Innovate bristol Volume 1 by Sven Boermeester

VOLUME 1

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BRISTOL

I n n o v a t i o n s o f t h e W o r l d . c o m

Published by

“Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.” – THOMAS DEWAR

Photo By Matthew Perks, Perkspective Photography

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BRISTOL IS A CITY WHERE HERITAGE AND TECHNOLOGY HAVE FOUND A WAY TO COEXIST EFFORTLESSLY. NATALIA RODRÍGUEZ NOVÁS – ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Why Bristol?

Natalia has a Degree in Social Communication and a Master’s Degree in Corporate & Political Communication. Passionate about all things digital, innovation and social entrepreneurship, she works as a Freelance Digital Project Manager, leading projects successfully from start to launch — and beyond.

When Global Village Publishing approached me to create the first book of their Innovate series in Europe, we asked ourselves: “Where do we start?” The answer was obvious: “Innovate Bristol” —no doubt. I am sure that, as you flick through the pages of this book, you will soon understand why this was such an easy decision for me to make. This city has some truly amazing stories to share with the world:

Originally from Caracas (Venezuela), with a strong Spanish heritage, Natalia currently lives in Switzerland with her husband Andrés and their daughter Anna.

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Bristol’s Innovation Ecosystem is possible thanks to hundreds of people who have worked incredibly hard to pursue their dreams—while supporting others to reach theirs. Undoubtedly, one of the determining factors in Bristol’s Innovation Ecosystem has been the creation of spaces where students and entrepreneurs can exchange their ideas, research, test, fail, learn, and ultimately, innovate. Bristol is a city where you’ll find a supportive network for innovation and entrepreneurship, across a wide range of industries. This encourages healthy competition and a sense of being part of something greater than just a business idea—you are part of a community that has your back! Additionally, this city is determined to be more diverse, equal and sustainable each day.

The time is now Bristol is a city where heritage and technology have found a way to coexist effortlessly. Innovation is everywhere you look: in the ideas currently brewing within its universities, in its vibrant creative industry, in the technological breakthroughs developed here but celebrated worldwide, in its booming food scene, in its daring art showcases, and also in the monumental work carried out by nonprofit organisations and social entrepreneurs. Bristol offers us a glimpse into the future. One where we can change lives for the better through collaboration and a support network who is genuinely committed to helping the city thrive. Bristol’s Innovation Ecosystem is proof that we can create amazing things when we work together and support each other.

Thank you I was lucky to live in Bristol for over five years. It was during this time when I really understood the immense value of independent businesses and the power of diversity. Bristol taught me the importance of staying true to oneself, and these are all things I really wanted to celebrate through the stories featured in this book. Please know Innovate Bristol has been crafted with immense care from everyone at Global Village Publishing. This project has been an absolute pleasure, from concept to completion. I’ll be forever grateful for this unique opportunity to give back to a city that, on a personal level, has given me so much.

Photo By Matthew Perks, Perkspective Photography

From Brunel’s SS Great Britain—one of the most important historic ships in the world—through the engineering marvel that is Concorde and its memorable last flight to Filton over The Clifton Suspension Bridge, to becoming one of Europe’s most renowned tech hubs at present. Innovation is embedded in this city and this is something that deserves to be captured and celebrated.

Deep rooted collaboration Collaboration is a word that you will come across many times in Innovate Bristol— and that is only because collaboration is what Bristol is all about. The success of

Whether you are holding this stunning coffee table book in your hands, or browsing its digital version, I would love to hear what you think. Please feel free to share your thoughts and use #InnovateBristol on your social media posts so we can join the conversation.

nataliarodrigueznovas naturodriguez naturodriguez.co

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The â&#x20AC;&#x153;Innovate Bristolâ&#x20AC;? Team would like to give a special thanks to all the participants and the following companies for their support and assistance in making this project a reality.

Meet the people that are building a better Bristol for tomorrow

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INNOVATE BRISTOL: A MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE AND MORE.”

Innovate Bristol showcases the best of Bristol’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Embedded in its pages, you will find augmented reality videos that accompany nearly every feature, and when you use the free GLOBAL VILLAGE AR app, the world of the future will open up before your very eyes.

SVEN BOERMEESTER - FOUNDER / CEO, INTERNATIONAL GROUP PUBLISHER

But “Innovate Bristol” is far more than a tech-enabled publication; it is a multimedia experience centered around the deluxe hardcover coffeetable book you are now holding, which includes AR videos and also an online web platform and multilevel social media networking. Online, the full e-book will be viewed in the millions through the InnovationsoftheWorld.com online library. This publication aims to celebrate those involved in the Bristol ecosystem, but it is also meant for all business leaders and decision-makers who can effect change in their industries throughout Europe and throughout the world. We publish Innovate Bristol for the open-minded folk who want to know more about the exciting changes that have recently transpired in the Bristol ecosystem, and who play or want to play an active role in its growth and development. This inaugural edition of Innovate Bristol is just part of a global series. We are currently launching volumes in cities throughout the GlobalVillage.world publishing partnership network. By experiencing Innovate Bristol, you are part of our Global Village network, and we are happy to have you. I trust you will join us as we continue the journey of the Innovate series. Sven Boermeester Founder/CEO International Group Publisher

Callie Van Graan Global Village COO

Belinda van Graan Project Manager

Sarah Nieman Production Manager

Meghan Tear Percy Managing Editor

JR Griggs Web Development Partner

Ravi Handve Art Direction and Design

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CHAPTER 1

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9 25 49 57 81

THOUGHT LEADERS

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

FUTURE CITIES

AIRBUS

HUBS, INCUBATORS & ACCELERATORS

EDUCATION & RESEARCH

CONTENTS

193 203 217 231 243

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

ANIMATION

FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY

ART, CULTURE & HERITAGE

HOSPITALITY, FOOD & DRINK

SOCIAL INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

International Group Publisher Sven Boermeester Callie Van Graan Publishing Partner Natalia Rodríguez Novás Project Managers Belinda van Graan Sarah Nieman

Editing and Production Meghan Tear Percy Sarah Nieman

Email: info@globalvillage.world www.GlobalVillage.world www.InnovationsOfTheWorld.com

Research and Selection Sven Boermeeester Callie Van Graan Meghan Tear Percy Natalia Rodríguez Novás Sarah Nieman

Art Direction and Design Ravi Handve

Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in ‘Innovate® Bristol’ vol 1. Neither ‘Innovate® Bristol’, Proudly UK nor Global Village assume any responsibility for errors or omissions. All rights reserved: No part of this publication shall be reproduced, copied, transmitted, adapted or modified in any form or by any means. This publication shall not be stored in whole or in part in any form in any retrieval system.

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99 111 129 155 169 181

CHAPTER 6

ROBOTICS

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

INNOVATION ENABLERS PRODUCT INNOVATION BIG DATA & ANALYTICS & RETAIL

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

BIOTECHNOLOGY & HEALTHCARE

SPORT & WELLNESS

253 285 293 305 327 343

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CREATIVE, DESIGN & MARKETING

PUBLIC RELATIONS

CO-WORKING SPACES

EVENTS, MEDIA & NETWORKING

PEOPLE & CORPORATE CULTURE

FINANCE & LAW

IT’S A KIND OF MAGIC...

DOWNLOAD THE GLOBAL VILLAGE AR APP TO VIEW 100 AUGMENTED REALITY VIDEOS IN THIS BOOK! To experience the future of print, download the Global Village AR App from the IOS or Android App stores. Open the App and hold it about 30cm above any page that contains an image with the “play” Icon.

Make sure your back camera is pointing at the page. Click the Play button that appears onscreen and immerse yourself in the latest updated content with reference to that page.

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MARVIN REES, MAYOR OF BRISTOL

Photo by Destination Bristol 7

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Bristol is rapidly attracting a reputation as a sustainable, innovative city with a dynamic culture of talent and innovation. With our world-class universities, high-tech sector, digital expertise and infrastructure, we are well positioned to embrace this reputation, while ensuring the benefits are shared by all.

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We have the right conditions to continue to be a thriving economy, but with emerging global challenges and competition for inward investment, we must continue to work together with partners from our city’s business, academic and charitable sector communities. We are proud of our city and I invite you to come and see, and explore for yourself.

We know the pace of digitisation is swift and the implications far reaching. As cities welcome this opportunity, we’re planning how digital and smart technologies will shape the future of our city, our interactions and our economy. Our shared city vision and One City Plan for Bristol is one of hope and aspiration, where everyone can share in its success – and this is driving innovations that deliver into the future, put people first and improve the quality of life for all citizens.

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol @MarvinJRees #WeAreBristol www.bristol.gov.uk/mayor

Bristol regularly tops polls as the UK’s most liveable city, including being named the best place to live outside of London for people under 25. In 2018, we won the Smart City Award at the Global Mobile Awards and pole position on Huawei’s UK Smart City Index.

ABOUT MARVIN REES, MAYOR OF BRISTOL Marvin Rees is the elected Mayor of Bristol and has pledged to make Bristol a fairer city for all.

But my priority is to make sure the tech sector is accessible, inclusive and harnesses Bristol’s full range of diversity. We welcome ambitious partners who want to join us on this journey.

Marvin was born in Bristol and studied in both the UK and US. He read Economic History and Politics at Swansea University, later achieving a Master’s Degree in Political theory and Government. Marvin attended Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and completed a Master’s Degree in global economic development and later undertook the Yale World Fellows global leadership programme. He has been involved in voluntary sector roles and has worked as a programme manager for the NHS. Marvin also worked as a Broadcast Journalist for BBC Radio.

In our city, business growth is encouraged via the Engine Shed hub – a collaboration between the council, the University of Bristol and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership to showcase the strengths and innovations of the region. The SETsquared enterprise partnership between regional universities provides support programmes to turn ideas into thriving businesses and has twice been ranked as the global number one university business incubator.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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OUR VIRTUOUS CIRCLE OF INTELLIGENCE GATHERING AND REVENUE GENERATION FUNDS THE DELIVERY OF PROJECT WORK WHICH ENABLES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY.” NICK STURGE MBE – DIRECTOR, ENGINE SHED

When the words innovate and Bristol are put together, one name that always springs to mind and in conversation is Nick Sturge MBE. Nick led the vision for enterprise hub, Engine Shed, from concept to reality in 2013 and since then has driven it to success beyond its original ambition. Engine Shed set its stall out with a loose mission which, over the years, we’ve refined as a vision to be that ‘our region is a growing economy that is inclusive, sustainable and that benefits everyone who lives here, and is recognised internationally as innovative and dynamic.’ Our virtuous circle of intelligence gathering and revenue generation funds the delivery of project work which enables economic activity. This activity, as well as hosting the SETsquared business incubator, then delivers benefits to people, planet and profit, and in turn, increases our revenue from room use and hire, thereby providing the essential working mechanism to deliver inclusive economic growth for all. What does that mean in practice? I have quite a simplistic view that if, with one hand, we create and nurture high quality, growing social and forprofit enterprises, run by leaders who understand the value of diversity of talent, and of nurturing that in their workforce, and on the other hand we showcase those job opportunities to young people, from across the richly diverse (in all senses) community that we are privileged to have in Bristol and Bath, then we have a winning combination. Inclusion isn’t an optional extra. To have the greatest possible chance of business success, inclusion needs to be a core business principle. We endeavour to amplify this message, create and highlight practical examples and work to overcome barriers for people to access these industries and sectors. We bring business and inclusion together under one roof so that inclusive growth will result, rather than focusing relentlessly on inclusion as an end in itself. We don’t have a choice about doing this kind of stuff. I hope that our projects demonstrate this, such as Diverse Workforce for the Future, teacher work experience, Quarterly Investor Briefings and the Entrepreneurial Outreach Project. My advice to any business leader is to “give forward” – as a mentor, by offering work experience, through offering bursaries or apprenticeships, in going to schools and community groups or refreshing your recruitment criteria. If you invest in the local ecosystem, you will get the benefit back. Trust me. Engine Shed Station Approach, Temple Meads Bristol, BS1 6QH 0117 903 1100 EngineShed_BB nicksturge engine-shed.co.uk 11

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ENABLING COLLABORATION WILL ACHIEVE FAR GREATER, LONG-TERM RESULTS THAN DRIVING COMPETITION.” BRIONY PHILLIPS – ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ENGINE SHED

VALUES-LED SCALEUP IMPACT I spent my childhood and my formative years in Bath. After university in Nottingham, 11 years in London and a love affair with Australia, I chose to make Bristol my home 3 years ago (‘Sydney, but closer to home’ as one person described it). Initially, I continued my work as a freelance consultant which led to a meeting with Griff from Friska and thanks to him, an introduction to Nick Sturge. So, 2.5 years ago I joined Engine Shed as Scaleup Enabler for the West of England. When I interviewed for the role in Summer 2017, I couldn’t have imagined how well the region would reflect my values and how warmly I would be welcomed into the city. The Scaleup Enabler role was an innovation. When it comes to supporting fast-growth companies, other regions of the country have prioritised relationship managers and programmes of support. In the West of England, we already have a vibrant support ecosystem so the challenge was clear: to work out what barriers negatively impact business growth, to raise awareness and understanding of them and to help the public and private sector to drive positive change.

Briony is Associate Director and West of England Scaleup Enabler at Engine Shed. Briony champions the scaleup business ecosystem and helps overcome challenges faced by fast-growth companies such as access to investment. She runs a variety of organisational development projects for Engine Shed.

The unique environment at Engine Shed and, in the region, and the values that underpin many such initiatives in this city region have been crucial to the success of this project. I work on the belief that: 1. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘an Enabler is a person or thing that makes something possible.’ That’s me. 2. Transparency and storytelling are key, particularly with four partner organisations involved in the first year. 3. Enabling collaboration will achieve far greater, long-term results than driving competition. Bringing people together will reduce duplication and facilitate connections. 4. Being agile and responsive to information and opportunities, not beholden to a specific programme will deliver greater outcomes. Serendipity can be engineered. 5. We value insights and intelligence that we gather on a par with outputs – we use metrics to illustrate the story, not to drive the activity.

Briony’s career has spanned Deloitte Consulting, Teach First, the Open Data Institute and Lendlease in Australia. This ‘stacked portfolio’ approach to her career, known to her as ‘job shopping’ has enabled her to keep her passion for learning and leadership alive. Outside work, Briony has a particular penchant for baking and yoga and has recently completed a 3-year part-time Diploma in Nutritional Therapy.

Engine Shed Station Approach, Bristol, BS1 6QH 0117 903 1100 EngineShed_BB brionyphi1 engine-shed.co.uk 12

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EXPANSION ALSO COMES IN THE FORM OF TECH DIVERSIFICATION. OUR ROOTS ARE DEEP TECH, AND YET BRISTOL HAS SHOWN ITSELF TO BE SUPPORTIVE OF NEW, EMERGING, COOL TECH SECTORS.” MONIKA RADCLYFFE – CENTRE DIRECTOR, SETSQUARED BRISTOL

VISION FOR THE FUTURE We are getting it right here in Bristol. The tech sector is thriving, with growing interest from all parts of the global economy to invest, partner, or purchase from our members’ businesses. It’s important that we keep developing our city to continually improve and grow our status as a global trading place, securing our position as an exciting tech cluster that delivers commercial success. With this in mind, we are expanding our incubation services through scaling to Engine Shed 2 and working closely with the new Temple Quarter campus so that more startups can make their idea a business reality. Expansion also comes in the form of tech diversification. Our roots are deep tech, and yet Bristol has shown itself to be supportive of new, emerging, cool tech sectors. Our members such as Data Cubed, LettUs Grow, and Maths with Parents are all pushing boundaries in their tech niches of data science, Agritech, and Edtech. Increasing entrepreneurial diversity is a firm feature of Bristol’s future. With 16% of the city’s population from BAME backgrounds with 92 spoken languages, we are acting on this in a number of ways, including our Breakthrough Bursary membership and other access activities. And lastly, we’ve started and are continuing our work proactively maintaining a community of high-growth businesses once they leave SETsquared, through our alumni membership which includes known brands such as Blu Wireless, Neighbourly, and Micrima. Keeping their involvement in the city economy is important as this provides a strong foundation for future prosperity and positive growth. To all of those who are thinking about starting up a tech business, my advice to you is to go for it…but only once you have done your research and you are convinced people will buy your product or service. Many successful tech startups have a simple idea or proposition at their centre, but it’s the execution of those ideas that really matter. Build a strong team around you. Then you could be on to a winner.

MONIKA RADCLYFFE - LEADING THE CITY’S TECH CLUSTER GROWTH SETsquared Bristol is the Global No. 1 University-led Business Incubator working with the University of Bristol. I have been the Centre Director since 2016, working with over 250 companies, including Bristol Pound, Interactive Scientific, Immersive Labs, YellowDog, and Zeetta Networks. Bristol is the second-largest tech cluster in the UK and the most productive, with two ‘unicorns’ including Graphcore.

Any tech businesses interested in joining the incubation programme can contact SETsquared Bristol at www.setsquared-bristol.co.uk.

Engine Shed, Station Approach, Temple Meads, Bristol. BS1 6QH 0117 903 1100 SETsquared_Br

We have around 85 members and a strong alumni group of 22 businesses. In 2018, our members raised £80 million in investment, enjoyed a collective revenue of £43.5 million, and employed 1,100 people over 23 high tech industry sectors.

SETsquared Bristol setsquared-bristol.co.uk 13

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OUR VISION WAS TO PUT BRISTOL ON THE MAP AS ONE OF THE UK’S KEY LIFE SCIENCES ECOSYSTEMS.” DR HARRY DESTECROIX – CEO, UNIT DX

When Novo Nordisk acquired our company, Ziylo, in a deal potentially worth $800 million, it exceeded our wildest expectations. Four years earlier, in 2014, I was finishing my Ph.D. in Professor Davis’ lab at the University of Bristol. We’d designed a set of molecular ‘sugar switches’ that sense how much glucose is present in solutions, with applications in diabetes to produce new therapeutics and sensors.

The biggest challenge we faced with Ziylo was finding space for R&D. Our mad idea in 2015 was to convert a warehouse into Unit DX: central Bristol’s first science incubator with rentable laboratories. Our vision was to put Bristol on the map as one of the UK’s key life sciences ecosystems. While there weren’t many startups at the time, we knew there was a glut of research on the fringes of commercialisation. We bet that if we could lower the barriers to entry, we’d see an explosion of enterprise.

When my Ph.D. funding ran out, I reached a crossroads: should I go back to working at a restaurant to pay rent and try to write up in my free time, or take a gamble on my own business venture? I decided to max out my credit cards and build Ziylo while finishing my thesis. It certainly gave me a lot of motivation.

We opened our first site in 2017, and now we’ve filled it, we’re expanding into a second. We’ve seen more startups associated with the University of Bristol in the last two years than in the decade before we opened our doors.

Bristol has a tremendous pull as a city. It’s consistently voted one of the best places to live in Europe: it’s independent, vibrant, and liberal, with an incredible art and music scene. Bristol is bubbling over with creativity and attracts young people with fresh ideas.

Many people told us that Ziylo and Unit DX would fail, but I don’t worry about advice unless it’s backed up with information, and those giving it can answer the hard questions. Never lose your drive to learn and understand a situation. Question everything: how are things done, and why, and can they be done differently?

But I’d noticed something of a ‘brain drain’ from the area. The universities are pumping out world-class researchers, but there’s nowhere for them to go. There’s a single-digit probability of finding a permanent position in academia, and the prospects in the industry weren’t much better. Many graduates I knew were forced to move to find research work or changed their careers to stay in Bristol.

Unit DX, St Philips Central, Albert Road, Bristol, BS2 0XJ 0117 403 4035 info@unitdx.com 14

Unit_DX Unit DX unitdx.com

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Dr. Zara Nanu is a powerful advocate for workplace equality, gender and ethnicity fair pay, equal pay, and wider pay gaps. She has been at the forefront of women in business for nearly a decade and is an entrepreneur who believes business can generate social impact as well as revenues and profits. As the CEO of Gapsquare, Zara helps companies comply with gender pay gap regulations and use data to narrow their pay gap.

At the start of my career, I worked on combatting human trafficking in Moldova. Terrible employment conditions forced some women to seek high-risk lines of work. I found that helping women out of tough situations and into work could only be effective when the world of work supported, developed, and understood them. I realised the importance of financial opportunity and economic rights for many of us throughout the world—without financial parity, how could we achieve social equality? And so Gapsquare was born. I co-founded the company three years ago in order to use the objective honesty of data to combat the gender pay gap. We have since developed the Gapsquare FairPay® software to look for imbalances in pay within our increasingly diverse global workplaces. Our software is now painting the picture of inequalities across ethnicity, disability, age, and sexual orientation. Our tool is streamlining fair pay by analysing and tracking pay disparity statistics and transforming HR and Payroll data into narratives built for impactful policy design and implementation. We are based in Bristol and work globally to support our clients to build equality and diversity into everything they do. The networks we have made in Bristol form a close-knit community that we are incredibly proud of. It is through incredible, inspired communities like ours here in Bristol that we’re able to change the world.

AUTOMATION - KEEPING IT HUMAN Conversations in tech are increasingly turning toward automation and how it will change the working world. Because the HR sphere is historically personfocused, the uptake of automation and artificial intelligence was initially slow. Yet, automation can greatly improve decision-making within HR, bringing together accuracy, efficiency, and objective decision-making, leading to fairer and more effective human decisions.

WE MUST ALL WORK TO MAKE SURE THAT AI AND DATA TECHNOLOGIES ARE BUILT TO CREATE FAIRER GLOBAL SYSTEMS.”

But automation, as it stands, still has baked-in bias. Because of the homogeneity of the tech industry—and of the data that it has collected—automation will mirror age-old biases unless we programme it not to. We must all work to make sure that AI and Data technologies are built to create fairer global systems. It’s time to take a magnifying glass to the assumptions our technologies are making and build fairer systems. In doing so, we ensure that we are embracing the potential and the pay-off for building inclusive spaces and inclusive companies, and guarantee that the world of tomorrow will welcome talent, no matter the journey of the individual. Phone: 0117 230 0066 Email: hello@gapsquare.com Gapsquare gapsquare.com

DR. ZARA NANU – CEO, GAPSQUARE

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FIRSTLY, AS BUSINESS OWNERS, WE MUST BE THE CATALYST FOR BUILDING A CULTURE OF INNOVATORS, FORWARDTHINKERS AND RISK-TAKERS.” OLLY REID – NATWEST, SCALE ACCELERATION MANAGER THE INNOVATION MYTH – WHY OLD HABITS ARE STIFLING INNOVATION IN A NEW WORLD BY OLLY REID As John Holt once said, ‘’Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned…” This phrase has stuck with me since I first heard it back in 2008 and it fundamentally describes what I perceive to be the ‘innovation myth’. Having written my University dissertation on the History of UK Education, I had no choice but to conclude that ‘not much had changed’. The term ‘innovation’ has often been used to describe changes: for example, when blackboards were exchanged for interactive white ones, despite very few teachers using the ‘interactive’ part. While such introductions were indeed ‘innovative’ at the time, they failed to deal with the core challenge of an outdated curriculum which no longer served those it was designed to support. Prensky described this in Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001) when he suggested that ‘our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.’ If Prensky was correct and our education system is indeed outdated, then what of our workforce, our employees, our leaders, our businesses, ourselves? If the way that we think, create, problem-solve and imagine within our businesses, is created on a foundation of education suited to a previous world; and the quote often attributed to Einstein is correct in that we ‘cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them’; how do we move business forward and into the modern age? Firstly, as business owners, we must be the catalyst for building a culture of innovators, forward-thinkers and risk-takers. Secondly, we must take responsibility for developing our future leaders, ensuring that they don’t just do as they are told, thinking and operating in the same way as we have done, but constantly challenge the status quo and push the boundaries of what is currently possible.

