Foreword Colm O’neill, CEO, BT Ireland
BT involvement Colm O’Neill is a man with a mission. He is determined to ensure that the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition – celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014 – is going to come round year after year for another 50 years. He has plans, ideas and fresh ambitions for the exhibition that will ensure its sustainability into the future. And he also knows as chief executive officer of BT in Ireland why it is important for the company to continue its deep involvement with the Young Scientist as the main sponsor and organiser of the event. The exhibition turns 50 as BT celebrates its 14th year as organiser, and while the company doesn’t talk about money or costs, its financial investment over this decade and a half runs into millions of euro. The quick corporate answer for this is that support for the exhibition benefits the company, says O’Neill. “We are a business so we make business decisions and there are different levels of value we get from this,” he says. It is the company’s statement to society about the power of communications to make a better world, and the message coming from the BT Young Scientist reinforces that. And to be a leading edge communications company you need really good staff with an education in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. “We believe this exhibition delivers high quality graduates who come out of the Irish universities with the capacity to help us as employees but also to help Ireland and society in general,” says O’Neill. But while this is the corporate message there is something much deeper about BT’s involvement in the annual Young Scientist. It has become personal. It has become a part of BT’s corporate identity in Ireland. And the event’s success has become as important to the company as BT has become important
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BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition
