Agtel

The Future is Green: Agtel Environmental Work

What happens to that plastic bottle after you pop it in your ‘Green Bin’ ?  As part of their new website project, the leading waste, environmental and re-cycling company, Oxigen, commissioned Agtel to produce a short video to tell the story of a heroic Green Bottle that lives a very full, eventful and green life.  

You can view it here on YouTube.

Ireland and the European Union

Whether you travel by LUAS around Dublin or spend Euro coins on holidays abroad, you’re benefiting directly from Ireland’s membership of the European Union. These and other advantages of EU membership are outlined in Agtel’s recent production for the European Commission Representation in Ireland. 
 
The European Union plays a role in all our lives and has had a huge impact on the development of Irish society for almost forty years.  This new and exciting DVD outlines the expansion of the EU from the 1950s to the present day and uses contemporary footage to highlight the many positive aspects to Ireland’s involvement in European affairs. Aimed primarily at senior/secondary school students, Ireland and the European Union is intended to create a sense of the EU and Ireland among young  Irish people. Working closely with the European Commission office in Dublin, Agtel devised a visually engaging production to illustrate the functions of the EU.  From the day-to-day workings of the European Parliament to EU involvement in overseas aid, this DVD gives an insight into the many ways in which the EU operates on a local and international level.
 
Ireland and the European Union will be viewed at the European Commission’s office in Dublin, at information centres around Ireland and will also be distributed on DVD.

It can be viewed on the site here.

Training for Safe Practice in Radioactive Environment

We were in the Sunday Business Post on Sunday, announcing our new contract to produce a radiation safety production for EU DG Energy and Transport.  Check-out the article at  http://www.sbpost.ie/themarket/firm-to-make-safety-film-for-nuclear-plants-46591.html

2010 is a year during which we are going to focus on technology enabled learning as a means of increasing productivity, competitiveness and making stretched budgets go further.  Our EU win is a great start to the year.

Inspiration for Young Entrepreneurs

Going on Dragon’s Den was an intimidating experience reveals Tim Rooney, founder of the health food snack Surf Seeds, in a fascinating case study Agtel filmed with him recently. But he managed to rise to the challenge of the dragons and they invested €100,000 in the business. Likewise, Nicola Byrne who founded directory enquiries services 11890 had tough meetings with potential clients when she first started promoting her business – but finding clever ways to overcome the obstacles in her way is one of the things that’s made her business successful.
 
Both Nicola and Tim feature in the latest Agtel on-line and DVD production for the County & City Enterprise Boards. You can check out Tim’s case study here. Their candid and inspiring case studies are designed to motivate young students to set up their own businesses – and to enter the annual Student Enterprise Awards. The case studies are accompanied by a series of five “soft skills” tutorials that help teachers convey hard to teach topics such as sales and branding. The video tutorials use drama scenes focussing on a group of school students (played by actors) going through the whole process of setting up their own company to bring the subject to life.
 
The video tutorials and case studies are integrated into the on-line Student Enterprise Awards website and are now also being distributed on DVD to schools around the country.

Launch of eQuality Measures

We found in our recent organic gardening production for Bord Bia, that girls and boys were equally energetic and courageous when it came to tackling the big jobs of composting, bug catching and snail hunting.  But such gender equality may not always arise naturally.  Some school structures, curricula and subject choice options may inhibit the extent to which both girls and boys can participate equally in the educational system. 

Agtel has just released an ambitious pack consisting of two DVDs and set of five PDF booklets that provide post-primary school management with comprehensive information and practical guidance on the implementation of a gender main-streaming programme.  Produced for the Department of Education and Science, this pack tackles a complex subject in an engaging and accessible manner, with the focus very much on practical implementation.

Maureen Bohan, Senior Inspector with the Department said:

"It’s been a long journey from the time we started the project and I want to acknowledge the excellent partnership we established with Agtel since you were awarded the tender to undertake the making of the DVDs.

From the beginning the Agtel team became an important part of the whole project. Although employed to undertake the technical part of the project, it soon became evident that you understood the objectives of the project and this was proved by the excellent direction and editing of the interviews and relevant background material and by the beautiful design work for the booklets.