So, the myth of innovation is this... it’s not a grand gesture, but a series of smaller, simpler steps that move us towards being better than we currently are. Whether that’s listening to our employees’ challenges and taking on their solutions, introducing a relaxed workwear policy that allows people to come to work as themselves, or as Bristol-based entrepreneur Darrell Irwin from Cre8ion recently did, introducing a four-day working week to help his team achieve a better work/life balance. Innovation lives within us all and we all have a responsibility to bring it out of those around us.

So, to the innovation myth… innovation is not the responsibility of CEOs or Directors, it doesn’t need a special department and it isn’t just for startups! Every single one of us is capable of innovation. We can all identify parts of the work that we do, that would make ourselves and therefore our businesses a little more efficient or effective.

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YOU’LL NEED TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CLIENTS, STAFF, SUPPLIERS, INVESTORS, MENTORS, AND BOARD ALL THE TIME. SPEND TIME WORKING ON THIS SKILL AND IT WILL PAY DIVIDENDS. GET GOOD PEOPLE AROUND YOU.” WILLIAM BRITTON – FOUNDER, AUTONOME Prior to Founding AutonoMe, William was a local lecturer teaching adults with Learning Disabilities and Autism for a number of years. It was here that he established his passion and began to see the world through the eyes of people with Learning Disabilities. This helped William see how his skills and experience could further lend themselves to innovating the way we provide support for household activities. I was born in Bristol and moved away at 18 to study at University after which I returned to Bristol to settle down and find my own feet. Throughout my time I’ve noticed Bristol has accelerated its progress in recent years, making it a great place to be right now. It’s buzzing with activity and each day hosts interesting events all across the city for both work and social activities. So many in fact I find it challenging to keep up with them all, recently requiring me to become more selective. There’s a welcoming, vibrant, inclusive culture at the heart of Bristol’s innovation. It’s these qualities that are really putting Bristol on the map. It’s incredibly challenging founding and scaling a company so it’s important that your motivation for the journey is intrinsic. You’ll be poor as hell for a long time—accepting that is wise! You’ll also question yourself a lot, so be clear about who you are and what you’re trying to achieve. If you fail initially, it might not be because your idea is bad—it could be the market just isn’t right. It’s important to create your own definition of success—what does success look like for you? My definition has never been based on personal goals but instead, on the positive impact I’m able to make in people’s lives, the bigger the impact the better! When people ask for advice I always say communication is key—if you can’t communicate your ideas in a way people can digest or understand, then you don’t have a business. You’ll need to communicate with your clients, staff, suppliers, investors, mentors, and board all the time. Spend time working on this skill and it will pay dividends. Get good people around you. We’re successful because we have a great team and everyone works really hard. Get in good people who can see what you’re trying to build and make sure they share your vision.

Email: info@autono.me.uk 0117 205 0654 twitter.com/AutonoMeNews facebook.com/AutonoMeNews AutonoMe autono.me.uk

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OPEN INNOVATION FOR A NEW TOMORROW.” MARK PROBERT – DIGITAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR

INNOVATION HAPPENS WHEN IDEAS ARE SHARED, CLEARLY COMMUNICATED AND ARE VISUALLY EXPLAINED. DESIGN THINKING IS KEY IF WE WANT TO INNOVATE AT PACE. At Newicon we don’t like to follow the crowd, we’re forging our own path; creating our very own ‘New Tomorrow’; which is our company mantra. For us the future is exciting and technology presents us with boundless opportunities to improve the world we live in and shape it for the better. Our clients are making a real difference with innovative and disruptive solutions to real problems. We help develop their ideas into design prototypes at pace, so startups can seek investment, launch online products and scale-up. We’ve helped award-winning startups through to enterprise organisations, such as Airbus, solve design-led technological challenges. I am personally passionate about helping startups achieve their vision, but aside from that, one area which makes Bristol such an exciting place to work is having a creative sector nestled between the aerospace and engineering powerhouses. You would be hard pushed to find another city in the world where a leading creative and engineering sector reside next door to one another as they do here in Bristol. For me, this represents exciting possibilities, not just for Newicon, but also for the region’s startups and specialist digital SMEs to contribute as we enter the fourth industrial revolution, where Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, open data collaboration and agile methodologies come to the fore. We have already developed a number of Augmented Reality solutions for aerospace using web technology, and hope to utilise our agile, design-led approach, to help these organisations think user, before technology, in order to truly transform processes and operations using new digital technology. Another thing that’s close to my heart is open innovation. The number of large organisations working on solving the same problems brings competition, but also creates waste. It is no surprise that during World War II, great innovations such as Radar were created at breakneck speeds, through open collaboration between great minds. It’s concerning, given the rate of climate change, that open innovation – especially between large organisations in aerospace and manufacturing – isn’t enabling knowledge-share at the rate the planet needs.

MARK PROBERT, DIGITAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR, NEWICON Not following a typical career path, Mark left school at 16 to work at a Design Consultancy in Cheltenham. Then, during a gap year in Australia in 2001, Mark worked at a leading Creative Agency in Melbourne, where he undertook projects for clients such as Adidas and the Australian Formula-1, Grand Prix.

Of course, innovation requires great minds. I’m passionate about transforming education to facilitate the digital revolution. Our current academic approach isn’t working. We need the designers and engineers of tomorrow to solve the skills gap in order to allow innovation to flourish. We need to consider alternative paths, like I did when I left school at 16. Newicon are currently exploring opportunities with a number of universities so we can play our part in shaping the workforces of tomorrow. Stay tuned; ‘New Tomorrow’ starts here!

In 2002, and back in the UK, Mark founded a Design Consultancy to work with companies such as Dyson, Dolby and Zurich. As digital evolved, Mark teamed with Steve O’Brien and Neill Jones and formed a partnership with Newicon; later becoming a Director as the businesses merged in 2014. Mark, Steve and Neill recognised early on, before UX was a thing, that a design-led approach would result in better user experience and leaner business process. Their exciting journey continues as Newicon move into digital products of their own… exciting times are ahead!

Newicion Ltd, The Waterfront Welsh Back, Bristol, BS1 4SB 0117 205 0425

mark.probert@newicon.net mark_newicon markeprobert newicon.net

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WE WANT TO ACCESS THE BEST TALENT NO MATTER WHERE IT COMES FROM AND SHOW THAT THE CITY IS OPEN TO ALL.” BEN SHORROCK – MANAGING DIRECTOR, TechSPARK

1. WHAT DO WE LOOK LIKE?

Bristol is an incredibly diverse city, with over 90 languages spoken in its schools, but this isn’t reflected in the tech cluster. Over 80% of the people working in tech are men and the vast majority of these are white. To build the best products we need to access talent from a range of backgrounds and perspectives. Organisations like Women’s Tech Hub, Girl Geeks, Black Girl Con, Black South West Network & Rife Mag all do exciting work, but more support is needed from companies to make sure we develop talent wherever it comes from.

2. WHERE DO WE COME FROM?

We want to access the best talent no matter where it comes from and show that the city is open to all. Whether this is about attracting new talent through programmes, like our own Bristol Calling, encouraging the best international students to stay here or showing that people from anywhere are welcome, we all have a part to play in highlighting Bristol as a truly global city.

3. WHAT DO WE NEED FROM TALENT?

With new people come new ideas of what talent is and how that is qualified. The traditional model of recruiting computer science graduates no longer fulfils demand. As businesses, we need to be much clearer about what skills and abilities we’re looking for in our teams and whether that requires a graduate. Where there are needs for specific technical learning, we should be looking at new models such as apprenticeships, returner programmes or coding bootcamps. By thinking about what we need and how we get there, we’re much better positioned to fulfil our current talent needs.

4. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? At TechSPARK I spend a lot of time speaking to people from across Bristol’s tech cluster. I hear lots of great news stories from people creating companies or products which solve problems and, often, make the world a better place.

However, whether speaking to startups, scaleups or global corporates–they all have an issue in common: how to access the best talent when they need it. Being able to hire the very best people has become more and more difficult as growth has accelerated. Tech employment is currently at 98.4% (Stack Overflow) and the flow from education is barely able to keep up.

Finally, as an entire community, we need to really consider what type of industry we want in 20 years and who we want to work in it. If we want the very best people, we need to show children from primary school age some of the amazing products and businesses that are just down the road. We need to show them that the industry is open regardless of their backgrounds and that we actively want them to come and join us.

I think Bristol is an amazing community but if we want to be truly world-class, we need to be able to attract and develop the very best people and we need to be doing it now.

If we want our sector to continue to thrive, we need to look at our approach to talent and really access all the city has to offer. Here are a few things we need to consider:

TechSPARKuk techspark-uk techspark.co 19

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JUST KEEP PIVOTING, DUCKING, DIVING AND GOING UNTIL YOU GET THERE - AND NEVER GO BACK TO THE DAY JOB!” RICHARD GODFREY – FOUNDER AND CEO, ROCKETMAKERS It seems only yesterday that I was sitting in an empty office at the Bath Innovation Centre having just left an amazing role, a talented team and great stock options and benefits at Microsoft to satisfy my burning desire to create a startup. I felt that if I didn’t do it then I would always look back and regret it; I had to jump off that cliff and see if my co-founders and I could fly on our own. We did… just! But we failed time after time, learning (sometimes!) along the way, and eventually realised, having developed a self-publishing startup, that we didn’t really want to run the business we’d just created. On reflection, we enjoyed the creative process, pushing our unique design and development skills to the limit, and realised that was our true passion. That was our time to “pivot” –to invest in and help other startups, scale-ups, and corporates launch and grow their businesses. These days, running Rocketmakers, I get to work with entrepreneurs who have that same passion, desire and need to improve the world that I also felt a decade ago. I get to help them create and accelerate amazing businesses and to, hopefully, avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made. One thing I’ve noticed over that decade is that we Brit founders are not great at “failure” when compared with our friends in the US. I took eight local startups over to San Francisco for a week some years ago, and saw their dumbfounded faces when a founder there said he was “proud to have raised $70M and never given a cent back to shareholders” – he felt all the “failure” was just a learning curve to the bigger rewards to come. I wish we gave more credence to this view in the UK (although perhaps not $70M!), seeing the sacrifices founders make as worthy of our respect and offering support for their next venture, rather than seeing them as having failed in something and often encouraging them to “go back to the day job” having “at least had a go”. If you’ve got that burning desire, you’re in the right place in Bristol or Bath! Start now if you can afford to and give us a call if we can help, expect to fail often and learn from it, and just keep pivoting, ducking, diving and going until you get there – and never go back to the day job!

richard@rocketmakers.com Rocketmakers Rocketmakers Rocketmakers rocketmakers.com 20

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WHILST THE GROWTH ITSELF IS BEING ACHIEVED, ENSURING THAT GROWTH IS SHARED EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE REMAINS THE CITY’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE TO DATE.” –SADO JIRDE, DIRECTOR AT BSWN

In the past two years, developing a city-wide approach to real economic inclusion has been at the heart of BSWN’s strategy. This includes informing policy-makers through our research and engaging key city leaders in culturally and economically inclusive initiatives. Early in 2019, BSWN launched the Black & Asian Business Network, which currently aids the development of effective networking, collaboration, and innovation amongst more than 200 BAME entrepreneurs in the city. We are also negotiating the development of BAME Accelerator in partnership with NatWest. The latter is set to launch at the end of 2019, and it is aimed at providing targeted business support and practical advice from experienced entrepreneurs. BSWN is working with the Heritage Lottery Fund to support the BAME Cultural and Arts sectors to social enterprise business models, developing innovative ways of addressing socioeconomic disadvantage and cultural exclusion.

The West of England economy is worth £33 billion a year. Bristol alone, as the economic and innovative hub of the region, is worth £13.6 billion, and it is forecast to remain one of the UK’s fastest-growing economies for years to come. However, research undertaken by the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) in conjunction with the University of Manchester shows that Bristol is the 7th worst place in England and Wales to live as a member of a Minority Ethnic community. The analysis, which compares 2001 to 2011 census data, shows a worsening situation of inequality for all Minority Ethnic groups during this time.

Finally, BSWN’s ultimate ambition is to establish the first BAME-led enterprise incubator and accelerator in the city-region. This is an innovative and dynamic concept that brings together strategic economic intelligence, market access support, enterprise skills development, social leadership, and targeted investment to stimulate economic growth in Bristol’s BAME enterprise and community sector to truly and consistently respond to economic inequality.

Whilst the growth itself is being achieved, ensuring that growth is shared equitably and inclusively remains the city’s biggest challenge to date. BSWN now leads the city’s exploration of solutions to what has been rightfully defined as ‘the biggest economic challenge facing our society’ (RSA, 2016); that is, the creation of a truly inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in a city that allows all citizens to equitably participate in its economic success. BSWN’s strategy is one that creates equitable opportunities for BAME entrepreneurs, but also one that seeks to address the socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by BAME communities in Bristol by developing BAME social enterprises whose social aims are targeted on these issues.

It will be a place alive with the cultural heritage of BAME communities of Bristol; a place that provides incubation, acceleration, and enterprise development services for BAME businesses, BAME social enterprises, the BAME VCS, and BAME culture and heritage organisations. A place that is economically sustainable and socially and economically impactful. It will develop and nurture entrepreneurship, idea incubation, business development, cultural expression, and collaborative working. It will be part innovation lab, part business incubator, and part cultural centre. It will offer members a unique ecosystem of training, mentoring, resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow. Through BSWN’s strategic role in the city, supported by ongoing research, it will be linked into the regional economic growth drives to ensure the greatest return on investment and impact for the BAME Business community.

More specifically, BSWN is a social and economic innovation hub focused on addressing racial inequality through 1. delivering the highest quality of community-based research; 2. improving the access to enterprise and social enterprise development support for BAME business owners and aspiring BAME entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs; 3. releasing BAME people’s agency and voice by locating them on an equal dialogue with decision-makers.

BlackSWNet admin@bswn.org.uk blacksouthwestnetwork.org 21

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GET NETFLIXING BEFORE YOU GET BLOCKBUSTED.” SANDEEP ROY – ADVISOR & MENTOR: DISRUPTIVE GROWTH, STRATEGIC DIGITAL & BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION, INNOVATE2GROW

The current pace of new technology-led change has left classic economy companies vulnerable but disruption is also a huge borderless opportunity in a world where ultrafast digital connectivity and the information superhighway has democratized innovation. We have a choice. We can view Airbnb as strangling the hotel industry or see it helping the hospitality business to reinvent itself. I believe the latter and am passionate about empowering businesses to think similarly in order to futureproof, grow, and thrive. In 30 years of set-up and growing business lines in global banks, financial markets, consulting & services firms, I was always an intrapreneur : breaking silos, stopping product selling and creating outside-in focus to recognise the biggest driver of innovation: Customer Need. At my last role in a big bank hit by fintech disruption, it rang loud and clear that ‘Disruptors sell what the customers want’ and relegate incumbents to sell what they don’t. As an example, Airbnb rode the sharing economy to offer flexibility, choice and endless locations compared to soulless hotel rooms at double the price, mostly in cities and towns. Netflix offered on-demand entertainment with no late fees that Blockbuster so notoriously did. The examples are endless.

Businesses, esp. SMEs, have to learn to recognize the role of business model innovation. Digital Disruption doesn’t have to mean digital doom; it’s just time to evolve.

Digital disruption is affecting SMEs too. This is a problem because, in most countries, it is not large firms but SMEs (SMBs in USA) that power economies & employment. The impact of digital disruption to SMEs became evident to me when my hometown’s social enterprise shop, selling art and crafts sourced from local craftsmen, shut down. ‘Showrooming,’ where people go into shops to browse and then buy cheaper online, had arrived locally, and it affected several families in my hometown.

A computer science engineer and MBA, has spent over 30 years globally in diverse sectors of banking, financial markets, strategy, fintech and change consulting. This has enabled him to see businesses with a 360-degree view – embracing income, growth, costs, systems, operations and people. As a big picture person, he continually questions status quo and helps his clients discover new ways to enhance customer value. In this era of far-reaching and rapid technical innovation, he realises the need for SMEs to understand the impact of these changes and a need to respond. In 2017, he left the corporate environment to help SMEs understand and adapt to the new digital borderless marketplace. Sandeep combines business expertise with innovation frameworks & creative mentoring techniques to help ambitious businesses, owners and entrepreneurs create, grow and future-proof businesses.

I have always mentored local SME entrepreneurs as part of my giving back but this made me want to make a wider & meaningful impact. It was becoming clear to me that

•

Existing companies needed to transform from brick-and-mortar to clickand-mortar in order to think like digital natives and competitively respond to (digital) disruption - but existing coaching & training is grossly inadequate

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New economy leaders regularly use business model innovations to commercialise, grow and sustain revenue models but most founders of startups, & new businesses ignore the ‘business of innovation’ and tend to focus on the next big tech thing, product or service

Sandeep Roy, Founder Director Castlemead Tower, Lower Castle Str. Sandeep@innovate2grow.com Bristol BS1 3AG, U.K. innovate2grow.com 22

0800 9999 990 +44 (0)7880 665155 (+1) 917 767 2070 innovate2grow_ Innovate2grow

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WE FOUNDED EPOCH WEALTH MANAGEMENT IN 2010 WITH A DARING PLAN TO FOCUS ON THOSE WHOSE LIVES WE COULD TRANSFORM.” DR. MARKAS GILMARTIN BSC MSC PH.D. CCHEM CBIOL CSCI FRSA FPFS CHARTERED FCSI | CHARTERED FINANCIAL PLANNER | CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER | CHARTERED WEALTH ADVISER

With so much going on, it’s easy to get caught up in Moravec’s paradox and overcomplicate matters. We all want to knock competitors away like hail on wiper blades, but having fingers in a lot of pies is, from my experience, not the way to do it. Often, it’s actually just about doing things better. While being in business can often feel like you’re teaching caterpillars to fly, if you stick to your knitting, understand your audience, market regime, and legal framework, it is surprising how easy it can be to get your point of distinction across in a way that impacts and has lasting value. We founded Epoch Wealth Management in 2010 with a daring plan to focus on those whose lives we could transform. It might sound life-coachy, but this way, we could build the enterprise from the ground up with the client front and centre. Our mission and vision provided the short and long-reach ‘guard rails’ to ensure that we didn’t deviate from doing the right thing. We then set about finding the best team to support us and develop our processes and an introducers network, to help fuel our organic growth. What was missing was some serious software to enable us to help clients ‘count the numbers that count’ in a way which was both collaborative, as well as educational and dynamic. Ultimately, we built our own financial forecasting software business to run alongside the main practice. I started as a scientist, moving through the ranks; BSc, Ph.D., postdoc, and writing peer-reviewed papers. Commerce called, and I began writing patent, grant, and funding propositions for a Biotech firm before moving into personal financial planning in 1997. Science and finance are the same thing to me—both aiming to solve complex, real-time problems.

We could now give clients laser-sharp clarity on where they were on their journey, what bumps lay ahead, and where they might end up, thus understanding the impact of decisions they make today on their family’s future. This was the final piece of the jigsaw and, several years later, both businesses have been acquired by highly respected and well-resourced businesses which can help us take the offerings to the next level.

Bristol is a fabulous City, with a heady mix of innovative businesses in both the Arts and Technology sectors. What’s exciting right now is the sheer range of business startup opportunities. Bristol boasts the only privately funded startup incubator in the UK, Unit DX, with DY and DZ to follow in due course. There is also the Engine and M-Shed, SETsquared, the new Global Technology Centre in 2020 at Filton, and the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC)—Bristol University’s £300-million city centre campus for up to 3,000 students—predicted to create nearly 2,000 jobs alone.

The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views held throughout Brewin Dolphin Ltd. Bath, South West 07855 810932 markas.gilmartin@brewin.co.uk brewin.co.uk/bath 23

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DISRUPTING THE GLOBAL BOOK BUSINESS.” SVEN BOERMEESTER, FOUNDER/CEO, INTERNATIONAL GROUP PUBLISHER - GLOBALVILLAGE.WORLD How is the commercial book publishing world being disrupted? Some clients joke with us that we are bringing back a dying art form as books are cool again. The business model however has changed completely, gone are the days of pay to play by selling advertorials or advertising. A great book on an ecosystem or industry needs to be authentic and all encompassing of all the major players sharing their story, not just whoever paid to be in there. To finance that we moved to a crowd funded book buying model where the market and the participants buy the books in bulk to use as gifts to clients, visitors, investors and employees. You also need to add technology to the printed book by embedding augmented reality videos into its pages, we do that by hiding QR codes behind the images that a mobile phone can read to activate a video. The books also need to be available online as ebooks, a blog and ultimately a forum where all the participants can communicate with each other.

How do you set up your business in new cities and countries? We look for skilled marketing professionals in each city that know their community well and form 50/50 partnerships with them where they collect the stories and we design and print the book. We are a fast growing tribe of fun and energetic publishing entrepreneurs, partners and friends. We all share a passion for innovation, beautiful places and cultures that we want to embrace, share and showcase with the rest of the world. We are always looking for marketing entrepreneurs to join our team, please reach out to me on LinkedIn or info@globalvillage.world.

How do you set up a global business quickly? My advice is to set up a small branch in Dubai and spend some time there if you have the means to do that. Dubai even more so than Singapore is the crossroads of the world for many reasons. The top three reasons being, Dubai has more than a million business savvy expats living there from 120 different countries. When you network in Dubai you network with the world. Going Global means you have to fly constantly. When it comes to flying, the world is flat and Dubai is in the middle, you can reach more than 80% of the globe with a direct flight. That is a big deal when you add up cost, time and jet lag. Last but not least, Dubai is a tax-free country with no business or personal taxes. That being said you cannot beat the lifestyle of Tampa Bay so the head office will always remain right here.

Sven Boermeester is a global publishing entrepreneur with a career that spans over 20 years with stops in more than 100 countries. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and grew up in South Africa. After completing his business studies in Cape Town, he opened his first media company and started publishing the trade and industry directories for South Africa followed by the launch of the “Best of” the World publishing series in Dubai. Fast forward 20 years and 183 “Best of” editions across 60 countries, Sven now lives in Tampa, Florida, with his wife and young son. He is working on disrupting the publishing business by mapping out the Innovation ecosystems of every major city in the U.S. and around the world, through his latest Innovation books and augmented reality video series.

Email: info@globalvillage.world sven-boermeester-8605823 www.GlobalVillage.world www.InnovationsOfTheWorld.com 24

Photo By Destination Bristol

FUTURE CITIES “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

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Unifying Bristol’s smart city capabilities

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inclusive city-wide transformation. However, we also need a broader ethos of responsible innovation to ensure the ethical, societal and regulatory challenges of smart cities are met. We believe a smart Bristol should be about the use of technology and data for public good.

