LAUNCH Awards

To apply for our annual LAUNCH Awards, please complete the form below. 

To submit your entry, you must be either attending as a delegate or exhibiting at the event.  The LAUNCH conference is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Winners will receive positive publicity and recognition across a wide range of media.

Applications closes 1st August 2012.

The three awards are:

Award 1 – LAUNCH: Digital Entrepreneur Award 2012
Award 2 – LAUNCH: New Startup Award 2012
Award 3 – LAUNCH: Conference Award 2012

Applicant Or Nominee’s Name (required):

Position:

Email Address (required):

Phone Number:

Why Should You Win This Award? (250 words max):

Which Award(s) Are You Applying For? (check all that apply):

 Award 1 – LAUNCH: Digital Entrepreneur Award 2012.

This award goes to an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurial team that demonstrates entrepreneur flair.

 Award 2 – LAUNCH: New Startup Award 2012.

This award goes to a new startup venture started in the last four years. Over half of all young people in the UK want to start a business, yet only 1 in 20 of them actually do.

 Award 3 – LAUNCH: Conference Award 2012.

This award is open to nominees to highlight an individual for their contribution to promoting and showcasing gaming and digital talent through to encouraging entrepreneurs to start and grow a games or digital business.

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• 2012 LAUNCH AWARDS Presented by Rod Cousens, CEO, Codemasters

Rod Cousens Chief Executive Officer Codemasters

Rod Cousens is one of the UK’s leading games industry executives and the Chief Executive Officer of Codemasters, the award-winning Midlands-based developer and publisher of video game entertainment titles for game consoles, PC and online platforms.  Mr. Cousens has had a highly distinguished career spanning some 30 years in the interactive entertainment industry.

He is one of the pioneers of the video game market and has been honoured with many industry awards for both his professional and fund-raising achievements. In 2009, Mr Cousens received a CBE for services to the games industry. Prior to Codemasters, Mr Cousens was COO and latterly CEO of international publisher Acclaim Entertainment where he grew the international business to an operation with over $100m of annual revenues. Mr Cousens began his career in 1981 with the founding of games publisher Quicksilva. He went on to become UK Managing Director and later President International of Activision, Inc. now one of the largest publishers in the global videogames industry.

• 2011 LAUNCH AWARDS Presented by Ian Livingstone, OBE, Life President, Eidos

Ian Livingstone, OBE, Life President, Eidos

He’s won a BAFTA, been awarded an OBE, and brought the world Lara Croft. Birmingham Science Park Aston are proud to welcome one of the founding fathers of interactive entertainment – Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos to present the LAUNCH awards.

Ian is one of the most respected figures in the industry: he co-founded Games Workshop, nurtured major franchises including Tomb Raider, has invested in numerous successful new independent studios, and is a key advisor to the Government on games-relevant issues such as finance and education.  Ian co-founded Games Workshop, launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe and has sold over 16 million copies of his Fighting Fantasy series of books which have been translated into 25 languages.  Most recently, he has co-authored the NextGen report, looking at how the UK can be transformed into the world’s leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries.

Previous Winners and photos
 

LAUNCH: Digital Entrepreneur Award 2011
The winner is Koko Digital www.kokodigital.co.uk
Koko Digital formed initially as a web design company that dabbled in producing games. They soon realised the potential in creating advergames for brands and quickly adapted their business model to fully embrace gaming as marketing tool and now work with brands including Red Bull, Sony Music, Phones 4 U, Confused.com, Currys, Cancer Research UK, Microsoft, and Rough Guides to name but a few.

LAUNCH: New Startup Award 2011
The winner is Starfire Studios www.starfirestudios.co.uk
Starfire studios was by ex-Rare veterans with an average of 16 years development between them with their first game out on XBLA called Fusion: Genesis, published by Microsoft. Fusion: Genesis is something unique for the XBLA platform in that has a dynamic multiplayer environment. Producing a game like this would involve a lot of risk for even an established developer due to the technical difficulties involved, and probably unheard of for a new startup.

LAUNCH: Conference Award 2011
The winner is Philip Oliver CEO, Blitz Games Studios www.blitzgamesstudios.com
Philip Oliver co-founded Blitz Games Studios in 1990 with his twin brother Andrew Oliver, following nearly ten years of designing and writing numerous Number 1 games, including the hugely popular Dizzy series.
Drawing from nearly 30 years experience in the games industry, Philip continually reflects and advises the industry on how he has taken every video game evolution head on and not only survived, but positively thrived, to become one of Europe’s largest independent games developers and home to six complementary business brands based in the Midlands.
In 2008 received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Coventry University in recognition of his leading contribution to the growth of the electronic games industry both regionally and internationally.