Waterford Chamber picked up the award for Event of the Year at the Chambers Ireland Annual Chamber Awards yesterday this week for their Toys4Engineers Conference & Expo.
It's the first time the national awards have been held in a decade. The aim of the Chambers Ireland awards is to recognise best practice and to showcase the diverse activity taking place across the country led by Chambers.
Having topped the judging in the category with the most entries, Waterford Chamber President Kathryn Kiely said: “This award is testament to the hard work of the team who spend months planning Toys4Engineers and to be recognised by our peers in this regard is a tremendous achievement.
“Showcasing the strength of our engineering sector, across tech, pharma and life sciences, is hugely important for the region and plans are already afoot to build on the success of last year’s event, which saw over 80 exhibitors from across the country converge on WIT Arena.
According to Waterford Chamber CEO Gerald Hurley: “What began as a local event is now firmly established as a regional event and last October we were delighted to welcome a number of large companies from outside the region also, as far away as Sligo and Dundalk to Toys4Engineers. There is an appetite for businesses to showcase their technologies and innovations and we have been encouraged by the level of business that has been done in recent years. We intend on growing that B2B interaction this year by introducing a ‘Meet the Buyer’ section to the event, while also adding CPD certified Masterclasses with expert speakers.
“Toys4Engineers will also offer a platform for students considering a career in STEM to hear from the leaders in the field and also interact with the companies who are paving the way with graduate programmes.”
Waterford Chamber was also shortlisted for Most Innovative Project for the Regional Leaders Programme.
Caption: Celebrating at the Chambers Ireland Annual Awards were Kelly Cummins and Sara Mullally, Waterford Chamber Skillnet; Lynda Lawton, Kathryn Kiely, President and Gerald Hurley, CEO Waterford Chamber.
