Winners revealed at county enterprise awards
Tullamore-based ticketing software company Future Ticketing Ltd was revealed as the big winner in the 2014 Offaly County Enterprise Awards last night (Monday).
The other big winner on the night was Emma Rose Conroy of stallion semen agency Euro Stallions, who walked away with the title of Offaly’s best young entrepreneur and investment of €20,000.
Monday night’s local enterprise office-hosted celebrations in the Tullamore Court Hotel included two separate competitions - one for existing business and another new competition for entrepreneurs aged 30 or under.
Finalists in the County Enterprise Awards included Premier Business Media Ltd, Dezynamite, Welding Quality Management Services Ltd, Applied Concepts Ltd, Future Ticketing Ltd, TD Cellular Limited, Decontamination Technical Services Limited, Pyxix Black Limited, Polar Ice Limited, Brendan Dooley t/a The Print Factory, Yvonne Carty t/a Hey Pesto, Whatzere Queue Smart, Heartworks, Clanwood Organic Farm and Farm TV/Aura Productions.
Polar Ice Ltd won an innovation award on the night, while Dezynamite took the marketing award and Clanwood Organic Farm took a prize for the best artisan food.
Premier Business Media Ltd was awarded a bronze award and Applied Concepts Ltd took the silver.
Gold award winners Future Ticketing, which has processed over €1.5m in tickets to 100,000 satisfied customers since its launch last April, will now go on to represent Offaly at the National Enterprise Awards.
The awards were open to all businesses that got grant aid from the local enterprise office, and were judged by Enterprise Ireland’s Denis Duggan and Evelyn Reddin from Laois local enterprise office.
Offaly’s best young entrepreneur and best business start-up was revealed as Emma Rose Conroy at the same event. The title brought with it an investment of €20,000, as part of the €2m Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition.
Mark Clendennen of Applied Concepts Ltd also won the same level of investment on the night, thanks to his best established business with a new add-on service award. Jack Dooley, representing Greener Globe, picked up a cool €10,000 investment in addition, thanks to a best new idea award.
The three businesses will now go through to regional finals, where they will compete for the right to go through to national finals and ultimately compete for the award of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.
Trading since last March, Euro Stallions is Ireland’s first and only fully dedicated stallion semen agency, and the country’s first EU approved semen storage centre.
Applied Concepts meanwhile was founded in 2010, and specialises in the design and manufacture of abrasive blasters and related goods.
Greener Globe is owned by four fifth year students from Tullamore College, who have created two water conservation devices - a water saving showerhead and a leak detection system.
Other finalists in the competition included David Cleary of Rockridge Foods, Martin McGuinness of www.thateasy.ie, Darren McNelis of Nevermiss, Conor Lynch, Jack Pilkington and Keith Lambe of Keith Lambe Diesel Services.
Speaking at last night’s award Orla Martin of Offaly enterprise office said the level of new talent emerging in Offaly offers great hope and encouragement for the future of the county.
Yesterday’s event included a keynote address by adventurer and serial entrepreneur Pat Falvey, while awards were presented by Offaly chief executive Colette Byrne.
“Life is like a mountain, and we all have mountains to climb, we all have an Everest,” Mr Falvey said in his entertaining and engaging presentation. “Believe in yourself, your goals. Never quit. Have dreams, go for them and make them a reality.”