UK IT Industry Awards: the speeches... and the party

The formalities... and the frollics

Stuart Sumner, Editor of Computing:

IT continues to evolve at a frightening pace. As we emerge from years of recession, businesses need to quickly ramp up their capabilities to meet today's levels of growth and demand. And this growth is underpinned by IT. The only way to meet this demand, is through IT.

The talent and innovation that we have seen in the many fantastic entries to these awards demonstrate that the economic slowdown did nothing to dull the minds of the UK's IT industry.

I can say on behalf of the BCS and Computing that it was a real pleasure judging the awards this year. We have seen scores of incredible projects, teams and individuals, and as ever, the hardest part has been to choose a winner in each category from so many deserving entries.

Paul Fletcher, Group Chief Executive Officer of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT:

I'd like to congratulate you all on being here tonight - you should be extremely proud of your achievements. You have demonstrated excellence in innovation, as well as the development and the application of IT. You have implemented and managed projects that have generated huge benefit not only for your organisations but for society as a whole which is vital as we increasingly rely on IT in every aspect of our lives.

It is this central role that IT plays in the world today that means that the IT profession is undoubtedly one of the most important professions and will continue to be so well into the future.

With the UK as the best place in Europe to establish a startup and Britain's burgeoning digital economy, the potential to drive innovation both through UK startups and larger established organisations is very exciting for our profession and the UK economy as a whole.

In order to do this, we, as a profession, need to do great things, to have vision and passion, be innovative and be able to understand the needs of consumers and businesses as well as anticipate what they'll need in the future. We need to continue delivering best practice today and working towards next practice for tomorrow.

Looking at you all tonight and knowing that the projects you have worked on have been transformational for your organisations, I'm confident that the profession is up to this challenge.

Master of ceremonies comedian Rich Hall had a few words of advice for the winners:

If you are a winner tonight, your job is to rise to your feet and get to the stage as fast as your legs will carry you.

If you're tempted to burst into tears or launch into a long speech about how you couldn't have won without the support of God or your parents … please don't!

Instead, we're looking for a smile … a quick handshake … a photo … and then it's off to the wings where our camera crew will capture the moment for posterity.

And after the awards came the party...