Bristol City Council has recently brought together its Bristol Operations Centre, Bristol is Open and City Innovation Team, aligning its innovation and delivery capabilities into a single service – the Connected City team. This will help us to strengthen the city’s digital foundations, so that it becomes well-connected and better placed to deliver the technological innovation we need to keep the city moving, healthy and safe.

The role of City Innovation in delivering Bristol’s priorities At the beginning of 2019, Bristol launched its first ever One City Plan setting out ambitious targets for the future of Bristol, decade by decade up to 2050. Partners from across the city’s business, charitable, academic and public sectors all contributed to the first draft of the plan which aims to make Bristol fair, healthy and sustainable with reduced inequality.

Everything the team deliver is focused on ensuring Bristol achieves its exceptional potential, including working collaboratively with partners to co-design solutions with a focus on social value. This will mean Bristol can be a smart city, which is sustainable and prosperous for everyone.

Bristol’s One City Plan, along with council and regional strategies, present opportunities to harness new ideas, tools, technology and novel approaches to achieve desired goals. Complex city challenges such as public safety, the needs of older people and effective health and social care will require collective talent, clever technologies and a committed focus to address the real problems that affect Bristol. As a result, the City Innovation Team and wider Connected City team will work with key partners from across the city to collaboratively design, develop and deploy the innovation process and solutions. The team brings an understanding of relevant technology and data solutions, as well as potential partners, funding sources, and the ability to transition new solutions into mainstream public services.

City Innovation Team Bristol City Council’s City Innovation Team is one of a kind within local government in England. It is a small, diverse team including in-house innovation advisors with expertise in smart technologies, data, human factors, user-centred design, design thinking, social innovation, community engagement and futures thinking. The team works with various services internally across the council as well as city partners to support innovation, tackle urban issues, and implement smart city solutions. Ideas are taken from inception through to design and development, and then deployed into mainstream service delivery. Pilots are run to demonstrate emerging technologies and the potential benefit of these technologies to the city and its citizens. The team’s success lies in their ability to rapidly learn and iterate at the outset before transitioning proven pilots into business as usual operations and service delivery.

Ambitions for a city-wide innovation ecosystem We want to nurture a city-wide approach to developing a smart Bristol, which will encourage digital innovation and city-led initiatives across a diverse and inclusive network of institutions, communities, and individual entrepreneurs. It will ensure that smart city innovation is undertaken by the city, for the city. To achieve this we intend to bring together the collective creativity of Bristol to help co-design solutions to complex city challenges. Across Bristol there are rich, diverse, energised communities of innovators and entrepreneurs, all passionate about making Bristol a great place to work, visit and live. Together, our influence on the digital fabric of this city could be phenomenal. Our ambition is to empower community led innovation and attract the most ambitious and innovative partners from around the world into this ecosystem.

Responsible innovation and the role of smart citizens Cities are increasingly important in the emerging data economy, representing an important source of data that enables modern technology firms and start-ups to prosper. While we want Bristol to become well-connected and data-enabled, there is a risk that this transformation undermines the social benefits that we seek to deliver. In Bristol, we believe that smart cities need smart citizens, and that a people-centred approach will lead to a more

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Milestones Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first smart city strategy, Connecting Bristol, launched in autumn 2019. This strategy represents the next phase of our innovation journey to support Bristol to develop worldclass infrastructure so that the whole city is digitally enabled and well-connected. It will shape Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transformation into a fair and inclusive city where everyone can benefit from, participate in and contribute to the social and economic benefits of digital technology and build on Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history of innovation.

connectbristol connectingbristol Connectingbristol.org

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ELEVATOR PITCH enabled users to decide on alternative walking and cycle routes based on the air quality around the city.

Bristol Is Open (BiO) is one of the world’s leading smart city organisations. Focused on improving the quality of life for Bristol’s citizens and visitors, BiO is undertaking a number of pioneering projects with multiple partners to demonstrate how a programmable city can shape our future urban environment for the better.

Smart Energy—Smart Homes energy consumption: A major phenomenon that contributes to energy consumption is the so-called “phantom load” the electricity consumed by electrical appliances while they are switched off (but still plugged into an outlet) or in standby mode. It has been calculated that 10% of home energy consumption comes from this “phantom load.” Bristol is Open has developed a mobile-friendly website. Using the web app, householders can monitor their home electricity consumption in real-time and get analytics on their daily/weekly energy consumptions.

BiO has created a secure and private research and development testbed that enables smart city-wide experiments and pilots to be undertaken and assessed with the intention to scale for the benefit of all. The network is open to companies and partnership projects to test and prove their technology solutions in an equivalent live network and compute platform. Partners include SMEs such as BluWireless and Bevan Britton and corporates like Nokia, the UK Government, and academic institutions.

Bristol is Open is now working closely with the city’s authorities to support the key areas of need, enabling the step change in digital innovation that could be rolled out for the benefit of everyone in Bristol and not the few.

OUR STORY By taking an “Understand the Problem that Needs Solving” approach, BiO designs solutions that utilise digital connectivity for the benefit of Bristol’s residents aligned with the Bristol One City Plan strategy. A recent example of this is the simulated 5G visitor water safety trial, to prevent fatalities and improve rescue operations for the public walking by the city’s Harbourside.

Bristol has been recognised in the UK Smart Cities Index 2017 as the UK’s leading smart city, leading the way in areas such as open data access, energy innovation, and community engagement. Bristol has also been recognised for its smart-city work, winning a Glomo Smart City Award (Judges Choice) in 2018.

Other projects include Smart Mobility—Walkability and Air Quality to increase citizen awareness about pollution. BiO created a web-based solution that utilises data from different sensors from around the city. This

BiO is a joint venture between the Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol. It is funded by local, national, and European governments along with academic research funding and also by the private sector.

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Julie Snell, Managing Director

PO Box 3176, Bristol, BS3 9FS 0117 290 0001 bristolisopen Bristol Is Open bristolisopen.com

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THE REPLICATE PROJECT

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OUR STORY In Bristol, the REPLICATE research project is led by Bristol City Council and is supported by the city’s universities and eight local partners who have expertise in smart energy, smart mobility, intelligent data, digital infrastructure and digital inclusion. Together, they are exploring how new technology can tackle some of the city’s inequalities and benefit local communities. The research project will also contribute towards Bristol’s ambition to be carbon neutral and run entirely on clean energy by 2030.

REPLICATE (REnaissance of PLaces with Innovative Citizenship And TEchnologies) is a five year European research and development project, which receives funding from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme. The project aims to trial integrated energy, mobility and ICT solutions across three cities – San Sebastian in Spain, Florence in Italy and Bristol in Great Britain. A number of cities also ‘follow’ the project and will look into replicating interventions in their own cities including Essen in Germany, Nilüfer in Turkey and Lausanne in Switzerland.

There are three main themes to REPLICATE’s research project in Bristol – Smart Homes, Smart Streets and Created By Us.

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SMART HOMES

CREATED BY US

The Smart Homes project focuses on saving households’ energy and money, and reducing fuel poverty and carbon emissions in the city. Internet connected energy efficient appliances like smart tumble dryers, dishwashers and washing machines have recently been installed to 151 homes in the areas of Ashely, Easton and Lawrence Hill. More than £100,000 worth of grants have also been awarded to over 90 eligible homeowners to contribute to home energy improvements including solar panels, modern boilers and loft insulation. Households who have taken part in the project have also received vouchers to help them install LED lighting into their homes.

Community engagement and co-design with local residents is a key component that runs throughout the entire research project in Bristol. Local communities have worked together to identify and tackle issues such as poor air quality and damp homes in fun and innovative ways. A ‘Mobile Future Home’ has been created to pop-up at community events and spaces, as a way to involve individuals and families in smart energy topics.

SMART CITY PLATFORM The three main themes of the REPLCIATE project in Bristol align and communicate with each other using a shared, FiWare-based Smart City Platform. Devices can connect to the platform over a secure VPN or NetOS software to exchange data. Once the data is anonymised, it can be shared with partner cities to help evaluate approaches that could be rolled out further across Bristol, and other cities around the world.

SMART STREETS The Smart Streets project is about reducing traffic congestion and enabling convenient, fast, low carbon electric vehicle charging, which will result in lower pollution as people travel around Bristol. New active and sustainable travel options are being trialled including:

SMART CITIES UK AWARD The Smart Homes project picked up a top prize at the 2019 Smart Cities UK Awards for their community engagement work. Local partners worked with a wide range of groups from across three local communities to encourage a diverse cohort of individuals to try energy-saving appliances. As a result of the engagement activities, a better cross section of the population has signed up to participate in the Smart Homes project. 31% of households are from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, 13% are registered disabled and 29% live in social rented housing.

l An electric bike scheme for six organisations, to help their staff get

around Bristol in a more energy efficient way A fleet of 10 new electric cars available to rent, as part of a car club scheme with new charging point bays l 14 smart electric charge point bays for use by electric vehicle owners l WeGo, an electric taxi that provides convenient journeys with other passengers at an affordable price l The Travelwest Journey Planner, which helps people to plan their travel using multiple modes of transport such as by bus, train or bike l ParkUs, an app that can help people to find available car parking spaces quickly and more conveniently before they travel. l

Youtube.com/connectingbristol Twitter.com/connectbristol Connectingbristol.org/replicate 32

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ELEVATOR PITCH Creating Networks of the Future

Beyond 5G Smart Tourism

At Zeetta Networks we believe quite simply that, “Today, as an industry, we’re doing networks wrong!” Today, networks dictate how a service works. In the future, the requirements of the service will dictate the parameters of the network. This concept is known as “software-defined networking”. It has the potential to revolutionise communication and connectivity and Zeetta Networks is leading the development of software-defined networking in local-area networks. We’re building the networks of the future.

Zeetta Networks has also deployed NetOS® in two of the UK government’s 5G Trials and Testbeds programme projects to create “sliced” networks that partition, protect, and prioritise services to enable new revenue streams. These projects demonstrated the additional capabilities of 5G networks to sustain new and innovative use cases. The “5G Smart Tourism” project proved the ability to partition, protect, and prioritise public safety and media streaming services in “hyper-congested” networks at major sports and cultural events.

About Zeetta Networks

OUR STORY

Zeetta Networks has been shortlisted for multiple awards in 2019, including Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO), TMF Excellence Awards, and 5G World Awards, and was named a “Gartner Cool Vendor for Communication Service Provider Network Operations”.

Bristol-born and Bristol-bred... Zeetta Networks was formed in 2015 by a group of scientists and academics from the University of Bristol’s High-Performance Networks Group who combined key IPR and patents with open source software to create NetOS®, a product for managing, provisioning, and monitoring enterprise networks. Over the next four years, the company has been joined by a strong industry team who have focused on commercialising NetOS®, launching two solutions—NetOS® Enterprise and NetOS® Rapide™—for the enterprise (B2B) market and the deployable-networks market.

In June 2019, the company beat 31 others to win ENGIE UK and Ireland’s “Big Pitch – Innovation Award” which led to a major collaborative project with ENGIE.

Ashton Gate Stadium In 2016 as part of an Innovate UK project, Zeetta Networks partnered with Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium to deliver a Smart Stadium solution utilising software-defined networking (SDN) as it repurposes from sports venue to conference centre to concert hall and back again throughout the year. Zeetta Networks has benefited hugely from the open collaboration and insights from Ashton Gate Stadium, one of the leading innovators in the South West.

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The Future for Future Networks Zeetta Networks expect the softwaredefined network market for local enterprise networks (SD-LAN) to grow rapidly in 2020 as businesses start to see the huge savings and revenuegeneration opportunities created with programmable (software-defined) networks.

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Zeetta Networks Temple Quay, 1 Friary, Bristol BS1 6EA +44 (0)117 344 5304 info@zeetta.com Zeetta Networks zeetta.com

As communications service providers start to roll out their 5G networks, the need for network slicingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;partitioning, protecting and prioritising networksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;will become increasingly important to minimise CAPEX and flexibly create new services. Zeetta Networks expect to be a leader in the nascent Network Slicing market as it evolves.

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ELEVATOR PITCH Bristol Pound is a local currency, first launched in 2012. It is the UK’s most successful local currency, used by local businesses and individuals to buy goods and services, pay suppliers, energy bills and council taxes. It aims to create a more resilient and sustainable independent business sector in the city of Bristol, and in turn, to create a fairer and more inclusive local economy. It does this by trapping money spent in Bristol Pounds in Bristol, adding to a local circular economy, instead of leaking away to distant head offices, far-flung supply chains and remote shareholders. Shortened supply chains also reduce the city’s carbon footprint, champion local businesses and help city high streets stay vibrant.

OUR STORY With some 1,500 individual members and 500 business members, it is the most prominent local currency in the UK. We offer both paper and electronic money, with online account management and an app with an integrated map to help people discover and support Bristol’s independent businesses. Bristol Pound is committed to its ongoing development, harnessing technology and thinking creatively about new ways to help Bristol’s independent business sector. We have recently launched a pilot of our new zero % loans for business members. We are looking to improve our app and payment platform radically. Also, beyond that, we are developing ideas about how to offer an equity investment platform, to enable local people to invest in local businesses as well as community and social enterprises.

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Bristol Pound CIC SETsquared Engine Shed Station Approach Bristol BS1 6QH 0117 903 1100 info@bristolpound.org bristolpound.org

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ELEVATOR PITCH People working in government have suffered too long with digital tools that aren’t good enough. We’re helping change that. If you work in government (or a related organisation), we bring you tools that make it easy to involve citizens in decision making. Our goal is better public services and a healthy, functioning democracy. For citizens (and we’re all citizens), our platforms make it easier for you to be involved in policy decisions.

OUR STORY There are thousands of democratic processes running in government, all day, every day – democracy doesn’t just stop with voting in elections. Huge amounts of policy, service delivery, and government decisions are democratically accountable and provide opportunities for public involvement. The problem is, these opportunities are often hard to find, hard to take part in, outdated and tedious. We take these processes online with our three tools – Citizen Space, Simulator and Dialogue – and make them cheaper, more transparent and more rewarding to contribute to, all of which in turn yield better outcomes. We also make our products easy to buy, with simple subscription models and great support. Delib is innovative not because our products have lots of bells and whistles and shiny things attached, but because we keep them as simple and userfriendly as we can. We’re trying to move participation in democracy away from a box-ticking exercise to something more involving, educational and enjoyable for both administrators and the public. (Too often, engagement tools are designed to be helpful for one or the other – not both.) Our approach is to analyse what’s not working in democracy, and then to create tools that help fix it. That means low barriers to entry: with Citizen Space and Simulator, you don’t need to create an account, give an email address or share any non-relevant details to have your say. All our tools are fully optimised for use on mobile as well as desktop and everything in between – so you can take part while you’re in the park, or on the bus, or on the loo… We didn’t invent digital democracy, but we’ve been around it for a long time. There are about 25 of us, based around the world (primarily spread between Bristol in the UK, Brisbane and Canberra in Australia and Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand). We’ve worked with government at the highest levels on projects that are high profile, but we’re affordable for everyday use. We meet lots of dedicated people working in government, with a deeply-felt public service ethos which we find inspiring. We love seeing how our customers use our products, and they’re constantly surprising us with inventive ways to use the tools and engage citizens on issues that matter. They have an active voice in the way we further development; our tools have been co-designed and co-funded by our customers.

Simulator has helped us to engage and involve our residents in a very complex and difficult process. The comments that we got back from residents show that those who participated got a real insight into the decision-making process that touches so many people’s lives.”

Whether it’s a consultation on installing a mini-roundabout in a UK village, or a national government department reviewing health legislation in New Zealand, we’re connecting people to democracy and building trust, accountability and transparency along the way.

- Matt Jukes, Chief Executive, Hull City Council, UK 37

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I found Dialogue to be an essential tool in the debate. It helped to focus discussion around self-selecting themes in one inquiry, and opened out the debate beyond the two main arguments in another, helping the committee to understand the entire spectrum of debate. The platform encourages thoughtful, considered debate – more than a standard online survey or poll – and I have found it to also elicit respectful discussions, even when opinions are in conflict. Dialogue is also incredibly easy to understand (for users) and to extract and summarise the contributions (for officials). I love it, and can’t wait to use it in future inquiries!”

Citizen Space has transformed the way we are able to engage.”

- Hannah Johnson, Senior Researcher, Welsh Assembly

- Head of Consultation, Transport For London

4th Floor 63 Queen Square Bristol South West, BS1 4JZ Email: info@delib.net Phone: (+44) 08456381848 delib.net 38

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ELEVATOR PITCH Anyone well acquainted with Bristol will recognise the sign at the entrance to Stokes Croft. It’s an alarmingly apocalyptic countdown to the last harvest, and we don’t seem to have many years left of the clock. Humanity must increase food production by 70% to feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050. We must achieve this with 25% less farmland, degraded soils and in an ever more unstable climate. Our existing methods of agriculture will not be enough to feed ourselves. Additionally, the majority of our ‘fresh’ produce is imported out of season, often travelling hundreds of miles to reach our plates. Lengthy supply chains result in a colossal environmental impact – every year 900,000 tonnes of food is wasted in supply chains in the UK alone, before even reaching our plates.

OUR STORY A WORD FROM THE FOUNDERS

LettUs Grow was founded in 2015 to tackle some of these challenges. Indoor farming can address this systemic problem by establishing localised farms in and around cities, improving local food security and reducing food waste. However, the industry has been having difficulty scaling to compete with traditional agriculture. That’s where we come in…

Charlie Guy, Co-founder and Managing Director of LettUs Grow, said: “We are providing technology that allows us to grow more with less impact on the soil so we don’t have to farm the soil in an industrial way. We want to take the pressure off the ecosystem so we can farm traditionally in a more sustainable way as well, not just driven by supermarket prices and overreaching targets. We want to be able to provide a predictable, resilient supply of produce that means we don’t over-farm or overproduce, but allow sustainable farmers to work with the land.”

Our novel technology represents a step-change for indoor farms. We design modular, aeroponic irrigation and intelligent control technology to improve the efficiency, sustainability, and ROI of indoor farming. Our systems are nozzle free, easy to clean, completely automatable and can be run without the need for pesticides. This patent-pending system dramatically reduces the operational cost of indoor agriculture, whilst delivering an average of a 70% increase in growth rate across a range of crop species compared to hydroponics (the current method used in indoor farming). Our technology enables indoor farms, of any size, to reach profitability that would not have been previously viable – enabling this environmentally efficient industry to scale globally.

Ben Crowther, Co-founder and CTO of LettUs Grow, said “We don’t think it should replace hectares of fields. Indoor farming, greenhouse and open field farming each have their different roles. If you can grow it in a field, then grow it in a field – it makes much more sense. But in many places it’s just not possible as it uses too much water, pesticides, or the soil is degrading quite rapidly.”

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GROWING UP IN BRISTOL ecosystem. The Engine Shed and SETsquared are a core part of this.”

Bristol is a brilliant place to be a startup. It has a long-standing connection with aerospace firms and expertise in robotics – so it’s the perfect place for a company like ours. Because of its history of innovation, there is a welltrodden path and heaps of support for new businesses. We were lucky enough to cut our teeth in the Engine Shed in Bristol. It is a hub, run by Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, where businesses, entrepreneurs, academics, social innovators and corporates can collaborate. That’s where we met SETSquared.

There is also a thriving ecosystem of startups, SMEs and talented mentors to draw upon in Bristol. If you’re in a bind, you know you can always find someone who’s been through something similar to talk to.

157-179 Kingsland Road St Phillips, Bristol , BS2 0QW Email: info@lettusgrow.com Phone: (+44) 07779636745 lettusgrow twitter.com/LettUsGrow facebook.com/LettUsGrow linkedin.com/company/lettus-grow lettusgrow.com

Guy said, “We joined SETsquared to access their experienced mentorship, world-class training and extensive founder and investor networks. As firsttime entrepreneurs, this was an invaluable resource in our early years and continues to be a fantastically effective way to provide training to all of our staff, whilst exposing the whole company to the thriving Bristol tech-

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ELEVATOR PITCH Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies, industry expertise and world-class academic research, the £5 million VENTURER research and development project investigated the barriers to the adoption of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in the UK. Enabled by its technical know-how and project trials, VENTURER has provided a clear picture of the challenges around public acceptance and behaviour, as well as the legal and insurance implications of increased vehicle autonomy. Based in Bristol and South Gloucestershire, VENTURER has also established the West of England as a centre of excellence for the safe user-led trialling of CAV technology, user behavioural response analysis, and social research.

VENTURER was successful in this competition and became the first of the Four Cities Trials to launch in July 2015. The project, led by Atkins, represented a rich partnership of universities, large and small businesses and local authorities, which aimed to investigate the barriers to the adoption of CAVs in the UK. VENTURER supported the deployment of CAVs on UK roads by: Delivering pioneering and safe trials enabling partners to assess the responses of passengers, other road users, and pedestrians to driverless cars. This included testing the planned handover between autonomous driving systems and the human driver, as would be required to achieve SAE Level 3 vehicle autonomy. Developing connected and autonomous technologies to facilitate successful real-world and simulated participant trials. Conducting social research to develop insight into public acceptance challenges associated with CAV technology. Informing the development of future CAV insurance and legal requirements using the findings from participant experiments and investigations. The findings from VENTURER were also used to inform the ‘Electric and Automated Vehicles Act 2018’.

OUR STORY In 2014, Innovate UK launched its first competition for collaborative research and development projects for driverless cars, to be part-funded by industry and Innovate UK. It is believed that driverless cars will unlock several potential benefits in everyday life, including:

Improved safety. Optimised use of travel time. Improvements to transport network performance. Increased mobility, enhanced quality of life and improved social inclusion.

Having adopted a holistic approach to the integration of CAVs, the findings of VENTURER were used to identify recommendations for introducing 41

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CAVs in the UK. These recommendations included: Further research with a broader variety of participants, assessed across a wider range of driving scenarios and driving conditions, using both the simulated and controlled on-road platforms. More complex trials involving multiple pedestrians, cyclists and motorised vehicles, and allowing for scenarios involving closer proximity between CAVs and road users. Further testing and design of CAV technology to enable the integration of CAVs into existing infrastructure assets. Key insurance and legal recommendations for insurers, the CAV industry and regulators.

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The VENTURER Alliance offers proven expertise and a commitment to working with industry and government to take the next steps towards CAV implementation. To achieve this, the Alliance leverages the expertise and capabilities acquired during the project to offer customers a diverse portfolio of services. These services span numerous disciplines including technology, human factors, social research, legal and insurance.

MILESTONES Smarter Travel – Best CAV Project 2018 Media recognition from several media outlets including BBC, ITV, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian and The Financial Times. “I am so proud to see the West of England at the forefront of CAV technology, hosting cutting edge projects such as VENTURER and FLOURISH.” – West of England Combined Authority Regional Mayor Tim Bowles, June 2019

Drawing on state-of-the-art technologies, industry expertise and worldclass academic research, VENTURER has established the West of England as a centre of excellence for the safe trialling of CAV technology, user behavioural response analysis, and social research. Moreover, VENTURER’s achievements and learnings are helping the government to fulfill its Industrial Strategy – particularly the ‘Future of Mobility’ Grand Challenge. Since VENTURER concluded in June 2018, the VENTURER Alliance has been created to continue the pioneering work of the innovative project.

