Blacknight Sponsors Dot IE Net Visionary Awards, Celebrating Irish Inventiveness
'Ireland's size and openness forces us to be resourceful and inventive - the Internet rewards those kinds of qualities'
Blacknight, Ireland’s leading web hosting and domains company, has announced that it is to sponsor the Best Web Development Agency Award at the 19th Annual Dot IE Net Visionary Awards, on Friday 15th September 2017.
The Dot IE Net Visionary Awards is the showcase for the Irish Internet industry, run each year by the Irish Internet Association. This will be the first Awards since the IIA was re-launched earlier this year, following a debate on the future of the non-profit trade association.
The new board is chaired by Cathy McGovern of Inspiration Marketing, with a mission “to advocate on behalf of businesses in relation to internet services and to help members to compete more effectively through education, networking and innovation”.
The Dot IE Net Visionary Awards has traditionally been the highlight of IIA’s activities in support of industry advocacy and networking, with tickets sold out well in advance of the event.
Blacknight has been a sponsor of the event for over 10 years. Its CEO Michele Neylon won the overall Dot IE Net Visionary Award in 2013.
“The Irish Internet industry has a global outlook, and rightly so”, he says. “But it’s also very important that we celebrate what’s Irish. Our country’s relative size and openness to international markets forces us to be resourceful and inventive, and the Internet rewards those kinds of qualities.
Irish businesses are second to none, says Neylon, and the Awards are about celebrating that.
“The Internet is a great leveller – offering huge opportunities of scale – but the key point is that those opportunities are there to be grasped by anyone. Over the years we’ve seen Irish entrepreneurs blaze a trail internationally, while at home the indigenous market has been transformed by technology. The Dot IE Net Visionary Awards is where the Irish and international come together – where success is celebrated and minds meet.”
That diversity and range is reflected in the choice of award categories for this year’s competition: 20 in total, grouped under the headings Technical, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Media and Innovation. The growth of mobile and cloud services is acknowledged with specific categories, and there are separate awards for Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer ecommerce.
The positive power of technology is encouraged with an award for the Best Use of Technology for Social Good. That’s also one of four categories for which the winner will be decided by public votes, in combination with a panel of expert judges.
As with previous years, nomination for the Dot IE Net Visionary Awards is free of charge, and open to any business entity or professional based in Ireland. IIA chairperson Cathy McGovern says it’s a core principle of the event.
“The Dot IE Net Visionary Awards affirms the power of the internet to reward ingenuity and hard work, no matter who you are. The Internet removes barriers to participation, and our awards reflect the fact that you never know where the next breakthrough will come from”.
Further details on the 2017 Dot IE Net Visionary Awards, including rules, sponsorship and online entry forms, are available at www.netvisionary.ie. The closing date for fully completed entries is 10 July.
About Blacknight
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting services and domain name registration services to business globally. IP transit services and other solutions for more demanding business and academic customers are offered a la carte. Fibre broadband services for both business and domestic users are also available throughout most of Ireland.