It’s not often that people and technology come together so brilliantly as this morning’s Limerick OpenCoffee. I’ve just taken part in their regular session whilst sitting in a kitchen in Wexford.

Conn O Muineachain livestreamed the entire event using Ustream.tv so anyone could logon and see what was happening whilst a chat-channel allowed us to interact with the attendees. Some backchannel stuff on Twitter and Jaiku added to the mix. If that’s all they had done, then it rates as a great success. But they went one step further.

The Collison brothers, Patrick and John, from Auctomatic have been getting a lot of much-deserved press recently. Having failed utterly to get any investment in Ireland or any support from EI, these young (really young!) lads headed over to Silicon Valley and have raised $300k. From what I can see, their eBay tools for PowerSellers are a slam-dunk. How the hell was that not seen by the investment community in Ireland?

The two guys are back over here for a visit, so the Limerick OCC guys nabbed them for this morning. I’ve just listened to an absolutely rivetting interview with the two of them. Conn recorded the whole thing so you can play it back. This is pure gold - a deep inside view into moving to the Valley and making something happen.

I’ve been quite dismissive of the whole PodTech/Scoble thing, finding it boring and echo-chambery, but what happened this morning is genuine new-media. Useful, informative, entertaining, interactive, fun!

Well done LOCC guys, you’ve just upped the bar for everyone. Bernie is 100% right when he says “This is mainstream":

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