The Digital Town Awards

I think it’s very important for me to share the failures as well as the successes and if you follow me on social media you’ll know that I didn’t win at the Digital Town Awards. I was delighted to be in the final of the Local Digital Hero category though and I knew that I wasn’t going to win but it was lovely to get a mention.

The awards are run by Dot_IE and this was the first time they were held in person, after being online for the past two years. It’s a wonderful idea and a chance for local communities to get their projects recognised and for some of them to win some funding to go to their project. We also had a lovely lunch at the Hodson Bay Hotel, I got to discover some amazing community projects, and I’m over the moon that Achonry Farmers Market won the runner-up in the Agri-tech category.

The bonus of not winning is actually great. There was a €3000 prize for my category but that was to go towards a project. Of course if you speak to most people you’ll know that I’m buzzing with ideas, and I think that digital for community groups and small businesses need quite a lot of support. If I did win I knew the direction I would go in with this, although I think a lot of my ideas need thrashing out a bit more. Anyway, I can now give my head a break, although I would love to see things progressing, but my favourite saying is ‘Not my circus, not my monkey.’

I was very nervous about going to the ceremony, I didn’t know that people could bring a guest with them, so there I was on my own. I needn’t have worried though, Ally from Dot_IE showed me the room beforehand. I’d posted on my blog that I was nervous and Tara read it and came over and we had lovely chats, Allan was great too. I was looking out for my Achonry friends but I didn’t see them until after the event.

Anyway, it was all good, another achievement for me, not just being in the final, but also going to such a busy event on my own. I was fairly flattened afterwards though. Very well done to everyone who was in the final, it was wonderful to see so many changemakers in one room. Thank you Dot_IE for a lovely event, find out more here.