Making Innovation Real at the Heart of Dublin’s Tech Quarter
May 1, 2022
Ireland has a prominent presence on the global stage as a nation that embraces and promotes innovation.
The island has become a melting pot for a diverse and deeply talented workforce, and while the population of Ireland is considerably smaller than some other major European countries (in fact, the entire population is around 2.5 million less than the city of London alone) it packs a mighty punch.
Accenture recognised Ireland as the ideal location for their recently opened multi-disciplinary research and incubation hub, known as The Dock, and in 2015, began testing out innovation first-hand, doing it at speed and at scale.
Fast forward to 2017 and The Dock is now officially opened at their new home at 7 Hanover Quay, a state-of-the-art, six-storey building overlooking Grand Canal Dock with over 200 designers, developers and people with expertise in AI, IoT, analytics and digital marketing, coming from 25 different nationalities.
A workforce of the future
Within the walls of this state-of-the-art, 60,000 square foot building on Hanover Quay, multidisciplinary teams of designers, developers and experts in artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and IoT come together to investigate, imagine and bring new ideas to life through R&D projects and co-creating with clients.
The Dock is helping Accenture rotate to the new. It looks and feels different; the people, the ways of working, the workspace and the work itself. As Julie Spillane, Director of The Dock explains;
“We’re on a quest to understand the disruption that’s happening across all industries, to embrace new and emerging technology and to harness its power to improve the way people work and live today.”
A Connected & Collaborative Workspace
The Dock isn’t your average Dublin City office; it’s a living, breathing space equipped with over 10,000 sensors that enable the building to learn from those inside and respond to individuals’ preferences.
Based in the heart of Silicon Docks, the building is surrounded by internet tech giants and the start-up community, alongside the raw and messy industrial commerce of Dublin Bay and at the leading edge of the lofty cranes of construction and growth.
From the moment that you first set foot inside, you’re immediately aware that something different is at play; something new, a sense of the future.
From the interactive digital screens on every floor and the flexible work spaces that enable teams to custom-build work environments, to the endless supply of natural light and the incredible 360 view of Dublin City from the rooftop work area, there’s a constant sense of the news.
At its core, this state-of-the-art facility is human centric, providing a space to maximise the health, wellbeing, and creative output of the innovators working inside.
The building also serves as a model that can be applied to connected spaces across the globe – from airports to stadiums to hospitals and much more. This is the beginning of a whole new experience of spaces, embedding IoT at the heart of future service design.
Working to change the future
At The Dock, experimentation is embedded within the DNA. The focus is in areas such as life sciences, technology, strategy and public sector.
At any one time teams are working on a broad range of cross-industry R&D projects from natural language processing in health and life sciences, to IoT applications within the financial services sector.
Clients also innovate together with Accenture. They come to The Dock to understand what disruption is for them, and gain practical hands- on experience of how it applies by testing and trying new, emerging technology. Working together they co-create and ideate to develop proof of concepts which they can partner with Accenture to develop further.
Embracing diversity
At the heart of The Dock are diverse teams innovating together. The more diverse we are, the better we are, and it’s the diversity of our workforce that ignites the flame of innovation. Julie Spillane, Director of The Dock comments;
“We believe that innovation starts where differences are valued and where everyone is able to express their true selves.”
Those are the very differences we celebrate and value at The Dock, the richness of people’s stories, their backgrounds and experiences, providing a space to explore and discover new ideas and innovation, and to do it together.
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