Category: Commentary

Very different styles. Interesting to see how this plays out.

Special thanks to my nominators. Extra special thanks to the judges. And lastly, thanks to Lucas Love Recruitment. My Mum and Dad were thrilled 🙂

Lucas Love Recruitment today announced the winner of the inaugural ‘Lucas Love IT Award for outstanding contribution to the IT sector’.

Receiving multiple award entries from a number of business professionals, organisations, educational institutions and consensus across the judging panel, Matt Johnston from Digital Circle was presented with the prestigious accolade, at a special awards luncheon in the Europa Hotel.

A worthy winner, Matt has been the facilitator for the Digital Industry for the last four years. He has founded three IT companies including: Mac-Sys Ltd, the most successful and most reliable Apple Service Provider that the province has ever seen; the industry leading Infurious, which was the first company to produce comics for the iTunes App Store and Conquest Dynamics which Matt founded earlier this year.

Special recognition was also given to Dave Patterson, CEO, Sophia, who was acknowledged with the ‘IT Business Honour Award’. Dave founded Sophia in 2007 and matured the company from purely conceptual with regards to a customer base to a commercially viable, client-facing software supplier.

Lucas Love Recruitment is a market leader in providing top IT talent to Northern Ireland organisations. Speaking at the announcement Bronagh Donnelly, IT Specialist Recruiter said “With the increasing developments in the Northern Ireland IT sector, our team wanted to implement an initiative to reward IT professionals for their hard work and dedication. We were searching for an individual among the Northern Ireland IT community that has demonstrated excellence in the IT sector during the past 12 months. Our team was overwhelmed with the positive response and high calibre of entrants. We would like to congratulate Matt; he is a very worthy winner.”

“A special thanks has to go to our judges: Damien Dougan, Senior Director, NaviNet; Emma Leahy, Editor, Syncni and Kevin Johnston, Head of eBusiness Team, Invest NI. Without their time, expertise and contribution, this year’s award would not have been possible. We look forward to developing the initiative and making it bigger and better in 2013”.

Speaking at the award luncheon winner Matt Johnston said, “It is a great honour to win the Lucas Love IT award. I would like to thank all the individuals who entered me into the awards, the judges and Lucas Love Recruitment. I am very passionate about the Development of the IT industry in Northern Ireland and receiving this accolade cements my dedication to the sector”. Ends.

For further information please contact Ursula Murphy at Lucas Love Recruitment on 028 9002 0255 or email umurphy@lucaslove.com

Via John Popham: The Future is Mobile and that means Digital Inclusion Too

…we need to get away from the idea that using the internet is about sitting in front of a static computer.

And before you shout that many people cannot afford laptops, tablets and smartphones, I know. And that needs tackling too. That’s why I have advocated a national smartphone recycling scheme and I think we need more computer recycling schemes, with a greater focus on laptops, rather than desktop machines, than most existing schemes currently have.

The future is mobile, and, I think that is also the key to demonstrating the relevance of the internet to the lives of many people who have not yet considered it.