IBC Special Award 2009

IBC Council presented a special award to Amber Alert Netherlands, an innovative cross-platform system designed to spread information about a missing child as quickly as possible.

Should a child become missing the system, developed by Netpresenter, gives the Dutch police one single point of access to push out alerts simultaneously to radio, television and the press. It also delivers online messages to individuals and businesses who have registered for the service to computers, as SMS and instant messages, website alerts and RSS news feeds.

The first time the system was used, the child was found within 45 minutes of the alert being issued by the police. Employees of a fast food restaurant recognised the child from the alert message on the store’s digital signage screens.

“Mercifully, the abduction of a child is still a rare occurrence, but when it happens everyone is focussed on finding the child as quickly as possible,” said Michael Lumley, chair of the IBC Innovation Awards judging panel which is making this special award. “Amber Alert is a great use of technology in our industry which provides a real social service and we are delighted to make this award.”

For more about Netpresenter, visit its website.

The IBC Special Award was presented to the Netherlands police agency KLPD and to Netpresenter as part of the IBC Awards Ceremony on Sunday 13 September in the Auditorium.