07 October, 2020

The second and final Shared Learning event for the My Town, My Plan Community Training programme was live-streamed on October 7, 2020. This Shared Learning event showcased the ideas and future vision that the participants from Carrigaline, Cobh, Midleton and Youghal have for their towns.

After the success of the first event (29.09.20) we were more than delighted to have over 110 virtual guests join the evening’s event.

Hosted by Helen McGuirk, Head of the Hincks Centre, the address on behalf of CIT was given by Gerard O’Donovan, Head of Faculty - Business and Humanities. This was followed by a pre-recorded video whereby representatives from the four towns gave a synopsis of their town’s ideas/vision. 

Veronica Murphy, the Discovery Partnership, sent a pre-recorded message to all the participants of My Town, My Plan.

The first speaker to take to the screen was Aaron Jay, CEO, Emagine with his presentation entitled ‘VR and Sustainable Tourism, Pre & Post Covid’. Aaron is also the director and scriptwriter for the Emagine VR projects. Lismore Castle VR Experience, Waterford Greenway VR Experience, Visit Donegal VR and King of the Vikings VR Experience are some of the projects, to name but a few, that Emagine have brought to ‘life'. www.emagine.ie

Following Aaron’s fascinating presentation and Q&A session, we welcomed Bernadette Guest. Bernadette is the Heritage Office with Waterford City and County Council based in the Planning Section. As most of the participating groups had included greenways, walkways, etc. in their ideas/vision, Bernadette’s presentation ‘Heritage of Waterford Greenway - Telling the Story’ was met with a barrage of questions. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking and we only had time for a few. www.waterfordcouncil.ie

Our last guest speaker was Gráinne O’Keeffe, CEO, Ludgate. Presenting ‘Ludgate: Our Story so Far and Vision Ahead’, Gráinne explained that Ludgate currently has 55 fulltime members, that 146 jobs have been created, and, with 2,800 hot desks enjoyed, the hub has contributed €4m to the local economy. Food for thought for many of the participating towns! www.ludgate.ie

Before Helen closed the event, Ryan Howard, CEO, SECAD gave some final remarks on the follow-on programme. (For further information on this contact SECAD on info@secad.ie or visit their website at www.secad.ie.)

The recorded event and more information about My Town, My Plan can be viewed in our Projects section by clicking here.

Thank you to Veronica Murphy and Billy O'Connor, Discovery Partnership and George Bulman, Rubicon Centre at CIT/MTU who facilitated the core training sessions. Thanks also to the subject experts who delivered the specialist topics.

Thank you to the huge team of people who supported the programme from the design stage, the delivery of the training sessions, and the production of the Videos and the online Shared Learning Events.

And finally, thank you and our very best to the programme participants themselves. We would like to take this opportunity to wish each group every success in realising their town's ideas/visions.

My Town, My Plan Community Training programme commenced in September 2019 and was delivered by the Hincks Centre to 8 towns across Cork County in collaboration with the Discovery Partnership, a number of Centres at CIT and Experts from around the region. The programme was funded through SECAD as part of the LEADER programme. The objective of the programme was to provide training in future planning and the innovative development of a cohesive vision for towns and their hinterland. Some of the participating towns have already used their Ideas Documents as part of their submissions to the Cork County Development Plan. Full details on My Town, My Plan can be found here.