On Tuesday 23rd of June 2020, Tech Nation held a webinar discussing Northern Ireland’s current tech ecosystem. Off the back of their Tech Nation 2020 Report there was a national (virtual!) tour, looking at the latest national & regional insights, along with a fantastic panel discussion.
Salt Communications were able to pick up insightful information from the four panelists who discussed their Belfast based businesses – Neurovalens, See Sense, Uleska and Analytics Engines. Now in its sixth year, the groundbreaking annual Tech Nation report returns to shine a spotlight on UK tech and how the country is driving global success in the fields of investment, innovation, growth, employment, and productivity.
All panelists agreed that Northern Ireland tech is an important positive force in the world, not only providing economic growth, jobs and opportunities, but also tackling some of the biggest challenges of our time. Northern Ireland takes our role as a national network very seriously, and believe that making connections and enabling founders is more important than ever right now.
“Invest NI introduced good networks which was a main driver for basing the company in Belfast; along with the pool of talent and the skilled group of people here. Something about the NI mentality is that people want to help each other succeed. They are happy to connect with other people here, which isn’t true for other ecosystems in London I have worked with. As an economy we have to get these tech companies thriving and this creates hope for people”, stated Irene McAleese, Co-Founder of See.Sense.
They also took a deep dive into the local tech scene, which is booming even with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. In light of this, it was highlighted that through being a tech based business that it is easier for tech companies to adapt to a variety of situations and they will be even more prepared in the future. Many companies are now adapting to a more working from home approach as they have noticed much high productivity.
A key trend discussed which was also shown by the report many Belfast based companies are receiving more investment, in 2019 £100m was invested into emerging technologies. In terms of the employment in Northern Ireland within the Tech sector there is such a high quality talent pool in comparison to other countries.
The local universities are now also seen to be introducing more relevant and up to date technology courses such as FinTech as Ulster University. Belfast was also ranked as one of the top cities to live as a full stack developer in 2019. Belfast has also been ranked the 9th tech city of the year in the fDi and TNW’s Tech Cities of the Future for 2020/21.
“It is clear from this discussion and recent reports that Belfast is a great place to be working in tech. I have recently graduated from Ulster University and the level of education is at a very high standard with an updated curriculum to adapt to work within the tech sector. I can also confirm that working in the Belfast tech scene is a very positive and motivating experience”, said Nicole Allen, Marketing Executive from Salt Communications.
Salt Communications continues to succeed and enjoy being part of the Northern Ireland tech sector and look forward to seeing what lies ahead for the future for technology companies in Belfast.
For more information on this article, or to talk to a member of the Salt Communications team, please contact info@saltcommunications.com.
About Salt Communications
Salt Communications is a multi-award winning cyber security company providing a fully enterprise-managed software solution giving absolute privacy in mobile communications. It is easy to deploy and uses multi-layered encryption techniques to meet the highest of security standards. Salt Communications offers ‘Peace of Mind’ for Organisations who value their privacy, by giving them complete control and secure communications, to protect their trusted relationships and stay safe. Salt Communications is headquartered in Belfast, N. Ireland, for more information visit our website.
