Fionnuala Comer & Anthony Voisine – Two Final Year Business Students at GMIT Castlebar won the overall prize last year at the GMIT Student Innovation Awards for their start-up business concept ''Lollicakes'' – an innovative healthy confectionary for all types of occasions.

Fionnuala & Anthony were one of six finalists to compete in the ‘Dragon Den’ style finals in GMIT Castlebar Innovation in Business Centre. 















The GMIT Innovation Awards competition gives students at the Castlebar campus a unique opportunity to test their creative business ideas and win prize money worth €1,000 (first prize) sponsored by Shell and business mentoring support worth €500 from IiBC Castlebar.  

The second prize was awarded to Tojo Lazzari - a fourth year Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Outdoor Education for his business start-up concept, a sports rehabilitation and performance coaching for people with physical disabilities. He won €300 and business mentoring support.  

Third prize was awarded to Ronan Kenny, Seamus Higgins, Daniel Burke & Kevin Burke – a fourth year team from Bachelor of Business from GMIT Castlebar with their idea of an app that provides up to date local GAA Scores. They won €200 and business mentoring support.

The remaining finalists were Leona Heneghan, Teresa Gilroy, Martina Ruane, Marion Staunton, Maureen Hopkins & Vaida Jukneviciute.  

Maria Staunton, Manager of the Innovation in Business Centre (IiBC) at GMIT Castlebar, is delighted with the interest in this year’s awards. “Over fifty students entered the awards in December (2011) with thirteen getting picked and eight going on to compete in this final.”

“The awards give students the chance to explore ideas they have and see if they are commercially viable. We have a panel of external judges who decide which idea and presentation has the greatest potential.

This year, over 60 submissions were received  with ideas ranging from the simple to the complicated. The next stage of the process was sifting through all the submissions and assigning them to their relevant regions (Galway entrants, Castlebar entrants etc.)

The next part of the competition is the most time consuming: Deciding who to put through to the final. This involves a group of select people (usually mentors) sitting round a table scoring each idea on its uniqueness, market potential, and how much competition it has etc. But even ideas with lower scores are still in for a shout if a mentor can argue its case well enough. But getting a mentor to argue your case all depends on how well you put your ideas across on paper in the first place. 

This year 13 finalists were chosen.

Here are some pictures of those finalists:

2014 Competition
(L-R) David Brannigan (BBS Year 3), John Gannon (BSc. in Agriculture & Environmental Science Year 4) and Barry Doyle (BSc. in Agriculture & Environmental Science Year 4)
(L-R) Paula Kelly (BBS Honours), Aisling Kenny (BBS Honours), Alan O'Connor (BSc. in Software Year 4) and Gerard Nee (BSc. in Software Year 4)
(L-R) Kevin McDonagh (Lecturer in School of Business), Francis Ryan (BSc. in Agriculture & Environmental Science Year 4), and Mark Dunphy (BSc. in Agriculture & Environmental Science Year 4)
Jason Walmsley and Mark Ruane are looking to take the prize with their idea, a wristwatch that the elderly can use to alert thier carers in emergencies.
Bambi Fasanya and Pawel Wisniewski are hoping their idea, a price scanning device that can be attached to shopping carts, will wow the judges.
Helen Carey, Martin Murphy, Lisa O'Gorman and Thomas Connor are hoping their 'one shop stop' activity bookings website will be a hit with judges.
Daniel Collins is looking to impress judges with his innovative bluetooth swimming hat that can be used by swimmers for communication in the pool.