Tag Archives: Dublin

News, Travel

As travel heats up, Berlin, New York City, and Dublin named as ‘sold out cities’ for summer

Global demand for accommodation has also peaked in Singapore, Tokyo, and Panama

London, UK; 30th June 2022: AltoVita, the multi award-winning company that powers the corporate accommodation sector with enterprise software layered with a human-centric approach, has revealed that Berlin (at 94% occupancy), New York City (89% occupancy), and Dublin (96% occupancy) are set to be ‘sold out cities’ this summer.

With demand high across the globe, Denver (93%), San Diego (93%) also ranked popular in the US, based on AltoVita’s data and research on corporate accommodation occupancy rates. Equally, Singapore (89%), Tokyo (89%), and Panama (89%) are current hotspots for business travellers.

This surge in certain areas follows the much-reported summer travel boom news of 2022.

Vivi Cahyadi Himmel, CEO and Co-Founder at AltoVita, commented: “With business travel back in full swing, it’s unsurprising that we’re now seeing huge demand in a range of cities across the world. It’s certainly an exciting and optimistic time for the travel sector. While many cities are ‘sold out’, we’re now finding creative solutions to work within markets which are seeing high occupancy rates, such as offering alternative accommodation types such as co-living for a short period, before moving into a short-term rental.”

Founded in 2018 by Vivi Cahyadi Himmel (CEO) and Karolina Saviova (COO) AltoVita’s fast-growing global footprint has already achieved award-winning status with services spanning over 1,200+ cities and 165 countries. With its main objective being to improve global mobility and make corporate relocation and business travel a comprehensive and stress-free process, the online platform offers trusted flexible housing expertise.

Vivi added: “The summer is always a popular time to travel and we’re seeing many business travellers taking families and pets with them, as part of an extended workation. Businesses should know that despite it being a little more challenging to travel to some of the world’s most popular destinations, AltoVita can make the process smoother, with different accommodation types across five continents to choose from, so that we can meet the needs of every employee and digital nomad this summer.”

News, Telecoms

WBA OpenRoaming Enables Dublin’s Smart City Vision with Seamless, Secure, High-Performance Wi-Fi

Proof-of-Concept Trial Showcases How WBA OpenRoaming Provides Residents, Tourists and Businesses with Convenient Access to Municipal Services and More

London, UK, June 20th June 2022: The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and City of Dublin today announced a successful proof-of-concept trial of OpenRoaming™ in Dublin, Ireland. Initially deployed at Bernardo Square, Dame Street and the City Council’s Amphitheatre, WBA OpenRoaming enables residents and visitors to log in only once and then maintain seamless connectivity as their smartphones, tablets and other Wi-Fi devices automatically switch between different public Wi-Fi hotspots. The success of the trial will pave the way for a larger city-wide deployment.

Dublin is a high growth city. It currently has a population in the Greater Dublin Area of around 2.02 million and is anticipated to grow to 2.2 million by 2031. It houses 30% of the country’s working population and attracts over 6.6 million overseas visitors a year. It is anticipated that OpenRoaming will be initially rolled out on over 150 AP’s across Dublin city.

Now available at over 1 million hotspots worldwide, WBA OpenRoaming frees users from the need to constantly re-register or re-enter log-in credentials — all while maintaining enterprise-grade security and privacy. The WBA OpenRoaming standard also enables enterprises, device OEMs, service providers and others to provide performance guarantees and — with Wi-Fi 6 and 6E— a carrier-grade experience as users roam between different public Wi-Fi venues.

The trial, initiated by Dublin City Council’s Smart Dublin programme and supported by the WBA and Virgin Media, also involved participation from CommScope and represents a key a milestone toward achieving Dublin’s smart city goals, which include:

  • Providing communities, residents and businesses with seamless access to services online, as well as high-quality connectivity
  • Giving tourists and other visitors free, secure, high-performance Wi-Fi access. Once they arrive and log on to an OpenRoaming-enabled hotspot, their device is automatically authenticated for use every time it switches to another OpenRoaming-enabled hotspot. This convenience makes it easier for them to find what they need, such as restaurant recommendations, transit schedules, directions and more.
  • This seamless, secure experience ensures that they have the broadband connectivity they need for interactive immersive learning, research, hybrid study and more.

Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said: “Wi-Fi is the foundation for smart cities. This successful proof-of-concept trial shows that that the City of Dublin and its residents, businesses and visitors all can depend on the WBA OpenRoaming standard to ensure that they always have convenient access to seamless, secure, carrier-grade Wi-Fi connectivity.”

