In order to create an inclusive Digital Strategy for Carlow, a public workshop was hosted by Carlow County Council in March 2020. This workshop, which was facilitated by Indecon, sought feedback and input from community and business stakeholders. This feedback helped to inform the development of this strategy. Strategic community and enterprise groups were represented on the night. These included representatives from Carlow PPN, Carlow Credit Union, Teagasc, IFA, Carlow Chamber of Commerce, Carlow Tourism, Older Persons Forum, PinPoint Alerts amongst others. Indecon gave an outline of the Digital Strategy Framework and split the participants into groups. Each group explored a number of themes (Appendix 1) that they wanted the digital strategy to focus on. The main elements and findings of this collaboration were recorded. Common themes emerged across all the groups, which helped to structure the Digital Strategy. The most popular themes and those which gathered most momentum on the night were:
• Digital Government e.g. Availability and ease of use of online services
• Digital Business e.g. Digital Hubs and co-working facilities
• Digital Infrastructure e.g. Availability of broadband to all areas of Carlow
• Digital Community e.g. Community engagement and digital skills
This engagement process with the stakeholders also helped to identify the County’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). This SWOT analysis is presented below, and it helped us to identify our weaknesses so that we can address same and minimize the risks associated with them. It also highlights the opportunities and strengths that County Carlow has to offer, so that we can capitalise on these and take the greatest possible advantage of them