Digital Derry – creativity and connectivity

Derry has the opportunity to recreate itself as a modern and vibrant city. The regeneration plan has stressed that Derry will be an ‘education city', with an expanded university, an important technical college and schools that aspire to and achieve excellence for all their pupils. Our city will also be a cultural centre of international renown, helped no end by the City of Culture status.

But there is another central element in our future planning for the city - our transformation into ‘Digital Derry'. Our region's connectivity is now second to none, with Project Kelvin delivering high quality, fast broadband lines straight into our city from America. This is both a practical and a symbolic demonstration of our role as a bridge between Europe and North America.

Digital Derry, though, represents far more than the opportunity to exploit that fast speed connection. In fact, it links all these three key elements of the regeneration plan - it brings together physical connections with our cultural qualities and our growing skill base. More than anything, Digital Derry is about creativity.

And our city has already made a great start in its journey towards this future. We have firms here that are recognised leaders in the creative industries, welding our cultural excellence with the local technological know-how. Those organisations include Learning Pool, the Nerve Centre, Smalltown America and 360 Production.

The Chamber of Commerce has taken the leading role in pushing forward on Digital Derry and building on our existing, excellent, foundations. We intend to help create a digital hub that operates across the entire city and the benefits from which are received by the entire city.

To pursue this objective we have established a high powered Digital Action Team to provide inspiration for the digital sector in the city. Derry-born Colm Long, operations director for Facebook across Europe, is our new Digital Ambassador - broadcasting our position across Ireland and internationally. And Mark Nagurski - already well-known to Derry Journal readers - is the Derry Digital Champion. Mark's remit is to promote the sector and achieve a 25% growth in Derry's creative industries through the expansion of our digital section.

Our objectives are demanding, yet they are realistic. We are determined that Derry will become the best place on this island to start and build a digital business by 2015 - and a renowned centre of digital excellence..

When that happens, the results will be clear to all. We want Digital Derry to be financially self-sustaining and not relying on grant support from anyone. Digital Derry will be inclusive and operate as a partnership between the private, public and academic sectors. Within five years, we want dozens of new firms operating in the digital economy, core local digital companies building annual turnovers above £5m and a handful pushing on to the £20m mark and beyond and we want to attract at least one internationally renowned web business to establish a base in the city.

If our aims are achieved, the whole city will be winners. We will see many jobs created locally and this, in turn, will help to retain more of our young people and reverse the talent drain. We will see a thriving, active and engaged community.

The digital technology has already brought positive change to much of the world. Our city's creativity can be combined with that technology to achieve much more, also, for our citizens.