.IE, the national registry for .ie domain names, have recently announced the winning entries for the .IE Digital Town Awards 2023 at a Gala event held at the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone.
The awards were created by .IE in 2021, as part of a broader four-year ¤1 million investment in the .IE Digital Town Programme encouraging the uptake and use of internet and digital technologies for businesses, citizens and communities. The awards recognise and reward digitally inspired projects run by towns and local community groups. Each year the .IE Digital Town Awards offer a prize fund of €100,000 which is split across several categories.
The .IE Agri-Tech award was introduced for the first time this year and its inaugural winner, Clonmel’s Smart Skills for Farming Communities was also named as the overall winner of the .IE Digital Town Awards 2023. This year’s category sponsors included Western Development Commission, Connected Hubs, and AIB Merchant Services with Vodafone as the overall presenting sponsor.
The overall winner, Smart Skills for Farming Communities, helps farmers use new technologies to make their work easier, save time and money as well as improving the sustainability and profitability of their farm. The programme also delivers very practical digital training in areas such as soil fertility technology, grassland management technology, time and labour-saving technology, farm management systems, and handy Apps. The runner-up in the Agri-Tech category was the Achonry Farmer’s Market from Sligo.
The .IE Digital Sustainability award was another new category introduced this year with Hollymount in Mayo announced as the winner with its Eco-Powered Cabinets which store life-saving equipment. The runner-up in this category was the Open Litter Map project which maps illegal dumping and aims to reduce it by showing the positive impact of litter-picking.
The .IE Digital Business award, sponsored by Vodafone, was won by Killorglin’s RDI Hub. The hub was launched to facilitate the creation of new products, services and jobs in the South West region. It has transformed Kerry into a globally connected digital technology innovation, enterprise and skillset hotspot boosting economic growth.
It runs numerous programmes including hackathons which resulted in Augmented Reality Apps for Kerry tourism; a STEM passport programme whose graduates gain a bonus of 50 Leaving Cert points; and ongoing supports for scaling companies to attract investment and create jobs.
Town and community digital projects were recognised at this year’s .IE Digital Town Awards 2023 – these included winners and runners-up across the seven main categories, three special category winners and one overall prize winner.
Oonagh McCutcheon, National Director, .IE Digital Town Programme said ‘The quality of entries in this year’s .IE Digital Town Awards has been incredibly impressive. Ireland’s towns and communities are identifying and solving connectivity challenges, driving digital innovation and developing creative digital solutions to enhance the lives of their fellow citizens. This year 22 projects were recognised at the .IE Digital Town Awards Gala event, which add significantly to the lives of their local communities and
improves our nation’s digital footprint.’
Follow .IE on Twitter and at #DigitalTownAwards The .IE Digital Towns Awards is an initiative of .IE, the
national registry for .ie domain names.
Find out more at www.weare.ie
