Decisions For Heroes - Product Blog http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/ Updates, tips, and news from Decisions For Heroes. Rescue team management and analytics. en-ie info@decisionsforheroes.com Copyright 2010 Technical Rescue Magazine Feature http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100209-technical-rescue-magazine http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100209-technical-rescue-magazine

We've made it into Issue 57 of the international Technical Rescue Magazine. Here's a snippet:

Communications and team management are drastically improved by providing a central information store that members can access from home, work, or their mobile handsets in the field. As a team enter their records, the software builds a profile of each rescuer,tracking their qualifications, experience, training hours, and skill-sets automatically. continue reading


You can read the entire piece, featuring a technical rescue unit in our press area. ]]> Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:06:46 +0000 D4H Used In Suicide Prevention Campaign http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100126-suicide-prevention-campaign http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100126-suicide-prevention-campaign

DUBLIN, IRELAND - As part of its PSAR (Preventative Search and Rescue) initiative, Howth Coast Guard deployed 'Decisions for Heroes' in in April 2008 as a reporting and analytics tool that helps search and rescue teams to prevent accidents and emergencies by tracking call-out patterns.

Press Officer Fergus Cooney was recently interviewed in the Emergency Services Ireland magazine about Decisions For Heroes.




"We can log on from anywhere and input information like, for example, whether or not an incident is cliff-related. We can then look at how many incidents we have had at a particular spot over the last quarter, for example, and take action to prevent further accidents of incidents in that location."


"The [software] allowed us to quickly identify days and times that were high-risk. We found that there tended to be more incidents on Sunday afternoons. What we then did was try to get crew members to do foot or boat patrols so we could prevent something before it happened or respond quickly. We are a voluntary operation so this approach helps us to plan and to use our resources effectively."


The full article is available in our Electronic Press Kit.

We continue to work with Howth Coast Guard on tools for PSAR campaign tracking. These tools will soon be made available to all accounts. If you or your team would like to contribute your methods to have them included, make contact support@decisionsforheroes.com

To get an account for your rescue team, request a free trial. ]]> Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:41:17 +0000 Haiti Earthquake - Free tools and satellite imagery http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100114-haiti-earthquake-imagery http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100114-haiti-earthquake-imagery UPDATE (17th JAN): Satellite imagery of post-earthquake Port au Prince is now automatically available in D4H. There is no requirement to export your data. The imagery Is 50 cm color imagery taken from Digital Globe’s new Worldview 2 satellite.



HAITI - The country of Haiti has just experienced an earthquake with a severe catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The International Red Cross has stated that as many as 3 million people have been affected by the quake with as many as 100,000 deaths estimated within the first 24 hours. Decisions For Heroes is offering their life saving web-based rescue team management tool and support staff free to all teams responding for the duration of their mission. For more information, read our press release.

If your team is one of the 40+ international response teams travelling to respond to the ongoing rescue phase in Haiti you can configure your system to import satellite imagery taken since the earthquake to compare with images before. Google have provided a KML layer for the latest imagery, with everything you need to overlay your Decisions For Heroes data.

1. If you do not have it already, Download Google Earth.

2. Sign-in to your rescue teams Decisions For Heroes account.

3. Click [Activities]->[Incidents] and filter the date range for your export.

4. Click [Export To Google Earth], and open the KML file that is downloaded.

5. Download and open the ~10:27 EST 13th January 2010 Haiti Imagery Layer KML (provided by Google and GeoEye). This file contains data relevant to the crisis repsonse and will be updated as more information becomes available.


Using this imagery with Decisions For Heroes will allow easy-to-generate statistics that can be used to observe patterns and reduce further incidents in aftershocks in Haiti. With integrated mapping, response teams can generate heat maps of their incident areas and compare them to their training locations. With this data the team can now approach other organisations with real measurements to show where efforts should be located and public safety awareness focussed.

