4 June 2015
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Trend Micro, which has its EMEA headquarters in Cork, has announced its 2015 “What’s Your Story?” video and poster competition winners. It was a hat-trick for Loreto College Cavan as they were, once again, crowned Overall School Winner and awarded €3,000 for the “How to be safe on the internet” video created by Leah Smith. Mother and son duo, Eimear and Cormac from Wexford took home the €1,500 prize for Overall Individual Winner for their video “My silly Mum”.
A new category, Overall Community Winner, was introduced this year in recognition of the phenomenal standard of entries from youth & community groups. The award went to Galway City Youth Café (Foroige) for their collaborative video, “Staying Social”. The group were awarded €1,500 for their entry bringing the total prize fund awarded to winners across all categories of the 2015 competition to €8,500.
The competition encouraged individual entrants and students from primary, and secondary schools to share their personal experiences online addressing the theme: “Share something that could help someone going online for the first time?”
Avril Ronan, Global Program Manager for Internet Safety at Trend Micro EMEA, Cork said: “Trend Micro would like to recognise the passionate teachers all around the country that engaged and encouraged their classes to get involved in the 2015 competition. The most popular messages conveyed in the entries this year were: personal privacy online, young people teaching grown-ups about the online world, thinking twice before you post online and general internet safety tips for everyone. We had a record number of entries and it was great to see the enthusiasm and creativity that went into each one. Every entrant should be very proud of their contribution to the overall “What’s Your Story?” campaign,”
Other category winners of the 2015 Trend Micro “What’s Your Story” Competition included Carrigaline Educate Together, Cork and Evie and Emily from Limerick for their video entries, “Interweb Countdown” and “Nothing is Private”. Each winner received €750. Colaiste Chu Chulainn in Louth and Isa Lodi from Kilkenny were awarded €500 each for their winning poster entries, “Join the Internet, it keeps us connected!” and “Action and Consequence”. A further three entries received honourable mentions for their contribution.
All video and poster submissions were judged on their ability to inspire, as well as how effectively entrants have promoted their entries via social media/word of mouth. Judges included representatives from Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, Webwise.ie and Smartfutures.ie.
“‘What’s Your Story?’ celebrates the savviness and creativity of the digital generation and encourages them to start and sustain a positive, online dialogue with their peers and with the world. And this year’s entries are testament to that,” she added.
In the last four years Trend Micro has reached over 65,000 parents, teachers and students in Ireland through their Internet Safety Workshops and programmes, and through the ‘What’s Your Story?’ competition.
To learn more about the competition and to check out the winning entries visit http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.ie . You can also stay in touch by signing up on the website, follow on twitter @TrendISKF_IE, #WhatsYourStory2015 and Facebook: TrendMicroISKF_IE
