Football and hurling anecdotes were flying at the National Enterprise Awards ceremony, which took place at the conference centre in the Hogan Stand on October 25.

But the tenth running of the annual awards took place to recognise talent and commitment outside the field of play. Six companies were chosen for the final out of a longlist of 26 which was compiled by the various County and City Enterprise Boards around Ireland, and the tension among the finalists was as real as if they were two teams facing the final few minutes of an All-Ireland decider.

Previous winners of the National Enterprise Awards competition include Hot Irishman of Carlow (which produces ready-mixed Irish coffees) and Grouse Lodge Recording Studios, both of whom have gone on to achieve further international acclaim, while the 2005 winner, in the shape of Integrated Facilities Solutions (IFS), which is a company providing information management systems for facilities, construction and property projects, has been promoting its product as far away as the Far East. The six finalists this year were Sportsworld Netting Ltd from Clare, Modern Timber Homes Ltd from Donegal, IBAT Ltd of Fingal, Wilton Timber Products from Offaly, Technical Ideas. com Ltd of Sligo and Apex Geoservices Ltd from Wexford. And, for the first time since 1993, a team from Donegal (in the shape of Modern Timber Homes Ltd) left Croke Park with the major award in its hands. The runner-up was Technical Ideas. com Ltd.

The competition itself involves two stages, with winners of the County Finals progressing to the national competition from which the six finalists were selected.

Each competition is independently adjudicated, and the selection criteria include employment potential, marketing strength, financial strength, innovation/technology and quality of business plan.

The evening of the Final was hosted by RTE's Bryan Dobson, who took time out of the Six-One News to compere the events. Guest of honour and keynote speaker was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin TD, who pointed to the calibre of the event, and spoke of Ireland's needs for a good enterprise culture, stating that this self sufficiency was critical for the large multinational companies in their decisions to locate to Ireland.

"Local enterprise is intrinsically bound-up in a company's decision to invest in a country, " he said. "It is a significant factor in persuading them to come to Ireland."

Minister Martin highlighted the significant contribution of the County and City Enterprise Boards in creating a situation whereby one in every 10 people in Ireland is currently involved in some sort of entrepreneurial activity. But he also said that he would like to see this figure raised to one in five by next decade, a point which was echoed by the other main speaker on the night, chief executive of Dun LaoghaireRathdown CEB Michael Johnson, who is chairman of the Association of Chief Executive Officers of the County and City Enterprise Boards.

"The real challenge in our enterprise environment is to continue to "up our game" in the start-up stakes, " he said.

"We must translate the vastly changed entrepreneurial landscape in which Ireland is now a European leader (second only to Poland) into ever increasing numbers of new business starts."

The evening was rounded off with a speech from one of Ireland's leading entrepreneurs, Brody Sweeney, who created O'Brien's Sandwich Bars are took it from a singleoutlet company into a successful franchise operation.

He likened the early years of a company to trying to run a marathon . . . something which the six finalists were presumably familiar with, although how many of them had run a marathon did not come up on the night.