A North West Regional College (NWRC) computing graduate who has gone on to become an award-winning businessperson – will be one of the speakers at TechTides Youth at the college’s Strand Road campus on November 18.

Clare Hamilton is now on the placement year of a BSc in Computer Science – and she’s using her time to develop her new start up business ‘The Influencer Hub’ which she co-founded with Jordan McCambridge.

The NWRC said that the 23-year-old has come a long way since she first started developing her entrepreneurial skills when as an 8 year-old she opened her own sweet shop for family and friends.

“I’m very much looking forward to TechTides Youth,” she said. “During the event I’ll be sharing my own journey into entrepreneurship. I’ll also talk about the future of AI in technology particularly in the influencer marketing industry. My aim is to inspire other young people to turn their ideas into real businesses.”

A spokesperson from NWRC said Clare’s business ‘The Influencer Hub’ is a data driven platform that streamlines the process for businesses to find and collaborate with suitable content creators (influencers) based on brand alignment, audience demographics, and budget. It also aims to allow businesses to track and measure real time campaign performance. The hub hopes to make influencer marketing more accessible and efficient for smaller businesses that might not have the resources for complex, large-scale campaigns. It also offers content creators a platform to showcase their talent, connect with brands, and earn from their work.

Previously Clare’s business expertise has won her numerous awards – including Young Businessperson of the Year, Student Invent Winner award and the Amazon Engineer bursary.

“The account did well,” she said, “I worked with brands and businesses and it was from there I realised there was a need for a platform that not only matches businesses with the right content creators, but also allows them to manage the entire collaboration process through one end-to-end solution. My co-founder Jordan had similar challenges with marketing after running a previous business, and that’s how The Influencer Hub was born.”

Clare is very proud of how far she has come and is keen to encourage other young people to choose their own path rather than automatically following the crowd.

Clare Hamilton prepares for Techtides with its founder Alastair Cameron.

She said: “There’s me, I was home schooled, and everything was going great, but when Covid hit there was no facility for anyone who was being home-schooled to get predicted grades. That led me to NWRC for the Level 3 in Computing, then on to Ulster University and now to the Amp in the Waterside where the office for The Influencer Hub is based.”

Techtides and Techtides Youth is taking place on Tuesday, November 18 2025 at the Millennium Forum and North West Regional College. The one-day event will bring together start-ups, investors, technologists and business leaders to spark new ideas, forge meaningful connections, and drive practical progress.

The conference hopes to establish Derry as a key hub for technology and entrepreneurship.