Rté - The Business

This week the cast of Friends reunited for the first time since the show ended in 2004. This reunion is big business for the bunch, but to look behind the scenes of sitcoms, we’re joined by Philip Kampff of Vision Independent Productions.

From marketing Kit Kats in Japan or fighting the spread of Covid 19, you need an understanding of who people are and what they care about. Gillian Tett, originally an anthropologist but now Editor-at-large of the Financial Times, believes her anthropological training helped her predict the financial crash and the election of Donald Trump.

Many family run B&Bs are dotted all around the country are well off the beaten tourist track. So how are they fixed for the summer months? Are they booked out the door? Liam Geraghty has been finding out.

We're joined by a Dublin couple who provide a gifting service for Airbnb and many other large companies. And Open, run by husband and wife team Ciara Flood and Jonathan Legge, alongside Jonathan’s brother Mark, have just pulled in funding from a San Francisco venture capital firm that has some big names on their books.

It’s not just travel we’ll be looking forward to but sport, music, pubs and restaurants in the forthcoming phased reopening. But are people ready to mingle indoors again? Deirdre Robertson, from the Behavioural Research Unit in the ESRI joins us.

Non-essential international travel is due to return from the 19th of July. While the airline industry has generally welcomed the news the DAA have warned that Ireland is going to have to work hard to win back routes. We're joined by Patrick Edmond, Aviation Expert and Managing Director of Altair Advisory

Fancy owning a piece of the old UCC college bar? Well the floor anyway. The old college bar saw performances from the Rubber bandits and the Cranberries. JP Quinn, Head of UCC Visitor's Centre joins us to talk about his creative re-purposing of the old college bar floor.

This week Facebook, Twitter and Tik Tok were in front of an Oireachtas committee to face questions about the proposed Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. But it seems on-line harassment isn’t confined to those platforms. More and more women are reporting they have been harassed on LinkedIn. Liam Geraghty has been finding out more.

This week the Irish public were warned of a possible ‘data dump’ by the HSE hackers. What does this mean for our personal information? We're joined by Brian Hayes, chief executive of the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland who operate the FraudSmart initiative, and Paul Delahunty, Chief Security Officer with cybersecurity company Stryve.

Jeff Bezos is rumored to be buying a 417-foot super-yacht worth an estimated $500 million and equipped with its own "support yacht" and helipad according to Bloomberg. There’s been a boom in such boats since the pandemic began. To look at the super rich and their super boats we’re joined by Mark Paul from The Irish Times.

Bewleys has been around for 180 years but like most in the hospitality sector these past 15 months, it has had to reimagine the business. We're joined by the person charged with making the tough decisions, Jason Doyle, MD of Bewleys Ireland and the UK.

The Cryptocurrency market has had a rollercoaster week with crashes in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. Elon Musk rattled the markets with tweets that Tesla wouldn't accept Bitcoin in the sale of cars due to climate change concerns. We’re joined by Anne Hayden, a lecturer in cryptocurrencies in the Institute of Investing and Financial Trading.

You may never have heard of the Press and Peel Memo pad, but you’ll have heard of Post Its. The little sticky notes that have even made their way into the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Their creator Spencer Silver recently passed away aged 80. To look at the lesser history of stationary, we’re joined by 2FM presenter Aifric O’Connell.

The Independent News and Media Group - INM - has had its fair share of headlines this month, but for all the wrong reasons. Even so, the new owners pushed ahead last week with a new name for the group of national and regional newspapers - Mediahuis. We're joined by Peter Vandermeersch, the newspaper group’s publisher in Ireland.

From open plan offices to the open skies, this week Ryanair’s Eddie Wilson called for travel restrictions to be lifted by the end of May. For a look at the global picture on aviation we’re joined by Domhnal Slattery of Avalon.

Is the open plan office going to remain when people fully return to work? Will they really want to be anywhere near a sniffling Seamus or will the partitions go back up? Liam Geraghty has been finding out.

We’re joined by a young entrepreneur who’s already set up a number of different businesses. Patrick Walsh is best known for his work in Dogpatch Labs. It’s a shared space for startup tech companies. But with the pandemic forcing people away from offices, Patrick has had to reinvent the business.

On Friday came the news of what’s been described as possibly the most significant cybercrime attack on the Irish State ever. HSE IT systems could take days to return to normal following the attack. So what are those responsible after? A huge payout or simply to create chaos? We’re joined by Pat Moran, Cybersecurity Leader at PWC Ireland.

While we’ll have to wait another month before we can get back into the pubs at least we’ll look much better when we do. Hairdressers will reopen on Monday and take it upon themselves to get to the root of the nation’s bad hair days. For some, Monday can’t come quick enough. Our own Siobhán Maguire has been counting down the days.

We're joined by two unlikely friends. They come from two of Ireland’s biggest brewing families that were in competition for generations - The Smithwicks and The Guinesses. But Paul Smithwick and Lord Ned Iveagh have joined forces to oversee the reopening of the Iveagh markets, a Dublin landmark.