From left: John Drury, Smarttech247 and Leaders Awards; Eoghan O’Mahony, it@cork; Caroline O’Driscoll, KPMG and it@cork; and Peter Coppinger, Teamwork.com. Image: Diane Cusack
Cork is on track to becoming a thriving ICT hub as it@cork announces its Leaders Awards.
Today (7 September), it@cork, the body representing more than 200 companies working within the ICT sector in the Cork region, launches the Leaders Awards, an annual event recognising the county’s thriving ICT community.
Nominations are being sought for the awards, which are now in their twelfth year. Judging is set to take place in early October (the closing date is 2 October), which will culminate in a ceremony to be held in Rochestown Park Hotel on 19 October.
Cork showing plenty of promise
Caroline O’Driscoll, chair of it@cork, said: “With Cork set to become the fastest-growing region under the Project 2040 plan, it is a place of opportunity and promise, particularly in ICT.”
O’Driscoll added that ICT is now the largest source of foreign direct investment in the region, with more than 300 ICT-related companies employing more than 29,000 people. According to a survey of it@cork members, 83pc are forecasting employment growth over the next three years.
She added: “I have been involved in these awards for a number of years and every year, the volume and calibre of applicant is growing. This is a testament to the thriving ICT cluster which has developed in the region, playing strongly in areas such as cybersecurity, cloud, data analytics and IoT.
“We have an exciting entrepreneur community innovating in new and emerging areas like AI, blockchain and fintech as well as an extremely responsive education sector.”
What are the it@cork award categories?
- Tech Start-Up of the Year
- The One to Watch
- Multinational of the Year
- Excellence in Education
- Smart Technology Innovation Award
- Corporate Social Responsibility Award
- Technical Training Programme of the Year
Peter Coppinger, co-founder of Teamwork.com and previous award-winner, said: “Winning last year was a highlight for myself and Dan [Mackey, co-founder]. We were immensely proud of the award itself; the recognition it gave to the hardworking team at Teamwork, and the fact … it was voted on by fellow industry peers made it special.
“The it@cork awards have a significant role to play in Cork’s IT landscape as they recognise all types of companies and technology endeavours. They give newer companies that are just coming through the ranks an opportunity to showcase their ideas and innovations, and they applaud and highlight the huge strides being made by the more established ICT operations in the industry.”
The judging panel will include expert industry representatives from KPMG, VMware, Investec, Trend Micro, Enterprise Ireland, Dell EMC, Cork County Council, Tyndall, Malwarebytes and Teamwork.com, among others.
