Briefings- BRIEFING: Dublin's Digital Hub

The Digital Hub offers workspace premises to some of Ireland’s most innovative digital media pioneers. But the government-backed agency is also in the vanguard of more ambitious plans to establish here a vibrant mixed-use community.

Just a 10-minute walk from Dublin’s city centre you will find The Digital Hub, a cluster of state of the art buildings offering some of Ireland’s most cutting-edge digital media services.

A brain child of the Irish government, the hub is an ambitious publicly-funded project offering a supportive infrastructure for companies inventing and road-testing innovative digital technology and software and those using them for commercial or educational purposes.

But as the centrepiece for the regeneration of Dublin’s historic Liberties neighbourhood, it also has much wider ambitions. Built on the site of a former Guinness brewery, by 2012 the new ‘digital quarter’ will form the heart of a wider mixed-use community spread over a nine-acre campus where people will be able to live, learn, work, shop and spend their leisure time.

If other cities and towns are anything to go by, the hub's location looks ideal for a live/work community. Despite being in a relatively rundown part of Dublin it is close to the city centre. Physically, the nearby buildings strongly resemble New York’s Soho and the warehouses edging the City of London – both pioneering live/work neighbourhoods.

Who runs the hub?
The hub is managed by the Digital Hub Development Agency, a state agency set up in 2003 by the Irish government. The agency in turn is overseen by a board appointed by the minister for communications, marine and natural resources. The board’s skills span enterprise, education, business, the arts, and social and urban regeneration.

Chief executive Philip Flynn outlines the hub's ambitions: 'We are already bringing together some of the most exciting new media and knowledge businesses in Ireland all under one roof.

‘We recognise the importance of networking and co-location. By creating a cluster, we encourage these businesses to link up with one another. This helps them to explore new ideas and create new ventures.'

Flynn is also keen to explore ways to stretch the hub's reach beyond those businesses that lease premises in the buildings it owns. 'We know there are many talented micro-businesses out there in Dublin that are not yet ready to take significant commercial space. Many are operating from home.

‘They would particularly benefit from rubbing shoulders with businesses run from the hub. We have the café and meeting space to enable this. So we are considering membership packages to allow this hidden group to use our facility as their second office.

‘Working from home has obvious cost and time advantages, but there is a risk of isolation. Our hub can tackle this. It's a great place to feel connected.'

The next step, he goes on, is to explore ways the hub might provide support facilities to live/work businesses, as the live/work sector gets off the ground in Dublin and beyond. 'I am sure we could play a useful role offering them telecom and meeting facilities as a back up to their own premises.'

Premises include:

• high specification city centre office space from 10 to 1,000m² in newly built or refurbished buildings
• people-friendly city centre location with easy access to all forms of public transport links
• close to the National College of Art and Design, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology and Liberties College
• highly competitive, flexible short-term leases
• office, workshop, studio and exhibition space
• formal and informal meeting and presentation rooms and dedicated space for product launches and receptions
• hot desking facilities
• 24/7 secure access

Wider benefits and services include:

• a fast growing network of like-minded digital media companies, including potential customers and suppliers of useful products and services
• internet-protocol-based voice and data services, including multiple providers on site
• support for pre-launch product and service development, with capacity to test new ideas and products on up to 2,000 end-users
• business start-up support
• doorstep access to innovative research and international research links
• state-of-the-art fibre and wireless based broadband
• low cost tier 1 global connectivity from on-site government owned and managed network operations and hosting centre
• easy access to leading hardware and software products and services world-wide
• strong social, community and education programmes integrating the campus into the city
  

Who is based there?
Currently, over 80 digital media companies employing around 500 people. A full list of the companies, categorised by the types of services they provide is available online here.

‘Riverdeep and Amazon are two of the bigger names based here and France Telecom also joined us this year with a new gaming division called GOA. It has so far recruited 150 staff but plans to expand to 350,’ Philip Flynn says.

Gaming company Havoc has also joined the bigger players, he adds, bought out by Intel earlier this year for a cool €80-188m.

‘But we’re nor just about the big names; we’re creating a holistic mix of macro- and micro-enterprises, foreign and indigineous, individual creatives, entrepreneurs and commercial agents of all forms, educationalists, technologists, philosophers and scientists.’

