Colm O’Neill, Chief Executive Officer, BT Ireland

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

ForeWorD

colm o’neIll, ceo, BT IrelanD

to the event. Involvement with the Young Scientist has had a transformative effect on the company just as the company has transformed the exhibition; such is the company’s level of commitment. “This kind of thing was all new to us. Aer Lingus was the main sponsor for decades then Esat took over and when we acquired them we inherited it,” says O’Neill. “We are pretty proud of what we have done, we didn’t just take it on, we have had a big role in making it what it is today.”

There are numbers to back this up. The company promotes the event throughout the year and has helped bump up student applications. At 2000 entries there are almost four times as many applying as there is space on the ground at the RDS in Ballsbridge. The students are also attracted to the exhibition in numbers because of the extra activities that BT has brought to it, the World of Robots, 3D Theatre, science shows and other student-orientated events.

BT has also built an “ecosystem” around the Young Scientist by cementing the involvement of other main sponsors such as Department of Education and Skills, Intel, RTE, Elan, Analog Devices and Department of Education NI. The participation by so many big corporates, plus the politicians, other companies and of course the schools has helped to promote this ecosystem, something that O’Neill believes will help protect the exhibition for another 50 years.

“This all helps to build the exhibition into the fabric of society,” O’Neill believes. “All of that supports the sustainability of it and we can be reasonably confident that this is an exhibition that has a very real chance of surviving another 50 years or more.” There are lots of other hidden resources that BT plugs into the event, including 200 or so “red coats”, BT staff who volunteer their time to help keep things running smoothly for the students. And the company actually employs someone with the designation “head of BT Young Scientist”, a full time staffer plus another 10 or 12 staff who spend part of their year organising for the next exhibition.

As you might expect, BT covers the costs of all the communications and wi-fi requirement at the RDS during the exhibition. And literally anything you can put your hand on at the event has either been paid for by BT or has been organised with participating suppliers. “The volunteer staff are proud of what we do as a company with the BT Young Scientist, and generally staff are proud even if they are not directly involved,” O’Neill says. “Of course the students benefit too. They are exposed to very real but very enjoyable science at a young age and learn to like the subject by seeing the fun side of it. Then there are other skills arising from the exhibition such as team working for groups, communications skills as the judges visit and having the focus to see a project through,” says O’Neill. “All of these are important life skills.”

“We challenged ourselves as we came to the 50th year. I was determined that this would be a milestone and not a summit, a point we had reached that said we had done our job”

Reaching the 50th anniversary of the Young Scientist is not an end point for BT. “We challenged ourselves as we came to the 50th year. I was determined that this would be a milestone and not a summit, a point we had reached that said we had done our job,” says O’Neill.

The company is already exploring new approaches not by changing the format, which still works after five decades, but by finding ways to get more engagement with the higher education sector and with the business community at large. O’Neill would also like to see if what the students do to prepare for the Young Scientist can in some way be built into the school curriculum so that all students can benefit even if they don’t exhibit at the RDS. And could a great project be counted towards access to university? Watch this space.