New athlone.ie goes live

A new-look www.athlone.ie will go live today, with lots of new features to keep locals, visitors and businesses informed of what's happening in and around Athlone. The new-look website was launched by Mayor of Athlone Cllr Mark Cooney on Monday evening at Athlone Civic Centre. Chairman of Athlone eCom Cllr Frankie Keena said that in 1999 Athlone Town Council had identified the need to have a quality portal promoting Athlone and a year later Athlone eCom was founded. He said the first site had gone live in December 2001 and since then had two million unique users. He thanked the main sponsors Athlone Town Council and Westmeath County Council as well as all the businesses in the town that supported the site. "More than ever there is a need for an interactive portal promoting our area and town, lobbying to have jobs created in the area. Potential employers in Ireland and abroad can access this information from this site," said Cllr Keena. He congratulated Athlone eCom project manager Carmel Duffy and staff members Simon Daly and Stephanie McEvoy for their hard work and dedication. Mayor of Athlone Mark Cooney said he had been part of the council in 1999, along with Frankie Keena, that agreed to set up www.athlone.ie and he said Athlone was one of the first towns in the country to set up a website. Cllr Cooney said he was pleased that Athlone Town Council had continued to support it since then. "Time after time we found it to be a worthwhile investment," he said. He said most people use the internet to research towns before they visit them and it was important to have information promoting Athlone on the website, but he added that it was important for people in Athlone to also use the site. Athlone eCom project manager Carmel Duffy then gave a presentation of how the site would work and look. She said this was the fourth version of the site and said it was important to revamp the site. She said the team at Athlone eCom had wanted to not only change the look of the site, but also its functionality. Ms Duffy said visitors to the site had increased over the years and in 2009 there were on average 700 unique visitors to the site per day. Ms Duffy thanked all of the local photographers who had supplied photos for use on the site and explained that Athlone eCom had now set up a Flicker account where people could submit their own images of Athlone. And to target new audiences and users www.athlone.ie now has a Facebook page, a Twitter account and will soon have a YouTube account and a blog. Upcoming events will be featured prominently on the site, with the European Triathlon Championships and the European People's Festival among those currently being advertised. For visitors to the town there will be plenty of information about accommodation, restaurants, things to do, places to visit and special offers in Athlone and surrounding areas, as well as downloadable maps and guides. Locals too can benefit from the new site, with a community noticeboard, as well as information on healthcare and local clubs and organisations. There will be a new section on the River Shannon and those wishing to trace their ancestors can avail of the genealogy section on the site. New to www.athlone.ie is a section on 'Writings from Athlone' and Ms Duffy paid tribute to librarian and historian Gearoid O'Brien for all his help in putting together this section of the site as well as writers and the families of writers who had passed away for permission to use their works on the website. Concluding the presentation Ms Duffy said: "I hope you agree that this version is an asset to the continued promotion of Athlone."