@Venturer_cars Email: enquiries@venturer-cars.com venturer-cars.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH As Paintworks grows, there will soon be 2,000 people working and living on a site that was the highest crime spot in Avon when Ashley and Tim bought the building in 2002.

Paintworks began as a genuine attempt to regenerate a mixed-use district and to perfect a model for doing so that others might replicate elsewhere. A project of Verve Properties, Paintworks has avoided slick marketing and fashion-conscious styling in favor of creating something simpler and open to everyone. From its affordable housing to its beautiful venues, Paintworks is more than a space: it is a scheme.

Many of the largest employers on-site at Paintworks started as startup deskspace operations and have stayed as they have grown organically. While most property companies look to sign up big corporations on long leases, Verve—Paintworks’ parent company—prefers curating a mix of uses made up of smaller independent companies on flexible terms that suit their business. Similarly, they have tried hard to get a mix of residential types and tenures, including affordable housing, to create as much as possible a mix of society. The best form of urban sustainability is to encourage people to live and work in the same place, negating the need to travel. Few businesses and people try out this model, but Paintworks has shown it is possible.

OUR STORY Over the years, Ashley Nicholson and Tim Pain have repurposed pretty much every kind of redundant building into pretty much every kind of use. About 20 years ago, they decided to try and bring everything they had learnt into one single project: Paintworks.

Nothing Verve have done is particularly clever or original in terms of new ideas. Virtually everything has been learnt or copied, but as an entity, it has proven successful and is now a model that is used to inform other regeneration projects. Several university architectural courses adopt Verve’s Paintworks space into their coursework, and Verve are regularly invited to speak to UK and European local authorities embarking on regeneration projects.

The space came together a bit like a giant Sims game with extreme ambitions—such as proving communities can be built and that mixed-use can work. Too many developments make no effort to provide anything other than soulless business parks or gated dormitories. The original intention was to build something like it in London, but when an opportunity came up in Bristol, Ashley and Tim bought it and Paintworks was born. Having already trialed so many of the ideas for the space, Ashley sketched Paintworks’ masterplan on a napkin on the train on the way home. Now built-out, the space reflects those original ideas and Ashley’s napkin sketches.

Verve hope others will copy those elements that have worked at Paintworks and adopt them elsewhere. They hope, too, that others can build and improve on what they have done, so that at least in terms of urban regeneration, the world can be a better place.

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Verve Events, The Airstream, Main Courtyard, Paintworks, Bath Road, Bristol BS4 3EH 0117 971 4320 paintworksbristol paintworks_ paintworks_bristol paintworksbristol.co.uk

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The future of renting.

EMPOWERING LANDLORDS AND TENANTS TO MAKE RENTING WORK FOR EVERYONE.

The Company Founded in 2016 by three young entrepreneurs whilst studying at University, Bunk is a revolutionary app transforming the way we rent a property by empowering tenants and empowering landlords with an app to make renting work for everyone.

Bunk has taken the rental market into the twentyfirst century by simplifying and automating the process of renting a property. Bunk maintains the human element of the equation by providing landlords and tenants with access to a dedicated team to provide valuable support, insights, and advice.

In an era where technology influences our lives in one way or another, renting a property can still be an arduous, time-consuming, and expensive task and there has been little innovation in the last 20 years beyond the digitisation of classified adverts.

Bunk started from the perspective of frustrated tenants, yet we quickly realised that problems are equally as pervasive for landlords—and whilst being a landlord can be lucrative and rewarding, any property owner will know it’s definitely not without its headaches.

The way we book a taxi, a holiday, order food, and so much more has changed radically in the last decade, yet if you want to rent a property, you have no choice but to deal with a letting agent that can be expensive, unhelpful, and slow—until now.

Unlike traditional letting agents, Bunk operates solely online and through an app. Our development team is based in Bristol, building a cutting-edge system that puts landlords and tenants in control of the entire process. As a company, we put the people who matter first and provide them with all the tools they need to rent their property—without the need for a middleman controlling the process. For landlords, restrictions with property portals have meant that the typical trade-off has been to use an agent and pay over-the-odds, or go it alone and risk non-compliance with the substantial amounts of regulation that must be adhered to.

Bunk changes this paradigm by providing complete access to a wide range of advertising channels and a simple dashboard to manage the rental process whilst helping landlords maintain compliance. Bunk is a new, cost-effective, digital choice for landlords. With letting agent fees up 50% on average since the tenant fee ban on June 1, 2019, we are focused on growing and expanding our community of landlords to ensure that together, we build the future of renting.

The Platform Our revolutionary app allows landlords and tenants to arrange viewings, process offers, and handle referencing, contracts, payments and more—all under one roof. For landlords, they can list their property in minutes and reap the benefits of Bunk’s advertising partners, publishing properties to a wide range of portals. Bunk makes it easier than ever to manage a property portfolio with a simple dashboard that allows landlords to monitor rent payments and any maintenance requests that are submitted inapp by tenants.

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Tenants have the ability to search for properties, book viewings, talk to landlords, and sign contracts all in-app at zero cost. In addition to this, Bunk has partnered with Experian so that every rent payment that is paid on time now contributes towards a tenant’s credit history and offers a deposit replacement solution.

What’s new Bunk Passport: Our rental identity has been developed to make the process of securing a property as streamlined as possible. Once they are signed up to our platform, tenants can begin building their passport. This factors in search preferences, employment information, and credit information to speed up the referencing process and allow landlords to make an instant decision on the applicant. Deposit Replacement: Launching in Q4 2019, Bunk offers tenants the replacement to avoid the cash burden of a traditional deposit and instead pay a small, monthly fee that guarantees the landlord in the event of any deductions. Tenants still maintain liability for any damages caused during the tenancy, but will not have to worry about fronting hundreds of pounds to move into a property. Changing role of the agent: Since June 1, 2019, letting agents have been scrambling to adjust their business models to mitigate the impact of lost revenue. At Bunk, we never factored tenant fees into our model and reap the benefits of our technology. We believe that technology will not harm the individual ‘agent’, but will adjust their role. Simple tasks such as processing contracts can be handled by the platform and the agent involved will be there to add value by offering support and guidance to landlords and tenants. Fully Digital: Everything is managed in-app or online. No high-street offices, no paper contracts, no hassle. Bunk offers a seamless end-to-end journey with a low-priced subscription model.

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The future of renting.

“WE’RE NOT JUST BUILDING A BUSINESS, WE’RE BUILDING A COMMUNITY” The Mindset With our roots in Bristol and sights set on the world, Bunk standardises the process for renting accommodation and makes it easier than ever to secure a property. With a data-driven model and considerable investment in technology, our mindset is centred around automating simple tasks and giving value to those who matter. At Bunk, we do things differently. We believe there should be an alternative to letting agents of the past that still provides landlords and tenants with security, support, and a hassle-free journey. We are focusing on solving real customer problems rather than selling products and extracting value as a way to offer, what we hope, will be the best lettings service in the world. Securing a property is the most fundamental aspect of one’s life and for too long it has been too difficult. At Bunk, we make the process wholly transparent. No hassle, no gimmicks, no hidden fees. The way renting should be. We’re not just building a business, we’re building a community. We put our users first and involve them in our decision-making. We’ve worked with thousands of landlords and tenants to release our beta product and will continue to work with our users to ensure we’re building a product that landlords and tenants love. We want to make things easier and we want to make things better. Bunk, as a company, is about working fast to deliver change. We keep what works and fix what doesn’t. Innovation and automation are at the heart of everything that we do. But more importantly, by solving real problems, treating our users fairly and advocating transparency, we believe we can make renting work for everyone.

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HAPPY LANDLORDS HAPPY TENANTS The Vision

Bunk’s vision is to fix the broken rental market and empower the only people who truly matter in the equation—landlords and tenants—to take control. It sounds simple but we want to create a rental ecosystem that allows landlords to let and manage their property seamlessly and tenants to secure a property with the click of a few buttons; no stress, no hassle. We will eradicate the excessive fees associated with letting a property and provide the facility for users to purchase additional products and services that Bunk provides. Our goal is for worldwide expansion. Since launching in June 2019, we are now operational across the UK in a number of cities including Bristol, London, Reading, and Brighton. The most exciting part of the journey is what’s ahead. We have so many exciting features lined up and a very creative team—we don’t think we will ever struggle to add to our product roadmap, that’s for sure! We will always be focused on enhancing the user experience for landlords and tenants to make their lives easier. You can find more about our journey at www.rentbunk.com or follow us on social media: @rentbunk.

Tom Woollard, CEO (left); Jack Widnell, COO (centre) and Harry Stirling, CPO (right) are the three co-founders of Bunk having launched the company in 2017.

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“Bristol’s aviation heritage and its contemporary excellence through Airbus’ operations is clear for all to see and this passion, this unrelenting quest for improvement will continue to drive us.”

Photo by British Airways.

A COMPANY BUILT ON INNOVATION

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have produced many aerospace marvels such as the Bristol Bulldog, Blenheim Bomber, and the unmissable Concorde that made its final flight back to its birthplace in 2003 and is now displayed permanently at Aerospace Bristol.

Airbus is a company built on innovation and throughout its history, it has demonstrated a fierce desire to produce modern aircraft built with the highest quality and efficiency standards. This pioneering spirit has seen Airbus work with companies across the world, establish engineering and manufacturing sites in places such as Bristol, UK, and become a leader in aviation.

The Airbus site in Bristol employs around 3,000 people and the majority of employees work on the design, engineering, testing, and support of wings for Airbus’ commercial fleet; the wing-assembly and equipping of the A400M military airlifter; and the fuel systems and landing gear integration. Experts in support functions such as Customer Services, Finance, and Procurement can also be found in Filton along with highly skilled teams working in cutting-edge technologies from Artificial Intelligence to Advanced Layer Manufacturing.

Airbus’ involvement in Bristol and the Filton site can be traced back to 1979 when British Aerospace became a formal partner in the Airbus consortium. The Filton site has been owned by different companies over the years but it was the site of Sir George White’s Bristol Aeroplane Company founded in 1910, with Pegasus House—the former headquarters of the Bristol Aeroplane Company—opened in 1936 and still in use today by Airbus. Over the years, Filton and the respective companies operating on the site

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An Aeolus sculpture stands on the Airbus site. Credit: Studio LIME Architects

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Filton-designed wings for commercial aircraft are assembled in Broughton in North Wales and then transported, mainly by Airbus Beluga planes, to final assembly lines in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany. The wings are a ferociously complicated part of an aircraft and they help define its overall performance, especially when it comes to efficiency. Bristol engineers are crucial in unlocking innovations of the future in the aerospace sector. The pan-European company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 and heralded world firsts—such as the twin-engined, twin-aisle A300 that was crafted through a culture of pioneering progress—as well as looking forward to the next chapter of the company that will see Airbus grow in a competitive but sustainable way. Airbus is proud of its working partnerships across the South West and works closely with Rolls-Royce, GKN, and the National Composites Centre among others as well as the Welsh and UK governments. A 2017 Oxford Economics report on Airbus’ economic impact on the South West supply chain estimated that the company supports 9,200 jobs in the region. Airbus engineers in Bristol design the wings for exciting planes such as the A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body), featuring a novel adaptive wing design

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Airbus supports local pupils at Bristol Metropolitan Academy through its annual Flying Challenge programme.

that morphs while airborne to help reduce fuel burn, and the single-aisle A321XLR that features an extended range for long-haul flights. The A380 is the largest civil aircraft with 853 seats at max capacity and its 79.8m wings are so large that they must be transported by sea to France. Airbus wings incorporate aerodynamic-enhancing sharkletsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a special sweeping wingtip design that helps reduce fuel burn and improve take-off performance. The company also has its eye on the future and it is Filton engineers who are leading global initiatives such as Wing of Tomorrow which is dedicated to designing and manufacturing the wings for the next generation of aircraft. Airbus is working to ensure full life cycle capabilities in Filton for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technology, and developments of the future, through embracing digital and disruptive solutions while retaining a multiskilled, competitive workforce. Attracting new blood to join the Airbus family is a full-time activity in itself and Airbusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pioneering progress mindset is reflected in the initiatives used to inspire the next generation of aerospace experts. This was emblematic in their Bristol-led conceptual airliner which was unveiled at the Royal International Air Tattoo 2019. Named Bird of Prey, it shows what could be possible when young engineers channel their imagination.

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Bristol engineers are currently researching changes to wingtips through a project called AlbatrossONE that allows the wingtip to freely flap during gusts or hard manoeuvres. Flight Physics engineer for AlbatrossONE, Tom Wilson, said, “While hinged wingtips are not new—military jets employ them to allow greater storage capacity on aircraft carriers—the Airbus demonstrator is the first aircraft to trial inflight, freely flapping wingtips to relieve the effects of wind gusts and turbulence. We drew inspiration from nature—the albatross marine bird locks its wings at the shoulder for long-distance soaring but unlocks them when wind gusts occur or maneuvering is required”. Airbus’ Filton site features a ProtoSpace dedicated to fostering innovation through collaboration and rapid prototyping. This is one of a number of ProtoSpaces across Airbus’ sites and it allows employees to use 3D scanners and virtual reality tools, including augmented reality and 3D printers. They also make use of 100-day ‘Sprints’ where teams work on a project and make use of agile work principles by operating with maximum flexibility and minimum constraints. 55

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British Airways recevied their first A350-1000 in 2019. Credit: British Airways.

Airbus in Filton is working towards becoming a truly eco-efficient enterprise and this means delivering economic value to customers and suppliers while minimising its environmental impact. Airbus is working on the frontiers of sustainability with Rolls-Royce through the hybrid-electric aircraft demonstrator project, E-Fan X. Onboard E-Fan X, one of the four jet engines is replaced by a 2MW electric motor in a bid to increase fuel savings through the implementation of hybrid-electric technology. This piece of work represents a goal of achieving a zero-emissions flight over the next 20 years. The first flight on this journey is expected to be in 2021. Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aviation heritage and its contemporary excellence through Airbusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; operations is clear for all to see and this passion, this unrelenting quest for improvement and advancement of human knowledge in every aspect of the aerospace sector, is something that will continue to drive the women, men, and future engineers that set foot on the innovation-laden earth of Airbus facilities in Filton.

Pegasus House Aerospace Avenue Filton, Bristol, BS34 7PA - UK Phone: +44 1179 69 3831 @AirbusintheUK

HUBS, INCUBATORS & ACCELERATORS

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – MARGARET MEAD

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Quantum Technologies from Lab Bench to Business ELEVATOR PITCH QTEC is a world-leading incubator for the commercialisation of quantum and quantum inspired technologies. Set up in 2016 at University of Bristol, England, and backed by a grant from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), QTEC is part of the £270 million government-invested UK National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP) (uknqt.epsrc.ac.uk). Open to quantum scientists from all over the world, QTEC offers a twelve-month fellowship that provides them with skills and support to start their own quantum-inspired startup businesses. To date, QTEC has supported the creation of 17 new companies who have raised a total of £11.52 million in equity, contract, and grant funding.

Jane Garrett, Deputy Director, Enterprise at QTEC

OUR STORY Quantum technology is an emerging area of science, which promises technological advancement that will have global impact. The NQTP has established 4 hubs in areas such as computing, sensing, cryptography, simulation, metrology, and imaging to accelerate the translation of quantum technologies into the marketplace and bring ‘quantum’ into everyday lives. QTEC was established to support the commercialisation of research coming from the national programme. As an example, the first four academics to join the QTEC programme in 2016 have all started successful quantumbased companies:

QTEC executive team and alumni

• KETS Quantum (kets-quantum.com), developing the world’s first integrated quantum secured encryption technologies. • Based on quantum optics and glycan chemistry, FluoretiQ (fluoretiq. com) is developing technology to enable identification of harmful bacteria in minutes rather than days. • Using Quantum Optical Gas Sensors QLM Technology (qlmtec.com) is developing compact, high-sensitivity, low-power Tuneable Diode Lidar gas detection and imaging systems for the detection of lowconcentration gas leak identification. • Raycal designed a unique correlated photon source for use in quantum photonic research, now being commercialised by an American optical equipment company. Neciah Dorh, FluoretiQ, accepting his People’s Choice Award at Launch GW 2019

All Bristol-based companies, FluoretiQ and QLM Technology are based in the highly successful Unit DX incubator (unitdx.com) and KETS-Quantum at the emerging Quantum Technology Innovation Centre (QTIC) at University of Bristol. 59

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Alexander Greenwood, 2018/19 QTEC Fellow

Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, 2018/19 QTEC Fellow

Following on from its highly successful first year QTEC has created 13 other businesses, including SeeQC who recently closed a large investment round with overseas investors and is developing a fullstack quantum computing service, with a software stack and core applications served through a quantum cloud infrastructure. Now recruiting for its fourth programme starting in November 2019, QTEC is committed to providing the resources for scientists to commercialise quantum-science, to help UK government build a quantum industry and assist the development of the deep-science entrepreneurial ecosystem that is developing around Bristol, UK.

QTEC management team with Fellows from KETS, Raycal, QLM, and FluoretiQ

1 Cathedral Square, Bristol BS1 5DD 0117 428 4242 qtecbristol bristol.ac.uk/qtec

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Each year, some 30,000 people visit Engine Shed for events and meetings and there are 1,200 events including conferences and formal dinners. Over 60 partners work with Engine Shed to deliver positive social and economic benefit and the organisation has 19 growth, inclusion, and innovation projects that are underway at the moment.

ELEVATOR PITCH Each city has its own set of unique, distinct features. Engine Shed, the enabler of exciting creative collisions and connections, is one such Bristol landmark, both physical and virtual.

To inform the projects, Engine Shed’s community ‘cluster-building’ activities help the team to reinforce the strength, depth and breadth of Bristol and Bath locally, nationally and internationally.

A partnership between Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Engine Shed is an enterprise hub where businesses, entrepreneurs, academics, social innovators and corporates collaborate. Engine Shed showcases the strengths and innovations of the region by providing space, creating encounters and running projects that inspire, enable and challenge us all.

Successful projects include Diverse Workforce for the Future, teacher work experience, ScaleUp Enabler, In-Residence services for investment and property, Entrepreneurial Outreach and Quarterly Investment Briefings, to name a few. Engine Shed also plays host to numerous trade missions, UK Government Minister announcements and Royal visits, as well as school children, students, visiting academics and social enterprise organisations.

OUR STORY Engine Shed’s vision sets out its intention: “Our region is a growing economy that is inclusive, sustainable and that benefits everyone who lives here, and is recognised internationally as innovative and dynamic. To achieve this, we innovate, seed activity and connect people to drive inclusive economic activity across sectors.”

Engine Shed has and continues to broker effective yet different partnerships and collaborations to support the region’s inclusive economic growth. Through this experimentation and subsequent success, Engine Shed has set further ambitions and is scaling with Engine Shed 2 in the pipeline, to be developed within the city’s economic hub, Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, and plans for further afield.

Engine Shed’s purpose is two-fold. As a place, it is an event venue, provider of office accommodation and meeting rooms, and a coworking space with a members’ business lounge. Tenants include Boomsatsuma, TechSPARK, One Big Circle, GW4, Catch22 and SETsquared Bristol. At the same time, Engine Shed runs projects that deliver on growth, inclusion and innovation. These projects are funded by 30% of Engine Shed’s operating surplus.

Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol, has this to say about the city’s enterprise hub: “At its heart, Engine Shed is a vibrant, neutral space that serves the city region in a really interesting matchmaking role.” To see how your business or organisation can become part of Bristol’s future economic success, get in touch. 61

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Engine Shed Station Approach Temple Meads Bristol BS1 6QH (0)117 903 1100 EngineShed_BB engine_shed engine-shed engine-shed.co.uk 62

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ELEVATOR PITCH Twice named Global #1 University Business Incubator, SETsquared is a longstanding enterprise partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, which specialises in growing technology startups through its world class business support programmes. SETsquared Bristol, based at Engine Shed in the heart of the Bristol’s Enterprise Zone, is the largest of these centres and has supported over 200 technology ventures from Agritech to Fintech.

OUR STORY SETsquared Bristol’s vision is to create a thriving economic landscape for tech startups in Bristol and the South West Region. Since launching in 2002, its members have raised a combined £430m+, and over 80 ventures, both resident and virtual, are currently supported by the incubation programme. SETsquared Bristol provides a world-leading and bespoke business development support programme tailored to the size, stage, needs and product offering of a company. All tech entrepreneurs can benefit from Entrepreneur-in-Residence sessions, business review panels and workshops.

Diversity Under Centre Director, Monika Radclyffe, SETsquared Bristol has carried out two diversity research reports: one into gender inclusion and one into Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) inclusion. These have led to the implementation of a ‘Breakthrough Bursary’ for three BAME-founded startups.

Testimonials

They’ve provided everything we need from a home: support, advice, connections, guidance and training.”

How to enter SETsquared Bristol accepts tech companies from any background or sector with high commercial growth potential who are seeking outside support and advice that will help accelerate their company to market. Whilst it is connected to the University of Bristol, you don’t need to be a university spin-out to apply.

Steve Cliffe, CEO, Ultrahaptics

Becoming a SETsquared member has provided a rigorous framework to drive the business to our next steps.”

Successes Successes include alumnus Ultrahaptics’ expansion by acquiring Leap Motion and Ziylo’s groundbreaking acquisition deal worth up to $800m. SETsquared Bristol was also awarded ‘Highly Commended’ at the 2019 Bristol Life Awards, and Monika Radclyffe was awarded Innovation Champion at the Launch Great West Awards 2019.

Becky Sage, CEO, Interative Scientific 63

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SETsquared Bristol Engine Shed, Station Approach Temple Meads, Bristol. BS1 6QH +44 (0)117 903 1100 SETsquared_Br setsquared-bristol setsquared-bristol.co.uk 64

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facilities for collaborative university/business research and development around health tech. Its facilities include DNA-testing, and a fully-equipped on-site ‘Living Lab’ enables controlled, near-real-life trials of technologies.

Situated at the heart of the University of West England’s (UWE Bristol) Frenchay campus is a space that looks to drive innovation and enterprise. The University Enterprise Zone (UEZ) caters to a range of entrepreneurs and technology professionals, providing a space to work, share and collaborate.

Altered Carbon is a startup company that works with HTH. Its product is a sensor based on graphene, whose unique attributes can enhance sensor function. Founder Ali Rohafza says: “Health Tech Hub is of great value to us because it is highly advanced and we’re able to run checks and develop our product.”

The UEZ is one of four such zones in the UK originally commissioned by central government, with support from the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership and University investment. Its vision is to facilitate innovation and growth and ultimately, the region’s local economy.

One of Future Space’s many success stories is Open Bionics, which designs and manufactures prosthetic limbs that are accessible, useable and fun for child amputees. Founded in 2014, the company broke new ground with its Hero Arm, the world’s first medically approved, 3D-printed device of its kind.

OUR STORY Reflective of the area’s industrial diversity, the zone contains Launch Space, an incubator for early-stage startups that are run by recent graduates, as well as Future Space, an innovation centre for startups and fast-growth businesses.