I am aware that we were pretty demanding clients in terms of asking  for several edits, designs and finally proofing but the patient and courteous response of all of your team was commendable and very much appreciated. I think everyone will agree that the final product ticks all boxes in terms of quality."

The pack was an enormous undertaking both in terms of video production and print design and Agtel worked very closely with the Department to ensure that the focus of the message remained paramount at all stages of the production.

In Production: Oireachtas

Ireland has many important choices to make over the coming years.  What type of society do we want? How do we tackle the big issues of climate change and energy supply?  How can we build a sustainable economy that will provide good jobs for our young graduates?  Read the newspapers and you will be left in no doubt about the choices and challenges we now face. 

There has never been a more important time to understand how our parliamentary system works and Agtel is in the final stages of completing an exciting new production that aims to explain the workings at the heart of our democratic system, the Oireachtas.  Our intention is to establish a new standard for this type or production. 

Edit in process.  Watch this space.  We might even give you an opportunity to vote on the final production!

More images from the shoot are available on Flickr

HSE: Training Value for Money

Training course design, trainer fees, travel, per diem expenses and lost working hours.  How can essential training be delivered without the expense of traditional face-to-face training sessions?  Agtel has found a solution for the HSE with the production of a DVD-based training resource that features video playlets, graphics, audio, animation, text and a self-service menu option that allows either trainees or facilitators to work through the content in an intuitive, appealing and effective manner. 

Drawing on best practice in adult learning principles and courseware design, a hybrid DVD was developed that provides HSE Line Managers with both the theory and practice of people management and employment law.  The realistic drama scenes, provide a learning experience that is highly visual, interactive and grounded ‘in the real world’. 

Supporting text, downloadable forms and other resources make the DVD an innovative package – a complete training centre on a DVD.  Add to this, the full integration of the resource with the HSE’s eLearning system and the scope of the resource is extended further.

High quality training delivered in a highly cost-effective manner.

New Videos Inspire Young People to Set Up Own Businesses

With so much doom and gloom around, it’s been great to work on a series of inspiring videos for the Student Enterprise Awards recently. Every year, over 10,000 students from all over the country set up their own companies in school as part of the competition. The prizes are pretty impressive too - €1,500 is up for grabs, along with an all-expenses paid trip to Europe worth over €10,000.
 
We started off by filming the students taking part in the national finals, and their enthusiasm was so great that we’d no problem creating high-energy, motivating and fascinating video profiles of some of the best projects. Those video profiles are up on-line on the Student Enterprise Awards website: www.studententerprise.ie
 
Live on that site you’ll also find the first in our series of business skills videos which are designed for classroom use by teachers – videos that cover many topics that are hard to teach using text books. Building on our experience of educational projects which take a “problem-based learning” approach, they’re divided into three segments so that teachers can use them to kick off discussion in the classroom without giving the answers away.
 
The first video that’s up on www.studententerprise.ie covers idea generation and brainstorming techniques, and it will soon be followed by other fast paced videos covering areas like people skills and branding. Bringing these topics to life was no problem because of the talent of the young actors involved – and the drama scenes we filmed with them really help crystallise some of the main learning points.
 
These projects are all part of our on-going work with the County & City Enterprise Boards. And who knows, maybe someone watching these videos will set up The Next Big Thing…

Martin Lindstrom and Seth Godin - Does Every Brand Need a Charity ?

Martin Lindstrom (latest book ‘buy-ology’) has a conversation with Seth Godin (author of ‘Permission Marketing’) about brands and charities.  We’d love to help Martin make his videos but we’ll igonore the production quality on this occassion.  One one side or our business, many of our clients are concerned with brand building.  On the other side, we work for a range of charities and voluntary organisations.  What Seth and Martin have to say should be interesting to both.  Watch the short video at: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid30848505001

You might also like to check out Martin’s website at http://www.martinlindstrom.com/.  It’s an interesting place to spend a little time…...

Social Video and Advertising

Finding new, interesting and effective ways to engage viewers with online video is a hot topic of debate at the moment.  Has the 30 sec. TV commercial passed its sell-by date?  Does online video work?  Can audience engagement be measured?  What is the balance between online/broadcast media consumption?  There are probably more questions that answers at the moment but some interesting examples of best practice are emerging.  Check-out this short video about social video.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid28952728001