404 London: Bringing Irish Tech to London for One Day Only

On the 10th of February 2018, a taster of Ireland’s tech scene made its way to London for our unique event, Tech/Life Ireland | 404 London. This event promised to bring the best of Irish tech to London and boy, did it deliver.

From inspiring talks to a multiplayer Doom deathmatch (more on that later), the event gave attendees a real flavour of tech in Ireland and offered them the chance to connect with some of the country’s top tech employers like CarTrawler, HubSpot, Indeed Prime, Workday and Zendesk.

On the Main Stage

Kicking off bright and early, the main stage was hosted by Irish broadcaster and tech correspondent, Jess Kelly, who was on hand to introduce the speakers throughout the day and host the engaging expert panel discussions. And the agenda was jam-packed, with highlights including gaming legends John and Brenda Romero. Now based in Ireland, the duo spoke candidly about why they left their successful gaming company in Silicon Valley to set up a new company, Romero Games, on Ireland’s West Coast.

Along with the inspirational duo, there were practical talks from experts like Bobby Healy, CTO of CarTrawler, who showed us how his company currently processes over 3,000 searches a second on low-cost LINUX boxes. And talks that inspired – like the one from Dr Nora Khaldi, who told us how Irish company Nuritas are using artificial intelligence to improve the lives of billions.

Lightning Talks

Away from the main-stage, attendees could also check out lighting talks featuring some of the brightest minds in the business -like Rob Campion from HubSpot who explained how building a UI component library boosts engineer productivity, and Colin Kane, Head of Analytics of Bank of Ireland, who explained how the bank delivers personalised customer experiences through advanced analytics.

Interesting Installations

And for anyone who needed a brief timeout from the action, there was a chance to relax with Deep, a meditative VR game controlled by breathing. An interesting use of the technology, the game teaches you yogic breathing techniques that can alleviate stress, anxiety, and mild depression.

Gamers could also try their hand at Line Wobbler, a one-dimensional dungeon crawler game with a wobbly controller that looked deceptively simple but was loads of fun.

Oh, and we can’t forget the deathmatch. Yes, really! 20 lucky competition winners got the chance to try to beat John Romero at his own game in a classic Doom deathmatch. Sadly, he remained undefeated, but the competition winners didn’t seem to mind too much about losing out to their hero.

Want to Find Out More About Moving to Ireland?

Find out more about the Irish tech scene here.