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Five reasons why you will actually want to hear Bono speak at the Web Summit

Today's announcement that Bono will speak at next week's Web Summit was greeted with eye-rolls i...
Newstalk
Newstalk

18.37 30 Oct 2014


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Five reasons why you will actu...

Five reasons why you will actually want to hear Bono speak at the Web Summit

Newstalk
Newstalk

18.37 30 Oct 2014


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Today's announcement that Bono will speak at next week's Web Summit was greeted with eye-rolls in many quarters, but the frontman has actually had a pretty interesting relationship with technology.

Here's five reasons why you might want to listen to what he has to say:

1. Innovation has been in U2’s DNA since the get-go

The transition from analogue to  digital culture informed some of U2’s most interesting work. On February 29th 1992 they unleashed their Zoo TV arena show.

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The theme of the show was digital oversaturation. They worked with Brian Eno creating the live show which featured live television streams, prank phone calls and pre-prepared video content.

2. He’s got Apple on speed-dial

Bono and U2’s longstanding relationship with the tech giant runs deeper than parachute album launches and red click wheels.

They have also collaborated on the charity (RED)’s efforts to fight AIDS. (RED) has raised over €218 million working with brands like Apple and Starbucks. Apple sell a (PRODUCT) RED range of iPods and accessories for iPads and iPhones.

Although Jobs was involved in (RED) since its inception he had a falling out with Bono over the use of parentheses in the logo. The late CEO was design-obsessed and stated that the parenthesised-logo would never appear on any Apple products, but after sleeping on it Jobs relented.

Bono also publicly criticised Apple for not doing enough to promote their involvement in the project. At a public appearance alongside Jony Ive, the man responsible for designing most of Apples iconic products, Bono held up a (PRODUCT) RED iPad case and asked: “Where’s the (RED) branding?”. The name of the charity only appears inside the cover.

3. He has first-hand experience of Silicon Valley’s ‘fail fast’ mantra

Bono is a co-founder of Elevation Partners. The group is now know for lucrative investments in companies like Facebook, but it hasn’t always been that way.

In 2010 US-based investing website 24/7 Wall Street ran a story with the headline “Bono becomes the worst investor in America” and labelled Elevation Partners “arguably the worst run institutional fund of any size in the United States”.

The damning piece came after a string of disastrous investments. The most high profile was Palm. Palm made blackberry style smartphones and operated on an early version of Android but failed to get any traction.

The group also made a high-profile ill-fated investment in Forbes magazine.

4. That being said, Bono is one of Ireland’s most successful tech investors

When Facebook went public on February 1st 2012 the media was quick to speculate that it would make the Finglas native rock and roll’s first billionaire. Even the official NASDAQ website ran a story saying Bono would become a billionaire.

Bono shot-down suggestions that the offering made him a billionaire. Fortune crunched the numbers and calculated that at most the frontman would (only) net around €35 million.

The frontman also personally invested funds in DropBox with bandmate The Edge.

5. He’s probably the country’s biggest (and loudest) ambassador

While you’ve been going around bad mouthing Bono he’s been out in the world bigging up his homeland. Why? Because he wants to give something back, that’s all.

In an interview in the current issue of Hot Press the Dubliner claims that the band has been working directly with The Industrial Development Authority, the body that encourages foreign investment in Ireland.

He told Hot Press that the band “felt what we could be useful with was trying to get more companies to come to Ireland. So we went to work for the IDA.”

Fair play lads.


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