Digital Derry Conference – Invest Derry Strabane

The North West Regional College has been a hive of activity this week as local companies turned out in force to hear the benefits of digital technology for their business at the Digital Derry Conference.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District, Councillor Elisha McCallion, opened the two day event, which welcomed both start up and established businesses from across N. Ireland. The conference was a highlight of Council’s Growing the Digital Economy Programme, part-funded by Invest NI through the European Regional Development Fund under the Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland, and delivered in partnership with CultureTech and NORIBIC.

According to Mayor McCallion the conference was another step towards establishing the city’s reputation as one of the best digital hubs in the world to do business.

“I am delighted that the Digital Derry Conference has been such a success for the city, drawing an array of high profile industry speakers from international companies who are becoming increasingly aware of the region’s digital offering.

“Testament to this is the major announcement yesterday that the city saw off competition from Dublin, Belfast and Berlin to attract 100 new jobs with social media company Metaverse Mod Squad. I think businesses here are becoming more conscious of establishing a strong digital profile and it’s fantastic that we are able to offer this level of support to assist them in boosting their capabilities.
“With a first rate infrastructure, a young dynamic workforce, and a wealth of creative talent, we have the winning combination for any investor.”

Speaking after the announcement Vice President of Metaverse, Rich Weil, who was also one of the key speakers at the conference, said: “Metaverse Mod Squad felt the vibe in Derry matched the company’s culture, it’s tech orientated, communicative, there is a strong educational base and a flexible mentality.
“We deal with a lot of different clients so we need a flexible workforce. As a company we have to be adaptive and we need to learn our clients’ business to we rely on a workforce that are eager to learn.”
During the conference Rich also shared some of his experiences in expanding businesses into different cultural markets.

Other high profile speakers on Tuesday included Paul Hamill, founder of Inflyte, who urged local companies to think big in terms of business and establishing a foothold in the global market. And Andrew Jordan, Founder of VouchedFOR, reminded local entrepreneurs that with today’s technology local companies can now operate successfully from anywhere in the world.

Any business interested in accessing support to take their ideas to the next level can find out more about the Growing the Digital Economy Programme atwww.derrycityandstrabanedistrict.com/Subsites/Growing-The-Digital-Economy

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