Siliconrepublic.com editor wins David Manley Media Award


20 Jan 2011

Siliconrepublic.com editor John Kennedy has been presented with the second David Manley Media Award. He was commended for his dedication and commitment to regular coverage of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs.

The judges for this award were Dr Thomas Cooney, director, Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship at DIT and Nicola Byrne, founder and managing director of 11890. Dr Chris Horn oversaw the judging.

The David Manley Media Award is run with the support of Kantar Media and managing director Dan Halliwell presented Kennedy with his award. Last year’s winner was John Murray of RTÉ, who was with The Business at the time.

The process involved an exhaustive search by Kantar Media who came up with almost 60,000 print and broadcast pieces of coverage of entrepreneurship and innovation over the previous 12 months

Kennedy has been writing about business and technology since the mid-Nineties. He joined Silicon Republic Ltd in 2002 to become the fulcrum of the company’s news service. He was recipient of the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Technology Journalist Award 2005 and Siliconrepublic.com has been awarded ‘Best Technology Site’ at the Irish Web Awards for the last three years in a row.

Nurturing enterprising spirit

The David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards was established in 2003 and nurtures the enterprising spirit in business, the arts and in the social community. Nine entrepreneurs were shortlisted this year and all will receive mentoring, courtesy of Enterprise Ireland.

The top prize of €100,000 in mentorship and €10,000 in cash went to Anne Bedos’ Rothar, a not-for-profit organisation that recycles discarded bikes and provides training and job opportunities to people from disadvantaged communities.

Operating from Phibsboro, Dublin, this community-based bike shop sells refurbished bicycles, accessories and second-hand parts and offers classes on bicycle repairs.

The two runners-up this year were Angel Luis Gonzalez, PhotoIreland Festival (winner of the Emerging Arts Entrepreneur category) and Dr Emmeline Hill, Equinome (winner of the Emerging Business Entrepreneur category.) They each receive €1,000 in cash and mentoring.