146 registrations from 108 individuals, institutions and companies were submitted to the registration deadline – midnight of January 12th. In comparison with last year, when 130 applications from 92 individuals, institutions and companies were registered.
This 5th edition of the contest has a record number of registrations, which is indisputable proof of the growing interest in the BAIT Awards contest and the continuing upward development of the ICT sector in Bulgaria.
Among the most comptetitive categories this year are:
The Education Award with the registrations of 22 educational projects and initiatives developed by both educational institutions and private companies that need qualified personnel and conduct their own trainings.
The second largest number of applications – 18 is in the category State Administration Award, where various electronic services for citizens, integrated information systems and software products to improve the performance of administrations compete with one another.
Third in number of the submitted registrations – 15, ranks the Special Award for significant contributions, in which compete successful business solutions implemented in practice, and initiatives that have contributed to the development of ICT in the country.
15 are also the registrations in the Business Innovation Award, where the rivalry is among extremely diverse projects that implement the application of ICT in different areas – from medical diagnostics to greeting cards and tickets for public transport.
Extremely strong this year is also the Journalist Award category, where 13 representatives of print media, radio, television, and Internet media were involved with their materials on current ICT issues.
The jury will evaluate the registered projects and will announce the nominees for each category.
Winners in all 12 categories will be announced at a ceremony that will be held on Febr. 23rd, 2016 in Sofia Tech Park.
This year Eva Paunova, MEP and eSkills Ambassador will award one representative of the winners in the 12 categories of the BAIT Awards 2015 a working visit to Brussels. At the invitation of Paunova the awarded winners of all 12 categories will visit the European institutions in Brussels. During their visit they will be able to hold meetings with high-level representatives of the European Commission, MEPs and NGOs active in shaping the regulatory framework for Digital Europe.
There will be cash prizes together with the statuettes and diplomas for all categories. They are in the form of vouchers with which the winners will have the opportunity to purchase goods or services from BAIT member-companies.
The 5th edition of the BAIT Awards is held within the campaign eSkills for Jobs 2015-2016, which aims to raise citizens’ awareness of the need to improve their digital skills. The initiative is implemented simultaneously in 21 EU countries, as BAIT is the contractor for Bulgaria. At the national level, the initiative brings together nine eSkills ambassadors, including Eva Paunova, Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin, Anna-Marie Vilamovska, counselor in the presidency, as well as business representatives.
Full information about the previous four editions of the competition and the winners in the individual categories by year can be seen at http://bait-awards.bg/Archive/
The competition and the ceremony of “BAIT Awards” for 2015 are held with the support of
Silver sponsors: Microsoft Bulgaria and VMWare
Bronze sponsor: Solytron Bulgaria, Kontrax and Lenovo Bulgaria
In partnership with: BNT, BTA, BNR, IDG.bg, Computerworld, Computer, Teacher.bg, TechNews, Digital Europe, National Centre for Safer Internet, Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency, National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, Sofia Tech Park, IT JOBS, Junior Achievement, b2b Media, Student Organization BEST Sofia, bgpredpriemach.com, LauncHub, Eleven, StartUP, Start it Smart, The Founder Institute, Innovation Starter and SocialEvo.
