Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

I remember my three years at the helm of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) as Chair and the hours and days we poured into creating categories and entry criterion for the Awards like it was yesterday. By then, the Awards were running for more than 25 years and were already established as amongst the most prestigious of all Digital Awards in the UK.

In 2007 when I actually chaired the Awards themselves, TechCrunch was kind enough to write about the winners… calling for “a cool tech awards” - perhaps that’s when Mike Butcher was inspired to create the Europas?! Either way, he has done a fantastic job as until then, there really wasn’t anything to reward the tech startup world.

Rather than complain about what they’re not getting right, as it’s totally impossible to get it right - you can’t please everyone all of the time, I’d like to make a few minor suggestions.

1. I know it’s difficult to put a time-frame on say, a clean-tech startup. But it’s not that difficult to put some boundaries in place for tech startups. I recommend no more than two or possibly three years. Definitely no more than three. Otherwise the same companies could end up winning every year, meaning it could take more than three years for a company to win - which makes no sense if we’re talking about a ’startup’. Here’s a previous post I wrote entitled ‘What is a startup?’.
2. Following on from my previous point, what is a ‘Best New Startup in 2010‘? Is it a startup that has launched within the past 12 months?
3. Following on from my previous point… again… provide entry criterion for every category and provide examples where possible. This is very time consuming but in my experience, it’s probably the most vital piece of the puzzle.
4. If you have a category ‘Best Startup Founder / Co-Founders 2010‘ and another entitled ‘Best New startup’, I’d expect to see a huge overlap in entries. How can someone be a great founder if their company isn’t listed? A real startup is the founder.
5. “Best Angel Investor of the Year 2010” should only shortlist people who have invested (money and not their time/resource) in at least three startups in that year. I know people on the shortlist who haven’t invested in anything that wasn’t their own startup for at least a year - this would make Jason Calacanis cringe. (Un)fortunately I didn’t have the time to launch and run Jason’s Open Angel Forum so I couldn’t take him up on his kind offer - my point? I’m familar with what the definition of a real angel investor should be
6. If you have a category specific to a medium such as Best Mobile Startup 2010 you should probably have categories such as ‘Best Internet-based startup’, ‘Best Web Application’ or ‘Best Technology Startup’. This is where it gets tricky and you could end up with a list as long as your arm. Hence why I picked out something specific.

This isn’t a rant, just a few observations and recommendations for anyone thinking of setting up their own tech awards. Let it be known that aside from my table tennis and break dancing trophies from the mid 80’s, my only other prize was a bicycle lock and two cinema tickets which I won when I was twelve from the local Wexford radio station

Applications for the UK Young Interactive Entrepreneur award 2009 (UKYXE 09) close on 7 September!

This is a good opportunity to take part in a tour of the interactive industry in India and to join the British Council’s growing network of creative entrepreneurs.

Their definition of ‘interactive’ includes digital and interactive multimedia, leisure software publishers, developers and marketing specialists; entertainment developers for the internet, digital television, radio and mobile phones, internet and web design and experimental media.

To be eligible you must be aged 25-35, resident in the UK and with at least three years professional experience. For further information please visit their Web site.

I’m not sure I agree with the IAB setting up an award for the mobile industry. It’s not as if it’s one of many online advertising categories - it’s aimed specifically at the mobile industry and from what I can see, will end up covering just about every type of mobile application.

This type of award in my opinion, is best left to the mobile related associations such as the MMA (who I don’t think do much, but hey…) or better still, Mobile Monday - who I respect and admire.

Am I a little harsh?

The award serves to celebrate the wealth of female speakers and practitioners of social media living in UK. In doing so its objective is to challenge the current under-representation of females on event panels by offering a high profile platform for women.

Victoria Chowney (AKA @VikkiChowney) get’s my vote without hesitation. I think she’s one of the very few people who can put all this social media-smedia into practice. She’s quietly confident but modest too. That’s why she won the BIMA PR pitch on behalf of Six Degrees and that’s why I recommended her to Quick.TV. What I love about Victoria most is that she loves to help others.

If you agree, then why not take 30 seconds out of your day to vote for her too. Cast your vote now.

If I could cast a second vote I’d go for Judith Clegg, Helen Keegan, Judith Lewis, Katie Lee, Amanda Rose and Katy Howell - in no particular order.

Cast your vote now.

We need more awards and competitions to help celebrate the great women in tech/media.

Leave a comment if you would like to acknowledge other women who don’t appear on the list but who deserve to be promoted for their contribution.

Last year, I was an Advisor to the British Council on its Young International Entrepreneur Award, which is probably why I received an email about the Young Music Entrepreneur Award 2009 - it’s not my bag but thought it was worth promoting on my blog all the same.

This award celebrates entrepreneurial young innovators and future leaders in the UK music industry, offering the opportunity to broaden their international experience through travel to an emerging music market – in this case Poland.  The British Council is seeking applicants aged between 25-35 who want to push the boundaries of the UK industry and have a vision for extending international business and cultural relations through music.

Applicants can be from all sectors of the music industry including agents, record companies, PR, production, recording or engineering etc. They needn’t run their own business as long as they can demonstrate their entrepreneurialism within another organisation and applications are welcome from those successful social or not‑for‑profit enterprises in this sector.

The six finalists will travel to Poland towards the end of March this year to take part in a tailored tour of their music industry. On their return they will compete for the award and a financial prize of £5,000 to be spent a joint project with the UK and Poland.

The deadline for applications is Tuesday 27th January 2009. For more information please visit http://creativeconomy.org.uk/ukyme09