Carndonagh hosts Donegal’s first ever 'Digital First Day'
Remote workers, businesses and social enterprises turn out to see Carndonagh’s coworking hub and digital creative lab
Ireland’s first ever Digital First Day was marked in Carndonagh on November 16th with an open evening for the Digital Creative Lab and coworking space and a panel discussion about how technology and upskilling in digital know-how can help improve lives, businesses and communities across Inishowen.
The panel of Shauna McClenaghan, Joint-CEO Inishowen Development Partnership, Patricia Lee Chairperson Spraoi agus Spórt, and Susan Farrell from Bluebird Training, discussed opportunities for Inishowen to enhance the lives of people working and living here using digital tools and technology.
Since moving to Malin Head from Australia, Susan Farrell has been working remotely, often out of the coworking hub in Carndonagh.
“Going into the coworking hub for me is about more than getting out of my pyjamas, it is also important time to meet people.
“CoWork Plus has a welcoming atmosphere and it has been an important social connection for me,” she explained.
Patricia Lee, Chairperson Spraoi agus Spórt spoke about the plans for Tús Nua, the Rural Regeneration Development Fund project in the centre of Carndonagh.
“Expanding the coworking hub and digital creative lab are key elements of this development,” she told the audience gathered on Wednesday evening.
“But it is a hard slog for community leaders, it takes a lot of work to keep the momentum going. To make the most of opportunities like digitialisation, you must join forces. We need the community to get behind the social enterprises”.
Shauna McClenaghan, Joint-CEO of the IDP, brought learnings from projects in Europe and North America who are improving their communities through digitalisation.
“The coworking spaces I’ve seen in Newfoundland, Canada and digital projects as part of Erasmus Plus in Europe have encouraged our work in the IDP to adopt more digital projects.
“Projects like Its4Women with the Dalarna Science Parks innovative work and Digitours with a number of other European partners has offered us ideas such as our use of blended learning in projects such as ChangeMakers and Start your Own Business programmes.”
The event in the Digital Creative Lab demonstrated digitally manufactured products. The panel discussion was followed by food and drinks in CoWork Plus, Carndonagh's coworking hub.
Digital First Day was driven by a new collaboration, Digital Ireland Network, devised to highlight the potential of digital growth and social enterprise in attracting economic and social development in rural areas and to help tackle the urban/rural divide.
Stephen Carolan, Enterprise Hubs Project Manager at Connected Hubs commented: “We believe that the hub network across the country can act as a catalyst for communities to bring about the social change at scale envisioned in ‘Our Rural Future’.”
This initiative is being driven and promoted by the newly formed Digital Ireland Network, a network dedicated to ‘Reimagining Rural Ireland’.
The next digital project for Spraoi, as part of the Digital Atlantic Economic Corridor Project is an online campaign to project the small, independent, family owned, business community of Carndonagh as people who love serving their customers through websites and social media.
People working remotely can trial the CoWork Plus at Spraoi coworking hub for free through the National Connected Hubs Voucher Scheme on the connectedhubs.ie website.