On Saturday the 18th of April, the Mobile Digital Lab opened at the Dundalk Institute of Technology campus to support the CILT Mobility & Supply Chain Skillnet Knowledge Day, part of Ireland’s nationwide Logistics and Supply Chain Skills Week. Across the morning and early afternoon, attendees from across the mobility, transport, and supply chain sectors explored how digital innovation, new skills, and emerging technologies are reshaping the future of the industry.
The Mobility & Supply Chain Knowledge Day brought people together from across mobility, transport, and logistics for a focused programme of talks and discussions. Speakers tackled core themes such as digitalisation, sustainability, operational resilience, and changing customer expectations. As a result, attendees could step back from day‑to‑day operations and reflect on trends that will shape their organizations in the coming years.
The event formed part of a national effort to highlight career opportunities and emerging skills in logistics and mobility. Crucially, it also showcased collaboration between education, industry, and training networks like CILT Mobility & Supply Chain Skillnet.
Alongside the talks inside DKIT, the Mobile Digital Lab (MDL) served as a hands‑on space for trying out immersive technologies. The MDL is a custom‑built, road‑ready technology lab that brings VR, high‑performance laptops, and creative media equipment directly to campuses, community hubs, and workplaces across the region.
For the Knowledge Day, the MDL focused on a single clear question: how can immersive tools support learning and problem‑solving in logistics and supply chains? Consequently, the lab became a bridge between the morning’s strategic conversations and very practical, on‑the‑ground experimentation with VR.
During the lunch break, 11 attendees stepped into the MDL to try ThingLink’s “Explore Inaccessible Spaces” experience. In just a few minutes, each participant moved from the DKIT car park into a virtual environment that would usually be expensive, remote, or unsafe to access.
For several people, this was their first time using a VR headset. Many commented on how quickly they forgot they were standing in a trailer on campus, and how natural it felt to “walk through” complex spaces that might otherwise only exist in manuals or slide decks. As a result, conversations quickly turned to practical ideas: using VR for site inductions, health and safety briefings, or visualizing multi‑step supply chain flows before staff ever step onto a warehouse floor.
Because the experience ran in short, repeatable sessions, busy SME owners and professionals could drop in, try VR, ask questions, and return to networking without losing the rhythm of the day.
The Mini Digi Hub Project, which operates the Mobile Digital Lab, aims to bring advanced digital tools into real communities, businesses, and learning environments across the East Border Region. Therefore, events like the Mobility & Supply Chain Knowledge Day play a key role: they connect immersive technology with real problems that logistics teams face every day.
In supply chains, many critical locations are hard to access at scale. High‑risk areas, remote sites, and tightly scheduled facilities all limit how often staff can visit, train, or experiment on‑site. VR offers a different route. Teams can explore these environments virtually, practice procedures, and understand context before they ever reach the physical location.
Attendees at DKIT saw this potential first‑hand. For some, the experience sparked ideas for internal training. For others, it opened questions about how VR might support customer engagement, safety culture, or recruitment into a sector that often operates behind the scenes.
The Mobility & Supply Chain Knowledge Day showed how a mobile, flexible tech lab can plug into an existing industry programme and add real value in a short time. Instead of a standalone workshop, the MDL became part of the wider event story: talks in the morning, hands‑on experimentation at lunch, and informed conversations in the afternoon.
Over the coming months, the Mobile Digital Lab will continue to travel across the region as part of the Mini Digi Hub Project, supporting skills development in schools, community groups, and sectors like manufacturing, farming, and logistics. Each visit helps build familiarity with tools such as VR and AI, while also gathering feedback on where these technologies genuinely support work on the ground.
If you work in mobility, transport, or supply chain and would like to explore how the Mobile Digital Lab could support a future event, training session, or skills programme, we would be delighted to talk.
