On Tuesday 28th October 2014 I travelled to London to the house of commons with my family for the TalkTalk Digital Heros 2014 award ceremony in the House of Commons.

For those unaware what the Digital Hero awards are, they are an award scheme organised by TalkTalk, Go on UK, Citizens Online and the Mirror that is designed to celebrate people who use digital technology to bring about social change.

I had made it through shortlisting and a public voting voting rounds in the Next Generation category (a special category for a “young person”) and had been informed back on the 29th September that I had won the category! Winning the category came with £4000 to spend towards my project (teaching kids in Northern Ireland to code) and a Macbook air.

So on Monday I travelled to House of Commons from Northern Ireland (where the weather was terrible!) to the award ceremony.

Off to London for the #DigitalHero award ceremony in House of Commons! Hopefully weather is better in London #excited pic.twitter.com/YFzS3uohfB

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) October 28, 2014

Before the ceremony started I (after a bit of a wild goose chase) met up with Alan O’Donohoe, the recipient of the Volunteer Digital Hero award for his awesome work with Raspberry Jams (and piles of other events!).

Before heading in we got some photographers with the houses of parliament in the background.

 

The ceremony itself was in the Strangers dining room in the House of Commons.

The TalkTalk #DigitalHero award ceremony is getting under away in House of Commons in the strangers dining room. pic.twitter.com/VQEid6vJtF

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) October 28, 2014

After a brief introduction speech from John Fisher (Chief executive of Citizens Online), the award ceremony got underway with each recipient of the category awards getting presented their awards.

I was awarded my Next Generation award by Claire Sutcliffe (Co-founder and CEO of Codeclub).

 

They then announced the overall TalkTalk UK Digital Hero 2014 award winner as “Andrew Mulholland”!

Given that there were so many other amazing and deserving projects, it was a complete unexpected shock to win the award!

This overall award comes with an additional £5000 to spend towards teaching kids to code!

 

Huge thanks to everyone who voted for me in the public vote stage!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me including @Rahul_Mahale @KateKilgannon @RasPiTV @B_U_D_S @shirleyevans @McrRaspJam @Raspberry_Pi

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) September 29, 2014

Thanks to everyone who voted for me including @IntelBelfast @boeeerb @mikemcsharry @susaneaston @stephenmcclune @dave_spice @sydneysmith77

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) September 29, 2014

Thanks to everyone who voted for me including @TeachesCompSci @teknoteacher @tyrower @ManchesterBudo @Dan_Aldred @CatLamin @gonetside

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) September 29, 2014

Thanks to everyone who voted for me including @MissPhilbin @fth_nix @GenInnovators @tmhrtly @polski_al @whaleygeek @JarJarGeek @cimota

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) September 29, 2014

Thanks to everyone who voted for me including @yattyimages @Bolster @j1lstuart @SMB_business @TrishatTrackars @Aikidokajeff @RonanFinnegan

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) September 29, 2014

Thanks to everyone who voted for me including @biglesp @cymplecy @CompAtSch @charwarz @CASWales @CASinclude @DublinMaker

— Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) September 29, 2014