Decisions For Heroes is available to all rescue teams globally, and teams can get started online at www.decisionsforheroes.com. Please help us and share this on Facebook using the button below. ]]> Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:04:59 +0000 What does it feel like to get lost? http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100106-feel-like-to-get-lost http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20100106-feel-like-to-get-lost

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - When U.S. copywriter and editor Jane Mackay got lost in the woods, she had the skills and ability to document her emotions and experience accurately. It's rare rescue personnel ever get lost (that's why we're the ones on rescue teams!), so take this unique opportunity to get inside the head of the other side and understand what they are going through, their thought patterns, and their decisions.

Jane sent us her story.

"I can see your lights!" I yell, trying to keep hysteria out of my voice. "I can see your lights below me and to my right! Keep coming UP!" They do and at last, there they are. A dog leading a woman in camouflage wet weather gear, a man a few steps behind her. As they clamber wearily up the slope my friend exclaims, "Oh, you wonderful people!" and I shower them with effusive thanks.

It's Mendocino County Search and Rescue who find them this time. Congratualtions on a good find by China and Dustin. Read on...

Lost by Jane Mackay ]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:07:01 +0000 Amazing People: Hagglunds and Quicksand http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091215-bay-search-and-rescue http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091215-bay-search-and-rescue

MORECAMBE BAY, UK - Paul Calland is the Deputy Station Officer for Bay Search and Rescue (BSAR), another group of our amazing people.

BSAR provide support, dedicated equipment, specialist Hagglund BV206 all terrain amphibious vehicles and trained personnel to assist H.M. Coastguard, The Police, Mountain Rescue Teams and other Emergency Services on and around the very unique Morecambe Bay and South Lake District Area in the UK.

We spoke to Paul about how BSAR use Decisions For Heroes (D4H):

Talking about planning, availability, and communication.

"Bay Search and Rescue is a typical independent volunteer team; the crew all have 'day' jobs and time is very valuable. Both the Station Officer, Gary and myself as Deputy Station Officer live some way from our base, so D4H is ideal for ensuring we know what team members are available and that we can contact them quickly. However more important to us is the superb concise way that Training and Events etc can be planned in a team calendar, with weekly briefings by text to the team, and that all these and our Incidents can be efficiently documented from any PC where ever we are."






On RAF collaboration, mapping, and reporting.

"Within the first week of using D4H we had a call from the RAF wanting details and locations of previous incidents for their records. The fact that we could almost instantly send a detailed analysis and breakdown of these, with reports for each and location maps of our local hotspots was fantastic. Before D4H we would have been rooting through filing cabinets and taking photos of a map full of pins on the wall!"






Cumbria floods, paperwork, and information.

"In the recent Floods in Cumbria we were called out three times in two days. The third call was for our Hagglund ATERV (All Terrain Emergency Rescue Vehicle) on its truck to be blue light escorted straight to Cockermouth where the worst floods had taken place. Our role was to follow in after the initial boat crews, once the water levels were too low and the debris and underwater hazards too great for them to operate safely. Our ATERV can travel where boats and landrovers cannot, and allow us to evacuate up to 14-16 people at one time in a warm, dry, non-traumatising way (unlike boats and helicopters). We assisted numerous people and completed task after task from the Bronze Command Centre. All these were logged into D4H as we went along, which generated our incident report, which was printed at the click of a button - brilliant. I can safely say no one joins an SAR team to do paperwork. D4H makes the paperwork we have to do easy and the built in maps, grid refs, casualty reports etc provide all the report information anyone may ever need from us."




For more information, visit Bay Search and Rescue (BSAR). ]]> Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:23:34 +0000 Free Mobile Broadband For Irish Rescue Teams http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091207-vodafone-prize http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091207-vodafone-prize

FREE GIVEAWAY - We have a special gift today for 2 Irish rescue teams. Vodafone have very kindly sponsored 2 mobile broadband modems with 3 months free internet access for us to giveaway to two of you. This will allow you to access the internet at broadband speed from a laptop anywhere there is mobile phone signal. Perfect for Decisions For Heroes!
  • We have 2 free Vodafone prepay mobile broadband modems to give away.

  • Each comes with 3 months free broadband.

  • The three months credit will be applied to the modem over three consecutive months and each month will include Internet access for one month with a 5GB download limit.