The device was developed and tested at UEZ with funding from Government and NHS England. It has proved hugely popular with young users, securing commercial licences with Disney, Marvel and Lucasfilm to accessorise its prosthetics with superhero characters. Open Bionics also recently secured investments of £4.5m from the Williams F1 team’s Foresight Williams, Downing LLP and Ananda Impact Ventures. Both Open Bionics and Altered Carbon grew out of BRL’s Robotics Hardware Incubator.

It also houses the Bristol Robotics Laboratory’s (BRL) Robotics Innovation Facility, a centre that promotes the adoption of robotics and automation, as well as its Robotics Hardware Incubator, a startup space for hardware development businesses. Robotics Hardware Incubator businesses have so far raised £15.5m worth of investments.

By working nearby to companies like Open Bionics, residents in UEZ benefit from more than just an office space. The university setting gives them access

Finally, the Health Tech Hub (HTH) offers lab-space and cutting-edge 65

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to high quality facilities, expertise and support that would otherwise be out of reach. Services include specialist business growth support, opportunities for collaboration with university researchers and technical experts. There is also access to legal, accounting, marketing and IP expertise, as well as grants for innovation and enterprise.

UWE North Gate Filton Road Stoke Gifford BS34 8RB +44 (0)117 32 81043 launchspace@uwe.ac.uk www1.uwe.ac.uk

Located at the epicentre of UEZ, the Hub café is an inspiring space for meetings, networking and events. Future Space resident and co-founder of Service Robotics Rob Parkes says: “It’s great to be able to tap into the creativity of all kinds of tech start-ups, to learn from each other and build lasting relationships that could lead to ground-breaking collaborations.” 66

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Unit DX is a science incubator in Central Bristol. By bringing together specialist facilities with science-focused business support, we have been instrumental in creating a new scientific ecosystem in Bristol. While the city has long been a host of world-class research, it now has the support in place to retain and host cutting-edge businesses and the people behind them. The growth in the city’s science sector has seen a huge increase in activity, including record levels of spin-outs from the University of Bristol.

After opening in 2017, Unit DX reached full capacity within two years and is now home to a range of science and engineering businesses supporting almost 150 jobs. Our members span the bio-design, chemistry, and quantum industries, working on diverse problems. We have plans in the pipeline to provide additional laboratory and workshop space to house this growing community. “We’ve reached 100% occupancy in two years, and the growth of this sector does not appear to be slowing. There is significant evidence to suggest that additional space is required, both for startups and scale-ups, to accommodate the growth of the existing SMEs, the needs of budding entrepreneurs who have been inspired by this ‘first wave’, and to add to the home-grown talent by accommodating inward investment into the West of England.” Ashley Brewer – Centre Director at Unit DX.

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The Ziylo Story Unit DX was set up by the founders of another startup, Ziylo, after identifying that there was no home for science companies in the city. Ziylo spun-out from the University of Bristol in 2014, with a technology platform offering the potential to develop glucose responsive insulinsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a groundbreaking treatment that could help diabetes patients worldwide. Unit DX became their home, and in 2018 made headlines when Ziylo was sold to Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk in a deal that could be worth up to $800M, if the technology reaches certain milestones. The sale helped put Bristol on the map for science startups and has made many researchers take another look at their work to consider whether it has commercial applications.

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Growing the Sector

Investment and Business Support

We use a three-pronged approach to developing the scientific startup ecosystem in Bristol. We work with local schoolchildren to get them interested in science and have involved over 1,000 children in our outreach program, we champion entrepreneurship at universities, and we directly support and house early-stage science companies. These efforts were recognised when we were awarded the OBN’s ‘Best Sector Support Organisation’ in 2018.

A key part of helping to grow this new ecosystem is helping with the formation of new companies. We have helped in the formation and development of the city’s latest biodesign companies by finding the right people, offering funding, and securing IP. Unit DX’s network of angel investors has led funding rounds for many of our members. With over £20M raised before our second anniversary, we’ve helped to gain the financial backing needed to turn their remarkable science into commercialised technology. By fostering an environment where members can exchange ideas and information, our members can share expertise between companies and learn from each other. The success of individual companies also reflects on others, raising the profile of Bristol’s science ecosystem and attracting investment. We think that in a science cluster, connectivity aids viability.

Our members have been increasingly recognised for their efforts in their respective fields. The inaugural ‘Launch: Great West Awards’ saw five of eight honours awarded to companies housed by Unit DX. These awards not only offered the opportunity to recognise our members’ work but also to recognise the development of Bristol’s science ecosystem.

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For startup development, business support services are just as important as financial support and infrastructure when creating an environment for successful companies. We provide links to advisory accountants, insurance brokers, project management expertise, patent attorneys, and lawyers. Our network includes links to successful biotech deal brokers, relevant consultants, and strong partnerships with local universities.

The Big Picture We want to see the UK become a major player in the development, delivery, and commercialisation of biodesign and quantum technologies, and we will continue to help grow and support this sector in the South West. Previously, this part of the country was in the background of the UK science startup scene, as the ‘Golden Triangle’ of London, Oxford, and Cambridge housed much of the UK’s scientific industry. This success was in part due to the many translational resources available in the area— resources that are essential to entrepreneurs looking to commercialise their technology. We believe the South West can join the ‘Golden Triangle’ in leading the UK’s bio-economy by promoting translational activity and providing resources that are crucial for startup growth.

Unit DX St Philips Central, Albert Road Bristol, BS2 0XJ 0117 403 4035 info@unitdx.com Unit_DX Unit DX unitdx.com 70

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ELEVATOR PITCH space, free wi-fi, free business advice and mentoring, bespoke coaching, and access to the bank’s networks and supply chains.

There are nearly 900 reasons to explain why Bristol’s NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator is the place to be if you’re starting or scaling-up a business.

Olly Reid, NatWest scale acceleration manager in Bristol, said, “The three pillars of our Accelerators are Environment, Coaching and Networks. The hub provides a priceless community of like-minded people for peer-to-peer learning, collaboration, and feedback, which has a hugely positive impact upon entrepreneurs.

And it’s a number that keeps growing every year.

OUR STORY Part of the UK’s largest fully funded business accelerator network, the Bristol hub at NatWest’s Trinity Quay offices on Avon Street has supported nearly 900 businesses from fintechs to fashion brands since it opened its doors in 2015. Each is an individual success story that underlines the wealth of entrepreneurial talent in the city and wider South West region.

“They also benefit from dedicated one-to-one time with experienced development and acceleration managers who have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, getting them to think differently, pushing them out of their comfort zones, and supporting and challenging them as leaders. “And as the UK’s biggest bank for business, we have an unrivalled customer base and supply chain which helps us ensure that entrepreneurs are connected to the right people with the knowledge they need to help start, scale, and succeed.”

Taking businesses further, faster, NatWest’s Accelerator, Pre-Accelerator, and Fintech Accelerator programmes have been tailored to empower entrepreneurs at any stage of their business. It’s an amazing journey that is fully funded by the bank, and you don’t have to give up any equity in your business to take part.

Crucially, more than 80% of businesses on the programme are still operating after two years, while 47% of participants are female entrepreneurs.

The core Accelerator is a 6-to-18-month programme for entrepreneurs with high-growth businesses looking to scale up. Designed to ensure that these businesses get the best chance to succeed, entrepreneurs receive free office

For more information, search for NatWest Accelerator. 71

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They also benefit from dedicated one-to-one time with experienced development and acceleration managers who have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, getting them to think differently, pushing them out of their comfort zones, and supporting and challenging them as leaders.â&#x20AC;? Olly Reid â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Manager, NatWest Scale Acceleration

PO Box 3176, Bristol, BS3 9FS 0117 290 0001 bristolisopen Bristol Is Open bristolisopen.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH Oracle for Startups is built around this dedication to bringing startup innovation to large companies. Working with Oracle, startups don’t need to launch in Silicon Valley to be successful. New companies in emerging hotspots like Bristol can leverage Oracle’s global reach to bring transformational technology to the enterprise market. In return, enterprise businesses discover vetted and integrated vendors leveraging the latest technology in AI, blockchain, digital assistants and more. The result is a collective “leveling up” in both innovation and revenue.

Oracle for Startups facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships by connecting enterprise companies with innovative startup technology built on secure, scalable Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

OUR STORY A dozen startup founders, including several from Bristol, disembark a private bus on a San Francisco street and enter a luxe home with walls adorned with masterpieces fit for the Louvre. They network, enjoying light refreshments and a view of the glittering Bay. As the sun dips behind the Golden Gate Bridge, they take a seat inside. Oracle CTO and Chairman Larry Ellison is home and ready to answer some questions. This is the Founder to Founder event, one of the cooler benefits delivered by Oracle for Startups to a handpicked group of global startups.

According to Dr. Zara Nanu, co-founder of Bristol startup Gapsquare, “Oracle’s startup program is helping us grow both our product and our business. Running on Oracle Cloud is a big win for us, as we need scale and power with the highest levels of data security. And the global exposure, like OpenWorld in San Francisco and OpenWorld London, has provided incredible business growth opportunities.” Oracle for Startups works with hundreds of startups across 6 continents, defining our success by the achievements of the companies in the program. Startups have secured spots on Gartner’s “Cool Vendors” list, deployed at scale to global customers, saved money on the cloud to reinvest into their businesses, and accelerated their time to market with cloud resources, exposure, and mentorship provided by Oracle for Startups.

From his own living room, Ellison shares candid advice from his decades in a changing business landscape. “I think it’s our job, as designers of our company, and imaginers of our company, to redesign the company constantly, based on what is technologically possible today that was not technologically possible yesterday.” He re-iterates, “You must be willing to make a decision on Monday and then change your mind on Thursday.”

Oracle for Startups Director of Global Communications Amy Sorrells leads a panel of female founders and VC experts at Startup Grind Europe. 73

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Startups get a peek inside the mind (and home) of Oracle Chairman of the Board and CTO Larry Ellison at a 2018 Founder to Founder event in San Francisco.

We partner with institutions like Startup Grind and 500 Startups to participate in startupfocused thought leadership meetups around the world, and invite qualifying startups to attend global events like OpenWorld in San Francisco, Dubai, London, SĂŁo Paulo and Singapore, sweetening the deal by filling their schedules with customer meetings, media interviews, analyst briefings, and exclusive events like Founder to Founder. Startups who build and integrate on Oracle Cloud get secure cloud infrastructure, mentorship, and opportunities to engage with enterprise customers. Customers safely tap into the fast-paced startup world to solve their business challenges, passing efficiency down to their customers. As the facilitator of these relationships, Oracle for Startups is proud to be creating a virtuous cycle of innovation.

Oracle for Startups VP Jason Williamson addresses an audience of startup founders in South Carolina, USA.

OracleStartups OracleStartup blogs.oracle.com/startup OracleNext Oracle oracle.com/startup 74

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Pervasive Media Studio Panorama - Photo by Paul Blakemore

ELEVATOR PITCH In 2008, Watershed, in collaboration with University of West of England and University of Bristol, launched the Pervasive Media Studio – an arts and technology research space designed to develop talent and new ideas in the cultural and creative economy.

leads and funding opportunities, testing prototypes or even just offering to get a round of tea in – this is what makes the space uniquely collaborative. “As a business and entrepreneur, I fully appreciate everything that Watershed offers Bristol. Watershed is playful; it encourages expansive thinking and curiosity. Great products and experiences are built by teams with diverse backgrounds, skills, knowledge. This value is at the heart of Watershed and you see it whenever you engage with them.” Sammy Payne, Open Bionics Pervasive Media Studio resident.

By co-locating a network of artists, creative companies, technologists and academics, we support the exploration of ideas, experiences and applications over time. We are a space of many languages, united by curiosity and a desire to ask questions – we enjoy an international reputation for collaborations crossing cultural, commercial and academic sectors.

We have an annual funded Residency Programme where we seek out ideas that blend creativity and technology through an open call. We’ve explored food futures, bionic limbs, theatre that makes us think differently and much more – all brilliant projects which have had a profound impact on the artists involved.

OUR STORY The Studio supports a growing community with 165 residents and an active alumni of 450 creatives. The community is curated – applications are open year-round and we think carefully about how new residents will complement the people who are already working here. We look for curiosity and a collaborative spirit – we want the Studio to be a safe space for people to take risks with early-stage ideas.

Since 2008 Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio have been designing and delivering new R&D methodologies to the creative sector. With £10m+ funding from Research England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, we have initiated two major projects to explore the potential of new technologies to produce new products, experiences and jobs. The South West Creative Technology Network and Bristol+Bath Creative R&D cluster will explore themes like Immersion, Automation, Data and Performance through fellowships, prototyping and talent development.

Our desk spaces are provided free of charge but we ask our residents to think about how they can be open, generous and interruptible – this way expertise is shared and connections are deeper. From sharing ideas and resources to running events, skills swaps or meet-ups, to circulating client

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Dancing Shadows - Photo by Paul Blakemore

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Studio Mural by Jasmine Thompson

Millennium Constellations Photo by Jack Clifford

We felt very cared for during our residency and that the Pervasive Media Studio (and the people in it) were genuinely invested in and excited about our project. There’s literally no way we would be where we are now without it. The residency has genuinely opened up a bunch of new possibilities that will be felt in our practice for many years.” Action Hero, Artists in Residence It is the heart of the ecosystem – the UK lead of virtual reality and augmented reality working alongside other key players such as BBC, Aardman and the Universities.” Tom Fleming, Conversations 76

@PMstudioUK watershed.co.uk/studio

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ELEVATOR PITCH Tech Nation’s story began in Shoreditch in 2011, launched by the then-Prime Minister David Cameron, to support the East London tech cluster known as London Tech City—or Silicon Roundabout. Since then we’ve been on a journey, spreading our activities to cover other parts of the UK, including setting up Tech North to run programmes across the North of England. In November 2017, then-Prime Minister Theresa May and Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the launch of Tech Nation, consolidating Tech City UK and Tech North’s impact.

OUR STORY Now as Tech Nation, we’re expanding our network to reach all corners and clusters of the UK. As part of the initial rollout we hired a team of Entrepreneur Engagement Managers to connect, collaborate, and celebrate scaling tech companies; Vicky Hunter is our South West representative, based in Bristol. With a strong tech-startup ecosystem growing across the UK we are now focused on supporting the most ambitious with their journey to scale. We do this through growth programmes, digital entrepreneurship skills, a visa scheme for exceptional talent, and by championing the UK’s digital sector through data, stories, and media campaigns. If you’re a tech entrepreneur we have a programme for every stage of your business growth. Join our network and you’ll benefit from peer-to-peer learning, access to world-class scale coaches, and connections that will help you solve your business challenges.

technation tn_southwest technation.io

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Ash Phillips, Founder

What does it say is responsible for this success and its 6-year staying power as a bootstrapped organisation? Community.

ELEVATOR PITCH Yena has a mission to democratise high-level business support for anyone, anywhere. They provide business benefits to a growing community of startups, via a Netflix-style subscription, that supports them to start and grow a remarkable business.

“Building a brand around a mission and solid core values attracts people who truly love your brand and buy in to what you’re about,” says Yena founder, Ash Phillips. “This has allowed us to build an engaged ecosystem and economy around the Yena experience”. This economy is so great that member Tom Garland said, “We went over our turnover for the last year, and the sources of that income, and were really surprised to find that Yena contacts made up nearly 10% of our annual turnover”. Alongside this powerful community, Yena also provides access to discounted tools, educational content, and exclusive opportunities, all for just £9 per month.

OUR STORY Back in 2013, Yena was just a group of 6 people sat around a table in a quiet corner of a bar in Bristol—people who wanted to meet others like them, who were starting businesses, working on ideas, doing something different, and breaking the status quo. People that Yena now lovingly refers to as ‘Rebels’. Now, Yena’s Rebel Meetups span 18 cities globally, connecting more than 3,500 people for free, each year.

Yena’s expertise around understanding and building communities is now not only the secret to its growing, impact-driven commercial success, but

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also a consulting product in and of itself: connecting brands to the next generation of consumers, businesses, and talent. The company hopes to build on its now award-winning story by digitising its offering and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gamifying the startup experienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, enabling Yena to deliver on its core social mission of helping anyone, anywhere.

Yena OneUp Arclight House 3 Unity Street Bristol BS1 5HH info@joinyena.com joinyena.com 80

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EDUCATION & RESEARCH

“The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction.” – LAWRENCE MILLER

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EXCELLENT RESEARCH STIMULATES INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM ELEVATOR PITCH The University of Bristol is at the heart of a rapidly developing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Bristol. With six faculties and ten research institutes housing 1,800 research staff supporting 25,000 students, the University is at the cutting edge of global research, tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues. Our research creates a positive impact on society – from infection and immunity, to human rights, climate change and cryptography – through the dissemination of knowledge and technologies, licensing of research outcomes, creation of new companies and creating partnerships.

From students to commercialisation A thriving innovation ecosystem requires inputs from a variety of stakeholders, from student entrepreneurship development to collaboration to company incubation to investment. The University is at the core of this: driving new programmes in student innovation, developing a new enterprise campus and providing incubation services. Undergraduate students can undertake an integrated four-year master’s degree studying a core discipline, such as anthropology or physics, plus innovation in our Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. During the programme they work on a variety of practical problems presented by local organisations, as well as their own business ideas. 83

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Students can also enter the New Enterprise Competition and apply for support from our Student Enterprise Team. They are able to attend events to develop their enterprise skills and turn their business ideas into valuable business models. Postgraduate students and early career researchers can apply to become a Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre Fellow â&#x20AC;&#x201C; spending a year developing their business to be ready to enter the market or raise investment. They can explore potential markets for their products with support from the renown ICURe (Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research) programme, and new businesses can apply to enter our world-leading incubator, SETsquared Bristol.

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For intellectual property developed from staff research, the Research and Enterprise Development Research Commercialisation team finds appropriate commercialisation pathways such as licensing to existing or spin out companies. The team also supports spin out companies as they build their capabilities and find investment, and encourages them to apply for funding from the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund which co-invests with angel and institutional investors. The University is also developing a new state-of-the-art campus in the heart of the city, on the east side of Temple Meads train station. Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus â&#x20AC;&#x201C; anticipated to open in 2022 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; will be at the forefront of 84

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Beyond the University

digital and business research, education, skills and innovation, building on Bristol’s reputation as a leading digital tech cluster. The Campus will bring together world-leading researchers, educators and innovators from science, engineering, social sciences and enterprise to explore the benefits and challenges of digital technologies on humans, communities and the wider society. Students, academics, researchers, businesses and local communities will work together to tackle global challenges – from driverless cars to AI and big data, our ageing population to the future of work.

In all of these initiatives, we work with partners across the city and beyond – local development agencies, the City Council, private incubators and coworking spaces, and other universities in the region. We are part of the GW4 Alliance which brings together the research capabilities and infrastructure of the four most research-intensive and innovative universities in the UK: Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and Exeter. The Alliance identifies areas of complementary expertise across our universities to develop research communities at scale which address major global and industrial challenges. We are also part of the SETsquared Partnership of universities – Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey – which aims to turn innovation into thriving business and drive economic growth within our regions and across the UK.

The campus will also be home to the Bristol Digital Futures Institute, which will transform the way we understand, create and use digital technology, as well as the world’s first open-access Quantum Technologies Innovation Centre, building on our world-leading research in disruptive quantum technologies, providing specialist facilities and expertise for businesses.

The University plays a role in the Local Enterprise Partnership which is a business-led partnership between businesses, universities and the region’s councils and combined authority. Their role is to secure the region’s continued economic success by promoting an environment where businesses thrive, and healthy and productive communities grow in a sustainable way.

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Our future With the University of Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excellence in research, commitment to impact, and active and growing innovation programmes, the Bristol innovation ecosystem will continue to flourish, putting our city on the innovation map for generations to come. A top ten UK universityâ&#x20AC;Śhome to the best university business incubator in the worldâ&#x20AC;Śin the number one place to live in the UK. University of Bristol, Beacon House Queens Road Bristol, BS8 1QU, UK +44 (0)117 928 9000

bristoluniversity University of Bristol UniversityOfBristol bristoluni bristoluniversity bristol.ac.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH The University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) has a global and inclusive outlook, with approximately 30,000 students. It is ranked 28th in the Guardian university league table 2020, is one of the top 10 universities in the UK for student satisfaction, with a record 89% of UWE Bristol final year students satisfied with their course overall. It has also been awarded the highest possible rating in the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF), achieving GOLD Standard.

Mark Stewart, who is General Manager and HR Director at Airbus UK, says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having people with the right skills is vital to our continued and future success. UWE Bristol has a key role to play in understanding our current and future skills needs, and developing the programmes necessary to deliver first-class graduates with both the technical expertise and professional abilities we require.â&#x20AC;? UWE Bristol has developed a strong link with the business community, with networks and connections comprising over 1,000 employers.

OUR STORY

As well as setting up its students for success and providing the industry with ready-and-able graduates, the University also works with businesses to deliver successful solutions with sector-specific expertise, innovative thinking, and research. Projects can run for just a few days to months or years. It offers incubation and enterprise support, consultancy services, access to specialist facilities, grant funding and professional development.

For the University, employability is key. It works across industry, to identify skills shortages, develop courses and provide work opportunities for its students. Everything is focused on making sure students are best positioned for the future they want, academically, practically, professionally and socially. Currently, 95% of its graduates are in work or further study six months after graduating, which is higher than the national average. 87

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One example of how the University works with businesses is through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). UWE Bristol is one of the most active universities in the region for delivering KTPs. This Government-supported scheme enables organisations to recruit a talented graduate, based full-time in the business, who will drive and deliver a strategic project with weekly support and input from an academic. In the past 25 years, UWE Bristol has coordinated around 100 projects across 80 organisations.

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Says Chaudhry: “It seems unbelievable that I made something which could really help people, even if it’s to a small extent. It’s a great feeling for me - and the patients are so happy somebody is thinking of them.” As part of UWE Bristol’s multi-million-pound University Enterprise Zone (UEZ), Future Space offers incubation and scale-up space for businesses to flourish. It offers offices, labs and co-working spaces for entrepreneurs, innovators, and high tech businesses. Currently, some 37 companies are resident within the space, which employs over 200 people, and has so far raised funding of over £10.3m.

A big part of the University’s ethos is to encourage students to adopt an enterprising and entrepreneurial ethos throughout their studies. Neha Chaudhry, who graduated with an MSc Marketing and BSc in Product Design Technology, went on to set up a business with a flagship product called Walk to Beat. This ‘smart stick’ is a walking stick for people with Parkinson’s disease. It monitors walking patterns and gives a vibratory cue felt in the handle. The product has attracted the attention of the NHS and Parkinson’s UK charity.

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It was during its residency in Future Space that Reach Robotics developed an augmented reality gaming robot called Mekamon. Co-founded by UWE Bristol graduate Silas Adekunle, Reach Robotics was able to grow its team, test and develop its robots and prepare for investment without the distraction of having to run its own office building. The highly successful company now sells its robots in Apple stores. Robotics is one of many areas that UWE Bristol is known for when it comes to research. As well as developing personally adaptive robotic systems to support independent living for the elderly, it is also collaborating with health organisations, industry, government agencies and charities to transform lives.

and parents. The partnership was shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award in 2016 and there are plans to reach a total of 40 million young people with body-confidence education by 2020. Overall, the University’s goal is to be recognised for the success and impact of its professionally-recognised and practice-oriented programmes, strong industry networks and connections, its agile ways of working, and inclusive and global outlook and approach.

