BEST Award Winners 2016

The 2016 BEST (Ballinasloe Entrepreneurial Skills Tournament), where the town’s best and brightest young people saw in a marvellous display of entrepreneurial spirit, six winners, chosen out of 13 finalists, who had already beaten 121 entrants to this stage of the competition. The 13 projects were displayed on the Awards night in the Shearwater Hotel by the students and showed a remarkably high level of creativity and ingenuity from Ballinasloe’s young people. This year’s BEST Competition was boosted by the inclusion of an additional school, Presentation College Headford which competed along with the 3 schools from previous years :– Scoil Mhuire and Garbally College, Ballinasloe and Holy Rosary Mountbellew. Sponsored by the Ballinasloe Credit Union and organised by the B.A.C.D. Ltd. the competition again this year was deemed a huge success. The event was also supported by Bank of Ireland, Headford and Rothwell Staunton Auctioneers. The prizes awarded as follows : Prize Winner(s): Orla Madden, Abbie Cunningham, Clodagh Powell - Ard Schoil Mhuire Hydea Cycle - This is a simple idea, a straw for cyclists which means they can hydrate without having to take bottles from the holder while cycling. Definite safety benefits with this product and could be developed for both casual and professional cyclists. Prize Winner(s): Gerard Colleran - Garbally College My Notes App - A clever improvement on stuff already being used. The App allows Video, rough notes, doodling, mind maps, pictures to be stored in the one app on a tablet or phone. Gerard presentation impressed the judges particularly the beta version which he has developed. Prize Winner(S): Rachel Whyte & Ailbhe Hanlon - Ard Schoil Mhuire Waste Watches - A Food Waste App which monitors the best by dates on food in the fridge. Using a system of colours the app alert people when food dates are about to expire. This project has considerable market potential as waste food and food safety are major areas for cost savings and conservation. Prize Winner -Joint Runner Up: Dean Connell - Holy Rosary College Mountbellew Cyberflash - This is a good idea with considerable potential. It is a simple study tool with an intuitive interface. Dean’s presentation was excellent and included a prototype which was impressive. Prize Winner -Joint Runner Up: Mark Fitzpatrick - Holy Rosary College Mountbellew White Board Marker & Eraser Combo - Anyone who uses white boards knows that it is a pain trying to wipe stuff off the board or make simple corrections. We use our fingers, sleeves or anything else we can find. Based on the model of a pencil, this marker has an eraser attached to its back for ease of use. Very clever. Overall Winners 2016: Jared Mullin, Cathal Roddy, Nessan Leahy - Presentation College Headford School App - This App. is based on a lot of research by the three students on what will work for schools. The App includes a site plan of the school, time table, calendar, canteen menu, news stream, sms texting. The protype is excellent and the App is scheduled to go live later in the year. The judges see excellent potential in selling the system to other schools. Chairman of BACD Seamus Duffy thanked the Schools, the students and the sponsors for their contribution and efforts in keeping the tournament alive and keeping the idea of entrepreneurship and business making to the front in our second level schooling. “ I want to especially commend the winners and the runners up for their energy and creativity and hope that some years down the road when they are setting up a new business they will consider some of the attractive options supports and space that the BACD and our Enterprise Centre has to offer”. He also thanked Tournament Co - ordinator John Power and the judges Gerry Kelly, Pat Ward and Carmel Dooley for their time and efforts.

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