Jungledrums, an innovative website that allows friends to recommend movies, books and restaurants via their mobiles, won the top prize at the Mega Pitch event in Adelaide last week.

South Australian Minister for Science and Information Economy Michael O'Brien presented Jungledrums founder Nick Butchart with a $4000 prize for the best pitch of the day.

Mr.Butchart said taking an idea from concept to early stage development had been “an awesome journey”. “Jungledrums is a simple way of sharing opinions among your friends online as you would in real life,” he said.

“It allows friends to share opinions across a broad range of topics from the best YouTube video or Adelaide’s worst Chinese restaurant to the best city to visit in Bolivia.”

Since early this year, 11 teams of South Australian entrepreneurs have undergone an intensive workshop program to turn their innovative mobile phone ideas into credible business plans. The program is backed by Mega (Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance), a ground-breaking initiative intended to increase the size and capability of mobile phone and allied industries.

Last Friday, teams taking part in the program pitched their business ideas in a Pitch Day to an invited audience and a judging panel of digital technology experts. Pitches covered areas ranging from educational games and using digital media to save the River Murray to an online gluten-free recipe database and a Bluetooth system for nightclub dating. Other award recipients included:

• MCorp for the best written business plan, outlining its rapid application development framework for smartphones
• WebRem, which pitched a simple-to-use mobile phone interface to control electronic equipment in the home
• Films on the Fly, which proposed a customisable online video distribution platform.

Members of the pitch panel included The Project Factory’s Jennifer Wilson, who has more than 20 years experience in interactive media, Telstra Director of Customer Experience Cyrus Allen, m.Net Chief Operations Officer Bob Humphries, DSPace founder Jonathon Whalley and Impress Media Australia managing director John Harris.

More inforamtion about Jungledrums is available at www.jungledrums.com.au.

To learn more about MEGA, visit www.mega.org.au

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