Today the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce hosted a luncheon for TechAwards10 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, as the culmination of TechWeek10. The aim of the awards is to publicly recognise the outstanding achievements being made in Bermuda’s information technology industry. There are a host of categories where the public had the opportunity to vote and based on those recommendations, a committee of industry professionals chose the winners of each category.

In the Category of 2010 Technology Innovation Award for the Best Use of Social Networking Tools category, the Bermuda Police Service received top honours. Presenting the award to the Bermuda Police Service was the Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce Michael J. Scott JP MP along with Guest Speaker Christyl C. Johnson, Executive Director, National Science & Technology Council, Executive Office of the President of the United States of America (Office of Science & Technology Policy). Accepting this award on behalf of the Bermuda Police Service was Acting Commissioner of Police Mike Jackman as well as Mr. Robin Simmons of the Police Public & Media Relations Unit.

The nominator in this category stated without reservation, “The most effective use of Facebook that I have seen from any organization! The Somerset Bridge accident closure was an excellent use of social networking as they got the word out before the news did!"

Many thanks to our community partners GMD Consulting for their hard work in designing the website as well as their creative consulting solutions; Quovadis for their technological assistance; and the Service's official webmaster Robin Simmons for making sure the information released to the public is as timely & accurate as possible. (Group photo courtesy of Bernews).