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The pace of change
Exciting category: Cable and Wireless chief commercial officer Andy Bridson says we live in a technology isle
THE pace of change we are witnessing in this technological age is tremendous.
So the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence category for Excellence in the Use of Technology is bound to be a hard fought one.
Category sponsor Cable and Wireless is no stranger to innovation in this area and the company is proud to be associated with the award.
Andy Bridson, C&W’s chief commercial officer, said: ‘I think for the Isle of Man it is an important category. As the Isle of Man continues to diversify itself technology is going to play a very important and big part.
‘Technology connects our island to our neighbours and onward to the rest of the world. Undersea fibre and telecommunications allows us to be very successful in finance, space, aircraft, shipping and specialist manufacturing.
‘But, this award is not just about companies that derive their primary income from technology, it is also about those companies that use technology to enable their business.
‘Whether this is shaving brush manufacture that uses technology to widen its market to the USA and the Far East or a corporate service provider connecting to its offices in China. There is probably no single business on the Isle of Man that does not use technology in some way, shape or form.
‘Construction companies use satellite GPS for locating the starting point for a new building and our fishing industries use boats packed with computerisation to find fish and fishing grounds.’
He continued: ‘The pace of change in technology this decade has surpassed any other. It took the internet just 15 years to connect to 2.2bn people, it took television nearly 100 years to connect the same number of people. Facebook was not around six years ago, it now connects over 900m people.’
Andy refers to the Isle of Man as ‘a technology isle’. ‘The uptake of technology is higher in the Isle of Man than our near neighbours,’ he said. ‘Eighty per cent of C&W’s mobile sales this year have been smart phones comparing to a figure of about 55 per cent in the UK.’
The Awards are an important date on the calendar for C&W.
‘We have been a big supporter and sponsor of the Awards since their inception. It is great to showcase the Isle of Man and everything it can be,’ said Andy. ‘For companies taking part the production of the submission paper is hard work and the upside is massive internal pride and motivation and a collective realisation that as a company you are better than your competitors and ahead of your peers.’
This year’s Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence, in association with RBS International, will be held on November 15.
Application forms are available at www.iomtoday.co.im/afe.
If you would like to find out more about what entering can do for you, contact Trudi Williamson (tjw@newsiom.co.im) or Sarah Radcliffe (sarah.radcliffe@newsiom.co.im) or 695695 for more information.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Thursday 23 May 2013
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