Chief Entrepreneur for Scotland Visits S5GConnect HALO Kilmarnock

Mark Logan, the Scottish Government’s recently appointed Chief Entrepreneur, visited S5GConnect HALO Kilmarnock, based at the HALO Enterprise and Innovation Centre in Kilmarnock to tour the world class co-working and technologically driven spaces across the campus.

The HEIC is a state-of-the-art building also home to a Barclays Eagle Lab which is supporting start-up and scale-up businesses from across Ayrshire who are building and growing specialised digital and cyber businesses.

During his tour, Mr Logan met Sharon Neely, Business Engagement Manager for S5GConnect HALO Kilmarnock, Scotland 5G Centre Operations Director Vinny Bryson and Marketing Manager Esther Francisco Ballesteros on the HALO’s #RockMe Trading Floor, which is home to some of Ayrshire’s most exciting businesses, and some of the shared working spaces where tenants can meet, work and network while on site at the HALO. The #RockMe Trading Floor will also be home to a Green Growth Accelerator Unit at the HEIC, backed by a green investment fund, designed to attract not only Scottish businesses but companies from outside Scotland, with the intention of creating investment opportunities both for The HALO and its partners and tenants.

With phase I of the HALO well underway with the Enterprise and Innovation Centre playing a pivotal role in the growth of Ayrshire’s entrepreneurial community, plans for Phase II can now progress. Phase II of the HALO, a blueprint for the move towards greener housing in the UK, will bring 210 world class smart homes of the future to Kilmarnock. Fuelled by 100 per cent renewable energy and digital healthcare monitoring systems, the smart homes will be built at the HALO using sustainable construction materials and techniques.

The HALO provides a blueprint for a future net-zero society covering energy production, use and storage, new energy products and services and transport. ScottishPower will also utilise the HEIC to deliver staff training and host events and will support growing businesses on The HALO trading floor, establishing The HALO at the forefront of the digital Fourth Industrial Revolution.