Cavan Digital Hub to open doors to public
The newly completed Cavan Digital Hub is to open its doors to prospective clients later this morning.
The open event will take place at the newly refurbished tower complex facility in the Kilmore Business Park today (Friday), June 7, from 12 noon to 3pm.
It follows an information evening held to promote the hub earlier this year.
The hub is opening with three anchor tenants- Glic Tech, formerly Veltig which is run by Donal De Paor; Apridata, a data analytics firm run by Richard Stafford; and IT cyber security support company, Cinnte, set-up by Danny Barr.
In total there are 14 temporary hot-desking positions, 30 dedicated desks, and 15 private office spacings that range in size from two to 12 persons.
Other facilities include a reception, meeting and training room, a 'breakout' area to facilitate in-house networking, and a canteen.
The hub set-up has been further boosted by the addition of Fintan McGovern from Corlough, former CEO of Firmwave, to it's Board of Directors, and a strategic link-up between clients at the Cavan site and the hugely successful Dublin-based Guinness Enterprise Centre.
The centre has been established though funding of €217,000 provided by Enterprise Ireland, through the Department of Rural and Community Development, and €100,000 obtained through the Rural Economic Development Zones (REDZ) scheme, while Cavan County Council has to date committed more than €300,000 to the project.
The digital and tech industry is estimated to be worth €12 billion plus to the Irish economy annually. There are currently also close to 2.9 million eCommerce users in Ireland, with an additional 460,000 expected to be shopping online by 2022.
The hub's development is a centrepiece in the Council's own overarching Local Economic Development Plan, as well as their 'Digital Strategy'. The initial project team consisted of Seamus McLoughlin, Patricia Smith, John Donohoe, Kieran Hever, Danny Lynch, Bernie O'Rourke, Daniel Peeters, and Caroline Brady.
Fit-out and construction was carried out by Jimmy Jackson's Sandar Construction, with assistance from Wynne Gormley, Gilsenan Architects, and a team of consulting engineers and interior designers that included Bernard Smith, Leo Scariff and Grainne McGarty.
On the technical side of things, Dublin-based Paradyn tailored the hub's network IT, while all has been elevated through SIRO's unrivalled one gigabit per second broadband connectivity.
An official launch of the hub is expected to take place later this year.