TECHNOLOGY: Bringing students to the 'centre of the apps universe' is important for Northern Ireland's next generation and the economy, says Tim Brudle
FIVE DAYS surrounded by 5,000 of the world’s most eager and obsessive Apple developers could be considered an apps gateway to heaven or hell. But for Tim Brundle it is his own personal version of Shangri-la 2010 style, with the added benefit of more than 1,000 Apple engineers floating around in the background.
For a high-tech evangelist like Brundle Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco really is as the corporation likes to bill it the “centre of the apps universe” for a couple of days in early June.
Brundle, who is the University of Ulster’s director of innovation, led a 26-strong digital technology group from Northern Ireland to the event this year. It is a regular gig for him and one which he takes very seriously.
He believes the opportunity it affords to developers and entrepreneurs in the North is unrivalled and it IS his objective to ensure that Northern Ireland’s best talent knocks on every door possible at the moment.
“We get access to a much higher level at Apple than we expect and we in turn are able to provide a joined-up view of Northern Ireland’s capabilities – we are able to show that our approach, which brings industry, government and academia together really works.
“The WWDC gives Northern Ireland developers an opportunity to interface with people who can be an inspiration to them. It really energises them to hear from others who have taken risks and seen rewards and made mistakes. The stories really do inspire people,” Brundle says from the heart of the event in San Franciso’s Moscone West convention centre.
His enthusiasm both for his role as innovation director and unofficial ambassador for the high-tech start-up sector in the North is exceptional. Three years ago when he joined the university in the newly created post there were few expectations. But his track record in the private sector and his zeal for helping propel new high-tech entrepreneurs and products forward has helped cement his reputation.
Before he joined the university he was director of sales and marketing with the UK’s Defence Diversification Agency which facilitated the commercialisation of defence technology by industry, and the cross transfer of civilian technology into military programmes.
During his time with the agency Brundle was involved in some of its largest technology deals. He also further developed his expertise in the area of commercialising technology through his work with QinetiQ, the listed defence-to-security technology group.
Today Brundle, who is a board member of Invest Northern Ireland, is chiefly responsible for getting ground-breaking research and technology from the University of Ulster’s labs to the market. He is keen to ensure academic ambitions and commercial output adds up to economic realities and deliver results not just for the university but for Northern Ireland as a whole.
Brundle’s team looks after all of the university’s commercial output from consultancy to knowledge transfer, intellectual property licensing and spin outs. He is also responsible for UUTech Ltd, the University of Ulster’s technology venturing company. The technology commercialisation company is involved in a number of the North’s most promising new high-tech start-ups including the likes of Gendel, Sisaf and the Tactility Factory.
Brundle believes events like Apple’s WWDC provide an important window into a world where Northern Ireland’s next generation of developers and entrepreneurs can be real players. “We got just 25 tickets for the WWDC this year if we had got more then we would have had a bigger group because more people wanted to come. It is a great opportunity for developers to see what the market is doing and where it is going and get really good guidance on how to develop good apps. In one sense it is Apple providing a hand-holding opportunity.
According to Brundle, Northern Ireland has a good opportunity to rise to the top of the apps development pool.
“One of the real successes of the apps market is that it is actually quite simple to engage with. What you have to do is build the most beautiful product and then jump back into the web and publicise it.
“We have a good heritage in Northern Ireland for developing software products for mobile devices whether it is on a connectivity or security level – we have demonstrated good capability and we are a small region who can work together and interface together really well,” he adds.
Brundle says in his opinion there is “an enormous amount of life” in the local high-tech sector in the North but it is unfortunately not translating into any serious upturn for the economy just yet. “We need to build scale in Northern Ireland, we need to create an ecosystem that can support the growth of high-tech companies and we need to encourage the creation of more Randox and Andor Technologies.
“I think what is happening in Northern Ireland is a learning process, entrepreneurs and developers are learning from their peers. If you look at Silicon Valley they are probably in their seventh generation of technology entrepreneurs – in Northern Ireland we are probably just in our second and that makes an important difference,” says Brundle.
He believes each generation grows in confidence and accesses knowledge and adapts faster. According to Brundle the key to success is helping the next generation in Northern Ireland make the leap.
“We have a tech-rich environment but we need to concentrate on scaling up our businesses and how do we do that? We need to have a structure in place that provides the right kind of investment at the right time. There is venture capital available in Northern Ireland but there is an issue of just how much is available – our venture capitalists don’t have deep enough pockets and perhaps that is what is stopping us from building bigger companies.
The high-tech enthusiast believes that if there was a pot of between £10-£50 million of venture capital readily available to access in the North it would dramatically change the shape of the region’s economy and the rate of its high-tech successes.
“There is just not enough equity for certain projects and that is holding us back,” Brundle states. He believes that Northern Ireland possesses “a bunch of really smart people who are hungry for business and keen to do business with each other”.
But he says everyone needs to work at unlocking the potential which exists.
Brundle points to the invaluable help which he believes high-techs in the North have received from the US-based Irish Technology Leadership Group and particularly from the likes of Belfast-born David Kirk.
He is convinced that closer ties with successful role models will help Northern Ireland shape its new high-tech future while he personally has not given up on the dream that he will one day go back into the thick of high-tech development and be closely involved in the next big thing. “There are lots of very exciting ideas and you can’t help be turned on by what is happening when you are in this environment: the early stage, high-techs just pull you. But my plan at the moment is to work locally to help build global businesses,” says Brundle.
NORTHERN DELEGATION paddyinvasion presents at the 2010 WWDC
IF THE T-shirt is anything to go by then the Tim Brundle-led invasion of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference has made a lasting impression.
Apple has been consistently supportive of Northern Ireland’s growing band of developers who are gaining a quiet reputation for producing some of the most imaginative and popular apps.
John Kennedy of Craic Design is a case in point – his Pocket Universe app (Winner of Mac World’s 2009 App Awards Education) has been stealing the show since it was first launched on a number of fronts and is now an undisputed best seller.
But he is not the only Northern Ireland apps entrepreneur with sky-high ambitions.
If the Twitter stream from the North’s digital technology group – who identified themselves as the paddyinvasion for the purposes of the 2010 WWDC – were anything to go by then there is no lack of ideas coming through or confidence about what they have to offer.
Invest Northern Ireland, the regional economic development agency, provided financial support for the delegation from the North which included digital media companies, the University of Ulster and Queen’s University and Belfast Metropolitan College to attend the 2010 event. Tracy Meharg, Invest NI’s managing director of Innovation and Capability Development, believes it is vital that Northern Ireland firms and interests were represented at what she said was “probably the world’s biggest and most interactive technology platform”.
Belfast-based Weeman Studios, the iPhone and iPad games specialist, was just one of the companies who made the trip to San Franciso to talk to publishers and reviewers about the upcoming release of its Galactic Racer.
Like Infurious, which produces digital comics designed for the iPhone and Ecliptic labs which describes itself as a “mobile user experience company”, they were keen to get the message about their capabilities out to the Apple audience.
As self-confessed “Apple geek” Ian Robinson from Northgate Information Solutions, who was also part of the Northern Ireland paddyinvasion delegation, discovered it also provided the perfect opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas.
But one of the most valuable experiences for the paddyinvasion delegation was the chance to take part in more than 100 technical sessions and hands-on labs where they could learn and work with Apple engineers.
Jonathan Cusick from Digital Robot Software, the Ballymoney-based start-up, was among the Northern Ireland companies eager to take advantage of what was on offer.
His “atmosphere is amazing” tweets on the WWDC pretty much conveyed the entire experience of the ambitious group from the North.
