The Glucksman Gallery at University College Cork hosted the IGNITE Awards & Showcase for Autumn 2021 on Weds 27 Oct with Jonathan Healy as MC.

In the one hour event, three finalists who are completing the programme pitched their businesses live and the start-up founders who are currently on the programme were presented video introductions.

The keynote speakers on the night were Prof John O’Halloran, President of University College Cork, and Prof John Cryan, Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC.

Brendan O’Sullivan of Bank of Ireland announced the Award winners:

• Bank of Ireland/IGNITE Best Business Award - Eoin Buckley and Daniel Keane-Kelly, co-founders of Refractd
• IGNITE Best Business Plan Award - Eoin Buckley and Daniel Keane-Kelly, co-founders of Refractd
• IGNITE Best Business Pitch Award - Clare Meskill, founder of Teleatherapy

And the event featured the inaugural showing of a short video IGNITE – 10 Years of Impact to mark 10 years of IGNITE.

The running order was:

• Addresses by Prof John O’Halloran, President of University College Cork and Prof John Cryan, Vice President for Research & Innovation at University College Cork (6:00)
• Video introductions to current IGNITE start-ups (22:00)
• Business Pitches by IGNITE Finalists (32:00)
• IGNITE – 10 Years of Impact video to celebrate 10 years of IGNITE (42:30)
• Announcement of IGNITE Award Winners (49:00)
• Closing remarks and thanks by Eamon Curtin, IGNITE Programme Director (52:45)

The IGNITE Graduate Business Innovation Programme is delivered by University College Cork in partnership with Bank of Ireland, the Local Enterprise Offices of Cork City, South Cork and North and West Cork, Cork City Council and Cork County Council.

If you are interested in finding out more about the IGNITE start-ups featured at the event, click here.

If you are interested in finding out how IGNITE can help you start your business, click here.

And you can watch the IGNITE Awards & Showcase Autumn 2021 back here: