We’re seeing massive changes in communications behaviour, Feargal Brady, Digital Transformation Conference, June 8th

By @SimonCocking. We spoke with Feargal Brady about the upcoming Digital Transformation Conference, at the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin  taking place on 8th June 2017 (see here more info and for tickets).

When Should Irish Companies Go Global? Feargal Brady, Co Founder Blueface, speaking June 8th, Digital Transformation Conference

One Minute Pitch: What you are doing now?

We’re rolling out our services to 5 different countries around Europe (France, Spain, Germany, Austria and The Netherlands), and we have just opened an office in New York.

We are hiring around 60 people over the course of the next 12 months, and releasing a raft of updates on our platform. We’re quite busy.

How were the last 12 months, what worked well, what didn’t move as quickly as you would have liked?

There has been an explosion in interest in hosted phone systems, but also increasing demand for API access to our platform from applications developers to integrate voice in their products and services.

Voice consumption – number of minutes of calls – has been declining over the past few years, it is now growing again, but in a different way.

People are consuming voice services through apps in particular and on-demand services are driving this demand.

What are your plans for the future?

This is a global company and always has been – our aim is to become a global leader in our space – a global Irish success story.

Our technology is already recognised as class leading and our recent investment is going to accelerate this expansion.

We expect Blueface to be recognised as a world leader in this space.

What will you be talking about at DLR Summit?

How the rapid pace of technological development is reaching fever pitch.

We’re seeing massive changes in communications behaviour – and this is feeding into product and service design. Companies which aren’t adapting to these changes in behaviour are risking a lot.

Want to ask industry leaders big questions? Plenty of opportunities to network with industry experts @ #DLRSummit https://t.co/E1yXVSDGgC pic.twitter.com/7IUIAhDOfF

— DLR Summit (@dlrsummit) June 4, 2017

What inspired you to attend DLR Summit?

Dun Laoghaire is in a transformative phase in its development. There is now a foundation for significant industry growth in the community.

We need this lateral thinking urgently – the country is becoming increasingly centred on certain areas of Dublin, but we need centres of excellence all over the city – and indeed all over the country.

So this, along with the opportunity to learn from some super-talented people at the event made it an easy decision.

Engaging content that stimulates positive relationships = increased growth. The experts do the math @ #DLRSummit! https://t.co/IpGZA061WN pic.twitter.com/mpDuS9YVHH

— DLR Summit (@dlrsummit) June 4, 2017

Which influencers and websites do you follow to keep up to date with the latest developments?

I read a lot from traditional outlets like The Economist, The Financial Times and The Guardian. I also like Wired and some of the more techie magazines.

For influencers, I read Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz – people like that, to understand the global economy. I like the CB Insights newsletter for tech, and some blogs like Benedict Evans.

How can people find out more about what you are working on?

To find out more about Blueface, Feargal and Unified Communications, visit Blueface.com.
We do release some information on our blog but our main software development activities are usually quite secret.

Anything to Add?

I think Virtual Reality is going to reach a tipping point in the next few years.

We recently did a demo of a virtual reality conference and it was mind-blowing – the ability to pick up and interact with virtual objects, to pass them virtually to a person you can actually see and act as if you were in the real world is sensational and incredibly powerful.

That Star Trek Holo-Deck might not be far off!

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