  • The Prepay Mobile Broadband prize is for use on the Vodafone network and will not be transferred by Vodafone for use on another network.


You do NOT have to be a Decisions For Heroes customer to enter. As this prize is for Vodafone Ireland, this competition is only open to rescue teams in Ireland.

To enter, leave a comment below on this post with your name and rescue team and we will draw two winners on Friday 11th December! Easy.

Note: No details will be passed on to Vodafone except the name and email address of the winners for the sole purpose of being contacted to collect their prize. ]]> Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:20:12 +0000 New Incident Tasking Categorisation http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091204-new-incident-tasking-categorisation http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091204-new-incident-tasking-categorisation

We're testing new analysis of team response times with one of our large organisations. This allows teams to measure and trend their "Time-To-Mobile" (also known as Notice To Move or NTM) which is the time it takes from an Alert until you are Mobile enroute to the incident. This lets teams make sure they are responding within target response times.

When you add an incident, you now get 3 options.

Immediate Tasking - this is the typical setting for first response teams. Your team are going from station, home, or work and are trying to get their equipment or vehicles mobile to the incident as fast as is safely possible.

Pre-Tasked - this is the case when your team are put on alert that they will be required at a certain time. This might be waiting for somebody to get to a certain altitude on a mountain, for a ship to come into fuel range, or knowledge that you are required at a forest fire the next day. In this case the time-to-mobile is not important to the success of the response and we will not compare it against your targets.

Tasked While Mobile - in this case, your team were already mobile on a training exercise or returning to base. In this case your time-to-mobile will be almost zero, so we will not include it in your target responses.

While the response time targets, trending, and analysis are not available to everyone yet, we decided to switch on the data input side so you can begin categorisation. Please note, any past incidents can be edited if you'd like to back-date the tasking on them. We'll let you know once the response time analysis is live for everyone - please submit any requests on this topic to info@decisionsforheroes.com ]]> Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:53:27 +0000 NEWSAR Mountain Rescue Win D4H Emergency Service Show Prize http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091203-newsar-win-d4h-emergency-services-show http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091203-newsar-win-d4h-emergency-services-show A voluntary mountain rescue team NEWSAR in Wales have won the annual subscription to the life saving software Decisions For Heroes at the Emergency Services Show 2009 in Stoneleigh Park.

READ PRESS RELEASE



EMERGENCY SERVICES SHOW, UNITED KINGDOM (3rd December 2009) - Decisions For Heroes is a web application that saves lives. It does this by helping rescue teams record and analyse their rescue operations and training. North East Wales Search And Rescue (NEWSAR), part of Mountain Rescue England & Wales have won an annual subscription to the software as visitors to the Emergency Services Show 2009 in Stoneleigh Park, Coventry.

“We're delighted to use D4H to optimise our rescue operations” said Richard Dobson on announcement of the prize. As NEWSAR’s training officer, Richard can sign-in to the software before their training exercises and run a report on team attendance hours, getting a break-down of members skills requiring attention. Now he can determine what they trained in, who trained in it, and when they last practised a technique.



Easy-to-generate statistics can be used to observe patterns and reduce accidents in North East Wales. With integrated mapping, NEWSAR can generate heat maps of their callouts and compare them to their training locations. With this data the team can now approach other local organisations with real measurements to show where warning signs should be located and public safety awareness focussed.

NEWSAR are currently fundraising for £84,000 to replace a pair of old and increasingly unreliable Landrovers. These vehicles are the only way the team can get its equipment into the remote places where operations are often conducted.

View photo gallery from our stand at the show.

About NEWSAR:
NEWSAR is a completely voluntary organisation, operating on charitable donations. The team of around 40 volunteers answers calls from the Police and Ambulance service for assistance in locating, treating and evacuating people in trouble in rural, mountainous and sometimes more urban areas. The team has capabilities that complement the statutory emergency services with the ability to operate day and night in remote and hazardous terrain in almost all weathers. NEWSAR’s primary area covers a huge swathe of North Wales, from the coast down to mid Wales and from the Conwy valley across to the M6. The team can be called to incidents outside this area, supporting other teams in North Wales.

