David Kerr, chair of the Irish Internet Association; winner of the Award for Outstanding Contribution Award, Silicon Republic CEO Ann O'Dea; and Joan Mulvihill, CEO of the Irish Internet Association. Photo: Conor McCabe Photography
Silicon Republic CEO and editor-at-large Ann O’Dea was awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution from an IIA Member’ at last night’s IIA Net Visionary Awards 2014. The Overall Net Visionary Award went to Mark Little from Storyful.
O’Dea was given the ‘Outstanding Contribution from an IIA Member Award’ for her work through the Women Invent Tomorrow campaign in highlighting the need for greater diversity in the technology industry and in particular encouraging young women to pursue STEM subjects in education and rewarding careers in technology and science.
The overall award went to Mark Little, CEO and founder of Storyful, which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for €18m in December. Little was recognised for his entrepreneurial vision and for how, at the pinnacle of personal and professional success, he took a risk and created a start-up focused on bringing clarity and accuracy to the rapidly moving world of digital news.
“Mark Little is a truly worthy winner of the 2014 Overall Net Visionary Award,” IIA chief executive Joan Mulvihill said.
“He epitomises the defining qualities of exceptional visionaries. Mark is a courageous innovator and disruptor. It’s not every day that someone decides to take on the international media and change forever how they collect, collate and curate the news.
“He set out with a global vision and stayed the course in the face of international giants and indeed some cliff-hanger days. His openness in sharing his story has made him a phenomenal role model for emerging entrepreneurs, a true visionary and a world class technology innovator. It is with great pride that we have the opportunity to honour him this evening.”
Nine-year-old Lauren Boyle was given a special award – Excellence, the Next Generation, for her work on www.coolkidsstudio.com. The young lady from Foxrock in Dublin has been coding for nearly two years, and indeed is a mentor at her local CoderDojo. Lauren is also a double winner of the CoderDojo Coolest Project Awards. In 2014 she was runner up in the website category for www.coolkidsstudio.com, while in 2013 she won the overall prize for her Scratch Cooking Game and Makeup Salon.
The winners
Pictured: David Curtin, CEO of IE Domain Registry Limited; Overall Net Visionary 2014 Storyful’s Mark Little; and Joan Mulvihill, CEO of the Irish Internet Association. Photo: Conor McCabe Photography
Overall Net Visionary Winner 2014 – Mark Little, Storyful
Outstanding Contribution from an IIA Member – Ann O’Dea, Silicon Republic
Excellence, the Next Generation – Lauren Boyle, www.coolkidsstudio.com
Best All About Online B2C eCommerce Retailer – iClothing.com
Most Creative Use of Social Media for compelling customer engagement – Javelin for Universal Pictures Ireland
Best Scaling new heights and territories International Internet Business – Teamwork
This is the Rising Star start-up of the year – Kitman Labs
The Best Web Designer of discernment and user friendly functionality – Pixel Design for “giaf.ie”
The Best Web Developer for ingenious engineering and meticulous delivery – Software Design
The Most Indispensable Cloud Service for SMEs – Eventbrite
Best Digital Marketing Brand Campaign – Electric Ireland for Electric Picnic
Best Mobile Service or App for Fast Moving People (B2C) – WholeWorldBand
Most Interesting Internet Innovation – Kitman Labs
Very Best Place to be – Accelerator | Incubator | Space – The Digital Hub
Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic’s campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. It has been running since March 2013, and is kindly supported by Accenture Ireland, Intel, the Irish Research Council, ESB, Twitter, CoderDojo and Science Foundation Ireland.
