If the telecomms industry is a little subdued this morning, it’s probably due to the after-effects of the TUANZ Innovation Awards, held on Thursday night in the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau.
A good time was surely had by all, with more than a dozen awards handed out in both voted and judged categories.
Telecom’s departing chief technology officer, Murray Milner, received a standing ovation when he collected the chairman’s award.
Grant Straker, CTO of Straker Interactive, warned guests to be careful in their merriment – his partner should have been giving out an award but was home with their three-month old baby, born nine months to the day after the previous year’s Tuanz awards.
The Minister of IT and Communications, David Cunliffe, surprised many guests by delivering his own version of the nine o’clock news, including many pointed jabs at industry stalwarts, including Econet, Telecom, TelstraClear, former minister Maurice Williamson and even his own Telecommunications Commissioner, Douglas Webb.
Vodafone picked up two coveted awards: the Carrier of the Year voted award and the Mobile Service of the Year. Project Probe also took away two awards, including the overall Innovation Award.
Ihug won the ISP of the Year award while CallPlus took out the Broadband Innovation award for its iTalk service.
The Government Services Award, sponsored by Computerworld, was won by the Ministry of Education for its Early Notification System.
The Telecommunciations Review won the voted award for Technology Media while Dominion Post reporter Adrian Bathgate won Journalist of the Year.
(As an awards sponsor, Computerworld and Computerworld journalists did not enter the media categories. Our congratulations to all the winners –Ed.)