Visit their website http://www.newsar.org.uk

READ PRESS RELEASE ]]> Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:50:33 +0000 D4H Goes Arctic with North Star 2010 http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091109-d4h-goes-arctic-with-north-star-2010 http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091109-d4h-goes-arctic-with-north-star-2010



CAMBRIDGE, UK - In 142 days time, two British explorers Fran Middleton and Mustard Robley will cross 1800km of Greenland Icecap in an estimated 40 day unsupported expedition North Star 2010. They intend to man-haul sleds or ‘pulks’ with backcountry skis on to the top of the ice-cap and then switch to snow-kites and downhill skis to complete the crossing using as much wind power as possible. Tent, cooking equipment, gun, and food will all be contained in their pulks and towed behind as they ski.

Decisions For Heroes is the website sponsor of the expedition, and as we've tested on the ice-cap previously, we will be linking up the explorers Satellite Phone to D4H technology and tools. Not only does this make for a really interesting test of our capability - but we get to entertain all of you with exclusive live updates from the ice-cap over a 40 day emotional experience. Expect to hear lots about the expedition once they set off next Spring.

Our expedition t-shirt arrived today, and it's really great to see our logo up there with international brands like Rab and Osprey who have provided arctic equipment and clothing.



Would you like a personal postcard from Greenland? The lads will send a personal written Postcard to everyone who donates £10 or more to the expedition.

All donations to the expedition will be split for 50/50 between the expeditions and the Ali Rainback fund



Check out their website northstar2010.com for the latest news, expedition maps, and details.

Please share to your Facebook profile, thanks. ]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:44:14 +0000 How do teams fund D4H? - Part 1 http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091022-how-do-teams-fund-d4h http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091022-how-do-teams-fund-d4h
We've talked to some of our closest teams, and came up with a plan. Today we are launching the first beta trials of a D4H 'widget'. If switched on by a team account owner, the widget will publicly display the teams latest 5 incidents with map, annual stats and year-on-year variance.



So how can you create value for your team? We've included space at the bottom for you to enter whatever text and link you'd like. You might link it to your team web site, or even better how about you link it to a sponsor?

Does your team have a local supermarket, bar, supplier, or shop you give lots of regular business to? You may be suprised to find they are very willing to sponsor "something a little different". A single valued item like your "Rescue Analytics" to "help save more lives" might be it! We can supply a brochure for you to show them - and you can put a message and link about them on your public widget.

We don't set the price you charge them - it's up to you. They might fund you the exact amount you need, or they might fund you double - ask for what you need.



So where will the widget be shown? Anywhere! We give you a small piece of 'code' which can be copied and pasted into any website, blog, or forum. You can give the code out to all your team members, friends and family. You might even get it featured on a local news site or government portal. Eitherway, your sponsor will be happy for the great local exposure associated to a good cause.

The option to switch-on a team widget will appear in team accounts over the next few weeks once our beta period has ended. Join our fan page for the announcement. ]]> Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:29:11 +0000 D4H wins 'Most Innovative Website' http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091012-most-innovative-website http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20091012-most-innovative-website



On Saturday night Decisions For Hereos was awarded 'Most Innovative Website' sponsored by iQ Content at the 2009 Realex Payments Irish Web Awards in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Dublin. We are delighted to receive this and add it to Decisions For Heroes growing list of awards.


  • Winner, 2009 Most Innovative Website, Irish Web Awards.

  • Winner, 2009 iQ Prize €10,000 Winner.

  • Finalist, 2008 Top 20 European Seed Companies, Seedcamp.

  • Finalist, 2008 Best Web App, Irish Web Awards.



Is your rescue team making Decisions For Heroes yet? Get Started!

(Thanks to Damien Mulley and team for the awards ceremony and Eamon Leonard from EchoLibre who accepted the award on our behalf on the night. EchoLibre supply high-end PHP development and security services.) ]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:25:21 +0000 New Feature: Real-Time Collaboration http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090924-realtime-collaboration http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090924-realtime-collaboration

When responding to incidents is a 24 hour job, it's only natural for teams to be separated by shift hours or geographic boundaries. It's hard to get everyone in the same room at the same time. Today, Decisions For Heroes launches 'Real-Time Collaboration' which is a group (everyone can read and contribute), asyncronous (at any time), instant messenger (it's instant). Unlike email, we keep threaded conversations that allow your rescue workers to dive in and out as required.

