Week 6: Rocky Routes
Pictured:
1. Dark Hedges -- beech trees planted in eighteenth century
2. Large Horse
3. Myself and Kevin Cody in a nightclub
4. Cocktail night with friends
5. Another angle petting the large horse
WEEK 6
Hey! Welcome back to the blog where I, Connor Burke, am documenting my travels and experiences in Dublin, Ireland while completing a marketing internship at Dataships.
It is hard to believe but as I am writing this, we are more than halfway through this abroad program. At my internship this week, they gave me the option to pick what disciplines and jobs to work on until the end of the program. To give some background on Dataships, it is a software as a service data company.
What (if any) is the mission or value proposition of your organization?
The value proposition of Dataships is the automation and simple integration of their software to enable online store owners to stay 100% compliant with the ever changing data privacy laws around the world.
What is the financial model of your organization?
Looking at my company’s history, they are currently in the growth stage after a seed funding round. From what I have seen, they are not profitable at the moment since they are trying to rapidly expand.
What are the primary revenue streams of your organization?
The primary revenue stream of my organization comes from business owners paying a monthly subscription to use their product. This is why Dataships is a SaaS company because they provide software as a monthly service fee.
What are some of the business costs that you have observed in your organization?
One business cost that I observed was when I personally introduced our CEO a technology profiler tool named Wappalyzer that allowed me to automate the marketing task I was doing. This allowed me to complete the task in a fraction of the time it was taking beforehand. This impressed the CEO who gave me the company card to purchase the software.
What are the greatest assets of your organization?
The greatest assets of Dataships is the team that works there. They are dedicated, friendly, and motivated. They truly believe in the startup and want to see it succeed.
Do you have any recommendations on how your organization could save or earn more income / improve their financial model?
I believe the organization needs to improve their marketing. They recently spent a lot of time and money to develop their marketing compliance tool and now should divert that energy into their marketing efforts. Improving their marketing outreach will lead to more buyers for their product which will drastically increase their revenue.
Giant’s Causeway Day Trip
The Giant’s Causeway became a World Heritage site in 1986. It is one of only 25 places to be listed on both the natural and cultural site list. Why is Giant’s Causeway so important?
Over the weekend, our Bucknell Program visited Giant’s Causeway. Giant’s Causeway was created by a volcanic eruption that took place over 60 million years ago. This is both a Natural and Cultural site. There are legends about how giants were fighting and the Causeway was made as a bridge between the two. These cliffs and rocks have led to scientific debates and the rise of many myths/legends. The rock structures were so cool and I have never seen anything like it. However, walking on the cliffs, I think that I unlocked the fear of heights since I did not want to stand anywhere near the edge.
The visitor’s center has won awards for its sustainability and architecture. Talk about this design and how it enhances the visitor’s experience. How does it compare to the visitor center at the Cliffs of Moher?
The visitor center was incredible. The design was very sleek and fancy. It enhanced the visitor’s experience because the design was similar to that of the rock formations. It was an early sneak-peek into what we would find ahead. However, I liked the Cliffs of Moher visitor center better because of the bunker aspect of it. For some reason, I have always wanted a bunker and it was very cool walking through the Cliffs of Moher “bunker”.
What are some pros and cons of nature tourism for the economy, local community, and the environment?
Some pros of nature tourism is that it brings in tourists that can boost the local economy. However there are cons as well because these tourists can disrupt these local communities. There can be tourists that are disrespectful and can lead to negative impacts to the environment such as littering.
Beach Day
On Sunday, a group of us went to Bray to go to the beach. I was shocked to find that the beach was mainly rock which I have never seen before. Surprisingly, laying on them with a towel was not as uncomfortable as you would think. I was able to take a quick nap in the sun while getting a bit sunburned. On the other hand, the ocean water was freezing and I refused to dunk my head since I was already shivering while in the water. Even though the trip was very tiring for a “lazy sunday”, I thought it was worth it since the weather was incredible.
Real Estate Class Week 6:
If you have followed my blog previously, you might remember when I answered a question saying the HUD acronym stands for “Heads Up Display”. This was wrong but I was able to redeem myself this week when Professor O’Connor asked the same question and looked at me for the answer. I laughingly responded with “Housing and Urban Development”. Throughout the class, we went through some numbers and math regarding real estate. Honestly, I got lost halfway through understanding the interest rates, loan percentages, and appreciation costs.
Spooky: Glasnevin Cemetery
After class, our program went to the Glasnevin Cemetery. This cemetery was huge! There are many historical figures buried here from various backgrounds. One that stood out to me was Grace Plunkett. This stood out to me because it reminded me of our Kilmainham Gaol trip we went to last week. She was the one who married Joseph Plunkett (an irish nationalist) right before he was executed. Another famous burial was for Daniel O’Connell. This was a main attraction at the Glasnevin Cemetery because his burial was under a 30-50 million dollar tower. This tower was funded by rich people who would pay to be buried next to him. He is important to Irish history because he was an Irish Rights pacifist. He was born in 1779 and educated in Paris. He hated violence and petitioned for peaceful protests. He is significant due to his involvement with Catholic emancipation. He had a seat in parliament and was the voice for around 90% of the Irish population. He also fought for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom and was one of the first to speak out about slavery. Surprisingly, his secondhand man was protestant. This is significant because it represents the culture of the Glasnevin Cemetery. This Cemetery is a symbolic piece of Irish history because it was one of the first cemeteries to allow communal burial disregarding one’s previous religious beliefs. Usually, there are sections and divisions by religion but in Glasnevin Cemetery there was not.
Belfast
Another trip we made was into Belfast. Belfast was shocking learning about the culture and the way people are living. They are a divided community and do not have much representation within the government. There are walls dividing the communities and there is infrequent "mingling" between them. We were able to see different parts of towns and memorials.
Only 3 weeks left to go! This weekend I am going to Nice, France and I am super excited! Stay tuned for next week’s edition of Burke’s Bulletin.
Cheers,
Connor