Its Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) is reaching millions of young people with body confidence, thanks to its research to improve body image and is the world’s largest research group focusing on the role of appearance and body image in people’s lives.

Professor Steve West, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, says: “There is a real passion and commitment to maximise our potential in these areas and continue to grow and develop. That’s why we’re taking UWE Bristol forwards with huge ambition and confidence.”

CAR has a partnership with the Dove Self-Esteem Project, the social mission of Dove (Unilever’s personal care brand). It has helped Dove to develop and evaluate many of its educational programmes for schools, youth groups, 89

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University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol BS16 1QY United Kingdom +44 (0)117 9656261 Infopoint@uwe.ac.uk uwebristol UWEBristol uwe.ac.uk

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Access Creative College: Helping Bristol Students Master Their Craft for a Career in the Creative Industries ELEVATOR PITCH Having launched Phase One of its games and media campus in the city centre, back in March 2019, Access Creative College (ACC) Bristol has been busy putting students through their paces, preparing them to embark on their journey into the creative industries. As the fastest-growing sector in the UK economy, there’s never been more opportunity for those who opt to learn a creative craft as their chosen career path.

OUR STORY ACC’s campus is situated in the heart of the city centre and just a few moments’ walk away from Finzel’s Reach, which is the home of Channel 4’s new Creative Hub. Having invested over £5m in the site, ACC offers its students state-of-the-art facilities, including a virtual reality suite, green screen studio, and games, media, and music tech labs. as Latitude and Slam Dunk. Closer to home, Love Saves the Day and Bristol Downs Festival got to benefit from ACC students’ expertise.

The campus has also already played host to a number of key industry events, including Social Media Week Bristol, where students were able to show off their events management and technical know-how in helping to host a range of different workshops and sessions. ACC also played a major role in Social Media Week’s Digital Squad, where students captured key moments over the course of the conference from a range of different event locations across Bristol to broadcast on social media, fulfilling an important role and gaining invaluable industry experience.

With Phase Two of the new campus soon to get underway, ACC Bristol will be opening its doors to more students looking to master their craft than ever before. ACC’s aim is to develop skills that will not only forge fulfilling and exciting careers for young people in and around Bristol but also help to feed the city’s hunger for expertise within its growing market of creative businesses.

Social Media Week Bristol is just one example of ACC’s array of industry partnerships. From festivals to games companies and everything inbetween, the college ensures its students gain the necessary experience to get the best possible start. Summer 2019 alone saw ACC music and media students travel across the country to perform and work at festivals such

Courses on offer to people aged 16+ in games, music, media, and events are available at Level 2 (GCSE equivalent) or Level 3 (A-level equivalent). All courses are practical in nature and are assessed via project work leading to BTEC or RSL qualifications. Level 3 courses carry the same UCAS points as three A Levels and can lead on to university or employment. 91

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OUR STORY We founded Spin Up Science after finding that most Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers had never heard of or engaged with local incubator spaces or the local high-tech startup community. This concerned us because, within one year of graduating, more than half of all Ph.D. researchers leave academia and science behind, revealing a lack of available job opportunities to apply their specialist knowledge. In the UK, we also struggle to effectively translate the research undertaken in universities into the wider world; which could present a source of job creation. We believe that scientists and engineers can make incredibly effective business leaders. Further, by connecting them to innovation communities and arming them with entrepreneurial mindsets, these researchers can be an essential component in driving increased research translation and job creation. Since 2017, with the construction and opening of incubator spaces across the city, science- and technology-driven companies have begun to thrive with the increased availability of wet lab and engineering facilities. However, innovation clusters need more than just physical infrastructure to reach their full potential; they rely on the shared experience and connections between their members. For these communities to flourish and grow, some social infrastructure is required to support existing activity while also ensuring a strong talent pipeline to drive further innovation. Our flagship initiative, the Science Entrepreneur Experience, embeds teams of Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers within incubators for weeklong immersive experiences working alongside early-stage science and technology startups. Over five days, the team positions themselves halfway between consultants and entrepreneurs to build a clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s startup business. Starting from the underlying science, the cohort explores how to translate it into the marketplace. Authentically simulating the experience of opportunity spotting, customer validation, and spinning out a company affords the opportunity to practice the research commercialisation journey and provides a framework to assess their own startup ideas.

ELEVATOR PITCH Spin Up Science was founded in 2018 to support the development of scientists and engineers into future leaders and innovators, to strengthen the pipeline of technical expertise emerging from universities, and to increase research commercialisation activity. Through our initiatives designed to engage early-career researchers with the local high-tech startup community, we aim to raise the visibility of entrepreneurship as a career pathway beyond a Ph.D.

The outputs of these experiences yield market research reports, customer discovery, brand creation, and financial projections. All outputs are handed over to the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s company at no cost, turning a training experience into a tangible benefit for local startups. In doing so, training funds contribute directly to startup success stories and connect researchers with startups, who often seek to re-employ the assistance of programme graduates as interns, consultants, or employees. Our mission is to strengthen connections between local incubation facilities and the communities of innovators and researchers in the city. To date, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve engaged more than 250 researchers with local incubators from across the UK and Europe. The alumni of the experience have gone on to found companies based on their own research, join startups in the local community, and embrace positions of leadership in the industry. Looking forward, we hope to support the growth of the ecosystem as it goes from strength to strength and to see the development of Bristol and the South West as a prime location for innovative companies to be based.

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ELEVATOR PITCH Develop Me is a tech-career accelerator. We exist to empower people to thrive through education. We believe the future of innovation will continue to be through disruptive technologies and collaborative social business models. More importantly, we believe positive change in society will come from people with ideas who are given the skills and knowledge to make things happen. We identified a key failing in existing tech-education models that led to people being taught out-of-date skills that just werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t useful in the real world. We work closely with tech employers to ensure our courses are always commercially relevant and continuously updated.

OUR STORY Our core learning programmes are a highly immersive Coding Bootcamp, which helps our students kickstart their careers in tech, and part-time courses in User Experience (UX) Design and Front-End Web Development to upskill, enabling more flexible career advancement. Since 2014 we have made a significant impact on the tech-skills gap by helping over 500 people accelerate their tech and UX careersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and currently maintain a 98% employment rate from our Coding Bootcamp. Our courses are developed and delivered by industry experts and are constantly updated to reflect the pace of change in the most progressive and innovative industry of our time. By setting up one of the first Coding Bootcamps in the UK, we were able to address the commercial-skills gap and lower the barriers to entry for tech careers at the same time. We continue to lead the way in studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; successful outcomes, with our graduates being highly employable and offering essential skills to tech businesses looking to grow. Develop Me was established with a social mission to ensure we create inclusive opportunities and enable access for everyone in society to 95

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participate in the digital economy. Integral to this is the creation of our â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Opportunity Fundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, which provides corporate partners, sponsors, and individuals a direct way to invest in financial support and training for underrepresented sections of society in the tech industry. As the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second-largest digital technology hub, Bristol is a great city to be involved in tech. The community here is incredible, with tech events and meetups every night of the week and new businesses setting up or relocating every day. The help and support we received when getting started was amazing and has played a large part in our success and longevity as a business. 01179 086 146 Unit 1.8, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3EH developme_tech developme.tech developme_tech developme.tech

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We help parents and children to love learning maths together at home.” — TOM, FOUNDER OF MATHS WITH PARENTS

ELEVATOR PITCH Maths with Parents is an online tool that supports maths at home. We help parents and children to love learning maths together. We believe that every child can enjoy and succeed in maths.

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OUR STORY When it comes to maths, it isn’t always easy for parents to support their children.

Teachers believe in us!

95% of teachers would want to roll Maths with Parents out into other year groups

Only 5% of parents know what topic their child is currently learning. The topics often use new techniques that parents may never have seen. Many parents feel anxious or negative about maths.

Our Solution

85%

We work with primary schools to provide tailored support to the parents and children in every class. Parents receive a short video in which kids explain how the maths is taught. They play fun activities together on this topic. Teachers can choose which topic to release, and receive feedback from kids and parents.

Confidence increases!

85% of parents noted an increase in confidence

Our Values Parents and teachers raise children together; we help to bridge the gap between school and home. There are oodles of ways to make maths fun! We have over 500 fun games for parents and children to play together. Maths doesn’t have to be scary. We’re with parents every step of the way, and our videos of kids are clear and easy to follow.

83%

Parents enjoy Maths with Parents!

Meet the Founder

83% of parents said that their enjoyment of maths homework had increased

Tom Harbour is a teacher and the founder of Maths with Parents. He has seen firsthand what brilliant support parents can be when they are able to make learning at home fun. He has set up Maths with Parents to help bring maths to life at home—stopping it being scary and making it fun. 97

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Email: info@mathswithparents.com @ParentMaths facebook.com/MathswithParents mathswithparents.com

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“Man is to technology what the bee is to the flower. It’s man’s intervention that allows technology to expand and evolve itself and in return, technology offers man convenience, wealth and the lessening burden of physical labor via its automated systems.” – JAMES SCOTT

ROBOTICS

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ELEVATOR PITCH Iain Gray, former Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, comments, “Bristol Robotics Laboratory [is] home to truly world-leading research efforts, while also providing an incubator environment for innovative, early-stage robotics companies. An excellent example of a seamless melding of lab-based research and commercial development, all under one roof”.

Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) is the largest co-located multidisciplinary robotics research centre in the UK. It is a collaborative partnership between UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol and home to over 300 academics, industry practitioners, and researchers from all over the world. Together, they are world leaders in current thinking on adaptive robotics, intelligent autonomous systems, and robotics with “humans in the loop”.

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The BRL Robotics Hardware Incubator is a core element of UWE’s new University Enterprise Zone (UEZ) and was formed to support graduates, startups, and early-stage businesses focused on robotics and automationrelated hardware and devices. It provides desk space, fabrication facilities, and BRL technical support. The Incubator has supported over 25 startups, creating 135 jobs and raising over £15m in funds for its residents.

BRL maintains strong national and international links with both industry and other research institutes and has an enviable track record of successful research and innovation. The lab’s Bristol Technology Solutions initiative is involved in multiple innovative applications of robotics for commercial and industrial exploitation and includes a Technology Business Incubator and the Robotics Innovation Facility (RIFBristol). 101

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Early clients included Silas Adekunle, founder of Reach Robotics, and Samantha Payne, co-founder of Open Bionics. Both companies later moved into Future Space and have been hugely successful in raising significant investment funds. Located adjacent to the Hardware Incubator is RIFBristol, providing robotics and automation consultancy services to organisations in the private and public sectors. Its team of engineers helps a range of clients including entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs, and larger corporations to overcome innovation challenges. The RIFBristol workspace is equipped with cuttingedge hardware used for consultancy and research, including training, prototyping, and testing of new products and services.

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Through its SABRE Programme, RIFBristol offers SMEs free workshops that teach participants to operate robots and derisk hardware purchases. It also provides intensive support (from 5 days to 12 weeks) with dedicated access to engineers and hardware. Since 2013, RIFBristol has helped over 620 organisations and their staff, including over 400 SMEs. BRL works closely with trade associations and industry networks, and hosts a variety of national and international robotics conferences and competitions. It also coordinates the West of England Robotics Network (WoERN) consisting of SMEs, large corporations and research centres. Professor Chris Melhuish, Director of BRL, says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The unique partnership between UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol, incorporating some of robotics most highly esteemed academics and researchers, has enabled Bristol Robotics Laboratory to offer industrial partners ranging from local startups to international corporations the very best robotics and smart automative supportâ&#x20AC;?.

Info@brl.ac.uk 0117 3286913 Bristol Robotics Laboratory T-Block University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol BS16 1QY United Kingdom Bristolrobotlab BristolRoboticsLab bristolroboticslab.com 104

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ELEVATOR PITCH GWS Robotics specialises in the development of custom applications for social robots. Our focus is on developing app solutions for Pepper, a high-profile robot produced by a Japanese corporation called Softbank Robotics. Our company was launched in 2016 as an offshoot of the long-established Bristolbased digital marketing agency GWS Media Ltd., which has many years of experience developing custom apps for iOS, Android and other platforms. Our vision for the future is one in which robots increasingly act as support staff doing menial tasks, freeing the human workforce from these obligations and improving the quality of our lives.

OUR STORY Our innovation lies in applying the techniques of app development to unconventional and ground-breaking technological platforms while grounding that application in solid business principles. We are able to envision ways in which social robots can boost sales and branding for business and organisational clients at the same time as enhancing the experience of their customers. And working in close liaison with these clients, we design and execute customised social robot software solutions for them. At the same time, we are undertaking research and development into improving the behavioural performance of social robots in terms of their interaction with people, such as speech recognition and artificially intelligent responses to questions, comments, and other stimuli. Bristol is a free-thinking, multicultural city with a thriving arts scene and a strong collective environmental and ethical conscience. At the same time, it has a long history of being a financial services centre. The blending of business savvy with creative talent sets the city up with a synergy that drives innovation in business practices as well as the development of new technologies and product ideas. Bristol has also been expanding rapidly in population since the turn of the new millennium, and is increasingly a young city, as many people in their 20s and 30s have been drawn here by the promise of its vibrant cultural scene and strong job prospects. With youth frequently comes new ideas, an idealistic desire to realise them, and the energy to see them through to completion. This is reflected in a very high rate of business start-ups in the city compared with the UK average. Bristol has a strong hospitality sector and attracts a significant amount of tourism. Both hospitality and tourism are well-suited to applications involving social robots designed to enhance the customer experience. • We emphasise personal contact with our clients – we don’t use account managers, which means that clients get to speak to the actual people doing the work. • We review our clients’ needs on an ongoing basis and suggest developments that may be relevant to them, as well as opportunities they can exploit. • We identify and develop ideas in social robotics with potential for commercial application, so we can offer clients cutting-edge features and functionality.

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GWS Robotics Ltd 7 Lilymead Avenue Bristol BS4 2BY Phone: +44 (0)117 9724835 Email: info@gwsrobotics.com twitter.com/gwsrobotics instagram.com/gwsrobotics GWS Robotics gwsrobotics.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH Open Bionics was founded in 2014 by Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne with the goal of developing affordable, assistive devices that enhance the human body. In other words, Open Bionics turns disabilities into superpowers. The Bristol-based bionics company is known globally for using 3D printing and 3D scanning, along with some clever software and design, to make advanced, affordable, and accessible bionic limbs.

OUR STORY In May 2018, following four years of research and development, the company released its first product, the Hero Arm. The Hero Arm is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first medically certified 3D-printed bionic arm, and the very first multi-grip bionic arm for children as young as eight years old. Engineered and manufactured in Bristol, the Hero Arm is a lightweight and affordable myoelectric prosthesis, available now through prosthetics clinics in the UK, USA, France, Spain, and Ireland. The company have ambitious plans to launch the prosthesis in new international regions throughout 2019 and 2020. The Hero Arm has market-leading functionality, weighs less than 1kg, has a breathable and adjustable socket, and can be fitted with customised covers, including Star Wars and Marvel superhero designs. Each Hero Arm is custom-built to ensure a perfect fit. The Hero Arm works by picking up signals from a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s muscles. When an amputee puts on their bionic arm and flexes muscles in their residual limb just below their elbow, special sensors detect tiny naturally generated electric signals and convert these into intuitive and proportional bionic hand movement. The bionic hand is 107

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controlled by tensing the same muscles which are used to open and close a biological hand. Wearers of the Hero Arm can choose between different finger speeds and grips to allow them to pick up objects ranging from a small marble to an entire shopping basket. Other multi-grip bionic hands, such as the bebionic and ilimb, are prohibitively expensive and too large or heavy for children (and some adults, too). The Hero Arm is less than half the price of these competitors, and because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manufactured using 3D printing, it is also the lightest bionic hand on the market. 3D printing is an extremely efficient and suitable manufacturing method for prostheses which are always â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;one-offsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Almost all of the 3D-printed parts are manufactured using an additive technique called Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), which uses a laser as the power source to sinter powdered nylon. Open Bionics believe that the most advanced prosthetic and orthopaedic technology should be available for everyone that needs it. Open Bionics have a development contract with NHS England, with the aim of offering the Hero Arm on the NHS in the UK. In June 2017, they worked with NHS England and the Bristol Centre for Enablement on a world-first clinical trial 108

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of a 3D-printed multi-grip bionic arm. Following a successful first stage of the trial, the company have now begun a second stage of the trial with multiple NHS clinics around the UK. Open Bionics also have royalty-free licensing agreements with Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Eidos Montreal and Twentieth Century Fox, to offer superhero cover designs such as BB-8, Iron Man and Alita: Battle Angel. They are making science fiction a reality. Their work has received praise from the likes of Mark Hamill and the Dalai Lama, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve won a whole host of coveted awards, and their users have featured in media all around the world.

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Open Bionics’ lab space is currently located next to the Bristol Robotics Lab, but the rapidly expanding company will soon move to a custom-built production space in the centre of Bristol following a £4.6 million investment round in January 2019 from high profile firms such as F1’s Williams Advanced Engineering. Open Bionics are proud of their Bristol roots, and it’s easy to see Bristol’s punk creativity pumping through the veins of this innovate bionics company. In the near future, Open Bionics look forward to offering the Hero Arm in multiple international markets and continuing the development of great products that solve challenges within mobility and independence.

OpenBionics OpenBionics openbionicsltd openbionics.com

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INNOVATION ENABLERS

“Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them.” - ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

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MODERNIZE. AUTOMATE. TRANSFORM.

What’s your aspiration in life? At N-and Group, we could have been bridge builders because we like to create meaningful networks and durable connections.

We could have been many things, but we didn’t want to give up options. That’s why we chose to be innovators, to accomplish through the extensive use of technology all that we’re passionate about and empower our clients.

We could have been magicians because we love to create unexpected, unforgettable experiences.

Since its inception in 2015, N-and specialises in the design, development, and manufacturing of engineering products and software platforms to revolutionise the way human-machine interaction works.

We could have been scientists because we’re fond of new approaches and different looks to the world surrounding us.

Bristol-based, N-and benefits from the vibrant entrepreneurial environment and networking possibilities that the city offers through a lively ecosystem where creativity and out-of-the-box thinking are welcomed and nourished.

We could have been trainers because we like to show the way for continuous improvement and motivation.

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With continuous investments in Research & Development, we put our effort into conceiving different approaches to existing technologies in order to make them easily implementable within our clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; products or structure and reply to their needs in a cost-effective and timely manner. We chose to be innovators to leave a significant footprint by embracing possibilities offered by technology to empower businesses. Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up to you to choose, are you ready to become what you want to be?

info@n-andgroup.com www.n-andgroup.com

Bringing innovative products to life, we bridge gaps of unsatisfied demands in the market leading to new revenue streams for business while maximising efficiency and creating an emotional bond with final customers for a continuously enhanced long-lasting relationship with brands. N-and also accompanies its clients through their technology acquisition or upgrade journey, scouting cutting-edge technologies, providing guidance and support every step of the way, from business case definition to integration. As our company is self-funded, we set our own pace to make each project a winning project, without any external detrimental pressure to quality and success. Believing that great inspiration comes from everywhere, inside and outside organizations, we foster a co-creative collaboration where your challenges are understood, your goals defined, and your ideas heard, because the fulfillment of your ambition is at the heart of our business. At N-and, we aim to be many things, but not followers.

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ELEVATOR PITCH STL Tech Ltd is a rapidly growing engineering and technology services company, housed within Unit DX at the heart of Bristol’s innovation ecosystem. STL Tech’s technical and commercial team draws on broad collective experience to deliver bespoke projects requiring software development, AI/Machine Learning, electronics and mechatronics design, process engineering, computational fluid dynamics and control system design, in addition to assisting early stage engineering and technology companies with investment and business development support.

OUR STORY STL Tech can trace its history back to the formation of Bristol-based Stirling Dynamics in 1987. In 2016, following five years at Stirling Dynamics, Pete Stirling left his father’s business to form STL, with the goal of providing engineering and business support services to the South West’s growing innovation community. In addition to being founder and Managing Director of STL Tech, Pete is also an active early-stage investor with strong links with the Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC) and is an advisory board member of Unit DX, an incubator home to more than 30 science and engineering start-ups, including STL Tech. This combination of location, commercial awareness, extended network and the expertise provided by a technical team experienced in high-end design and engineering provides STL Tech with a unique opportunity to effectively collaborate with a diverse range of companies on projects related to renewables, aerospace and other advanced engineering sectors. STL Tech’s in-house resource is further supported by a pool of collaboration partners and experienced consultants who can be drawn upon to support specific projects as required.

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STL was awarded two Innovate UK grants in 2016 and then 2018 and has additionally won a number of commercial engineering services and business support contracts. STL’s flagship ‘HiLeak’ project is a Newton Fund-supported collaboration with partners in the UK and Malaysia, due to be completed in 2020. HiLeak will substantially reduce clean water lost from Malaysia’s water distribution network by providing an automatic, Internet of Things-enabled system for continuous leak detection and structural health assessment of water-filled PE pipes, using a series of collars which ‘listen’ for cracks developing using acoustic emission and ultrasoundbased sensing. The wireless sensor network will be supported by cloud-based data collection and storage and AI-driven data analysis. Other ongoing projects include subcontracted control system design for wave and tidal energy installations being developed by established engineering companies, engineering design and modelling for a composites recycling process and development of an automated manufacturing system for composites layup. STL Tech is currently experiencing significant growth in terms of recruitment and revenue and is rapidly establishing a strong track record in project delivery.

MILESTONES Q2 2017 – Commencement of first Innovate UK project, ‘Development of a Satellite-Structural Health Monitoring System Product and Service’, in collaboration with Telespazio Vega UK Ltd Q1 2018 – Commencement of second Innovate UK project, ‘Innovative monitoring system for early leak detection in water distribution systems (HiLeak)’ Q3 2018 – Commencement of first commercial contracts Q1 2019 – Board of Directors appointed

Unit DX, Albert Road, Bristol, BS2 0XJ stl-tech.co.uk

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Pete Stirling, Founder and Managing Director

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NEWICON - NEW TOMORROW. Newicon is a software, design, and digital marketing company. We help ambitious businesses create a new, better tomorrow—and we’ve been doing it for 13 years. What does a new tomorrow look like? Well, it could mean designing and developing an app that uses the latest web technologies to disrupt a market. Or it could mean building bespoke software that completely transforms how a business operates.

A FOUNDER OF INNOVATION Whatever the solution, everything we do is built on a foundation of innovation. To achieve this, we offer a suite of services—software development, UX & UI design, branding, digital marketing, strategy & consultancy, and web development.

BRISTOL PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF TECH For a company like Newicon, Bristol is the ideal location. The South West is recognised as one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the UK—and Bristol is at the heart of that growth.

It’s this that sets us apart from our competition. There are some fantastic software houses in Bristol. Equally, there are a few amazing design and marketing agencies. But none can take a project from start to finish in the same way that Newicon can.

There’s a buzz in the city. Businesses here are keen to become disruptors and open to the idea that innovative digital solutions can lead to transformation. And we offer them that transformation, no matter how big their business is.