Jamie Cudden, Smart City Lead, for the City of Dublin, said: “Dublin is at the forefront of a digital transformation that is serving as a model for other municipalities across Ireland and the world. Collaborations like this are key to the delivery of convenient, reliable and ubiquitous connectivity which is critical for achieving our smart city goals such as closing the digital divide and ensuring that government is responsive to the needs of citizens and businesses. This successful trial of WBA OpenRoaming is a milestone toward achieving all those goals.”

Bart Giordano, SVP Ruckus Networks, CommScope, said: “”As a founding partner in the OpenRoaming framework, we are pleased to announce with the WBA the successful launch of the OpenRoaming initiative and network for the City of Dublin. OpenRoaming brings the promise of seamless and secure connectivity to users and IoT devices all over the world. The core elements of OpenRoaming are in line with those of the Ruckus Network portfolio: cloud federation, cybersecurity, policy and automation. We look forward to expanding the City of Dublin’s network and capabilities and supporting OpenRoaming deployments worldwide. ”

Aidan Darcy, VP Business & Wholesale at Virgin Media Ireland said: “It’s fantastic to be working with Dublin City Council on such an important initiative. Given the fact that we are the official provider of both the Wi-Fi and broadband infrastructure, we are able to offer cutting-edge broadband speeds and an exceptional Wi-Fi experience for residents and tourists availing of the new Dublin City Wi-Fi Zones. We’re passionate about connecting communities and, with this new initiative, we really feel we’ll be creating connections for good.”

Launched in May 2020, WBA OpenRoaming is now in Release 3, which will make the business and commercial aspects of roaming easier than ever before and importantly, cut back on hundreds of hours of legal and administrative time when establishing roaming settlement agreements.

World Wi-Fi Day – 20th June 2022

This announcement comes just before World Wi-Fi Day (an annual WBA initiative), a global platform to recognize and celebrate the significant role Wi-Fi is playing in getting cities and communities around the world connected.

It is a unique opportunity to reflect on how we can reduce digital poverty through innovative projects that will connect the unconnected.

Appointments, News

Sally-Ann O’Callaghan Joins Chargify as EMEA Regional Director

Chargify, the leading billing and subscription management platform for B2B SaaS, today announced the appointment of Sally-Ann O’Callaghan as the company’s new EMEA Regional Director. She will be responsible for scaling regional operations as Chargify continues to invest in the EMEA region as part of its global growth journey.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Chargify at a time full of opportunity, as more and more industries are shifting to subscriptions, as well as usage and events-based business models,” said O’Callaghan. “With the increased focus on this in EMEA, there are huge opportunities to help B2B SaaS companies successfully optimise customer value and growth.” 

O’Callaghan joins the Chargify team after a year of rapid growth and change for the company. In 2021 April Battery Ventures, a global, technology-focused investment firm, led a combined growth-equity investment of more than $150 million in Chargify and SaaSOptics, the leading financial operations platform for B2B SaaS. The two complimentary companies together are trusted by more than 2,000 customers and manage more than $10 billion in customer annual recurring revenue. 

Prior to joining Chargify, O’Callaghan spent nearly 5 years working across EMEA Business Development and Sales Acquisition roles at Dropbox. She brings to the team deep expertise across Business Development, Sales Acquisition growth and scaling international teams. Reporting to Matt Downs, Chief Revenue Officer, O’Callaghan will oversee Chargify’s EMEA presence and work to further scale and elevate Chargify’s growth in the region. Her early priorities include increasing Chargify’s employee headcount in Dublin and continuing to grow the region’s customer base.

“We are excited to add Sally as our Regional Director to the team. We have aggressive growth underway fueled by bringing together a holistic platform to better service companies seeking a comprehensive advanced billing and FinOps solution,” said Downs. “Sally is a proven leader and is committed to our vision of transforming the subscription life-cycle. As we continue to expand throughout the EMEA region, Sally’s skills and expertise will be vital, and we could not be happier to have her on board with us as we embark on the next leg of our growth journey.”

Chargify first opened its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland in 2020 October as part of its international expansion strategy developed to better serve its expanding customer base and respond to new opportunities and strategic partnerships in the region. 

“Chargify has been on a truly incredible journey to transform an industry. I’m incredibly excited to further strengthen its EMEA operations and build a strong culture and talent pool, while building a world-class employee experience that matches the organization’s next chapter of transformational growth and change,” adds O’Callaghan.

Chargify helps their customers address the complexities of the entire subscription lifecycle and has helped thousands of SaaS businesses manage millions of offers that drive billions in annual revenue. To learn more visit www.chargify.com.