Winners celebrate success at The Véyaon Awards 2022
Celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship in Guernsey!
The Véyaon Awards 2022 evening brought together the business community from all sectors to celebrate the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit in Guernsey.
On Thursday 17th November, over 180 people gathered at the inaugural Digital Greenhouse’s Véyaon Awards at St Pierre Park to highlight those individuals and businesses who have strived to take risks to grow and succeed in 2022.
At the head of the evening our compere, John Fernandez introduced the Digital Greenhouse and headline sponsor Blenheim Chalcot, followed by Lucy Kirby, Director of the Digital Greenhouse and organisers of the awards. Charles Mindenhall, Co-Founder of Blenheim Chalcot, took attendees through a history of innovation through a Guernsey lens. Followed by a fantastic line-up of awards to present including seven Véyaon awards, the YBG Bill Green Award and the three winning businesses of the Guernsey Venture Challenge 2022.
In the last few months, the Guernsey Venture Challenge and the Véyaon Awards saw over 100 entries across all categories. It has been impressive to see the calibre and variety of entries for the seven Véyaon award categories, covering topics of entrepreneurialism, upskilling, leadership, technology and innovation.
Keep scrolling to find out the winners on the night!
“It is a pleasure to have launched the first Véyaon Awards, celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship in Guernsey. Véyaon meaning ‘go for it’ in Guernésiais highlights where individuals and businesses have strived to take risks to grow and succeed. We hope that this home-grown showcase inspires others to follow in their footsteps.”
Lucy Kirby, Director of the Digital Greenhouse
The Véyaon Awards 2022 Winners:
Creative Entrepreneur - Sponsored by TPA
For entrepreneurs in the creative sector who are making waves in their industry.
Celebrating entrepreneurs in the creative sector whose business demonstrates economic and/or social impact through creative output. Including an innovative new product, service or way of working in the industry.
This category saw the most entries of all of the awards, and they were whittled down to a shortlist of 5, but the winning entrepreneur was someone who demonstrated creativity and innovation in their work and a clear mission to take it further.
The judges said: “We were very impressed by the innovative product offering, build and development; a terrific way to draw attention to Guernsey's natural sites and create new experiences for locals and visitors that are truly looking to the future.”
The winner is: Aaron Smillie, Founder of Digital Motion Workshop
Digital Leader - Sponsored by Sure Business
An award to recognise exemplary leadership within an organisation where evolving technology is embraced.
Celebrating individuals who can demonstrate driving positive digital transformation through exceptional leadership. For example, successful intrapreneurial activity, digital transformation and/or culture change.
As the owner of a small business, the winner of this award wears a number of hats, but as a passionate developer by trade, he makes a point of leading with and driving change through the use of technology to collaborate with his staff and clients.
The judges said that they were impressed with this individual’s ability to overcome adversity and how it has enabled the company to exploit knockbacks and pivot into new areas.
The winner is: Patrick Cunningham, Director of Indulge
Disrupter of the Year - Sponsored by C5 Alliance
An award that advocates those willing to take on risks in order to bring about radical change.
Entrants can be either entrepreneurs, or an individual or a team within an organisation. They should be pioneers for change, demonstrating innovation in their business or industry sector, having a measurable impact and positively disrupting the status quo.
The winner of Disrupter of the Year is a software platform radically disrupting crew management in their sector. They are building the tools to enable the maritime sector to digitalise crew data processes. Their platform is made up of innovative products, the vital one being a digital wallet acting as a single source of truth for crew data, pulling together data stored in disparate and siloed systems.
The judge's comments included: “Truly disrupting an industry by designing and implementing a technology solution that solves the challenges (and associated risks) of onboarding and recruiting boat crew.”
The winner is: Crewdentials
Entrepreneur for Good - Sponsored by Islands Trust & Corporate
An award to celebrate social entrepreneurship and positive action in mission-based businesses.
Entrants should be entrepreneurs whose business contributes to public good or someone who runs a nonprofit that can demonstrate a sustainable business model. Including founders of organisations with a mission to create and sustain social value, with a measurable impact for good.
The winners of Entrepreneur for Good demonstrated a clear mission: to provide a reliable, affordable tool to support executive function skills, which helps individuals and their support network. The winning business has implemented research-proven methods, through a feature-rich software platform to help with routine, managing change, and tracking and understanding emotions.