Find out more and Watch a 3 Minute Screencast Video *recommended!* ]]> Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:21:21 +0000 Beautiful Charts To Improve Your Rescue http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090918-new-rescue-charting http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090918-new-rescue-charting

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Today we launch a most excellent addition to our analytics offering. The charts have been enhanced to be bigger, bolder, and more beautiful. We've started building out some new breakdowns too. In the next few days and weeks new options will appear to help you optimize your 'time to mobile' as a team. To view our new charts, once inside your D4H go to [Analytics] and pick a chart view on the right sidebar, e.g. Incidents->Duration.

Tip: Add a 'Tag Bundle' called [Problems] which you can tick if you encounter an issue which you'd like to track how it affects your response. e.g. Boat Refuel Required, Crew Delayed, Traffic in Area, etc. We can then help show you how it delays your response in a nice graphical format. ]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:08:47 +0000 New Rescue Mission Timestamps http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090821-new-rescue-mission-timestamps http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090821-new-rescue-mission-timestamps

DUBLIN, IRELAND - It's with great excitement this morning we launch the new incident timestamps. We've had many a debate with teams on what these should be, and hope to have found the right level between the timestamps used by fire and ambulance service, and search & rescue teams. From today, all incidents you create will automatically use the new timestamps.

Why is this important?
We now record Alerted, Mobile, In Attendance, Casualty Located, Stand Down, and Returned To Base. It's important, because time is everything. Using this data, we can help you optimize your rescue team to have a faster mobilization and give your tools to discuss why you didn't meet a required time.



Flexibility
Our new timestamps are built around flexibility. Flexibility to recieve a stand down command at any stage of the operation. Flexibility to not locate anything and return to base. Flexibilty to not even get out the door.

Coming Soon
We'll be launching timebands and limits that you can set to alert you if you didn't make a time requirment. We'll be updating the analytics to reflect the new anatomy of an incident, and we'll be adding some super sweet new charts based on your stand-down information. Stay tuned and keep compiling your data!

Your previous incidents will still use the old timestamp system. In the next weeks we will launch a tool to help you convert your old incidents to the new system if you so choose, but it is not a requirement. ]]> Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:48:57 +0000 Rescue Resources During Swine Flu A(H1N1) http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090727-swine-flu-resource-planner http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090727-swine-flu-resource-planner Decisions For Heroes tackles the situation. The pandemic is currently gaining a foothold internationally and it will be a number of weeks before it is widespread. Now is the time for teams who have others dependent on their response, to plan for this challenge in order to protect the provision of their service.

Visit www.decisionsforheroes.com/swineflu

Please share this with your other EMS colleges via this link or 'Share on Facebook' - the official press release may read here. ]]> Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:19:14 +0000 SAR Subaqua Dive Team Logs http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090723-sar-subaqua-dive-team-logs http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090723-sar-subaqua-dive-team-logs

CLARKSDALE, MISSISSIPPI - Calling all D4H search & rescue dive teams! Brian Smith from Coahoma County, Mississippi in the United States has put together a proposal for adding Search & Rescue dive logs to Decisions For Heroes. With Brian's permission, we have published this form here for general discussion. We're going to build the ability for subaqua dive logs, and would like to get the template perfect for everyone. Please leave your comments here, in the 'Improve It' section inside, or in the more active Facebook discussion.

Brian has kindly hosted a copy of the form, click here to see all drop-down boxes, and form fields. ]]> Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:20:33 +0000 TV3 National Television Interview http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090717-tv3-interview http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090717-tv3-interview bra straps (actually she has a fantastic business!), Decisions For Heroes recieved almost 4 minutes of air time. Fantastic!

You can watch the interview below.



