CREW needs to present Irish digital inventive start-ups the sting

We communicate to CREW CEO, Niamh Costello, because it publicizes what it describes as ‘Eire’s first ever inventive economic system summit’, Edge26, in Might.

CREW (Inventive Enterprise West) is a comparatively younger innovation and enterprise hub primarily based out of Galway, but it surely has severe international ambitions to develop start-ups and scale-ups within the digital inventive sector, in accordance with its CEO, Niamh Costello.

With its present dwelling in Atlantic Technological College (ATU) Faculty of Inventive Arts and Media, CREW was based as a not-for-profit organisation by the Western Growth Fee and ATU, with funding assist from Enterprise Eire.

“That covers something from movie and TV, animation, immersive content material creation, music expertise, digital design – it’s fairly broad by way of its protection,” Costello tells me after I ask what’s meant by the ‘digital inventive sector’. “We assist start-ups in these sectors – we’ve run a number of incubation programmes – with figuring out their product market match, their viewers, commercialisation, funding, getting going after which scaling, after all.”

The hub opened its doorways again in April 2024 and launched its technique in Might of final yr, centered on strengthening the digital inventive start-up ecosystem throughout the west and the north-west of Eire and serving to these corporations to attach, scale and collaborate, says Costello. “Whereas we’re Galway primarily based, we do have a regional and nationwide remit by way of our settlement with Enterprise Eire as effectively,” she provides, so the hub works with IADT, College of Galway and ATU amongst others.

As we speak there are about 85 individuals primarily based out of the CREW hub and final yr some 38 corporations went via 5 incubation programmes there, in accordance with Costello.

Edge26

Now CREW is setting its sights on creating an annual worldwide occasion that may carry collectively your complete inventive enterprise sector in Galway in Might 2026, Edge 26. With a tagline of ‘The place Inventive Industries, Know-how and Enterprise Converge’, Costello says it is going to be the primary occasion of its form in Eire.

“We’re specializing in the truth that we’re on the sting of Europe, we’re on the Atlantic edge, and that we will develop a inventive trade sector from right here to be globally vital,” says Costello who’s busy curating the speaker roster once we communicate, for the occasion which can happen within the model new Dexcom stadium in Galway.

“The inventive industries might be fairly fragmented,” she says. “You might have numerous totally different departments, you will have numerous totally different businesses which might be supporting throughout the assorted totally different sub-sectors, and in every of those sub-sectors there are very robust trade consultant our bodies and conferences, however there was no overarching occasion that was bringing collectively all the totally different teams throughout the industrial inventive industries.”

“We wish to have a look at the place we are actually throughout the West and the Northwest of Eire and Eire as an entire, the place the alternatives are. I imply, the velocity of change, it’s the identical in tech, it’s so fast, with AI in inventive industries for instance. There’s a lot alternative, however there’s additionally a number of challenges.”

Costello is aiming to carry everybody throughout the sector collectively, from coverage makers to buyers, start-ups to SMEs, in a single room to speak about these very challenges and alternatives, what must occur and “what we will do to ship on the massive potential for rising the sector”.

There can be an immersive applied sciences zone, an expo of inventive applied sciences, actions and networking for start-ups and loads of coverage discussions, says Costello. “In fact we could have the good worldwide audio system too, however total it’s actually about collaboration and attempting to carry everyone collectively.”

Edge 26 takes place on Might 21, 2026 on the Dexcom Stadium in Galway.

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