Just like you, we’ve had good days and not so good ones days. Let's just focus on the good?in our update. Here are a few of the highlights we are very proud of:
- To date, we have enabled 360 direct and indirect jobs since we opened our doors in 2016. 2021 was our official 5 year anniversary. Party to be scheduled post pandemic….fingers crossed!?
- 3,674 hotdesks have been sold since we opened in 2016
- We won…..Digital Changemaker of the Year Award in the Digital Town Awards hosted in May?
- We launched our Propeller series for start ups and scaling organisations in Nov
- We showcased our new members - Baseworx, Spark Crowdfunding, Hurrah Hurrah, Native Cabins and congratulated our former members Spearline on their multi-million euro acquisition of real-time communications specialist testRTC
- The Ludgate team has grown in size - we now have Elma, Kieran, Mary, Fiona, Gavin, and myself
- We have invested in some amazing kit for the Hub including a fabulous new coffee machine, a sound-proof Phone Booth and a Clever Touch Screen which we hope to make available to both members and visitors to the hub in 2022. These investments were possible due to the support of Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Rural Community Development.
- We hosted 10 Virtual Webinars/ aka Knowledge Sharing Events with over 500 participants
- We delivered 4 workshops to 70 BCP’s (mini hubs) and Hubs as well as wrote a book - Hub Academy 101 - to offer a roadmap to those communities embarking on their hub journey.
- We hosted our 2nd podcast series in collaboration with Jack Regan a marketing guru, and a Ballydehob native destined for great things
- We led West Cork’s largest Christmas Giveaway with over €3,500 worth of prizes submitted by local businesses. The spirit of the GiveAway was not only one of delivering joy to the winners but also to promote the e- commerce efforts of the?participating 45 restaurants, hotels, retailers, gift shops etc
- We developed an after school Lego Robotics programme for primary school kids which we hope can be launched in 2022
A look at what’s in store for the year ahead:
- A greater focus on startups and scaling companies.
- We optimistically await the outcome of our planning permission process for the refurbishment of Mercy Heights, aka Ludgate II
- Partner with?Grow Remote?to showcase their curated open jobs that can be done remotely. Did you know there are over 500 jobs posted there?
- Host a number of Ideation and Hackathons in collaboration with partners such as Nova UCD
- Install 2 EV stations next to our Ludgate@Fields building in the car park.
- Develop sustainable strategies for Ludgate
- Nurture the economic clusters that are well established in west cork or those that are in the nascent stages of development
- Launch Ludgate as Destination for Knowledge Sharing/Events hosting
- Promote Computer Science as Leaving Cert subject to be sat in 2023
- Launch our Revision Maths solution through our Learning Management System Canvas
As we close out 2021 we would like to?thank?to our community, partners, sponsors, collaborators and members for your continued support through the years. We look forward to a new year full of collaboration and fresh opportunities.
On behalf of us all at the Ludgate Hub, I would like to wish you the very best for the Christmas season and of course for a happy and healthy 2022.
