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18th October 2000 Oli in finals of BBC awards The 16-year-old creator of the much-publicised pupiline.net, which started life as an anti-bullying web site and has since developed into an e-magazine for the teen market, has been short-listed for the BBC People’s Awards. Oli Watts has received national and international acclaim for the site in recent months appearing on a host of television and radio programmes including a live broadcast coast-to coast in the States on the NBC network. His "for us by us" approach has caught the imagination of people all over the world bringing endorsements and support from the education and business communities as well as the Prime Minister. With the help of pupiline chairman, Edwin Hamilton, Oli has already attracted some major investors including pupiline’s ISP, KeConnect, and Burger King as well as a number of angel investors. One of Europe’s leading design companies, London-based Design Bridge is in the process of re-branding the site for an October launch. Pupiline’s publicity has been handled by former journalist, Christine Garrington, who runs a PR and media training agency, Mosaic Publicity, in Essex and who has been instrumental in gaining extensive media coverage for the youngster’s dotcom venture and who has helped him gain a "talking head" profile on youth issues both on local and national radio. Invitations to talk at conferences are also starting to flood in from a variety of organisations Oli launched pupiline.net almost overnight after suffering at the hands of bullies in his former school. A chance comment by his father, David, led him to combine his desire to vent his own feelings about bullies and to let other youngsters know they weren’t alone with his web skills to create a voice for himself and other youngsters. Pupiline now has a team of about 30 people working on the site, contributing articles on a whole range of issues both serious and fun from part-time jobs, money matters, exam stress, film reviews and other cool things for teenagers. Oli, as Managing Director, has overall control of what goes on the site and how it is written and presented. Oli is delighted with the latest accolade from the BBC, although he still has no idea who nominated him. "I am very excited to be down to the final four, because I think this award recognises just how far I have taken pupiline, as well as the bullying side of the web site. I’m particularly pleased that this is an award voted for by ordinary people, people like me." A BBC crew visited Oli and his editorial team in Ipswich earlier this month to make a short film, which was broadcast on BBC 1 on September 10 in a programme called Time to Vote. Now the public is being asked to vote on who should be the winner in a variety of categories. Oli will find himself in exceptional company on the night of the awards, which are being held at the Albert Hall and are being presented by Gaby Roslin and Michael Buerk. Other category finalists include Robbie Williams, J.K Rowling and Sir Sean Connery to name but a few. But the young entrepreneur knows exactly who he would like to rub shoulders with on October 6th. Oli hopes he might just get an audience with his business hero, Sir Richard Branson who has been nominated for the People’s Award 2000.
- The Pupiline Team
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