Discovering The Wonders Of DigitalDNA 2023 in Belfast

My colleague, Romana, and I went to the DigitalDNA in Belfast, the event was within St. Georges Market – a place awarded the best large indoor market in Belfast but for DigitalDNA the space was transformed from a market to an exhibition for businesses and those working in the world of digital.

 

The DigitalDNA event is about local tech communities and ecosystems connected to the world and it’s all about where our future begins. Different companies from across Northern Ireland, Ireland and beyond delivered presentations about how innovations have changed our world and how digital will bring about further change in the next upcoming years. I had the opportunity at Digital DNA to test VR-glasses to learn about firms and about the tech hub.

 

The tickets that my colleague, fellow Erasmus trainee Romana and I used, were kindly gifted by Young Enterprise Northern Ireland. This was one of the companies exhibiting at the Digital DNA conference.Young Enterprise NI is the leading Enterprise Education Charity in Northern Ireland. They work with young people from the age of 5 till the age of 25 and help them to develop their soft skills and become young enterprisers. My Erasmus Trainer Christine Watson completed the Young Enterprise Company programme when she was at high school – she, with fellow students, created a company by selling shares initially, her Young Enterprise company made and sold CD racks to the public and at the end of the programme returned shares, with profit, to the initial shareholders.

 

 

I met a very kind entrepreneur from GCDTech called Melissa – she is pictured the middle of the picture. Her firm helps other entrepreneurs to build their digital future with custom, beautifully designed software products and platforms to deliver more business value and to get a greater user experience.    

 

 

Another company that I visited was Lewis Silkin – it is an international tech firm which develops start-up programmes for other companies, founders and investors all around the world at every stage of the start-up cycle. It navigates their strategic HR and legal issues as well. They help small businesses to become big businesses and for some of their clients the programmes are even for free.

 

At the booth of Aflac, I played a game where I had to drive a metal circle along a metal pole (but I wasn´t supposed to touch the pole at all) – I won a coffee-to-go cup for my efforts.

 

 

I also met a nice guy named Brian. Brian Douglas founded Coding Fury Ltd with the aim of helping the corporate world to utilise new and emerging technologies to their full potential. As a business leader, he has identified data science as the current key development area for the vast majority of organisations. He is a trainer and by way of follow up marketing I plan to email him to ask if he would like to avail of a Trainer profile on the platform Trainingmatchmaker.com.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Michelle and I´m from Bad Ischl in Austria.

Currently, I´m 20 years old and completing my second year of an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at KTM AG.

In my free time I go to the gym and love to spend time with my boyfriend and my best friends.

My first impressions of Belfast are very positive – the buildings are beautiful, and the people are really nice – I´m very excited about the following weeks and really want to get to know the culture and landscapes of Belfast, Northern Ireland better. Indeed, my Trainer Christine advised me that from Belfast I can also easily explore the rest of Ireland – there are frequent day return buses and trains from Belfast to Dublin.

You can even follow me on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

ABOUT WATSON & CO. CHARTERED MARKETING:

  Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing is a marketing consultancy and training company established in April 2005 by the multi award winning and industry experienced Chartered Marketer Christine Watson – my Trainer during my Erasmus work placement in Belfast.

Christine and her team of talented Chartered Marketers, SOSTAC Certified Planners and Licensed Trainers work with businesses to deliver creative and effective marketing and customer service solutions to achieve optimal results for them.

ABOUT TRAINING MATCHMAKER:

At Trainingmatchmaker.com you can find all different types of learning opportunities. Free or paid, online and Face-to-Face Courses, categorised by topics so that you easily and quickly find what you are interested in or a brand-new topic to inspire your next learning journey. Trainingmatchmaker exists to inspire learning.

Training Matchmaker was founded by my Trainer: Chartered Marketer Christine Watson. She has been a Licensed Trainer for over 10 years. Delivering training to over 1,000 individual clients herself personally, Christine understands first-hand the desire to have all seats on a training course filled and the juggling and time pressures of trying to develop the training business whilst at the same time delivering energetic training to delegates.

On the TrainingMatchmaker Website you can read blogs by both Romana and me. We created these blogs – our first blogs to share the learning opportunities that we have found out about with others. Maybe our blogs might inspire others to learn too!

ABOUT ERASMUS+:

Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.

The 2021 – 2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.

It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. The programme also supports the European Pillar of Social Rights, implements the EU Youth Strategy from 2019 till 2027 and develops the European dimension in sport.

ABOUT DIGITAL DNA:

Their mission is to encourage and support the growth of all things digital and to keep digital technology at the forefront of people’s minds. Digital Technology is part of all our lives and they want leading digital companies, fast-growing enterprises, blue-chip organisations, SMEs & Startups to share their knowledge and ideas, overcome the challenges and realise the opportunities to transform the digital landscape. They do this by bringing together as many great people as they possibly can, from all industry sectors and disciplines, in a vibrant and energetic environment. They don’t do round tables and notepads. Instead, they create immense, collaborative events that act as dynamic gatherings.

Find out more at https://digitaldna.org.uk/about_us/

ABOUT YOUNG ENTERPRISE NI:

Young Enterprise NI is Northern Ireland’s leading enterprise education charity – inspiring over 90,000+ students each year to ensure they leave education prepared for life & work.

Young Enterprise NI is the Northern Ireland organisation of Young Enterprise a national charity in the UK. Their mission is to motivate young people to succeed in the changing world of work by equipping them with the work skills, knowledge and confidence they need to succeed.

You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.