By Business & Finance 
Outstanding Contribution to Technological Empowerment award – Gary Disley, (eir Business), Joanne O’Riordan (Outstanding Contribution to Technological Empowerment award) and Ian Hyland (Business & Finance)
Featuring plenty of fanfare and style, the 2015 eir Spider celebrated their 20th anniversary at Dublin’s DoubleTree Hotel last night, hosted by Jennifer Maguire and Bernard O’Shea.
The eir Spiders is one of the most highly anticipated nights in the Irish digital industry, rewarding Irish businesses and community organisations for their creativity and innovation and provide an important opportunity to recognise and showcase online excellence.
The Awards are considered an important benchmark for distinction and excellence in web-based business strategies. Previous winners have been on the cutting edge of their chosen fields and have since gone onto great success in their respective industries.
The coveted eir Spider Grand Prix was awarded to NewsWhip, the global social media monitoring company that created a technology platform called Spike to track activity across a range of channels, in an effort to determine what stories are generating the most online discussion.
Joanne O’Riordan was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Technological Empowerment Award. Joanne, one of Ireland’s leading digital rights activists, is one of only seven people worldwide living with tetra-amelia syndrome.
Joanne was at the event to talk about the ongoing importance of technology in her life and the progress that is being made by Trinity College in creating a robot to help her with everyday tasks.
Other notable winners on the night included The Wild Atlantic Way, which won two awards; Best Travel, Sport, Leisure and Tourism Website and Best in Digital Geography and Location Based Service.
The medical sector also performed particularly well with Medical Exam Tutor being awarded the Best in E-Learning & Education Award and Webdoctor.ie being named Best Digital Start-Up.
Chairman of the judging panel and director of Small Business at eir, Gary Disley, commented: “eir has been supporting the Spider Awards for 15 years now and each year we’re genuinely impressed with the quality of entrants. This year is no exception and it is exciting to get the chance to judge such a range of innovate and interesting businesses – from the start ups through to established companies. We’re seeing many Irish digital businesses not only embrace change but are position themselves as global leaders in their field and the winners tonight are truly deserving of their awards.”
In total, 20 awards were presented on the night honouring online and digital achievement in categories such as e-retail, business-to-business, creative technology, financial services and education.
There were four new categories which include Best Acquisition Campaign (Swiping Out Sex Trafficking), Best Online Customer Service or Best Online Retention Campaign (CurrencyFair), Best Use of Mobile Technology (Dublin and Cork Airport Apps) and Best Digital Start up (Webdoctor.ie). The new categories are reflective of the constantly changing and increasingly competitive environments that Irish businesses operate in.
Full list of winners:
- Swrve – Best in Business 2 Business
- iD Mobile – best in e-Retail
- Medical Exam Tutor – Best in E-Learning & Education
- NÓS – Best in Irish Language
- Century Ireland Gallipoli – Best in News, Publishing and Entertainment
- Transfermate Global Payments – Best in Financial Services
- ie iOS App – Best in Listings and Classifieds
- Swiping Out Sex Trafficking – Best in Charity & Not-For-Profit
- Swiping Out Sex Trafficking – Best Acquisition Campaign
- CurrencyFair – Best Online Customer Service or Online Retention Campaign
- Dublin and Cork Airport Apps: Red Hat Mobile App – Best Use of Mobile Technology
- Spike from NewsWhip – Best Use of Data and Web Analytics
- The Wild Atlantic Way website – Best in Digital Geography and Location based Services
- ie – Best Digital Start-Up
- Neil Back – Run With It – Best use of Creative Technology in Digital Marketing
- The Wild Atlantic Way website – Best in Travel, Sport, Leisure and Tourism
- Artizan – Small Agency of the Year
- Arekibo– Large Agency of the Year
- Joanne O’Riordan – Outstanding Contribution to Technical Empowerment
- Spike from NewsWhip – Grand Prix
