RORY BACKS SANDRA KEAVENEY AND WIGTON TO WIN DIGITAL HERO AWARDS

Rory has backed Sandra Keaveney from NADT to win this year’s TalkTalk’s Digital Hero Awards. Sandra Keaveney has been shortlisted as one of the three deserving local candidates, who will now go head to head to win a £5,000 technology grant to help further their cause. From today people are being urged to vote for their favourite local Digital Hero at Talktalkdigitalheroes.co.uk.

This is the 6th annual Digital Hero Awards, and 62 organisations across Britain have been helped following their success in the awards, with funding and support with TalkTalk’s charities partners Citizens Online and Go ON UK.

Three candidates from each region have made it this far because of the great work they do using technology, now it is up to the public to cast their votes online to name their Digital Hero 2013. The winning candidate from each region will be honoured at a ceremony at the House of Commons and with £5,000 of funding. They will also have their project judged by an esteemed panel to be in with a chance of being awarded the title of Digital Hero 2013 and £10,000 of funding.

Judges include TalkTalk chairman Sir Charles Dunstone, Baroness Lane-Fox, Go ON UK Chair and Lloyd Embley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror.

Rory said,

“It is absolutely fantastic that Sandra has been shortlisted for the Talk Talk Digital Hero Awards. This pilot scheme would see Wigton become the first fully-connected smart energy town in Britain, and it is the perfect example of a community, using cutting-edge technology to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.

“There is significant levels of fuel poverty in this small rural town, and the work of Sandra, the NADT and Silver Spring Networks, has energy efficiency and savings at its heart. The use of a community
website and smart meters has already allowed some residents and businesses to gain real-time information on their energy use, and we are keen to see this rolled out across the entire town.”

“I would urge everyone to get online and vote for Sandra before 18th September, to help ensure this brilliant, innovative project is recognised nationally, and receives what would be very welcome
additional support.

The Government’s Digital Champion Baroness Lane Fox said,

“There is a huge percentage of the population that have still never been online and 16 million do not have the basic online skills. These regional finalists are some of the nation’s best organisations that
are using digital for good and I urge their friends, families, followers and admirers to vote for them.”

“This year’s Digital Heroes Awards features some truly innovative projects, which are already using technology to improve their communities” said TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding “It was hard to select just three finalists in each region but we have some excellent contenders, and I look forward to meeting the winners at the Awards Ceremony in Parliament in October.”

To browse the 36 finalists and register your votes, please visit talktalkdigitalheroes.co.uk

Voting will be open until Wednesday 18th September. Votes can be cast for any region, not just your own.

The Twitter hashtag for the awards is #digitalheroes.