The great Silicon Valley exodus

Jackie Maguire, Chief Executive, Meath County Council

I was reading a very interesting article by Erin Griffith @eringriffith in a recent edition of @FortuneMagazine where she wrote about Silicon Valley become a victim of its own success. She was drawing attention to the rising lack of affordability for tech companies and venture capital companies in Silicon Valley where even dilapidated properties are costing millions of dollars. Affordability and accessibility is making businesses look further afield, beyond even San Francisco. It may currently appear far-fetched to some of you reading this, but we’re looking to ‘the Valley’ to see if we can attract some of those companies to set up here in Meath. And we’re very serious about it.

Those working in and around the self-styled Digital Docks in Dublin, European home to @Google, @eBay, @AirBnB and the like, know that access, affordability and accommodation are all at a premium because of the success of the @IDAIreland in attracting these businesses to locate in the capital. The fall-out from this success is part of what those of us behind the #MakeItMeath initiative are trying to capitalise on, as what we’re telling both local and international businesses is that Meath, as a location for your business, is like Dublin, only better.

People who already live in Meath know the benefits of being here. But the rest of the world needs to know why they should look at Meath to locate their businesses and that’s why we’re mobilising Meath fans from all over the world to spread the world.

Our campaign, planned to last three years, will engage with influencers like Erin Griffith right around the world pointing out that no matter where you are currently based, that Meath, located right on Dublin Airport’s doorstep, is just hours from most major cities in the world. In fact I’ve just been looking at Google maps and including the mandatory two hour wait in Dublin airport, you could be in Silicon Valley in little over 15 hours, rested and ready for business.

They say that a good blog should always make a call to action. Well I’m asking anyone reading this to tell people from Kerry to Kathmandu about Meath being Europe’s most business friendly region. Our Enterprise team will do everything possible to smooth the arrival of any business, big or small, to come and enjoy all of the amenities here. It’s as simple as this. We want your business. You’ll get every contact you need here. Email us now and we’ll back to you in a jiff. Remember the call is #MakeItMeath