Digital Town Awards 2021: Congrats Fermoy and Tralee!

We are thrilled that Fermoy and Tralee took home €5,000 each at the 2021 .IE Digital Town Awards Thursday evening! 🥳

Huge congratulations to both. We know how much hard work went into the winning projects and are very grateful to have been a part of that journey. We'd also like to extend our congratulations to all of the other Irish towns who were shortlisted and to those who took home prizes on the day. 

The Digital Town Awards is run by .IE, the national registry for .ie domain names. The awards aim to 'promote awareness, knowledge, use and understanding of digital in Ireland by its citizens, businesses and communities.'

Fermoy and Tralee were runners-up in the Large Town categories (5,000-10,000 and 10,000+, respectively). They both walked away with the second prize of €5k each — a modest sum that will no doubt make a big difference to the hardworking volunteer groups we've worked with.

We worked with both towns to create a new digital infrastructure for their town, otherwise known as Xplore Fermoy and Xplore Tralee. Over the past few months, they became part of the Xplore platform, which includes a website, an app, and a merchant app. 

Our suite of digital tools, including the Xplore digital vouchers, offered a new and improved way for people to interact with their locality. They also could now connect with other towns and cities across the country, using Xplore's 'Select another town' feature. 

Speaking on their win, Michael Lyons of Fermoy Forum said: 

'"We were delighted to be shortlisted for the dot.ie awards. The chance to present Fermoy Forum's digital presence on a national level was a great opportunity to showcase all the hard work done by the forum in Fermoy. We have used our digital resources, Fermoy.ie, social media platforms and our Xplore app to make living or visiting Fermoy a better experience.”

“Having looked at the other towns that were shortlisted in our category, I was confident looking at the judging criteria that we had a chance, and I am delighted to accept the €5000 award for finishing second. Those funds will go towards our aim in increasing the number of users of our platforms which I feel was the difference to us taking the top award”.

The Fermoy Forum team

“Fermoy Forum is going from strength to strength, and this was a great team effort for the executive. A special thanks to those who headed up the marketing sub-committee, Declan Clancy and Dave Horan, and the hard work done by our administrative assistant Maevita De Barros. We have a great relationship with Xplore, headed up by Fermoy man Colin Hanley, and we are enormously grateful to have such great expertise locally.”

“Finally, I am always appreciative to our members who back us, our sponsors McCarthy’s Insurance Group and Cork County Council for their continued support and helping us get up and running from the start.”

Meanwhile, Tralee Chamber Alliance said:

"It's a privilege to announce that Tralee has placed 2nd in the National Digital Town Awards (Large Town category) for our work on the Digital Tralee App & Website. Huge thank you to the teams in .IE Digital Town, Xplore Local, our members, Kerry County Council and the greater community for embracing these new digital platforms for our town."

The recent launch of Xplore Tralee

Chairperson of Tralee Chamber, Ken Tobin, added:

"The Xplore team are integral partners to the future development of our digital eco-system in Tralee and we are excited to see where the platform develops in the years ahead."