Creating Contagious Enthusiasm

DUBLIN, IRELAND - I take great joy in reviewing things these days. Calling an end to a chapter, working out what size box I need to put it in. Analysing the good, the bad, and how I'd approach it again. It's become an annual thing for my headspace to review the year-end on this blog. 2008 was AWESOME beyond belief. But Keith Bohanna told me 2008 does not stand a chance against 2009... and, he was right. If 2008's theme was travel, 2009's theme was business foundations... Pretty much everything I did this year centred on building business, building understanding of our needs, thinking big. I've learned to think BIG. This time last year I would have suggested to you we had a nice little niche product for search & rescue teams. This year I'm telling you we have a product that will be used by governments to save more lives, make rescuers safer, and give tighter budget control, in all aspects of rescue - fire, air ambulances, oil rigs, sheriff depts, coast guard, you name it. Here's my year... Selected as training officer for my local Coast Guard rescue unit. Ski Trip no 1. Skiing in French Alps with great friends. Getting to pitch my business at Future of Web Apps Dublin. Big moment for me! Built an awesome assault course for the local scout troop. Our team of 4 from the East Coast region was awarded 2nd place at the Irish Joint Search & Rescue Games (JSAR). Ski Trip no. 2. I got to be part of the Outsider Magazine Winter Ski Shoot, I'm in bright green! 19th May 2009 we had the official public launch of Decisions For Heroes. Here is our site. It is awesome and still holding up. I got to fly a plane for my birthday! Awesome! Thanks Aoife! I was developing code very hard. We dropped Google Maps and went with Microsoft Bing. We launched a huge number of new features in 2009, which you can catch up with on our blog. I got to meet the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard on his Irish trip. Very nice! I got to fly from Dublin airport to Arklow return in one of the Irish Coast Guard Search & Rescue helicopters. I became a Search Group Leader with the Centre for Search Research. I was qualified as 'Search Management Initial Response Commander' by the Emergency Response Institute, Canada. Decisions For Heroes wins €10,000 in the iQ Prize. Nice! I was lent a narrow-boat for a week on the Oxfordshire Canal. Thanks Phil! Donnchadh left the RNLI and started working with me to lead our contact with Search & Rescue Teams. We win the Most Innovative Website in Ireland. Bonus! (Thanks Eamonn for the representation on the night!). Lots of inter-agency working with Civil Defense and Skerries and Drogheda Coast Guard. We did our first trade show! The first physical presence of Decisions For Heroes at the Irish Civil Defence Officers Conference. I pitch Decisions For Heroes at the EU Headquarters in Brussels as a solution for emergency readiness. Big pitch. We get accepted onto a proposal for a security framework. Organised a joint training exercise with St John's Ambulance. Moved to Cambridge UK. Set up the business in BeginSpace on the main street. Pitched D4H at the Cambridge Tech-Meetup to a crowd of UK techies. Great reaction. We got a huge load of press. Long may it continue! I'm interviewed on TV3, national television. We exhibited (thanks to SARAID!) at the Emergency Services Show 2009. This was big. Very big! We got ourselves proper pop-ups and branding, and everything else needed for a physical presence upgrade. I get conferred with a Post-Graduate Diploma in New Business Development from DIT for my work on Decisions For Heroes. Our teams start to send us in photos of themselves using Decisions For Heroes in the field. Seen here at the Indonesian earthquake. Our paying customers start to receive welcome packs. Organised a joint training exercise on remote technical rescue. Qualified as a Level 2 Merit rescue climber with the Irish Coast Guard. We launched our Facebook Fan Page. Facebook continues to be our no 1 source of leads to spread D4H. This is another part of us pushing the boundaries on that. And with 1 day of the year left - I slipped in Ski Trip no. 3! I short 2 days on the Swiss Alps to meet old friends who I used to workj with out there. So... The Good, The Bad, The What Would I do Different. The Good - the year rocked. Just scroll up! Lots of rescue team interaction. The Bad - think big quicker. For too long, I thought small. The Different - we are now thinking BIG. Ignore the little ones. Go BIG or go home. Playtime is over.