Business Innovation Awards 2018

Buytickets.gi, founded by Jordan Lopez, is the winner of this year’s GFSB Business Innovation Awards which comes with a prize of £2000 of communications and IT equipment sponsored by Gibtelecom.

On presenting the award, GFSB Chairman, Julian Byrne said that the GFSB had been delighted at the number of entries in this year’s competition: “There has also been a great variety in the types of businesses that applied as well as in the stages of development of the entrants. It was exciting to see how many businesses are trying out bold and new initiatives.” This was a view reiterated by competition judges, among them Stephen Reyes, who said: “We were very impressed with the level and amount of innovation from local entrepreneurs whose businesses are exploring and attracting new markets and growing. It was a pleasure to receive the presentations from the short-listed business and witnessing the passion that these entrepreneurs have for their work.”

One of the many areas in which Buytickets.gi impressed the judges was in the uniqueness of the business proposition, which, while taking inspiration from many similar ticket-selling websites around the world, has combined technical skills and an in-depth understanding of local market conditions to create a product that is tailor made for Gibraltar. “Buytickets.gi has created a highly customised product which at the same time provides a platform for other local businesses to attract customers to their events,” Stephen added, “and they are also growing into new, exciting markets, currently in the process of evolving a service for the local tourism sector.”

In addition to this, Buytickets.gi has demonstrated to the judges its ability to use technology combined with business acumen to overcome the many difficulties and challenges that executing a ticket sales website involves. Eran Shay, also a competition judge, pointed out that the site contains some extremely complex specifications in order for the front end customer experience to work so smoothly. He was impressed with the level of customisation for each client as each event has varying requirements, and also with the high level of data protection and security systems in place.

Presenting the prize, Lianne Azzopardi, of Gibtelecom, said that Gibtelecom were delighted to sponsor the Business Innovation Awards again this year and congratulated winner, Jordan Lopez in finding a particular niche and in creating support and a gateway to opportunities for other businesses. “As part of the judging panel, Gibtelecom was looking for home-grown businesses that had found a niche and were working to develop in a unique space, as well as providing additional opportunities for other businesses to grow. We are very happy to support the Business Innovation Awards.”