Derry CultureTech seeks to inspire next generation of entrepreneurs

Virtual friends, as Facebook’s latest statistics show – on average it has 829 million daily active users – are everywhere, but how many of them would actually be of any help if you one day happened to be a friend in need?

One Derry-based start-up wants to make sure that regardless of how many virtual acquaintances you may have, you can always contact the flesh and blood type if ever you really do need to call a friend.

Go Walk Talk (GWT) specialises in developing personal care and security technologies for mobile devices. It has created an app that, if the need ever arises, helps you to raise an alarm which gets in contact with up to three numbers you have designated as friends.

The team behind GWT hopes its technology will have a broad appeal – from “loved ones to workers” – and claims that in any situation, whether you are a lone worker, an avid hill walker or suffering from a debilitating condition, you need “never be alone again”.

GWT may have more ambitions than profits at the moment but it is hoping to replicate the success of one of its most established neighbours – 8over8 – at its base in the North West Regional Science Park which officially opens today.

The park, which has been developed on the site of a former British army barracks, will play a key role in a collaborative, cross-Border project to help grow the knowledge economy in the northwest of Ireland.

EU funding

The project, which included the construction of the 50,000sq ft science park in

Derry

and a 20,000sq ft extension to the CoLab facility at

Letterkenny Institute of Technology

, has so far attracted more than £12 million of European Union funding.

It also secured match funding from the Department of Finance and Personnel in the North and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the Republic.

The ultimate aim of the cross-Border initiative is to encourage young entrepreneurs in the region to stop the drift of talent and new ideas to other parts of the island.

The North West Regional Science Park has already acquired 23 tenants, including GWT and 8over8, the rapidly growing Derry software company which operates in the international gas and oil sector.

8over8, which will occupy almost a third of the space at the park, has developed a software solution that is currently employed in 60 per cent of the largest oil and gas extraction projects in the world today.

It began life as a University of Ulster spin-out in 2000 and is one of the fastest-growing technology companies on the island. Its chief executive Clare Colhourn says Derry-based software engineering skills have been at the heart of its success and it is hoping that the science park will prove to be an ideal base for its future growth plans.

Mark Nagurski agrees.

He is the founder and director of CultureTech, a media, digital technology and music festival which is taking place in the city this week.

The festival, which is expected to attract more than 40,000 people, wants to showcase why Derry is becoming a hub for smart tech companies but also aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“We like to say that CultureTech is about celebrating creative innovation,” Nagurski says, “whether it is in science, music, video gaming, app development – it’s across everything, but what’s really important is that we also want to inspire people – from the very young to the established businesses.

“Inform and inspire”

“So we have the team from Teacher Gaming in Finland (Minecraft Edu and Kerbal Edu) in schools in Derry hosting workshops and teacher training and we also have a ‘Thinking Outside the Blocks’ event for businesses and other organisations to show how Minecraft can be used to inform and inspire.

“CultureTech is more than just a festival – we do want it to put Derry on the map.”

He says if the festival can help attract new investment and inspire people to set up their own businesses which will create jobs in the region, then that would be the ultimate reward.

“The regeneration plan for Derry – the One Plan – has an objective to generate 1,000 creative jobs for the city by 2020 I think everybody should be pushing harder to make that happen,” says Nagurski.