WORKING WITH THE BEST We’ve been very lucky to have worked with a huge variety of clients—from ambitious startups, right through to multi-national organisations. One example of this is our work with Airbus. The aeroplane manufacturer needed to find a way to make their ground engineers more efficient and accurate. So we worked with them to create a smartphone app that helps engineers quickly and accurately perform checks on the landing gear of their aircraft, using a combination of Bluetooth and image recognition technology. Another example is our work with Renewable Exchange—an eco startup. Their unique idea was to make it easier and more cost-effective for renewable energy producers to sell electricity to off-takers. We worked with them to build an online bidding platform that did just that, as well as a website to promote their new service. Renewable Exchange has gone from success to success, and they even won a prestigious Innovation award at the Renewable Energy Association 2019 Awards.

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“Our clients come to us for bespoke, digital solutions to their problems. Whilst their problems and projects are often unique, every one of our clients has one thing in common. They’re planning for a new tomorrow. And so are we. “To us, ‘new tomorrow’ represents much more than a phrase. It’s our company mantra—the launch platform for everything we do. Why? Because the future is inspiring. Our collective tomorrows are filled with boundless opportunity. Opportunity to grow. Opportunity to disrupt. Opportunity to have a lasting impact on the world.” —Steven O’Brien, CEO Are you looking for a partner to help you innovate your new tomorrow?

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

The Waterfront, Welsh Back, Bristol, BS1 4SB Email: talktous@newicon.net Phone: 0117 205 0425

The future looks bright for Newicon. We’re growing. We’re creating innovative technologies and products—such as Neon, our own software framework. And we keep improving and innovating new ways for businesses of any size to automate, connect, and power the future. After all, digital transformation should be available to all.

linkedin.com/company/newicon twitter.com/newicon facebook.com/newiconltd

Bristol’s future is equally as exciting—as its reputation grows for being one of the most forward-thinking, tech-friendly and green cities in the UK.

www.newicon.net

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ELEVATOR PITCH It’s hard for us to believe, but the Rocketmakers team (www.rocketmakers. com) has been at the heart of the Bristol and Bath startup scene for well over a decade now. Our vision from the very start has been to bring the latest and greatest technologies together with passionate startup and scaleup founders to make amazing products that improve the world we live in. We were very much a startup ourselves in 2007 and learned a lot of lessons the hard way—which now means we can help the founders we work with avoid at least some of that pain.

OUR STORY WE LOVE WORKING WITH... 1) Early Stage Startups – typically founders with an idea and a passion but without the design, development, deployment skills, and experience to get their product to market quickly. Wherever possible, we invest in these startups to become a core part of their team and to demonstrate our longterm commitment to them (examples are Bristol’s own www.neighbourly. com and www.cognisess.com);

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2) Growing Scale-ups – which have often used contractors or off-shore developers to build a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ and who appreciate our ability to understand and re-build their ‘baby’ in order to allow it to grow with the performance, security, scalability, and availability demands they will face (examples are www.purepla.net and www.travellocal.com); and

For us, Bristol and Bath is home. We’re incredibly proud of the community we’re a part of and the impact the region is having in bringing on innovation for the UK as a whole.

3) Corporate Innovators – that want or need to behave more like startups to disrupt their market but their corporate environment may be hindering success, whether that’s politics, personalities, a lack of bleeding-edge technology skills, or just the need for external experience and different ways of thinking (examples are www.uksport.gov.uk and www. unitestudents.com).

firstcontact@rocketmakers.com Rocketmakers Rocketmakers Rocketmakers rocketmakers.com

We’ve always believed in giving first in order to succeed, and practically all our new customers are referrals from startups we’ve worked with or through our active role in the Bristol and Bath startup and scale-up ecosystem. To highlight a few of the things we sponsor and which you might like to get involved in: TechSpark (www.techspark.co) has all the dayto-day tech news in the region; the Bristol VR Lab (www.bristolvrlab.com) is the place to be for immersive tech; and YENA (www.joinyena.com) is where all the young entrepreneur ‘rebels’ share their experiences.

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CookiesHQ ELEVATOR PITCH CookiesHQ is a small, dynamic development agency that turns ideas into bespoke digital products. Our studio is based in the technical hub of Bristol, UK, but we work with organisations all around the globe.

In the past 8 years, we have helped dozens of innovative startups get their products off the ground. From the initial brainstorming session to deciding what should be included in their Minimum Viable Product, to supporting them through fundraising rounds and growth, we are their technical partner every step of the way.

Partnering with early-stage and growing startups, we prototype, market test, and create websites, apps, marketplaces, voice apps, CRMs, and dashboards. Our mission is to deliver unique products and build strong, lasting partnerships with our clients.

CookiesHQ has been with us through each and every iteration of our product for over four years. The advice and expertise they continue to provide have been a fundamental part of us reaching where we are today. Our website has been rock solid and stable from day one, allowing us to confidently focus our efforts on growth”.

OUR STORY The company was founded in 2011 by husband-and-wife team Nic and Nathalie Alpi. Nic started his first business when he was just 21— so he understands the challenges our clients face every day. Nathalie’s background in marketing and management makes them a perfect fit. Since then, we have grown organically into a team of 10 talented developers, organisers, and creatives. Our mission hasn’t changed, though: we still aim to produce quality software for businesses, to build strong, lasting partnerships with our clients, and to create a happy, challenging, and supporting workplace for our staff.

Oliver Gosling, co-founder of Card Nest, Bristol-based greeting card e-commerce and subscription app

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Openness, honesty, and communication are our core values. We listen to our clients, understand their business needs and requirements, and are not afraid to challenge them.

We also work alongside growing businesses of all shapes and sizes, by integrating with a bigger team, sharing our development expertise, or by taking the lead within a smaller team to help develop new processes and scale software.

Inside the office, we are creating a flexible working space that nurtures cooperation. We are proud to be a diverse team and our main objective, as well as growing the business, is to allow each and every one of our staff to grow and fulfill their ambitions.

Right from the initial session, it was clear that CookiesHQ were the right choice. Their openness is invaluable, far removed from a conventional ‘client-agency’ dynamic”.

Bristol offers a diverse and supportive environment for tech startups and we feel privileged to be part of this ecosystem. So we take part in and give talks at various local events and groups, we advise and mentor startup founders, and we organise a popular quarterly event, Design / Build / Market, aimed at promoting collaboration between disciplines in the creative and digital industries.

Jon Fletcher, co-founder of Big Clean Switch, social business helping consumers to easily switch to clean energy

5 Beauley Rd, Bristol BS3 1PX 0117 963 9770 TheCookiesHQ CookiesHQ thecookieshq cookieshq.co.uk 122

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Realise

WE DESIGN, ENGINEER & DELIVER PIONEERING PRODUCTS Introducing Realise, a product design agency that bridges the gap between design concept and product delivery. A team of innovators, designers, and engineers who work collaboratively with customers to deliver exceptional products that delight aesthetically, excel functionally, and succeed commercially. By combining design, prototyping, and manufacturing expertise under one roof, including UX design and textiles, Realise is able to provide a comprehensive end-to-end service no matter what the project. From product research, concept design, and prototype development through to detailed engineering and ongoing manufacture, Realise pushes the boundaries of innovative design. Realise has established a varied portfolio that it is immensely proud of. From home-safety devices, industrial equipment, and medical devices, to consumer products and high-end packaging, all are delivered on time and on budget, with seamless integration from all areas of expertise. 123

Working with organisations both big and small, Realiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team works directly with the customer in a collaborative peer-to-peer relationship, inviting them on the design journey. This enables the customer to retain confidence and empowers the team to seek to create positive change through well-considered products, enabling business ideas to move from mind to market. A dynamic and experienced team, there is a strong emphasis on not only creating great products, but also to have fun doing it. As an integral part of the Creative hub at Temple Studios, Realise have been a key component in Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural economic development in their 10 years of trading. Looking to the next 10 years and beyond, the business looks to not only expand its team and client base, but continue to push the boundaries of great design where expertise meets aesthetics.

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Realise Product Design Unit 1.4 Temple Studios, Temple Gate, Bristol, BS1 6QA www.realisedesign.co.uk info@realisedesign.co.uk 0117 325 9100 124

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ELEVATOR PITCH A2Z Technologies has built an enviable reputation by providing innovative technology solutions to solve complex business problems.

We build long-lasting partnerships and work collaboratively to deliver future-proofed, innovative, and elegant solutions. Where there is a market need, we develop our own products as well as working in partnership with organisations to build their products, often through joint ventures. We continue to develop our platform Luna HR with existing users which will improve employee well-being and satisfaction in the workplace and ultimately result in improved productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability.

OUR STORY We measure our success based on our clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; success, from providing journalists and photographers the tools and technology to ensure their content lands on news desks in an extremely competitive environment to architecting and building SaaS platforms. A2Z Technologies has engaged in a variety of challenging and complex projects and has also been the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;knight in shining armourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, rescuing a number of projects where the incumbent technology provider has failed to deliver the innovative solution required.

The company was founded in 2003 by Azir Razzak, our CEO, and has delivered numerous bespoke solutions for clients. We have built a reputation for understanding and predicting user needs and delivering 125

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innovative technology solutions. We understand the dynamics of relative client industries but have not limited ourselves to any particular sector. We enjoy and get immersed in our work and own the problem we are solving. We also work in developing relationships with other organisations and individuals, providing mentoring services as well as sharing our expertise with needy organisations on a pro bono basis.

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Engine Shed, Station Approach Bristol, UK BS1 6QH 011794287990 info@a2ztech.co.uk a2ztech.co.uk

Our collaborative nature and ethics are at the heart of our companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision. In the future we see ourselves delivering social impact and making the world around us a better and fairer place which gives everyone the ability to shine. A2Z Technologies is based in Bristol which provides the company with a huge pool of technology talent as well as a strategic hub for doing business in the South West. Our clients enjoy the face-to-face relationship they have with A2Z which has helped build the long-term partnerships that are the backbone of the business today and in the future. 126

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GET NETFLIXING BEFORE YOU GET BLOCKBUSTED ELEVATOR PITCH Innovate2grow now jointly organise one-day masterclasses for businesses at Oxford Brookes’ campus on business model innovation, digital disruption & business strategy. The duo are also co-authoring a book/e-book (publisher Routledge, Spring 2020) for both students and practitioners on ‘Achieving Competitive advantage in a global digital marketplace through strategic innovation’.

If you aren’t growing, you are dying. Attention: Progressive businesses, startups & scaleups. Hypercharge growth with business model innovation and strategic digital.

OUR STORY

“The purpose of business is also changing,” Sandeep says. “No more is it primarily to increase shareholder value”. Customers from generation X, Y, Z are choosing to work at, or buy from businesses with a purpose like sustainability, employee well-being, diversity and inclusivity. “These are also areas that I personally champion, along with social mobility, and are included in the core customer offer from Innovate2grow”.

Recently, a social enterprise shop in Sandeep’s hometown just outside Bristol had to shut down. Sharon, the owner, had sold locally sourced arts and crafts from local craftsmen for nearly a decade, but the business was struggling of late. People came to browse but would go buy cheaper online. ‘Showroooming’, a Digital disruption phenomenon, had arrived locally. Sandeep had created competitive response to digital disruption in his last financial markets role at a large bank. He knew he could help businesses like Sharon with his intrapreneur experience of 30 years in global firms. He thus founded Innovate2Grow (SME innovation) to enable businesses like Sharon to compete back, grow, scale, and thrive in a world of Digital accelerations.

The mentoring and advisory needs of businesses in the new digital economy differ significantly from that of the classic economy. For example, pricing isn’t just about margins, but about increasing returns with higher freemium-to-paid conversion rates. Traditional business models are being disrupted. Classic economy businesses feel vulnerable & seek help, but a majority of traditional business support & ‘coaching’ is unable to cope with the current pace of rapid technology changes.

Recognising the need of continuous learning in this rapidly changing arena, he proposed teaching at Oxford Brookes University business school. The partnership with Dr Surja Datta, Innovation Lead for the Global MBA programme at the school grew quickly. This aligned well with Sandeep’s mission of empowering businesses, esp. SMEs, with innovation expertise. 127

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Innovate2Grow fills that gap. Their ‘Mentorpreneur’ program assists both classic businesses and new tech-savvy entrepreneurs to futureproof with a growth mindset of • Reimagine to grow: bringing startup thinking to the business. • Digitise to grow: going click-and-mortar from brick-and-mortar. • Commercialise to grow: monetising ideas, pricing to sustain. • Innovate to grow: empower, not sell; engage, not serve; value, not price.

Innovate2Grow also offer a growth rain-making service as well as more strategic growth capability building on profit sharing basis or as an investor-advisor. “I am passionate about social mobility, climate change, inclusion and diversity in business and regularly work with CICs & minority communities. I also dedicate a day a week in giving back through mentoring at accelerators & incubators in Bristol and London,” Sandeep says.

The Mentorpreneur program covers new economy topics like ideation, MVP, product market fit, customer lifetime pricing, digital business models, innovation lifecycle, social media testing, business purpose and creating competitive response to disruption.

10% of all company profits are earmarked to educational charities, including a school for disable children in his birthtown near Kolkata, India. Sandeep’s contacts are as below. He can be also be contacted via the growth hub at Natwest, accelerators at EngineShed (SETsquared Bristol), Finance innovation Lab (London) & via faculty at Oxford Brookes University Business School.

Additionally, for startups and scaleups, Mentorpreneur offer investor pitch creation, industry partnerships, signposts to funding access & making connections in UK/abroad.

RE-IMAGINE TO GROW

DIGITISE TO GROW

Bring startup thinking to your business

Go Click-and-Mortarfrom Brick and Mortar

INNOVATE TO GROW

COMMERCIALISE TO GROW

Empower not sell, Engage not Serve, Value not price.

Monetise your idea, price to sustain.

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Sandeep Roy, Founder Director Castlemead Tower, Lower Castle Str. Sandeep@innovate2grow.com Bristol BS1 3AG, U.K. innovate2grow.com

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0800 9999 990 +44 (0)7880 665155 (+1) 917 767 2070 innovate2grow_ Innovate2grow

PRODUCT INNOVATION & RETAIL

“ Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation.” – DEAN KAMEN

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ELEVATOR PITCH for us to weather the early disappointments and stay focused on our endgame. Looking back, the last 18 months have been transformational for XMOS. We’re a stronger, more collaborative team. We’ve developed a great partnership with Amazon and just launched our powerful next-generation voice product – we’re in great shape to meet the rising demand for voice we’re seeing across the consumer electronics market.”

XMOS voice solutions create a more natural conversation with technology today and open the door to a more intuitive interaction with technology in the future.

OUR STORY

Little wonder that XMOS has been picking up awards recently, winning the Advanced Engineering award at the Go:Tech Awards 2018 as well as the award for Best Collaboration at Made In the South West 2018. Headquartered in the thriving tech-hub of Bristol, XMOS is helping to put the city on the map. They’re capturing significant attention on the world stage, partnering with global giants and competing effectively against some big names in the semiconductor industry.

Spun out of the University of Bristol in 2005, XMOS is backed by hightech venture capitalists and known around the world for its excellence in the USB and Hi-Res audio market. But that’s just part of the story. Their flexible microcontroller technology, purpose-designed algorithms and differentiated software come together to deliver world-class solutions to the consumer electronics market. XMOS technology is used across a broad range of applications including conference systems, robotics, microphone arrays, communications and a host of voice-enabled products.

Priya Abani, Director at Amazon Alexa Voice Service, says: “XMOS accelerate the deployment of Alexa in deeply embedded systems, new device types, and form-factors, bringing customers more choice of where to access Alexa.”

CEO Mark Lippett says, “Never underestimate what small teams of brilliant people can achieve. The move into voice was a roller-coaster for XMOS. It played to our engineering strengths, but it presented very different, technical challenges to any we’d faced before. It took courage and teamwork

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Mark Lippett CEO

The XVF3510 dev kit

Max Maxfield reviewed the XVF3510 for EEWeb and said, “XMOS just introduced its XVF3510 next-generation voice processor, which can pluck an individual voice out of a crowded audio landscape using just two microphones. Those clever folks at XMOS have just brought us one step closer to embedding ‘ears’ for voice control in just about every device with which we interact.” What’s next for XMOS? Voice is just the start: the team is leveraging edgeAI and fusing voice with other sensors to transform the way people interact with the technology around them. In this era of intelligent connectivity, XMOS believes the world will shift from needing technology literate people to enjoying the freedom enabled by people-literate technology. Future solutions will include things like presence detection and context awareness to bring more natural, relevant and trusted experiences and information to everyone, everywhere. Ever creative and nimble, XMOS has a big part to play in the rapidly evolving ‘smart home’ ecosystem and the future looks very bright. Queens Quay, 33-35 Queen Square, Bristol, BS1 4LU xmos xmos.com

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gives us size, weight and power benefits that consumers and customers are always after. Nobody wants to increase the power consumption or size of their data centres, and customers want scalable and future-proof security solutions that won’t break the bank. So by miniaturising, we can reduce power consumption, and by integrating with current semiconductor technology we can make it very cost effective as well. These capabilities will be a key enabler of future smart technologies, where trust in the security of information is the number one requirement.

At KETS, we believe that trust should be at the heart of all communication systems. We’re developing technology to solve some of the biggest security problems facing some of the largest organisations on the planet by combining the power of quantum encryption technologies with the scalability and practicality of integrated photonics.

OUR STORY

KETS’ team has had significant success since starting up and has demonstrated key traction in our target sectors, winning two key projects within our two initial target markets – defence and telecommunications. The first with Airbus, securing a ground station to a drone, is the first step towards secure satellite communications which will provide secure communications to the 95% of the earth’s surface not currently accessible with fibre. The second, with BT is allowing us to demonstrate our systems on their networks, paving the way to secure and flexible networking across the UK, from backbone networks to access networks for homes and offices.

KETS Quantum Security is a multi-award-winning start-up from the Quantum Engineering Technology Labs (QETLabs) at the University of Bristol. As one of the first companies to spin-out of the UK National Quantum Technology Programme, KETS’ mission is to enable trust by securing communications using future-proof, scalable, and easilydeployed quantum enhanced solutions. The company is building on almost 20 years of world-leading research at the University of Bristol and has developed some of the world’s first integrated quantum secured encryption technologies – from quantum random number generators to full quantum key distribution devices.

Milestones

2016 - Founded by Jake Kennard, Chris Erven, Mark Thompson and Philip Sibson 2017 - Won University of Bristol New Enterprise Competition 2018 - Named UK’s Most Innovative Small Cyber Security Company at Infosec 2018 - Raised £2M from equity investment and government funding

We live in an era of connectivity. And we rely on that connectivity for everything from checking social media and online banking all the way to controlling critical infrastructure and even connecting whole cities. But we have a big problem on the horizon – as national governments are beginning to warn, the advent of quantum computing means the convenient cyber security tools we use today across the web and beyond have a rapidly approaching expiration date.

Programmes

2017 - Won one of three places on Facebook’s Telecom Infrastructure Project 2017 - Accepted into SETSquared Bristol start-up programme 2018 - Joined Seraphim Capital’s space accelerator in 2018 2019 - Won a place on the Thales Cyber @StationF programme 2019

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In the News

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small drone communicating [to] a ground-station and will therefore have to use novel, integrated, quantum devices in order to meet challenging Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) requirements. Once proven, this technology will become an essential building block of secure communication payloads for future aircraft and spacecraft systems.”

KETS named one of Bristol’s most innovative companies: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/bristol-business-brexitgraphcore-ultrahaptics-2529942 KETS named as one of the 20 most interesting companies to visit at Infosec Europe 2018: https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/interestingcompanies-at-infosec/

Airbus – QDOS Project

“After years of ground-breaking research, now is the time for the unique properties of quantum physics to be harnessed and exploited. Quantonation is delighted to be working with the KETS team and supporting them in bringing this technology to market and addressing some of the most challenging problems that will face us in the coming years.”

Quotes/Testimonials

“QKD has moved beyond a physics curiosity that is N years away. It is receiving very serious attention around the globe and with a lot of investment going with it. BT is actively engaged in early customer trials of QKD, having demonstrated it on a weekly basis in our Customer Showcase. One of the major stumbling blocks is currently the high cost of the equipment. The KETS solution solves that problem through integration and this puts them in a very strong position to capitalise on the current world ambition towards quantum secured communications.”

Christophe Jurczak, CEO Quantonation

“The University has successfully created new businesses by taking groundbreaking science out of the lab to be used in real-world applications. KETS is a leading example of how well the system of innovation in Bristol is working.”

Andrew Lord, Head of Optical Research at BT

Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have seen a huge increase in commercial uptake in recent years, but their applications have been limited, in part by the inability to securely communicate sensitive data back to the ground. Current encryption methods are becoming increasingly insecure due to advances in computing capability. Project Q-DOS light, led by Airbus [in partnership with KETS and others], will solve this rapidly growing problem by delivering a low-weight, high-speed free-space optical communication system with highly secure quantum encryption and eavesdropping detection. The system will be demonstrated [with] a

Unit Dx, St Philips Central Albert Road Bristol, UK BS2 0XJ 134

44 (0)117 42 84240 enquiry@kets-quantum.com kets_quantum kets-quantum.com

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TOG Knives Ltd. Phone: +44 (0)117 276 0273 twitter.com/togknives facebook.com/togknives instagram.com/togknives togknives.com

Bert Beagley-Brown (Right), Founder, TOG Knives Ltd.

INTRODUCTION Innovation runs through everything at TOG. Our knives have unique features like anti-microbial copper layers in the blades, laser engraved Kebony maple handles and a ‘side scoop’ for your little finger to sit in. But we also strive to innovate in the way we do things. We sell a ‘Supersonic’ gift set, for example, that includes a bottle of gin (from a Bristol microdistillery, of course) as well as knife and chopping board (for your lime). Our newsletter suggests music you might want to listen to while you’re cooking at home. We do customer service the way we like to receive customer service. We like to surprise our customers.

After school, I studied Engineering at Cambridge. Halfway into the course, I realised I really wanted to do something more creative. That led me to study Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art, kickstarting a career in product design and innovation. The course taught me how to innovate and that’s how I’ve approached design ever since. Instead of researching trends and moving styling iteratively forwards, we looked at users and their needs, new materials, and manufacturing processes, technology transfer from other fields, etc., always searching for brand new ideas.

Our knives have endorsement from ten Michelin Star chefs and we have recently raised capital via Crowdcube, hitting our target in less than 12 hours. The business is still in its early stage but growing fast. We intend to launch 14 new products over the next 3 years. If I had to give one piece of advice for someone starting a new venture, it would be to take on a mentor. I work with someone who’s grown an online retail business successfully themselves. This has allowed us to shortcut a lot of trial and error and to build a small team. It’s been awesome.

OUR STORY After working for a branding agency and then co-founding a product design consultancy, I wanted to take my own product to market. I ended up in Seki, Japan, meeting a Samurai swordsmith and an incredible familyowned knifemaking company. I saw an opportunity to design and innovate the best production kitchen knives in the world. No compromise. For two years, I sketched, made and tested prototypes, talked to chefs, refined shapes until I had a design I was happy with. The company in Seki agreed to make them and TOG was born. The knives combine modern European design, materials, and innovation with very traditional skills from 800 years of Samurai swordmaking in Japan.

