The curtain to the much anticipated Open Data Institute ODI Awards came down on the 1st of November. The nominees were classed in the following categories, in business, publishing, innovation, social impact, individual champion and Women in Data. The recorded stream reveals a busy and fullfilling programme. 

The ODI Summit Awards 2016

The awards were held at BFI Southbank and hosted by ODI. This summit came exactly 27 years after the invention of the World Wide Web. The judges of this edition were renowned individuals - Tim Berners-Lee, Nigel Shadbolt, Martha Lane Fox, Hera Hussain, Edafe Onerhime and Emer Coleman. Sir Tim Berners-Lee (TimBL) is widely known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. The ODI Awards 2016 celebrate innovation and excellence in open data across the world.

The nominees in the stated categories were announced here. In the Open Data Publisher Award there were following nominations (i) AGRIS, (2) Data Mill North and (3) OpenDefra. A glance through this list would show that this was a competitive race. In the end, the 2016 Open Data Publisher award went to Data Mill North.

— Sarah Schacht (@SarahSchacht) November 1, 2016

The colourful evening also saw winners in other categories. The full archive web stream of the awards can be viewed here. AGRIS was represented and kindly review its nomination bid. The rest of the awards are also seen here, the 'open data innovation award' winner went to Humanitarian Data Exchange, and  while the 'women in data' award went to 360 Giving.

ODI Summit Review

The programme of the summit show a rich programme which provided participants with a lot of features. These including presentations and parallel sessions, for example the opening sessions talk, "How will the web of data help us address today's global challenges?". The preamble of this talk stated, "With digital and technological innovation moving at the rate of knots, this opening session will address how linked data will form the basis of our response to economic, social and environmental challenges". The full recording can be listened here 

• One of the key sessions was the ODI 2016 Data Infrastructure. This session focused ondata such as statistics, maps and real-time data that will help communities make better decisions and build services. An interesting cliché by ODI  related to this was "If data infrastructure is as important to our infrastructure as roads, then the Open Data Institute is helping to lay the concrete".
• Another highlight was the Demo Café, which allowed startups to show case their products and services using open data. Startup are considered to be the future business ventures in the next generation of digital business. Open data entrepreneurs from across Europe met and share their stories. The Open Banking and Open Cities were two other focus points that received considerable attention and sessions.
• In agriculture and nutrition, a session entitled "How can we improve food production and safety through open innovation?" brought in key speakers with open data and innovation within this sector. This session sought to highlight open data challenges in agriculture and nutrition and discuss  what the future has for open innovation in agriculture. The following speakers participated in this event, Nokos Manouselis (Co-funder and CEO, Agroknow); Julie Pierce ( Director of Openness, Data and Digital, Food Standards Agency); Graham Miller (Head Data Sciences, R& D IS, Syngenta) and Anne Bruinsma (Founder, Hackwerk Advies)

The event had a number of sponsors listed here, including GODAN.

For more information

Open Data Awards 2016: shortlist announced

ODI Summit and Awards 2016