Buoyed by the recent Spider Award success for “Digital Transformation in Industry & Infrastructure”, the Sugar Rush team headed to the Digital DNA awards 2022 at the IIC Belfast, fuelled with a mixture of nerves and excitement. Now in its 7th year, the Digital DNA awards are an annual recognition and celebration, promoting the best tech talent from across Northern Ireland. The Digital DNA awards are the No.1 Awards for companies and individuals success, a highlight of the tech calendar featuring 14 categories all within three key areas; Project, Individual and Company.
 

The last in-person awards was back in 2019 and since then much has changed in the world, yet there was a clear buzz in the air and once in the main entrance, I quickly joined in the hysteria and hullabaloo of the event. The next few hours were spent greeting friends both old and new, catching up on some stories and trading tales of lockdown life. Like myself, other people had become parents during lockdown, so there was plenty of new parent chat and picture showing.

One welcomed common topic of conversation was the recent “Sugar Rush” rebranding. This recent change in branding reflects the ambition to not be limited and work in wider sectors, all while embracing new technologies. Much praise was passed onto the team for the new direction and this continued as they took their seats and settled into evening cuisine. It goes without saying that the designers, developers, PMs and UX team were proud of their work but hearing it from outside the company always feels extra special.

Sugar Rush had been shortlisted for three awards categories in total:

• Mobile App of the year
• Tech for Good Project of the year
• Digital Innovation of the year
   

All of the Digital DNA categories contain an array of companies, from startups to multinational business and global conglomerates, the competition is fierce. The nerves once again started to creep in.

We missed out on the “Digital Innovation Project of the year” award, so big congrats to the winners Whitespace. We did however come out on top of the “Mobile App of the year” Digital DNA award for 2022, for our App with Stryker Medical, SAM Trainer App. We all made our way to the stage, big smiles, lots of high fives and pictures before a highly animated walk back to our table. Personally, I must admit that I missed the “Tech for Good Project of the year” award, I think we just got carried away in a frenzy. Well done to Synergy Learning for taking that one home.

For anyone unaware, the SAM Trainer App is an educational tool used to train the general public in CPR and AED. More than 350,000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest in Europe annually, the App aims to reduce the figure by reducing costs and barriers to education. To date, the SAM Trainer App has been downloaded in 142 countries, translated into 11 languages, with more translations currently in the pipeline.
 

Winning the Digital DNA award for “Mobile App of the year” now completes a hatrick of “App of the year'' awards for Sugar Rush and the team are euphoric. We carried this energy into the afterparty and got into our flows on the dancefloor, well into the early hours of the morning. This reporter however must admit there was no sleeping the next day, Felix had me up from 5am and there were more award entry deadlines where upon me.

Confidently I speak for the team in thanking Digital DNA for the event, the award and recognition from our peers. These awards are made special by the sponsors, entrants and winners, but the true winner of the night is the Northern Ireland Tech Industry, which continues to punch well above its weight.