On their historic visit to Ireland on July 11th 2018 Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited our startup hub, where they learned about our exciting tech companies, met young people taking part in a coding workshop to celebrate CoderDojo’s 7th birthday, and participated in a diversity roundtable discussion.

This was an exciting moment for us and we were thrilled to be one of the few places the royal couple would visit on their brief trip to Ireland, right after their visit to EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum.

Here’s the Press Release from the visit and a selection of photos.

Dublin, Ireland 11 July 2018

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit Ireland’s leading startup hub Dogpatch Labs to meet the people shaping the country’s future

 
The Royal couple meet young people taking part in CoderDojo coding workshop and join Diversity Roundtable to discuss new initiatives to empower women and girls in tech
 
Roundtable Commitments include: CoderDojo to recruit 5,000 new female volunteers & mentors by 2021 and Dogpatch Labs to host a female-focused Global Investor Day in 2019
 
 

On their historic visit to Ireland today The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met a number of young coders, female and social entrepreneurs representing a cross-section of leaders helping to shape Ireland’s future.

The Royal couple visited Dogpatch Labs, one of Europe’s leading startup hubs based in the iconic CHQ building in Dublin’s Digital Docklands. Having learned about Ireland’s history and experienced its rich culture at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, the Royal couple’s focus moved to meeting some of the innovative people who are shaping the country’s future including members of CoderDojo, the global coding movement for young people.

Dogpatch Labs is home to over 80 startups and over 350 members. It supports the tech community by providing a space to grow, share knowledge and form connections. It hosts the most amount of free events for the tech community of any Irish entrepreneurial hub and provides a platform for organisations like HackAccess, PyLadies, ChangeX and Social Innovation Fund to accelerate positive impact and foster diversity and inclusion within the tech sector. Dogpatch Labs is also a founding patron of CoderDojo, the global movement of volunteer-led programming clubs for young people who are headquartered at the hub.

“True innovation comes from divergent thinking. We’re fostering an environment where people from different backgrounds are shaping the future. The Duke and Duchess’ visit to Dogpatch Labs as we launch new Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, is a significant validation of our efforts to develop a more inclusive technology ecosystem for the future”, said Patrick Walsh, Managing Director of Dogpatch Labs.

The Royal couple participated in a Diversity Roundtable focusing on specific commitments to empower and invest in women and girls in tech. The couple heard about commitments made, including Dogpatch Labs’ pledge to host a major female-focused Global Investor Day in 2019 and CoderDojo’s commitment to recruit 5,000 new female volunteers and youth mentors to the global movement by 2021.

“The fact that influential figures like The Duchess of Sussex are engaging in the topic of women in tech can really help elevate the conversation. Further, having The Duke of Sussex at the table sends a strong signal that men can play a valuable role in amplifying women’s voices”, Liz McCarthy, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Dogpatch Labs who led the Roundtable.

To ultimately change the structural systems causing the tech gender gap the full entrepreneurial stack needs to engage in the issue. With this in mind, the Diversity Roundtable was made up of a cross-section of the tech ecosystem including female entrepreneurs, champions of women role models in media, academia, youth, the meetup community and investors.

During the visit the Royal couple also visited a ‘Dojo’ where they met children learning programming skills for free from skilled volunteers. Giustina Mizzoni, Executive Director of CoderDojo said “increasing the number of female role models is one of the most effective ways to increase the participation of girls in CoderDojo and we are calling on women from all walks of life to get involved in inspiring and supporting the next generation of female tech creators and entrepreneurs.”

“CHQ today is a building where culture meets innovation and history meets the future. Neville Isdell’s unique and forward thinking patronage has enabled the mission-driven nature of the entrepreneurial hub and as Chairman of Dogpatch Labs, Mervyn Greene has contributed and guided its rapid evolution over the past four years. The partnership has been fundamental to our success and has enabled the uniqueness of what the Royal couple have come to experience”, said Patrick Walsh.

About Dogpatch Labs

Dogpatch Labs is one of Europe’s leading tech community hubs fostering entrepreneurship for startups, facilitating technology innovation for all sizes of companies and nurturing transformative social enterprises.

Located in the historic CHQ building in the heart of the Dublin Docklands, it is home to over 80 startups and over 350 members from 30 countries. It supports the startup community by providing a unique space to grow and hosting regular events to share knowledge, form connections and spark collaborative innovation.

At the foundation of Dogpatch Labs is a partnership with Neville Isdell & Mervyn Greene of the CHQ Building. Neville Isdell’s unique and forward thinking patronage has enabled the mission-driven nature of the entrepreneurial hub and as Chairman of Dogpatch Labs, Mervyn Greene has closely overseen, contributed and guided its rapid evolution over the past four years.

Acknowledged as a world-class entrepreneurial hub catalysing the ecosystem in Ireland, Dogpatch Labs was awarded the Google for Entrepreneurs Global Citizenship Award in September 2017.

Alumni include many of Ireland’s fastest growing tech companies including Irish tech unicorn ‘Intercom’ and provides the global headquarters for CoderDojo, the volunteer-led movement of free computer programming clubs. Dogpatch actively supports social technology initiatives such as like CoderDojo, ChangeX, HackAccess, PyLadies, Social Innovation Fund and others.

Patrick Walsh is the youngest member of Ireland’s National Competitiveness Council and was awarded the 2017 Guaranteed Irish Tech Hero Award.

Dogpatch Labs is supported by a range of corporate partners including Ulster Bank, Google, ESB, Pivotal, Unilever and Alltech.

Links: dogpatchlabs.com/press | Twitter: @dogpatchlabs | Facebook: www.facebook.com/dogpatchlabs

About CHQ Building

CHQ is a Grade 1 listed building, a former tobacco and wine warehouse, and one of the finest pieces of 19th Century architecture in Ireland. Built in 1821 by John Rennie, and restored to its former glory in the early 2000s. The building measures 155m by 55m and contains nine vaults covering the entire footprint of the building. The Crimean war banquet was held here in 1856, hosting 4,000 veterans and civilians. As the gateway to Dublin Docklands the building serves today a number of constituencies – residents, workers, visitors, tourists and Dubliners, and offers a selection of eateries, shops, event space as well as EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and Dogpatch Labs.

Website: chq.ie.

About Coderdojo

CoderDojo is an Irish founded global, volunteer-led movement of free computer programming clubs for young people aged 7 – 17. Our aim is for every child in the world to have the opportunity to learn how to code, be creative with technology and have fun in a safe, social and collaborative environment. There are more than 1,900 Dojos across 93 countries which regularly reach more than 50,000 young people. The CoderDojo Foundation is part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation family. Together we have created one of the largest, sustained global movements to help young people learn computing and digital making.

Website: CoderDojo.com | Follow on facebook, twitter, instagram.