Design and digital experts to address event on 29 January in GMIT Mayo
Now in its second year, GMIT Mayo’s ‘Digital West’ event will take place on Tuesday, 29 January. Organised by academic staff in collaboration with the GMIT Innovation Hub located on campus, this year’s event will focus on design. “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.” – Steve Jobs, Founder, Apple.
Topics will range from design thinking, trends within the design industry, design innovation and entrepreneurship, raising brand awareness and getting to market digitally. There will also be a live Virtual Reality video creation demonstration.
The event will be opened by Professor Neville McClenaghan, the new Vice President, GMIT Mayo campus. Speakers include Derek Cassells, Creative Director at Orangeye Media (median arm of iRadio), Nicola Corless, Marketing and Communications Manager at LERO, the Irish Software Research Centre, and Alan Finneran, Business Development at IE Domain Registry, Declan Folan who designed the iconic Carlberg tulip glass, business mentor and consultant Alastair McDermott, and creative technologist Martin Fitzgerald.
GMIT academics Noreen Henry and Dr Janine McGinn will discuss digital-related course offerings available in GMIT Mayo, while iHub client company Allergy Lifestyle CEO Anne Walsh will talk about her design journey and how it positively impacted her business.
The list of speakers and booking are available at the conference website www.digitalwest.biz. The event is free to attend and is expected to book out quickly.
Turlough Rafferty, Acting Manager at the GMIT Mayo iHub, says: “Going on last year’s success we are really excited about this year’s line-up. There is something for everyone whether from academia, industry or those interested in design and thinking of taking up a course and pursuing a career in this field. As we move towards augmented and virtual reality in entertainment, healthcare and manufacturing sectors, design coupled with automation and artificial intelligence is going to be the next big thing.”
“There will be a designated display space at the event where companies who specialise in design, digital media or digital marketing can exhibit for free,” adds Mr Rafferty.
Noreen Henry, lecturer, says: “We received very positive feedback from last year’s event. Digital West is a free event with the speakers giving us their time free of charge resulting in a very relaxed and enjoyable day where experience and knowledge can be shared in an open environment. As well as a varied speaker line-up there will be a number of exhibitors on the day and ample opportunity for people to network.”
Last year’s conference was instrumental in the development of the Post Graduate Certificate in Digital Media and Marketing. See: https://springboardcourses.ie/details/6106
Digital West is an initiative of a partnership involving GMIT and GMIT iHubs with Digital Marketing in Mayo, a not-for-profit group of business and thought leaders in digital marketing. Both DMiM and the GMIT iHubs plan to run several events in the areas of digital and social media throughout the Mayo region in 2019.
This is the second initiative run in partnership with Digital Marketing in Mayo. In late November the iHub hosted a conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Leading AI experts from around the country and the UK outlined how this transformative technology is going to impact on everything from business to society as a whole and the audience were treated to insightful case studies on AI and shown demonstrations in real-time.
