Advertise online with an Award Winning Council

Bournemouth Borough Council wins prestigious industry award

Now advertising with Bournemouth Borough Council could be even more advantageous as news has just been released that The Council has won the ‘Digital Council of the Year’ category in this year’s Digital Leaders 100 awards, for their work championing local digital transformation.

The 2015 Digital Leaders 100 list honours the highest digital achievements from across the UK’s public, private and non-profit sectors, celebrating individuals and organisations that are pioneering digital to transform the UK’s public services and its social and economic opportunities.

Following the announcement of the shortlist, a public vote was launched, the results of which, combined with the views of an eminent judging panel of ten digital experts from the Digital Leaders community, determined the winners.

Bournemouth’s submission included information about the following initiatives:-

• Introduction of the world’s fastest free Wi-Fi covering the town centre, gardens and beaches, and all done by a Bournemouth tech company.
• Creating the Bournemouth Data Stream, an open data portal, built by a local digital company, launched at Big Data 2014
• Bournemouth Council’s sponsorship of regular Bournemouth Civic Hack events, including “Hack the Government” event, one of the only events held outside London. Working with, the local hack community (Hack Bournemouth) regularly to create amazing concepts, apps and websites using civic data.
• Supporting the creation of www.thinkcreatedo.co.uk celebrating the local creative and digital economy
• Sponsoring Silicon Beach Conference, held in Bournemouth annually, attracting leading UK digital strategic thinkers, and helping earn Bournemouth its position as Britain’s fastest-growing digital and creative sector.
• A complete redesign of the Council website – now customer focussed, searchable and responsive with resident accounts. Ranked second of all council websites in England (SiteMorse Q1 2015)

Nick Palmer, Head of Strategic IT at the Council commented, “We went up against some very established local authorities in the digital arena for this award and Bournemouth has demonstrated its ability to punch well above its weight.  We are clear on the areas we are focussing on – supporting the growth of local digital and creative sector, and supporting and promoting Bournemouth as the very special place it is to live, work and visit. 

“We aim to work in partnership with local like-minded digital organisations to help us create an environment where Bournemouth is fast becoming a world class digital economy. We couldn’t have done this on our own and I’d like to thank the following local companies for their involvement; Base, Fusion Wi-Fi, Matt Desmier at Wise Old Uncle, Hack Bournemouth, Bournemouth University and Paul Wilson at Mouchel.”

Councillor Anne Filer, Cabinet Member for Corporate Efficiency, commented, “I’m absolutely delighted at this amazing achievement and recognition for our delivery in the digital space.”