By Business & Finance 
Trevor White and Simon O’Connor of The Little Museum of Dublin walked away with the 2014 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award at a ceremony in Mason Hayes & Curran, Barrow Street today.
The duo – who were presented with their award by chair of the judging panel Dr Chris Horn and 14-year-old entrepreneur Jordan Casey – won €10,000 in cash and over €100,000 worth of mentoring and consultancy service.
The mentoring and consultancy is supplied by leading experts in finance, law, accountancy, management consultancy, social media, marketing, payroll and accounts software, corporate and brand identity and public relations. Membership of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce is also included.
The Little Museum of Dublin was founded in 2011 by writer, Trevor White and composer, Simon O’Connor. Its philosophy is to feature life in Dublin as most people experienced it – and not from the perspective of the elite or famous. The people of Dublin have donated every one of the 5,000 pieces on display in the museum which opened as two rooms in No. 15, St Stephen’s Green and now occupies the whole of the building with five independent exhibition spaces across three levels.
The Museum, which welcomed 26,000 visitors in 2012 and over 45,000 in 2013, had its ‘City of a Thousand Welcomes’ service described as ‘the best free thing to do in Europe’ by the Sydney Morning Herald.
To date, each year, over 1,500 first-time visitors to Ireland have availed of this service which is a free volunteer-run tourist greeter programme.
Core activities at the museum include their famous guided tours that take place on the hour every hour, ‘I Love Dublin’ civic education classes for primary and post primary children, and a monthly historical lecture series that features speakers like Diarmaid Ferriter, Kevin Myers and Roy Foster. The museum places an emphasis on story-telling and actively encourages visitors to tell their stories. Free entry to the museum is offered on certain days and at certain times during the week – but school-children go free every morning.
The Little Museum of Dublin also won the Emerging Arts Entrepreneur category and was nominated by Business to Arts at this year’s David Manley Awards. 2014 marks the 11th year of the awards, which are sponsored by Ulster Bank and Dublin Chamber of Commerce and are run with the support of Business to Arts, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, Business Innovation Centres, Incubation Centres and Enterprise Support Agencies.
Dr Chris Horn said: “All nine finalists were very impressive but the judging panel felt that Trevor and Simon resonated the most with the late David Manley – the man whom these Awards honour. Like him, they are passionate, full of energy and positivity, are great lateral thinkers and highly engaging. They have a very clear vision and roadmap of how they intend to fulfil it.”
The other category winners this year were Anthony Glynn and James Sherlock, Ar-Nua Tec, (Emerging Business Entrepreneur winners) and Fiona McKeon, Bizworld Ireland (Emerging Social Entrepreneur winner.) They each receive €1,000 in cash and mentoring.
The fifth David Manley Media Award was also presented today and, this year, was awarded to Tom Lyons, senior business correspondent at The Irish Times. The David Manley Media Award is awarded to the journalist who the judging panel believe has best and most regularly covered entrepreneurial issues. The panel comprises Dr Chris Horn, Professor Thomas Cooney, Professor in Entrepreneurship at DIT and Nicola Byrne, founder and CEO, 11890.
Dr Horn comments: “Tom’s articles constantly offer examples of successful Irish entrepreneurs and highlight areas where the entrepreneurship ecosystem needs change. He has never been afraid to spotlight wrong-doing where it adversely affects business activity in this country – through his books, for example. The David Manley Media Award is given to journalists who promote or champion the cause of entrepreneurship and Tom is therefore a very worthy recipient.”