About Ireland AM (TV3):
Irish viewers have been waking up to Ireland AM since September 1999. Ireland AM offers a morning-mix of current affairs, celebrity interviews, fashion, health, beauty and all other aspects of Irish lifestyle. Ireland AM was voted ‘Ireland's Favourite TV show' at both the 2008 and 2009 TV Now Awards. The programme has enjoyed phenomenal growth and popularity as Ireland's first television breakfast show and is now firmly established as a favourite with families throughout the country. ]]> Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:35:24 +0000 Feature: Steps To Get Started! http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090716-steps-to-get-started http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090716-steps-to-get-started

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Today we released "Steps to Get Started", a new help box that will appear on everybody's dashboard. We've found from talking to folks, that people had a problem understanding what steps to take when they opened a new account. This new box will step them through it, step by step. We suggest you take them in the given order.

Note that not everybody will see the same, we customise your steps needed based on the configuration options you give us when you create your account, and the permissions you have been given by your account owner. Once you reach 100%, you can 'Hide Forever' to never be bugged again!

If you'd like to follow our daily movements, please join our Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter. Things are really happening fast at present, with some really big organisations talking about coming onboard. We couldn't be happier! ]]> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:38:59 +0000 Winners: €10,000 iQ Prize Fund http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090709-winners-iqprize-fund http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090709-winners-iqprize-fund €10,000 iQ Prize judged by Facebook’s EMEA Head of Online Operations, Google UK and Ireland's Online Sales & Operations manager, the CEO of Ireland’s largest online media group, a Golden Spider Internet Hero and the 2007 Businessweek Young European Entrepreneur of the Year, Microsofts Internet Evangelist, and an Irish start-up community lead.

Please leave comments below, or use the 'share on Facebook' button to add it to your wall.

Thanks all,

-Robin.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Out of a total of 249 entrants, 8 ambitious companies were shortlisted and took part in Dragon’s Den style presentations to the panel of 5 judges. After their gruelling presentations, the 8 shortlisted candidates had to do it all again and present their elevator pitches to 200 people in the audience at the iQ Prize award night in the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin.

Founded by young Irish entrepreneur Robin Blandford, iQ Prize winner, Decisions For Heroes helps rescue teams 'save more lives'. Identifying a common set of problems found in emergency services, the software was created to capture the information surrounding their rescue operations and training exercises. The system automatically performs analytical charting, draws heatmaps, and benchmarks reports to outline areas of strength, weakness, and expertise.

"The iQ Prize is a fantastic community driven opportunity for an Irish Start-up" said Blandford, speaking at the awards ceremony. Asked how he was going to spend the prize money, "I intend to use the prize fund to travel to the United States to launch trials with their emergency services". Once back home in Dublin, Blandford will "grow the company by taking on an operations expert to focus on data security and scalability".


Robin Blandford, Decisions for Heroes, Winner of the €10,000 iQ Prize, with the competitions judging panel.





Robin Blandford (Right), Decisions for Heroes, Winner of the €10,000 iQ Prize, with Morgan McKeagney, Managing Director of iQ Content, promoter of the competition.



iQ Content Managing Director Morgan McKeagney, who created the iQ Prize, was full of praise for the winner and shortlist, "I'm delighted for Robin, he's a worthy winner and a great model for young Irish entrepreneurs. His story, and the phenomenonal response to the iQ Prize, shows that Ireland is a hotbed of entreprenuerial talent. Given the right support, we believe that many of these young entrepreneurs can go on to create world-class technology companies."

McKeagney reaffirmed the quality of the entries and urged others to repeat the initiative of the iQ Prize, "If organisations like Enterprise Ireland matched the €10,000 we gave to each of our shortlist, it would be the best investment they could make." ]]> Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:08:30 +0000 Video: Founder Interview iQ Prize http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090707-founder-interview-iqprize http://www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog/post/20090707-founder-interview-iqprize iQ Prize winner. Decisions For Heroes is a finalist in the competition, and company founder Robin Blandford will pitch the idea to the judging panel. On Friday Robin was in iQ Content to be interviewed by their Managing Director, Morgan McKeagney. You can watch it here:



For live results from the awards ceremony, follow @robinb on Twitter. ]]> Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:39:19 +0000