Monday afternoon saw Lisa Domican, founder of Grace App Communication take to the stage of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel to accept her award as winner of the WMB Big Idea Award 2011.
Lisa wanted – prior to the creation of Grace App - to enable people with a communication difficulty to be able to express themselves independently, through the provision of education and innovative communication technologies. She developed a simple picture communication App which was developed by Games designer Steve Troughton-Smith that allows non verbal people with Autism and other disabilities to communicate effectively, by building semantic sequences from relevant images to form sentences. Her company, Grace App Communication sets out to demonstrate that independent communication support can be affordable, accessible and adaptable
Further information on the event:
Five awards were presented at WMB’s annual Conference & Awards, with Mary Rose Burke, Divisional Pharmacy Manager for Boots Ireland, taking the overall WMB Businesswoman of the Year Award 2011.
Lisa Domican of Grace App Communication won the WMB Big Idea Award for her communication app that allows non-verbal people with Autism and other disabilities to communicate effectively through an affordable, accessible and adaptable medium. Joan Freeman, Pieta House, won the Newstalk WMB Social Entrepreneur of the year Award and Colette Twomey, Clonakilty Blackpudding Co. won the Cisco WMB Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The Microsoft WMB Woman in Technology Award was won by Judith Browne, Product Data Director of Dell Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) based in Dell’s Limerick Facility.
The day-long event included some unique speakers to motivate and inspire including keynote speaker, BBC Dragon Hilary Devey, Founder & CEO of Pall-Ex Group. Well-known Irish broadcaster, writer and columnist Dr. Maureen Gaffney also took to the stage to talk on change management, emotional intelligence and work/life balance. The theme this year was ‘Success is what you make it’ and the day included a panel discussion and also facilitated networking with IFG Corporate Pensions.
