Eight Primary School Teams Compete for ‘Enterprise of the Year’

Eight teams from primary-schools throughout Ireland will participate in BizWorld Ireland’s annual BizFactor competition in hopes of being awarded ‘Enterprise of the Year’, tomorrow, Thursday, 28th April 2016 at 10.30am in The RDS, Dublin 4.

The eight finalists include:

· Our Lady Queen of Peace, Janesboro, Limerick with ‘Mop Socks’. Mop Socks are brightly coloured socks with mops attached to the sole which allow you to clean your floor simply by walking around.

· St Michael’s NS, Castlepollard Westmeath with ‘Eazy Keyz’, an app that links your piano with a smart device to help you learn to play by lighting up the keys of your piano.

· Gaelscoil Sáirséal, Limerick with ‘Bye Bye to Bullying’, a workshop presentation about how to deal with bullying that is available for schools throughout the country to use in their classrooms.

· Scoil Mhuire NS, Broadford, Limerick with ‘Mind and Body’, a board game that aims to give both the mind and body a work-out.

· St Marys College Junior School, Dublin 6 with ‘Gymlets’, a family gym that includes a health food shop and a sports clothes shop.

· SN Chreachmhaoil, Craughwell, Galway with ‘Safety Net’, a button built into all social media platforms that children can click to automatically send an email to their parents if they witness cyberbullying.

· Scoil Mhuire, Shankill, Dublin 18 with ‘Zoo and You’, an educational app with live zoo video feeds and animal themed games and crafts including instructions on how to make origami animals.

· Our Lady’s Grove Primary School, Dublin 14 with ‘Daasie & Co’. Daasie & Co present a sensor for the doors of the Luas which tags passengers of and off automatically with their Leap Card to reduce the number of people who dodge fairs or simply forget.

Each team will showcase their business idea and pitch it ‘Dragon’s Den’ style to the judging panel of high-profile figures from the world of enterprise and education. The judging panel included, BizWorld Ireland Ambassador and founder of Casey Games Jordan Casey; entrepreneur and investor on RTE’s Dragons’ Den, Gavin Duffy; Group Managing Director at Alternatives, Charley Stoney; Head of External Collaboration at ESB, John McKiernan; and MD at Irish TV, Mairéad Ni Mhaoilchiaráin.

Niamh Bushnell, Dublin Commissioner for Start-Ups will deliver the keynote address at the competition. Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh will present the winning team with the Enterprise of the Year Award.

BizFactor 2016 is sponsored by Bank of Ireland, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Local Enterprise Office, Limerick Local Enterprise Office, pharmaceutical company AptarGroup, estate agents Twomey and Associates and mediation consultants Equita. The competition is taking place as part of Tech Week, Ireland’s nationwide Festival of Technology taking place this week.