SOLE on the march in East Lothian
Over the last 18 months, one of the major projects that the Scottish Tech Army has been working on is SOLE (Supporting Our Local Economy) Scotland, the online community platform designed to support the wide range of civic, business, and organisational activities in Scotland’s towns and cities. Having run a pilot in Dunbar in 2021, funding was secured from the UK Community Renewal Fund, alongside continued support from East Lothian Council, to roll the platform out across the whole of East Lothian.
The project kicked off in February 2022 and the launch of the platform to the communities in East Lothian took place at the beginning of June, coinciding with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The funding allowed us to invest in putting in place a team to raise awareness and encourage adoption amongst individuals and organisations, with the majority of the team being local to East Lothian.
SOLE in East Lothian is organised around the six populations centres and communities in the county – Musselburgh, North Berwick, Haddington, Dunbar, Tranent and the Prestonpans, Port Seton and Gosford area. Each of these areas has its own distinctive character and the flexibility of the SOLE platform means that it can reflect that in the organisations that are present on the platform, the events that are taking place and the local news. Since the original pilot in 2021, a much greater focus has been placed on the use of the native mobile app, that allows people to interact with it much more easily while they are out and about, helping to generate more activity and footfall in the town centres.
The Summer has been busy with a lot of events in the area and the SOLE team has been present at many of them, giving them the opportunity to speak with local residents, businesses and community organisations. Interest has been strong, with over 1,000 people registering on the platform within the first six weeks and over 400 business and organisations activating their profiles and starting to add information, events and offers.
The response from businesses has been strong across a wide variety of sectors, including retail, hospitality, health and wellbeing, with a good mix of these and others across all of the communities. Whether businesses already have an online presence or are just getting started, they can use SOLE to appeal to new and existing customers. For those that are new to using the Internet in their businesses, SOLE presents the lowest barrier to entry, allowing them to be up and running in minutes.
The community aspects of SOLE are an integral part of what it offers to communities – the early research that was carried out in communities showed a desire to have more than just a directory or a shopping platform. The SOLE team has been supporting events across the county and features such as trails, challenges and bundled activities add opportunities for people at the events to check-in, leave feedback and take advantage of offers tailored specifically to the event and the businesses in the community.
Over the remainder of the Summer, the focus will be on encouraging and helping people to get the best out of the platform. Future plans include making SOLE available to more communities across Scotland to help these communities to thrive and prosper.