashless, as the move towards card payments and tapping continues unabated post-Covid.
In all, 22% of Galway businesses would like to be fully cashless, according to a survey carried out by BOI Payment Acceptance (BOIPA), a provider of payment technology solutions, which asked Irish businesses about the current payment landscape as well as business confidence and concerns.
Over one-third (36%) of Galway businesses were unaware there is no contactless limit on mobile wallets – just below the national average – while 54% believe the increase in card over cash transactions has helped them run their business.
Six out of ten Galway businesses expect to grow this year despite the cost-of-living crisis and running costs dominating as key concerns; 62% believe their business will grow over the next twelve months despite global economic uncertainty.
Unsurprisingly cost-of-living increases and running costs were the main concerns the majority of businesses had.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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