The awards are a great opportunity for young companies to get their products out there and get their names knows; for more established companies it’s a chance to prove their worth and defend their position at the top.

The MEGAs are a real gem of an award (not just because Ideonic won one) but because they focus on innovation, they focus on picking out the products, campaigns or individuals who are really pushing new boundaries. As well as MirrorMe for best application or gadget, last year’s winners also included: ScrapperWiki for technology – a data store which allows developers to scrape, store, aggregate, and distribute unstructured public data in more useful, structured formats; onedotzero_adventures for creative – an interactive design piece at the BFI; and a number of other great projects across 11 categories.

So if you’re doing great work hurry up and get it submitted so we can see it and shout about it!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/megas

The quality of the ideas was amazing, they really knew about technology including quite modern advances such as Bluetooth 3 and Active RFID. Additionally, some groups had functional prototype to demonstrate the software components of their ideas. Even the Graphical Design work was also far beyond what I had expected for that age group; I would be happy with them designing some of our marketing materials!

In the evening everyone was given a chance to relax with a quiz and I’m proud to say that my team won BOTH ROUNDS :-) but unfortunately I can’t say it was because me. My general knowledge has much room for improvement but fortunately they made up for my weaknesses.

On the Second day the judging began with each team delivering a 20 minutes pitch and they were all excellent: well structured, well delivered and covering all the key points – better than many pitches I have seen by real businesses. After some difficult judging the winners were selected and prizes awarded (laptops, a trip to Microsoft, and a trip to BT). Regardless of which group won, I honestly believe they all have bright careers ahead of them and I think the future is in good hands.