Dublin’s tech community rallies: Techies 4 Temple Street raises €200k

9 Jul 2016

Corvil were crowned Ireland’s ‘Smartest Techies’ for a second year as Techies 4 Temple Street teams hit the streets once again to take on a host of outdoor and digital media challenges

More than 1,000 members of Dublin’s tech community took to the streets this week and raised over €200,000 for Temple Street Hospital as part of the Techies 4 Temple Street challenge.

Now in its second year, Techies 4 Temple Street saw members of the tech community take on a series of challenges around the city as part of an urban treasure hunt, battling it out for the title of Smartest Techies.

Team Corvil were crowned Ireland’s Smartest Techies for the second year in a row after tackling an array of digital media challenges while also raising much-needed funds for sick children.

‘From all our little patients in Temple Street – thank you!’
– DENISE FITZGERALD, TEMPLE STREET FOUNDATION

Techies 4 Temple Street is the creation of Hostelworld co-founder and Homestay founder Tom Kennedy.

More than 150 teams in total battled it out to benefit the 6,000 sick children who attend Temple Street Children’s University Hospital every year.

At the inaugural event last year, more than 700 members of the tech community and their trusted advisors and partners, busked, hula-hooped and sang their way around Dublin city centre, raising more than €150,000 in much-needed funds

This year, funds raised by participating teams, along with the support of sponsors Homestay and Zendesk, will go to support the construction of Temple Street’s new Neurology and Renal Outpatients Unit.

Over the past 18 months, Temple Street Foundation has been working hard to raise the €5m needed to make this unit a reality.

A team effort

Over the weeks leading up to Friday’s event, the teams have been busy collecting a minimum of €500 each for Temple Street through a variety of fundraising activities, including bake sales, table quizzes and park runs. As a reward for their efforts, the top money-raising team, LinkedIn, received a headstart and sped away from the RDS in a convoy of Ecocabs.

This year, Homestay.com and Zendesk came on board as leadership sponsors for the event, along with gold sponsors 3D4 Medical, Altify, Arthur Cox, Corvil, Datalex, EisnerAmper, The FKM Group, Grant Thornton, O’Malley Sorohan, Philip Lee, PTools and Tomkins.

“Since day one, Ireland’s tech companies have really embraced the spirit of Techies 4 Temple Street and helped make it a massive success,” said Denise Fitzgerald, CEO of Temple Street Foundation.

“Following the popularity of the inaugural event in 2015, we had high hopes for an even bigger and better event this year and the day certainly didn’t disappoint! The atmosphere in the RDS was electric and we followed the teams in anticipation on Twitter as they enthusiastically took on each and every challenge.”

“Today’s event simply couldn’t have happened without the fundraising of our teams and the wonderful support of our sponsors. From all our little patients in Temple Street – thank you.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com