What extras does the hub offer?
Networking and collaboration with a rapidly growing cluster of digital media companies including potential suppliers and consumers.

There is also a vibrant social scene with on-site and surrounding city centre cafés and bars and events, conferences and exhibitions throughout the calendar. See here for details.

What’s next? Connecting to home-based micro businesses?

Many small companies in the area and in the digital media industry subscribe to The Digital Hub’s monthly e-zine to find out what’s going on. They are also invited to sector-relevant events at the hub.

How will the hub act as a catalyst for change?
Plans for The Digital Hub have been devised to reflect Dublin City Council’s vision for the urban regeneration of the Liberties. Its economic impact is already being felt and will become increasingly evident as:

• greater numbers of Irish and digital media enterprises from overseas relocate to the hub
• smaller non-digital media enterprises and services such as shops and cafes become established
• some of the companies “spin out” and create new companies, hopefully staying within the enterprise cluster or in the Liberties neighbourhood
• the presence of some companies in the cluster attracts other companies and suppliers to the area
• growing numbers of property developers compete to buy and develop land in the area for residential and retail use
• house prices rise.

Many of these are already underway or imminent.

Possibly the greatest impact on people already living in the Liberties has come about through the hub’s Diageo Liberties learning initiative, teaching aspects of digital media skills to thousands of local people via local schools and community groups.

The hub’s initiative has included teaching local children valuable skills that will enable them to work in the digital media industry, professional training in ICT for teachers and providing information, equipment and support to local schools.

Further information see here.

What is the timetable for regeneration?
The timescale for regeneration is phased. Initial planning and preparation began in 2001, followed by the first phase – the establishment of the first businesses in the hub cluster – in 2004.

This also saw the start of social, community and learning projects and the award of contracts for building residential and retail facilities to private companies.

The project is now in its second phase. By 2011 this should see an expanded capacity for supporting research and enterprise along with construction of the new homes, shops and civic buildings. Use of the hub’s community and learning facilities by local people and others, including school children from disadvantaged areas, will also be stepped up.

By the third and final phase, set to start in 2012, the target is to have 3,000 people working in digital media enterprises in the hub cluster. 'We want to connect as many enterprising people as possible with each other,' says Philip Flynn.

'Our role is not to run people's businesses but to make it easier for them to learn from each other, get work from or give work to each other. A hub is a place that enables these connections to take place and breaks down barriers between potential collaborators.'

Consulting local people and others with a interest in the success of the project is a constant theme. Guiding principles for the hub’s development were agreed early on by a Community Public Private Partnership representing the city council, government ministry, statutory agencies including Enterprise Ireland, and local businesses and people.

As Flynn sums up: ‘What we have at the hub is a rich and diverse community representing the 21st century evolution in business/working, education, leisure and the complete lifestyle choices people are now making.’

For more information on The Digital Hub see here.

Digital Hub business case study

Set up with a team of just three in 2001, Kavaleer Productions has become a major promoter of animated productions not just in Europe but internationally.Founder and CEO Andrew Kavanagh and business development director Gary Timpson relocated in 2003 to The Digital Hub’s incubation facility, the Digital Depot, where among other commercial projects they worked on a pilot show, Bunny vs Monkey, for Cartoon Network UK, and developed animated sitcom Dad the Impaler.A networking event at The Digital Hub in late 2005 led to a major multimedia contract for e-learning company Riverdeep, also based in the cluster. Almost overnight, Kavaleer had to recruit another 40 staff.For the duration of the contract, Kavaleer took on 40 second and third-year graduates, mostly from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology, accommodated in additional workspace rented from the hub.To enhance the students’ skills and still meet project deadlines, Kavaleer signed them up to a training programme (Accel) run by hub-mates the Digital Media Forum.Kavaleer Productions now has a core team of six but employs another 20 staff, mainly animators, now engaged on the 52-part series Lifeboat Luke, which Kavaleer is co-producingwith Belfast-based LTL Productions. Kavaleer is also starting production on its own TV series Garth, set to be broadcast on RTÉ, TVO and the BBC’s ‘cBeebies’ channel in 2008.