John Breslin is a senior lecturer at NUI Galway, and co-founder of boards.ie, adverts.ie and the PorterShed. Here he talks about emerging trends in business, his passions, and his daily routine.
What would a typical day involve?
I wake up after my wife and kids and then check my emails, Twitter and the news over breakfast. I drop the kids to school before nine, drive to work, and spend a lot of my time in Google Docs working on shared documents or presentations, creating, reworking graphics and PDFs in Adobe Illustrator, communicating via Slack, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or otherwise in meetings and telecoms. I try and leave work around 5 pm, but I respond to emails and social media much later than I should. In the evening its science fiction and fantasy shows or novels and then bed. John Ryan liked to hire people who read sci-fi; it improves your imagination and creativity.
“I am a big fan of Bill Aulet, MIT professor and author of ‘Disciplined Entrepreneurship’.”
What are you passionate about?
Technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. All things that are French, Japanese and Irish. Electronic music. Carcassonne. Manga and comics. Electric cars. Honda cars. Branding, logos and fonts. Social media. Science fiction and fantasy. Geeky stuff.
“The trends I see emerging include innovation districts, coworking spaces and entrepreneurship skills that complement storytelling.”
What are your ambitions?
Growing the innovation ecosystem in Galway and the West of Ireland, through TechInnovate, AgInnovate, the PorterShed, the Galway City Innovation District, Startup Galway, and WestBIC.
What trends do you see emerging?
Innovation districts, coworking spaces and entrepreneurship skills to complement storytelling. More mobile computing, deep learning, smart contracts, agri-drones, smart privacy protection, and all of that other crazy stuff you see in Black Mirror.
“I get very frustrated by empty vessels making noise and people who claim they are doing stuff when they
