Did you know – Donegal has innovation centres across the county, offering flexible solutions for remote workers and entrepreneurs?
Over the coming months, this series will focus on Donegal innovation centres, connecting, enhancing and supporting remote workers and entrepreneurs.
Let’s take a look inside the Colab Letterkenny:
CoLab Letterkenny, located on the LYIT campus
Covid-19 has meant an earthquake of change for everyone, yet it has also heralded a remarkable surge in innovation. Many people are locating in Donegal whilst the company they work for is in Dublin, Belfast or even further afield. Working from home brings its own set of challenges.
It can be difficult to differentiate between work and home life, projecting a professional image (trying to concentrate with a hungry toddler hanging on to your ankles), technology snags and being isolated from other people.
Patsy Donaghey, Manager Colab, Letterkenny outlines why innovation centres can offer an alternative from working at home: “Innovation centres around Donegal provide a way for remote workers and entrepreneurs to take advantage of a professional environment with communications tech, as they need it.
“We’ve just upgraded our video conferencing system in every meeting room with funding from the Western Development Commission, administered by Donegal County Council. There are 4 meeting rooms that cater for small and large groups.
“We have dedicated fibre broadband for exceptional connectivity (1 Gigabyte). Our clients never have to worry about ‘freeze-frame’ during MS Teams or Zoom calls. We can help to advise on Covid related information too.”
Take a virtual tour here: https://www.lyit.ie/portals/colab/virtual/index.html
Colab has just been awarded €150K from the Government under Enterprise Ireland’s Enterprise Centres Fund to help with the impact of Covid-19, which will be used to continue to sustain businesses and develop new services.
“The safety, protection and wellbeing of all the people located within the Colab community are of maximum importance to us,” explains Donaghey.
“We’ve been working to ensure communal spaces, offices, meeting rooms and our co-working areas are safe and adhere to the highest standards of Covid-19 hygiene and protection, whilst still offering a creative, dynamic professional working environment. Each co-working space is cordoned off. There are hand sanitising stations throughout, with clear direction on movement throughout the building to socially distance. Every day the entire building undergoes a deep clean. There is an abundant supply of hand sanitiser and masks and a strict protocol if anyone becomes unwell.”
Even though the current restrictions for Donegal remain at Level 5, talk to us about what your co-working requirements are, so that when the restrictions are reduced you are ready to go.
Contact Patsy on 074 9186703 or patrick.donaghy@lyit.ie.
It’s worth the call even if this isn’t the time right now, you’ll be guaranteed a useful conversation. The team at Colab are ready to connect, encourage and support you in whatever real way they can.
This article focuses on Colab, however, there is a network of innovation centres across Donegal who offer an extraordinarily high standard of co-working spaces equipped with exceptional communications tech and office support in Stranorlar, Inishowen and Gweedore.
The Base in Stranorlar 074 9190909 manager@thebasentreprise.ie, Inishowen Digital Hub 087 7144033 kevinmcshane@inishowendigitalhub.com, gteic at Údarás an Gaeltachta 087 2313504 gaothDohbair@gteic.ie
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