Cootehill to host Digital Hub open day

Cootehill Chamber is organising a Open Day with Cootehill Digital Hub, to take place tomorrow (Friday), May 12, 10am to 4pm.

The event, aimed at encouraging local people who otherwise commute to explore alternative options and work closer to home, will hear from a number of guest speakers, including from the Local Enterprise Office, Abcon, the Chamber itself, and from hub owner Ronan Kelly (11am to 1pm).

Chamber member Connie Whelan says the event looks to highlight the incredible variety and regional diversity of the national hub network, as well as showcasing and reminding what Cootehill as a town has to offer in terms of jobs, schools, community and other supports.

“We have two digital hubs now in Cootehill, one in the Ulster Bank and the Cootehill Digital Hub owned by Ronan Kelly, and both are pretty much full. It’s a really great success story, not just for the facilities themselves, but for the town as well.”

She says the upcoming open day will promote the nationally supported Connected Hubs Network and also highlight the employment opportunities available locally.

“The open day is taking place in support of the Government’s national campaign promoting Remote Work. [Cllr] Aiden Fitzpatrick is going to talk on behalf of Cootehill Town Team’s economic subgroup, they have the other hub in town,” says Ms Whelan. “It’s about putting the message out there to people who are interested in working locally, and in the case of the LEO, to see what supports are available for potential start-ups or for existing businesses. For larger businesses operating locally, it’ll be about what we can do to encourage more people to move to and live and work in the area.”

Ms Whelan says the crux of this is the synergies that exist among local representative groups, who all share a singular goal of encouraging town growth.

“We want to keep what we have, but we want to grow it as well. We feel the quality in rural Irish towns has improved dramatically in the last 20 years or so. We have fantastic facilities right here on our doorstep, from every viewpoint, and further down the line we’d like to use that on which to build a more robust tourist industry going forward.”