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Annual Trinity Business and Technology Forum

The Trinity Business and Technology Forum is an annual one-day event which brings the university’s business and scientific community - industry partners, alumni, faculty and students - together to review the latest in technology trends, to discuss how to tackle the related issues facing business and explore opportunities for future business.

This year’s conference on May 23rd, was a major event at the College as it was run as part of our celebrations at the opening of the new Trinity Business School building. The theme of the Forum was ‘The Business of Now – the future begins here’ and it showcased the connectivity and growing interdependency of Business and Technology.

The format of the Forum was largely based on a panel format with key notes from internationally based speakers including Ann O’Riordan, Group Director at Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, who engaged the large audience on the breadth and diversity of the business of technology across the Asia region.

For the panel on “ the Digital divide – Future Cities and Rural Rebirth” , we were joined by Moira Murrell, Chief Executive of Kerry Council, Jamie Cudden of Dublin City Council and business leaders including Padraig Monaghan of Donegal based US Multinational Optum and Sean McKenna of IBM. Panel chair Professor Linda Doyle, TCDs Dean of Research, led the discussion in comparing and contrasting the challenges associated with growing and sustaining a business in the emerging digital world, from an urban and rural perspective. The panellists described how technology has enabled them to succeed in global context.

The panel on “ The Citizen and Society “ in the digital world was chaired by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, director of Trinity’s Long Room Hub, who was joined by Professor Vinny Wade and Linda Hogan of TCD, Lorna Ross of VHI, Lisa Dillon of Microsoft and Paul Kelleher of Qualcomm. They discussed how the abundance of data and the value that can be extracted from it is transforming business models, enabling better decision making, aiding innovation, improving products and services. They also discussed how it is also increasingly evident that these new technologies are not just shaping our own capabilities but also our behaviours and even the way we live and furthermore, how society is evolving.

The panel on “ What now ?  Molecules and Materials – (  building blocks for a better world ) “, used a special ‘tag team’ format, with short presentations from a business collaborator with their partner principal investigator who introduced the audience to a range of impactful materials for areas such as computing, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and batteries. Participating companies include Nokia-Bell Labs, Intel, Solvotrin and DePuy Synthes

The event also featured a number of interactive workshops in which members of the Trinity Research and Innovation unit were joined by business partners in discussing topics such as new company spin outs, technology licensing and industry collaborations. The larger Trinity based research centres displayed the wide breadth of research activity at TCD in areas such  as advanced material science, Arts and Humanities researc, Learning technologies, next generation digital technologies and future networks.

We are already looking forward to the 2020 event which will take place in March of next year. All inquiries in relation to the 2020 forum can be sent to the Director of Trinity Research and Innovation, Mr Leonard Hobbs at LHobbs@TCD.ie

Leonord Hobbs June 2019