Mojocon 2!

It is the brainchild of an Irishman – Glen Mulcahy. It brings together journalists from the four corners of the world to showcase how mobile technology is revolutionising how they create and distribute content. This was year two. Last year I helped Glen put together the panel of speakers for the mobile photography session, and this year I was fortunate and privileged to be invited back to give a workshop/photowalk with Nicki Fitzgerald. The event was held in the Aviva Stadium.

Day 1

The conference kicked off in style. Glen Mulcahy is many things, but when he tripped up stepping on stage, gathered himself and told this story about Meat Loaf, my admiration for him climbed a few more notches.

There were so many good talks to attend over the two days. Stand out speakers for me were John McHugh (Verifeye Media), Philip Bromwell (RTE), Conrad Messe (iPhone film-maker), Seán Mac an tSíthigh (RTE) and Molly Svenson (Ryot News). Of these, John McHugh was my favourite. He spoke with passion about what he has done (war photographer) and what he is doing with Verifeye Media – “a technology driven visual news agency for freelance journalists & accidental eyewitnesses.” You can read Irish Tech News article on John here. 

All of the talks of the conference will be posted on MojoCon’s Youtube page in the coming week. Check them out for yourself.

Of the many companies presenting their products in the exhibition hall, the one that I loved the most was the Samsung 360. Cathy O’ Flaherty was absolutely brilliant in showing the capabilities of Samsung’s phone and its 360 capabilities. Her own 360 video of her cat chasing the red dot of a laser beam was such a scream. She sure did work hard over the two days, but she was just as cheerful and in good spirits at the end of the conference as she was at the start. A great ambassador for Samsung.

On the Friday evening, Bord Bia (Ireland’s food board) invited speakers and delegates to an evening of the best of Irish food, music and of course – craic (not that crack! Irish craic – good fun).

Day 2

The photowalk. Last year we had about twenty people who hit the streets with us. I guess this year word got around how much fun it was, but we were not prepared for such large numbers. About 60 – 70 people turned up. Here’s a shot I took – which Nicki later modified and pasted me into it. Big thanks to Paul Moore, Richie Donnelan, Andy Butler and Micheál MacSuibhne for help in guiding people as we moved on.

Many plans were put forward as to where to go. Very often at conferences people only get to see the hotel and the event venue. With this in mind, we agreed that it was best to head into the city centre on the DART (local train) and allow people to see a little of Dublin before they headed home. With such a large number, we needed some way of being recognised. What better than a pink balloon tied to your wrist?

It was such a sight to see all the people trooping down the steps of the Aviva and into the train station to queue up to get their tickets.

Sure, it was a little crazy and hectic,  but everyone was in great spirits. Even Andy:

But he did cheer up later in the walk:

At Trinity College we split up into two groups. Andy and I brought one group up Grafton St. direction, while Nicki and Paul Moore headed to Temple Bar. Here are some of the shots I got on the little walk.

One hour later we met back in the college and from there back to the Aviva. The curious thing was that the original 60 or so people was now whittled down to about 20. How did we lose so many people? Are they still out there on the streets posting their shots and hashtagging them #mojocononthestreet? I’m checking….

The photo walk was such great fun and thanks to Olloclip for putting up some great prizes for the competition. Myself and Nicki handed this hard job over to Andy (Mobiography) and Steve Muttram of Olloclip. You can see the winning shots here on Andy’s site. Here is the winning one from Micheál MacSuibhne, and before anyway gets on their high horse about exploiting homeless people – Micheál knows this man. They were talking. He asked Micheál to take the shot.

And with that MojoCon 2 was coming to an end. It sure was tiring.

In the closing address Glen told that MojoCon is a strong possibility. That was wonderful to hear.  It was great to meet up with old friends, make new ones, but sad to have to say goodbye!

Here’s to MojoCon 3 and one last shot from the photo walk:

This great video was released by RTE a few days after this blog post.