Thinking guru hails ‘discovery centre’

Leading lateral thinker Dr Edward de Bono today gave his seal of approval to Ireland’s first interactive discovery centre.

Dr De Bono and well known TV presenter Shauna Lowry were at Belfast’s Stg£80m Odyssey Centre to officially open W5 (whowhatwhenwherewhy) which aims to ‘‘fire the spirits of discovery’’ in visitors young and old.

As part of Belfast’s landmark Millennium project W5 is expected to become a world class visitor attraction, featuring a range of thought provoking imaginative and inter-active exhibits.

Dr De Bono who had a sneak preview of the five zones - Wow, Start, Go, See, Do - was impressed at what he saw.

‘‘I think it’s very impressive. It’s well done and what is different from other centres, is that it is much more youngster-friendly. It’s not just trying to teach something but more trying to get the kids involved and enjoy themselves.’’

The launch was also attended by Culture Arts and Leisure Minister Michael McGimpsey who predicted that W5 would help rekindle the latent creativity in people of all ages.

Inviting people to venture into the world of science and engineering Mr McGimpsey said: ‘‘It will excite the curiosity and imagination of both young and old alike and encourage people to experiment and have fun with many aspects of science.’’

The Minister was welcomed to W5 which opens to the public at noon today by the chairman Tom Nolan and managing director Sally Montgomery.

Dr Montgomery said: ‘‘All of us at W5 are very excited about finally opening the centre to the public. A lot of extremely hard work and effort has gone into making Northern Ireland’s first centre of curiosity.

‘‘We believe that we have created something unique and very special in W5 both through the design of the building and the superb exhibits by Hands On Inc.’’

Chris Smith MP, chairman of the Millennium Commission, said the body was proud to be supporting the Odyssey Project and W5. ‘‘It is an excellent example of how lottery money is making a real difference in Northern Ireland. W5 and the Odyssey Project are playing an important role in the regeneration of Belfast by creating jobs, boosting the economy and providing new opportunities for local people.’’

As part of Odyssey W5 was funded by a Lottery grant of Stg£45m as well as funds from the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure.

Lyn Wood, founder of the Florida-based company Hands On Inc which designed and built all the exhibits said they had been specially tailor-made for Belfast.

‘‘This is our first international project and we spent a lot of time talking to people especially the kids before we did anything.

‘‘They said they wanted a place for ‘good craic’ so lets hope that’s what we have achieved.’’

All the exhibits were made in St Petersburg in Florida and shipped over to Belfast.

Ms Wood said that US travel editors were becoming more and more interested in Belfast.

‘‘It’s the new hip place and that really pushed us to deliver something very sophisticated.’’