‘Future8’ awards to highlight young tech talent

A new initiative aimed at finding the brightest talent and young digital creators across Ireland and the UK has been unveiled by marketing platform SuperAwesome.

The Future8 Awards, which are being held in association with the Guardian and with the support of Enterprise Ireland, will be open to children between the ages of seven and 17, with categories covering games, hardware and software creation, mobile development, music, online video, web development, animation and writing and blogging.

"There have never been more kids engaged with technology in a meaningful way. I'm not talking about simply playing games or watching videos but actually developing their own games and apps and creating their own online videos," said SuperAwesome chief executive Dylan Collins. "We're looking at a generation who are vastly more technically literate and creative than any before them."

According to research carried out by SuperAwesome, just over a quarter of children aged between eight and 14 years of age have written code, with a third of that group working with Photoshop or InDesign.

“We’ve created the Future 8 Awards to highlight just how much talent is there and where possible to match up the best with opportunities that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. These are the future Mark Zuckerbergs (Facebook), Patrick Collisons (Stripe) and Aaron Levies (Box) and we want to do everything possible to open up doors for their development,” Mr Collins said.

CoderDojo founder James Whelton, Brown Bag Films chief executive Cathal Gaffney and PR Slides' Niall Harbison will be part of the judging panel, along with the Guardian's head of technology Jemima Kiss, Emerge Ventures and Triperna founder Paul Kenny and chief executive of Makie Lab Alice Taylor.

Nominations will open later this month, with the final awards being presented in October.

Prizes have yet to be announced, but the award’s organisers said category winners would benefit from internships, product development experience and would be offered the opportunity to work with leading names in the respective industries.