Aoife O’Driscoll – InspireMe.ie

The idea for Inspireme.ie came about from my own frustration at the difficulty in finding information about events happening around where we live in Clonmel. All too often, we would hear about a great family day that was on, the day after it was over.

So, in January 2017, along with my sister Maeve, we launched InspireMe.ie. We wanted to create a user friendly way for people to find out about all the wonderful events happening on our doorstep. We created the site based on how we would want information presented. As a mother of two young children, I will want to know about a family fun day. But I also want to know about the fundraiser in the local hall for the tidy towns committee or the musical being staged by the choral society. In another lifetime I would also have been interested in fun runs and sport activities, but with a young family and small children, it will be another while before I’m back at them!

The other big consideration for us when we were designing the site, was the promotion of inclusivity. A family member is a wheelchair user and when we are on an outing with her, we like to know that the venue is wheelchair accessible. All the events on InspireMe.ie can be filtered based on the users requirements. If you want to find buggy-friendly events or sensory friendly events, the information is all there.

I was also keenly aware of the difficulty event organisers had in promoting their events. Other than Facebook, there was no good way of promoting smaller events online. I have long had an interest in social media and digital marketing and find the changes being made to Facebook and more recently Instagram have been to the detriment of smaller organisations. Having your posts seen by your target audience is no longer a given.

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We regularly work with charities such as Barretstown, Friends of the Elderly, and LauraLynn to help them promote their fundraising campaigns.

It’s a very exciting area to be working in at the moment. Social media, in particular is evolving at warp speed. The beauty of this business is that you can work anywhere, anytime. Most work can be scheduled around family life. On the downside that also means it’s very difficult to switch off. The other drawback is the lack an established business network. All my college friends work in a completely different field. It’s important to join various groups, both for support and networking opportunities. We are members of the County Tipperary Chamber of Commerce and the Tipperary Tourism Group. The opportunities for learning that have stemmed from both of these sources has been immense.

We were thrilled to be nominated for the County Tipperary Business Awards for Best Social Media and Digital Marketing last year. I would recommend any businesses in the county throw their hat in the ring for the 2018 awards. It was a really worthwhile experience.

I want InspireMe.ie to become the go-to website for anyone, anywhere in Ireland, to find inspiration for what to do. We have a fantastic country. There is an amazing variety of cultural, historical, sporting and charitable events happening in every corner of Ireland.


Aoife O’Driscoll

www.inspireme.ie

[email protected]