InTime Media, a start-up company based in the Innovation in Business Centre (IiBC ), GMIT, Castlebar recently qualified for the finals of the Irish Times Innovation Awards 2010.
InTime Media offers television and radio broadcasters downloadable applications for mobile phones that enable the audience interact via their mobile phones with TV programmes. InTime Media was one of three companies which were shortlisted in the product and/or service innovation category for The Irish Times Innovation Awards 2010.
The award was established in association with InterTradeIreland to recognise the best innovators in Ireland. Companies and organisations, small, medium, or large, based on the island of Ireland, were invited to promote their innovations by entering this the first all-island innovation in business awards.
More than 120 companies entered the six categories of the competition. Seventeen of these were then shortlisted for the awards by a judging panel, before the final winners were selected. The panel included some of the country’s senior business leaders, including Liam Nellis, chief executive, InterTradeIreland; Liam Kavanagh, managing director, The Irish Times; Paul Rellis, managing director, Microsoft Ireland; Barry Maloney, founding partner, Balderton Capital; and Karlin Lillington, technology correspondent, The Irish Times.
“I read about The Irish Times Innovation Awards in the paper, and thought I might as well put in an application because the people and organisations involved were interesting and this was a way of bringing InTime Media to their attention,” Julian Ellison, managing director of InTime Media, said after the presentation of the awards. “I was amazed when I got the call in February that we were on the shortlist. There followed a Dragon’s Den style pitch a few weeks later, which was pretty scary, but overall the experience has been fantastic. It's raised our profile considerably and we are working on three proposals now which directly stem from the credibility this awards project has given us. The evening itself was brilliantly organised and I was really delighted for InTime to be up there with an amazing array of truly innovative Irish businesses.”
InTime Media was recently classified as a high potential start up (HPSU ) company by Enterprise Ireland.
“We are delighted with InTime Media’s achievement,” said Maria Staunton, manager of the IiBC at GMIT Castlebar. “They have gone from strength to strength since they first came into the IiBC back in 2006. It is great to see Mayo start-up companies competing at the highest level for innovation.”
