Young Interactive Entrepreneur of Turkey awarded to Hakkı Göktaş!

The winner of the British Council’s International Young Interactive Entrepreneur Competition was announced on 18 September at an award ceremony held at British Consulate, Istanbul.

13 short listed finalists presented their experiences in interactive entrepreneurship and their future plans to the jury that included Mevlüt Dinç (General Manager, Sobee), Murat Kaya (Editor, Digitalage), Oğuzhan Özcan (Professor, YTU Communication Design Programme), Cemil Türün (General Manager, Yogurt Technologies), Ruth Ur (Director Creativity, British Council).

Hakkı Göktaş won the title “Young Interactive Entrepreneur of the Year, Turkey” for his entrepreneurial ability in the promotion of interactive media sector in Turkey. Göktaş is the founder and Managing Director of Turk Dijital / CEO of Soundklan, which is his latest interactive media project in Turk Dijital. Soundklan has recently had a spin off and working as a separate company today. Soundklan music community was created and launched in Istanbul (July 2008) and Budapest (October 2008). In November 2008, Göktaş travelled to the UK to represent Turkey and compete against representatives from other countries. The winner of the International Interactive Entrepreneur of 2008 is Andrei Korobeinik from Estonia. Göktaş was presented a special commendation by the jury as the runner-up of the competition:

“A fantastic communicator, Hakki gave an excellent presentation where he exhibited his thorough understanding of the Turkish market, the different online communities, and the marketing opportunities that derive from these. Charismatic, persuasive and plausible, he impressed the judges with his extraordinary ability to understand and engage with the different cultures and forces within society. A natural creative entrepreneur, the judges have no doubt of his potential to become a leader in the Turkish and regional interactive sector.”