RebelCon to gather brightest and best of software engineering sector
![RebelCon to gather brightest and best of software engineering sector RebelCon to gather brightest and best of software engineering sector](/cms_media/module_img/2061/1030613_1_articlesmall_bn-924711_d80ba3db399644f099c185e539af72d1.jpg)
THE future for software development in Ireland has never looked brighter, with companies of all sizes from multinationals to indigenous start-ups steadily expanding.
The sector has been growing at a phenomenal rate in Cork — as is evident in the buzz surrounding this year’s RebelCon, Ireland’s largest software engineering conference, which takes place in the Clayton Hotel, Cork, on Wednesday and Thursday, June 19 and 20.
It will be the third year that the conference creates a platform for the sector to discuss software engineering, architecture, machine learning, big data, Internet of Things, design, test and team culture.
Recruitment in the sector is soaring, not least at Poppulo, whose communications software platform and advisory services are helping companies transform their internal communications and enhance employee engagement.
Poppulo’s head of engineering, Damien Daly, is very optimistic about the future for software engineering in Ireland, and in Cork in particular. He was one of the founders of RebelCon, along with his Poppulo colleague Stephanie Sheehan and Aidan Casey of Johnson Controls.
“We are very optimistic about, both about Poppulo and the sector as a whole,” said Damien Daly. “In recent years, the tech sector in Cork has gone through a transition from being dominated by big multinationals to being a hub for expanding indigenous companies.
“One of the reasons for this has been the soaring costs of salaries and housing in Dublin. Cork offers great lifestyle choices to employees, with better disposable income and West Cork just a short drive away.
“We’re seeing a lot of people moving to Cork from Dublin and London. The fact that software engineering is knowledge-based work, primarily over the internet, means that you can choose your location to suit your business.
“We have a lot of international workers at Poppulo. The feedback we’re getting is that moving to Cork is a great lifestyle choice. The local ecosystem is also very strong, with excellent graduates from UCC and CIT, both of whom we have strong relationships with.”
In January, Poppulo announced that it had raised €30m in funding from US venture capital firm Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE). It is using these funds to invest in its technology platform and to take on additional sales and marketing staff across North America and Europe.
Established in Cork by chief executive Andrew O’Shaughnessy back in 2002, Poppulo has developed an employee communications platform that is used by more than 800 leading organisations — including Unilever, Bank of America, Nestlé, Johnson Controls, Rolls-Royce, Boston Scientific CRH, Kerry, AIB and the Ardagh Group.
Poppulo claims that 30% of the largest employers in Europe are among its customers, and 20% of the biggest companies in the US.
Little wonder it is in near permanent recruitment mode. The company currently employs 70 highly skilled software engineers among its total 200 staff.
The company this week unveiled plans to create 125 new jobs in its latest recruitment drive, with a suite of openings for software designers, developers, testers and reliability engineers, among others. The company is attracting interest from skilled workers both locally and internationally.
Of course, the same could be said of other companies in Cork like Johnson Controls, Apple, VMWare, Qualcomm, Teamwork, Xanadu, Over-C, Zendesk, NuAra, FireEye and Forcepoint. They’re all recruiting, all growing and serving global clients. Most will also be represented at RebelCon.
“RebelCon is a grassroots conference, created by practitioners for practitioners,” said Damien Daly. “There is a very strong vibrant tech community in Cork, with a great mix of big and mid-sized companies.
“The conference came about because we saw that a lot of people were organising meet-ups around the region. We wanted to create a focal point for those discussions.
“The genesis of RebelCon has always been to serve the technology community, particularly developers, designers and testers.
“While we’ve already secured an impressive line-up of national and international industry speakers, we are truly committed to being led by software sector, and hence this shout out to the sector to submit papers and speakers for the 2019 event,” said the RebelCon co-founder Damien Daly.
Hosted by Poppulo, with support from it@cork Skillnet and software houses across Ireland including Teamwork, Johnson Controls and Dell EMC, RebelCon expects to attract over 300 attendees to this year’s event.
One topic that will generate some lively discussion will focus on inclusivity in the workplace. Given the collaborative nature of new software product development, virtually all the companies cited here see teamwork as being vital to their progress.
“Workplace culture is very important in this sector,” said Damien Daly. “All these companies realise the importance of inclusivity and safe places for people to collabrate and create.
“Innovation and product development require a lot of collaboration. So this will be one of the interesting areas of discussion at RebelCon. Of course, there will also be a lot of technical discussion.
“There really is nothing quite like this conference anywhere else in the country. It is Ireland’s premier software development conference. From day one, we have always been very conscious of having the best of local and international speakers.”
RebelCon comprises two days of workshops as well as talks on the latest technology, culture and development practices in the software industry.
The series of talks and workshops will feature speakers including: David French, Google; Paul McGrath, Dell EMC; Donagh Horgan, Johnson Controls; Oonagh O’Brien, CIT; Kevin Duggan, Poppulo; Julie Matviyuk, Symantec; David Gonzalez and Alex Knol, nearForm; Sabine Wojcieszak, getNextIT; and Jorge Salamero, Sysdig.
https://RebelCon.io/
Business Movers
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