Member Article

Dynamite Awards set to celebrate explosion of North East tech talent

The brightest and the best of the region’s burgeoning IT and technology sector will be rewarded for their excellence at a new event celebrating great North East success stories.

Sponsored by BT, Dynamites 14 – the North East’s IT and Technology Awards – have launched with the intention of rewarding the very best from the wealth of tech talent based in the region.

Nominations are now open online for a host of awards turning the spotlight onto the businesses which are cementing the North East’s reputation as a place to create, nurture and grow IT excellence.

The awards night on October 15 in Newcastle Civic Centre’s banqueting hall will see more than 300 North East IT economy leaders celebrate the region as a hotbed of creative tech development.

Simon Roberson, BT’s regional partnership director for the North East, said: “These awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the success of the region’s IT sector and to encourage more IT successes in the future. Technology will have a huge role to play in the prosperity of the North East in the years ahead and nobody is doing more than BT to ensure that the region is able to take full advantage of the latest exciting developments.

“We are the largest employer in the North East ICT sector, employing more than 4000 people in a diverse range of jobs from IT to customer service to human resources to engineering.

“And we are making a multi-million investment in rolling out superfast fibre broadband. More than 720,000 North East homes and businesses already have access to fibre broadband and we are working with the public sector to make the technology even more widely available. This will provide a great base for the technology sector to exploit and build upon.”

Launched by Dynamo North East, the organisation which has brought together the combined might of the region’s enterprise tech sector under one banner, Dynamites 14, sponsored by BT, will showcase the cream of the sector’s skills.

The inaugural awards feature categories aimed at exciting start ups and established global companies, to innovators and skills leaders.

New jobs, rapid growth, innovation and sector confidence are the key themes running through the awards night.

Justin Souter, Dynamo’s Head of Engagement, said: “We are anticipating fierce competition across all categories at Dynamites 14, which we hope will stimulate yet more pride internally within our sector and our region, as well as generate even more interest nationally.

“Nomination forms are available now to download from our Dynamo website for companies to put themselves forward and have their achievements given the recognition they deserve.

“At Dynamo 14, our inaugural annual conference held in May, we highlighted the strength and breadth of our IT capabilities here in the North East of England.

“The incredible support and belief shown at this conference by local business, public sector and academia alike convinced us that we needed to formally recognise the vast array of talent we have in our sector with these new awards.

“Dynamites 14, sponsored by BT, will see more than 200 of the North East IT economy’s thought leaders coming together in celebration of the regional capacity and skills that we have here.”

Confirmed sponsors of the event so far include headline sponsor BT, along with Accenture, Sunderland University, Sage and Mi-Case.

Award categories include Dynamite Innovator of the Year, Dynamite Skills Leader, Dynamite Code Breaker, Dynamite Growth Explosion and the Dynamite Grand Prix Award. Decided by judges, the grand prix accolade will go to the company deemed to best embody all of Dynamo’s aims of delivering innovation, collaboration and growth with global impact. The deadline for nominations is Friday 12th September 2014.

Dynamo is the industry led initiative created to focus on the growth of the North East IT sector. It has four key aims – to be a focal point for regional IT growth, promoting the region, developing skills and education and supporting regional research and development.

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