The judges were impressed by their clear vision and sustainable growth business model, enabling exponential impact for people on a global scale.
The winners are: Trevor & Catherine Nicholls, Founders of EaseeDo
Innovation in Technology - Sponsored by PwC
An award to promote organisations that are leading by example in technology-driven innovation projects.
An award to promote organisations that are leading by example in technology-driven innovation projects.
Recognising a product or service that demonstrates the use of technology to deliver a creative business solution. Including innovative business launches, improvements to existing business infrastructure, increased organisational productivity and opening up a new market.
The winner of this award has already been on stage tonight, but the judges of this category were really impressed by the level of innovation being demonstrated by this company. Not only in the current application of the software but also it's potential to pivot into other high-value industries.
The judge's comments included: “This company has identified an existing way of working that's in need of transformation. They've grasped the need for people to be in control of their own data, and built tech around that to capture and verify certificates that are necessary for safe crewing. Plus they've done this using a progressive web app, and recognised the value of early release of an API.”
The winner is: Crewdentials
Learner of the Year - Sponsored by JT
An award to champion learning, underpinned by the importance of upskilling for the future of work.
Entrants can be individuals of any age (14+) who are extending their knowledge for the future of work, including those studying STEM subjects.
The winner of Learner of the Year goes to a chartered management accountant working in the Civil Service, not where you would expect to necessarily see upskilling to drive change! This individual recognised the need for digital and innovative skills training to enable them to take their team forward in a changing environment, completing the High Potentials Programme through the Digital Greenhouse.
The judges were particularly impressed with the winner’s application of learning in their own context and knowledge sharing with his wider team, taking on responsibility for running internal sessions. Showing leadership and a team-focused approach to driving change in their organisation.
The winner is: Michael Creber
Scale Up Business of the Year - Sponsored by Resolution IT
An award to recognise growing business success.
Entrants should be entrepreneurs with established businesses that have demonstrated success through strong and sustainable growth. For example, job creation, increased revenue and extended market reach.
The winning Scale Up Business helps brands to tell their story, share their message and build their reputation. They connect companies to consumers and change-makers to the community using a tailor-made mix of social media, PR, events and creative content. This business demonstrated growth through an impressive staffing and scaling plan which has proven successful.
The judges thought that the winning business demonstrated a real sense of drive and ambition with well attuned to revenue models and product development, but also attention to staff's development and well-being.
The winner is: Black Vanilla
Other awards also presented on the night included:
Guernsey Venture Challenge 2022
For entrepreneurs in the creative sector who are making waves in their industry.
NionNet Origin was announced as the winners of the Guernsey Venture Challenge 2022. NionNet Origin, a code generation engine liberating developers from the repetitive work required in the application development process. In second place was EaseeDo who were awarded £20,000 for their venture an assistive software designed to support executive function, the mental skill-set key to planning and completing tasks, maintaining attention, regulating emotions and self-monitoring. And the Youngpreneur prize was awarded to ISO-PASS along with £5,000 prize money for their fitness on demand app using day-passes to maximise the spare capacity in gyms.
The judges said: “We were delighted to see the high quality of all the GVC finalist pitches, which is a testament to the huge efforts they have put in over the past few months with Digital Greenhouse and their mentors. It was a very difficult decision for us as judges and we are excited to see how both the prize winners and all entrants progress in the coming months. We hope the GVC will help inspire a new wave of entrepreneurs on the island.”
First Prize winner is: Dave Zak, Founder of NionNet Origins
Second Prize winners are: Trevor & Catherine Nicholls, Founders of EaseeDo
Youngpreneur Prize winner is: Louis Pike, Founder of ISO-Pass
YBG Bill Green Award
Presented annually by the YBG, the Bill Green Award aims to elevate local businesses into the spotlight and this year was awarded as part of The Véyaon Awards in November, during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
In 2022, the Bill Green Award is seeking out the best of Guernsey’s ‘Thriving Innovators’.
The YBG encourages applications from businesses of any age, delivered by an individual or team that can demonstrate how their product, service, initiative or sense of entrepreneurial spirit is thriving amidst ongoing global uncertainty.
The winner is: Rachel Le Mesurier, internationally-published author
The Digital Greenhouse would like to thank the headline sponsors Blenheim Chalcot and all of our award sponsors for their support.