Bristol is a hotbed of creativity – art, music, design, food. It’s obsessed with local, responsible and sustainable business. It has the most Michelin stars in the UK outside London too. I moved from London and Bristol has much more of a community feel. People help and support each other more. It’s the perfect location for TOG. 136

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ELEVATOR PITCH Rob Law MBE is the founder and CEO of Trunki, the brand behind the much-loved ride-on suitcase for tots. From one of the most famous rejects on BBC Dragons’ Den in 2006, Law has successfully built a team who have pioneered a new retail category of children’s travel products, designing and creating a range of innovative solutions which help families on the go.

OUR STORY Since Trunki launched in May 2006, the company has sold 4 million suitcases in over 100 countries with consumers spending over $200 million on his brand. Trunki employs 30 people at their funky head office in Bristol called The Mothership, and a further 50 people at its UK manufacturing and distribution facility, Magma Moulding, in Plymouth. Rob Law MBE, Founder and CEO

The company has won over 120 awards within the design, trade, consumer and business sectors including reaching 42nd on The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and winning The National Business Awards SME of the Year. Law originally hails from Chester and is 42 years old. He graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Product Design and has worked internationally, including periods in New York, Taiwan, Australia and for some of the UK’s leading design consultancies. On New Year’s Day 2011, Law was awarded an MBE for Services to Business, and went on to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering from Bath University in 2015.

Trunki Milestones 2006

– Trunki is founded.

Late 2006 – Into the Dragons’ Den. 2010

– BoostApak is launched.

2011

– 1 Million Trunki suitcases sold worldwide.

2012

– Trunki is made in the UK.

2014

– UK warehouses expanded and Made for Me, the Trunki Customiser, is launched.

Late 2014 – ToddlePak child reins and PaddlePak swimming bags are launched. 2015

– Into Supreme Court to protect our designs and intellectual property.

2016

– 10 year Anniversary.

2017

– ToddlePak Backpacks are launched.

2019

- First Trunki is produced which glows in the dark, manufactured in the UK Skye the Spaceship Trunki.

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03303330464 Trunki TrunkiTravels trunkitravels trunki.co.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re building an internationally recognised brand, designing innovative solutions to sleep problems for babies, toddlers and young children. Our launch product is the Rockit, a portable baby rocker that fits any pram or stroller. It gently rocks to soothe babies and help them maintain their sleep.

OUR STORY Rockit was developed by 3 dads on a mission to help other parents safely soothe their babies to sleep. Dr. Nick Webb invented it when his three-month-old daughter refused to sleep in her stroller unless she was being pushed along. He noticed this problem affected other weary parents and one evening had a light bulb moment and constructed a simple prototype. He tested it the very next day and Abby remained asleep even when the stroller came to a halt. Nick set about developing and refining it with his co-founders Matt Dyson and 139

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Rockit Co-founders: Matt Sparrow, Matt Dyson, Nick Webb

Matt Sparrow. Over the next few months, they turned the prototype into the Rockit, a rocket-shaped portable baby rocker.

impressed by the Rockit. Not only is it a great product, but there is an impressive team behind the product, with determination to commercialise Rockit and turn it into a successful business.”

There is nothing quite like Rockit on the market, with other solutions being large mains operated platforms that you wheel the stroller onto. Nothing matches the Rockit for its portability and functionality. The speed control allows you to simply tune the Rockit to the resonant frequency of any pram or stroller so that you can achieve the perfect rock that fools the baby into thinking they are still trundling along.

Being Bristol based is very important to us. The city has a great track record in terms of innovation and invention, this coupled with a fantastic creative reputation makes it an inspiring place for a business like ours. We are constantly working on new product ideation and development and we are due to launch two additional ground-breaking products within the next six months. The baby product industry tends to be very traditional in terms of design and we are disrupting this sector with innovative products that have a personality as well as a unique function.

In the two years since launching Rockit we are now selling it in over 40 countries around the world and our export success has been recognised by The Department for International Trade, who appointed us ‘Export Champions’. Rockit has also featured several times on national TV and in publications including The Times, T3 and Design Week. We have gone on to win over 20 awards including the prestigious Design Council Spark Award and European Product Design Award. Ellie Runcie, Director at The Design Council commented, “We were particularly

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Photos by Phillipa Klaiber, Fra Beecher and Jo Hounsome Photography

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VIKA BOOKS’ AUGMENTED REALITY BOOK ‘WHERE IS THE BIRD?’ MAKES PRE-SPEECH COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BABIES AND ADULTS A REALITY.

‘Where is the Bird?’ is a book + smartphone app designed to go wherever you go. Turn the pages and ‘wake up’ magical illustrations that pop-up out of the page through your smartphone as augmented reality (AR) animations, before being paired with a video of the British Sign Language (BSL) sign. ‘Where is the Bird?’ showcases Baby BSL, a playfully interactive, multimedia learning experience that is affordable, portable, flexible, and fun. The potential impact of using sign language with any child before they can speak is huge, with the potential to reduce the ‘Terrible Twos’, a time when hearing children have independent thoughts and wishes, but cannot express them. ‘Where is the Bird?’ is the first AR book designed to empower d/Deaf and hearing families to learn BSL at home. It is published by VIKA Books in partnership with Elmfield School for Deaf Children, Deaf Studies Trust, and BDH Immersive. VIKA are publishers of immersive books at the cuttingedge of fine art publishing. Our female-led team merges creative technology with book arts to conceive new editions founded on design innovation and artistic excellence. VIKA are winners of InnovateUK’s Audience of the Future Award, SWCTN’s Immersive Prototype Award, and have been shortlisted for The Bookseller’s FutureBook, D&AD, Media Innovation, and InnovateUK’s Immersion Accelerator Awards. VIKA are resident at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol, and have been supported by the Britain is GREAT Campaign, Research England, SETsquared, Webstart, Creative England, REACT, The Watershed, Network for Creative Enterprise, and Artful Innovation. Baby BSL’s ‘Where is the Bird?’ buggy book is available from Waterstones. To download the FREE app, simply search for ‘Baby BSL’ on the GooglePlay and Apple’s App Store. To experience the AR and learn the BSL sign for ‘bird’, simply view the illustration below through the Baby BSL app. It’s that easy.

VIKA Books: Redimensionalising Reading Join us on social t/fb: VIKABooks i: VIKA.Books w: vikabooks.com 141

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To view our YouTube video, either scan the QR code with your iPhone’s inbuilt camera, or using your Android phone’s QR scanning software. 142

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Exporting made easy after selling that company in 2015, he set out to tackle this problem head on. Two years later a product was ready and the company moved operations to the UK from Australia and is now focused on helping SMEs in the UK improve their exporting endeavours—however with a burning desire to use this platform globally.

ELEVATOR PITCH Exports! They are complex, time-consuming and manual-process driven. Many companies do not export for these very reasons alone. Speaking from experience, the export sales process can take days or even weeks to complete. Our solution achieves the same result in seconds. 24/7….

At iXport, we’ve built a robust yet intuitive trading platform that provides SMEs in the B2B space the ability to easily trade through e-commerce and the use of real-time data and cargo sizing algorithms, saving the greatest value asset for customers….time.

SMEs today are finding exporting a lucrative yet complex market to enter. There is a plethora of information out there on how to export, but not one single technology platform to tie it all together in order to simplify and enable the process. This is resulting in many barriers to entry/expansion and excessive time and cost wastage.

The answer to this problem is simple. AUTOMATION. By interconnecting key services such as B2B e-commerce, real-time quotes and cargo sizing algorithms in one platform, we were able to drastically reduce processing times, allowing customers to expedite and complete their sales orders in seconds, rather than days.

iXport addresses this very issue.

OUR STORY

As we are experienced in both importing and exporting, our strengths come from experience in this sector, acknowledging the issues and addressing them with technology solutions.

In 2011, the founder Lyle de Groot started his first import/export company but was wasting so much time dealing with many issues such as manual ordering using spreadsheets, global time differences, foreign currency fluctuations, manual cargo sizing, and outdated freight quoting systems. Frustrated that there were no “all-in-one” tools to tackle this problem, and

Our vision is for the iXport platform to be the central hub for exporting, globally.

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MILESTONES Awards â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we have been shortlisted for a SPARKies Award 2019, in the Data, Data, Data category Accepted into SETsquared Accelerator Accepted into Accelerator

Oracle

Start

Partnerships established with Global brands such as WorldFirst, OFX, Searates.com and FreightOS.com Reached Semi finals in pitching competitions for Venture Fest South, Venture Fest South West, SETsquared and Whycomms. Phone: +44 7930881790 linkedin.com/company/ixport twitter.com/xport_i facebook.com/ixport.co ixport.com

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OUR STORY

Organisations are always improving processes, overhauling systems, and launching entirely new products and services so they can keep creating new value.

This is why we took a fresh look at how an innovation management system should work. We asked innovation leaders what they needed the most, and then built Solverboard.

But as global trends shift and remodel the business landscape, leaders are continuously interrogated on how their organisations will thrive — and they’re being increasingly held accountable by everyone if their answers fall short.

Our workflow makes it easy to increase the volume and velocity of new initiatives being launched by bringing the main processes involved in successful innovation project delivery together seamlessly. By doing so, we help organisations bridge the gap between creative people and those focused on actualisation by using them for what they’re already good at, getting them involved in the right stages throughout the process.

Innovation holds the answer but managing successful innovation programmes — and not just creating innovation theatre — is a big and deceptively hard job.

The result is proof that your innovation programme is working—projects are tracked clearly, delivery is accelerated and the total impact of bridging those gaps to deliver new value, is measured and shared successfully.

It’s a constant challenge for innovation leaders. Because being good at innovation is more than just gathering ideas—it’s about aligning them to business strategy, persevering and championing them through testing, prioritisation and eventually to actualisation—often bringing together disparate team members and getting them to collaborate. Not to mention owning a large cost centre and justifying the investment to senior stakeholders when often complex undertakings may take years before the ultimate value is realised. It’s also about understanding that in the purest sense, innovation is a linear process where ideas transform into end outcomes to create value. But the journey to get there is anything but linear, with innovation being a mix of creativity, discovery, failure, learning, feedback and lots and lots of iteration. 145

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OUR SOFTWARE PLATFORM HELPS ORGANISATIONS INNOVATE BETTER BY COMBINING: 1. An adaptable, flexible workflow that joins up business strategy, idea generation, validation and project management to bring the right business ideas to life, faster.

2. Complete visibility of all projects within your innovation portfolio at both innovation manager and senior management team level to give full confidence that your programme is working.

3. Alignment of innovation activity to your organisation’s strategic objectives to help you measure the current and future value of your innovation programme.

PROUDLY DEVELOPED IN BRISTOL THROUGH NUMEROUS ITERATIONS OF OUR OWN, SOLVERBOARD WORKS BEST FOR INNOVATORS WHO… … want to get to the best ideas quickly.

Set up a team, allocate tasks, keep all the communication in one place and even host team meetings within the platform.

We don’t want you to start again or duplicate work, so through integrations you can ‘plug-in’ any existing products and tools you are using, so you can utilise and enhance the software that you have already invested in.

A comprehensive project management module, optimised for innovation projects and customisable to your business processes, so that you can ensure the best ideas get to market effectively.

Our idea clustering functionality does the leg-work for you to improve the ease and speed of finding the gems.

… prefer to use the most recent standards and methodologies.

… need to focus on what will drive the business strategy.

Solverboard contains design thinking, lean start-up and also agile project management methods, giving you the flexibility to apply best-in-class innovation methodologies, all in one place.

Input business strategy and goals so you focus on the right initiatives.

The product also aligns extensively with the new ISO 56002 innovation management standard.

Business strategy and project KPI reporting, progress analysis and ROI tools allow you to prove the success of your full innovation portfolio to your senior team.

… are passionate about innovating better. Solverboard Unit 1.9 The Paintworks , Bath Road Bristol, BS4 3EH

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solverboard.com @solverboard hello@solverboard.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH Innovators in more than 90 countries across 6 continents use Mind Doodle to Make Ideas Happen. Already the digital tool of choice for so many across the globe, Mind Doodle empowers teams by encouraging creativity, enhancing productivity and enabling collaboration.

OUR STORY Creativity, complex problem solving and critical thinking are the top three skills for 2020, according to the World Economic Forum, yet Adobe reported that only 25% of people believe they are living up to their creative potential. We created Mind Doodle to combat this, helping you generate original ideas with fast implementation. Combining mind mapping with task boards and online chat, Mind Doodle is a collaborative digital workspace that promotes innovation. It’s a powerful product with additional tools and integrations such as SWOT analysis, a Slack integration and a WordPress plugin for creating websites using visual sitemaps with task management built in. Founded by Richard Hill, Mind Doodle was built for collaboration, whether you are sitting in the office with colleagues or working remotely. Our own flexible working policy gives our team members the freedom to work the hours they choose, from the locations that suit them. Mind Doodle is just as helpful for distributed teams as it is for co-located office workers. Our software helps you connect, develop and share ideas, speeding up the innovation process with project management built in. Our team helps facilitate this vision by delivering talks, teaching workshops, live mind mapping at events and organising conferences. We represent the Bristol tech community when our team members travel to events all over the world.

WHAT OUR USERS SAY “If you’ve been looking for a more robust, but incredibly easy mind mapping tool, have a look at Mind Doodle. I use it. I love it!” — Adam Warner, GoDaddy “I started using Mind Doodle for my current project because collaborating with remote team members can be tricky. It has so many hidden gems.” —Mani Swiatek, Senior UX and Content Designer

29 Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5QT twitter.com/minddoodlecom facebook.com/minddoodlecom instagram.com/minddoodle linkedin.com/company/mind-doodle youtube.com/c/minddoodle minddoodle.com

“This Bristol-based tech company has done something which is quite remarkable. Not only have they created a mind map system which is highly affordable and intuitive, but they have added a whole bunch of project management type tools within it and integrated with a number of other useful apps such as Slack.” —David Clubb, Afallen 147

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Handwritten Notes at Scale

ELEVATOR PITCH Our advice to any startup is to keep it lean and simple to begin with. For the first year of our operations, we spent no money and all of our time talking to customers with our MVP service. By doing this, you get to actually test your assumptions quickly (without other unnecessary factors getting in the way), build a team that can do it with nothing, and gain respect from investors when you eventually raise.

Scribeless helps companies better engage their customers through the power of the handwritten letters. Customers buy from companies that make them feel valued and a handwritten letter is an incredibly effective way to make a customer feel like they are having a truly personalised and tailored experience.

OUR STORY

In terms of marketing-specific advice, think about going offline in engaging with customers. Digital marketing is incredibly effective but is becoming more and more saturated. By going offline (with traditional direct mail or handwritten), you can catch people’s attention more effectively and get away from the assault of online marketing.

Scribeless unites next-generation technology and heart (human empathy & emotion) to scale thoughtfulness, create wow moments, and get mindblowing results. Through Artificial Intelligence that can learn anyone’s handwriting and Advanced Printing Technology that can print handwritten notes at scale anywhere in the world, they have fully automated the process of creating “handwritten” to allow organisations to utilise it in an accessible, affordable, and flexible manner.

The company was founded in 2016 by Robert Van Den Bergh and Alex Robinson. After undertaking a marketing internship and having to spend 3 weeks writing out letters for cold prospects, Robert discovered how effective handwritten is as a communication channel but equally how timeconsuming it is. From that point, Rob and Alex started researching how the communication channel could be automated. Three years and a lot of research later, they have built a team to help companies across Europe, Asia, and America to utilise handwritten at scale.

Through CRM & e-commerce integrations, as well as their customer interface, you can utilise handwritten in a trigger or time-based fashion to engage prospects and customers without having to set up teams of people writing by hand. Built on research-driven AI (artificial intelligence), Machine Vision, and Style Transfer technology, Scribeless’s system can learn the inconsistencies and variabilities of anyone’s handwriting— even Albert Einstein’s (as shown in the image).

Scribeless is the only company in Europe fully automating the process of creating handwritten marketing at scale. All of the other providers in our space have people writing out letters and envelopes for their customers. As a result, we can provide the solution in a more accessible, affordable and timely manner.

Bristol is one of the leading UK cities in marketing, with the largest number of marketing agencies outside of London. It is also a city driven by technology and innovation. There are a growing number of companies that sit in between these two worlds and we believe we are one of the companies leading this space; creativity and technology combined.

We are serving customers across Europe, Asia, and America and have been fully self-funded to date. Customer testimonial:

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We used Scribeless for a recent direct mailshot campaign. We wanted to try something that would really stand out when it landed on the doormat; and this campaign did not disappoint. The handwritten technology is so convincing and certainly had us fooled when we received a sample through the post! Based on our entire campaign spend (which included printing and mailing too), our return on investment was 432% which was a fantastic result! We wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate to recommend Scribeless to other hotels and businesses. They offer a truly unique service and are so professional and helpful. They worked seamlessly with our print and mail-house to ensure that our campaign was delivered on time and to a very high standard.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Alex Holme, Elgin Hotel

scribeless contact@scribeless.co +44 121 285 7408 scribeless.co

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ELEVATOR PITCH Embarking on this venture was born out of my interest in finding natural and vegan alternatives to the toxic chemicals in skincare products. Growing up in the wild rugged west Atlantic coast of Ireland where seaweed has been foraged for centuries, I would often forage and enjoy seaweed as a snack! There are over 10,000 species of seaweed and in Ireland, it has served many uses from a nutritional food source to fertiliser and spa treatments.

OUR STORY After graduating here in Bristol, I was inspired to start my organic seaweed skincare business, from my Irish roots and appreciation for the health and beauty benefits of the Sea. I started my journey in the UWE LaunchSpace incubator and was in good company with many other startups. There is such a hive of activity in this city around sustainability and innovation, it’s just to the best place to start an ethical brand!

VALUES I feel proud that Seatox has strong values and will always be vegan and never tested on animals. The packaging is fully recyclable or reusable, and the seaweed is sustainably harvested in a way which causes zero impact on the environment. Seatox is also committed to putting profits back into conserving the marine ecosystems, which seaweed is harvested from. We believe when you take from the Ocean, you must also give back. That’s why we are committing £1 from every sale to go into unique projects which have a positive impact on marine wildlife. At the moment we are donating £1 from every sale to the Seal Rescue Ireland, but as we grow each product will have a £1 donation to a crucial ocean cause.

THE SELKIE SMOOTH SEAWEED BATH Using seaweed in spa care is a unique way of connecting to the ocean and absorbing its powerful minerals. For example, our Selkie Smooth Seaweed bath has no synthetic ingredients, harmful parabens or sulphates, instead it is brimming with natural minerals and vitamins of the Atlantic, such as vitamin A and magnesium. It’s an ancient spa treatment, traditionally used by Irish farmers after a hard day ploughing in the field, to alleviate aches and pains.

Email: seatoxseaweed@gmail.com Phone: (+44) 07858140933 facebook.com/seatoxseaweed instagram.com/seatoxseaweed/ seatoxseaweed.com 152

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OUR STORY Zero Green was founded by Lidia and Stacey, two friends who were having long talks on a personal level about their footprint and how most food comes packed in unnecessary wrapping, especially plastic. They only wanted to have a different choice but could not find any place so they decided to create it themselvesâ&#x20AC;Śalmost literally. For them, it did not make sense to have a brand new, bespoke store, so they had family, friends, and volunteers giving up their time to help them with the works and fixtures, using secondhand and reclaimed materialsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all connected to the zero-waste ethos and lifestyle that they promote and support.

Zero Green is Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first zero waste shop! We opened in March 2018 with the aim of reducing single-use plastic consumption and food wastage, bringing tools and alternatives to traditional grocery shopping. At Zero Green, customers can bring their own containers to fill as little or as much they wish with anything we sell in the shop, from any dried food to fresh plant-based milks, peanut butter, toiletries, or all sorts of cleaning products.

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Lidia and Stacey have huge passion and enthusiasm for helping people go plasticfree. They have created a friendly and welcoming shop in Bedminster, fitted out with reused materials, that has a huge range of products. They work with their producers to make sure the supply chain is as plastic-free as possible and with customers to make their shopping experience easy and enjoyable by, e.g., having reusable containers ready for customers to use. They try to keep prices down on basic products and are always interested in what customers want to see on the shelves. They try to use local producers as much as possible and have even linked up with a local home delivery service. Lidia and Stacey are keen to be part of the community and take part in local events, have a community noticeboard and do school visits. They have linked up with Bristol Waste for their Waste Nothing Campaign and The Eco Period Poverty Box scheme, bringing plastic-free shopping to more people. Zero Green has inspired people across the city (and beyond) to reduce their plastic and make changes to how they shop, and their energy is infectious!” Ellie Christmas Freeman

Lidia and Stacey

difference in our lives and in the locals’. Simple things like our self-service scale system or our ‘Container Library’ have been proven really popular. We started it with a small basket with some of our own containers—they were put there for people to use in the shop for free if they hadn’t brought any of their own. They could then keep them or bring them back for other people to reuse. This has evolved so much and people love it; we get continuous donations with containers that would have gone into recycling but this way they will have many lives before that! As we all know, not everything gets recycled….

customers’ feedback, and we want to keep it up as it has proven successful. We are moving soon to bigger premises; this will give us the space we need to introduce more lines which will help us keep challenging the bigger supermarkets and traditional shopping areas, making this way of shopping more and more accessible to everyone and maybe becoming the norm? The more demand, the more items we could get plastic- or package-free! This new space will also give us the opportunity to run different workshops on a more permanent basis. A community composter is also in our minds as part of our plans and part of the expansion! Exciting times ahead!

Bristol has got very sustainable and green credentials that have definitely helped us on our journey. It actually made total sense to us to establish the business here, especially in Bedminster. It has also been very important to us to be an active part of the community, getting involved with the local currency (Bristol£), the charity City to Sea, and taking part in sustainability fairs such as Shark Fest. We’ve helped university students on their dissertations and have visits from local schools, and we’re actively connected to the local vegan movement and Extinction Rebellion, in addition to taking part in initiatives like the Waste Nothing Challenge, where 50 families are going zero waste for a year, tracking their progress.

80 North Street BS3 1HJ Bristol zerogreen17 Zero Green zerogreenbristol Zero Green Bristol zerogreenbristol.co.uk

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BIG DATA & ANALYTICS “Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.” – PETER SONDERGAARD

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ELEVATOR PITCH YellowDog is the intelligent management platform for computing power. The amount of data that the world processes is set for 61% compound annual growth between 2019 and 2025. Data processing is at the heart of the world’s most innovative and crucial technologies. Scaling, optimising, and controlling that computing power is a better solution than building more and more data centres to manage the world’s growing needs. That’s where YellowDog’s intelligent multi-cloud platform helps businesses to meet critical data processing requirements – fast, stable, and secure. YellowDog’s is creating a world where people can do more, create more, explore more; unleashed from limited computing power.

OUR STORY YellowDog began life as a conversation in the winter of 2014 between founder Gareth Williams and a friend in a coffee shop. There, inspired by technologies such as SETI, they wondered whether the processing power of mobile phones could be used whilst their owners slept. The conversation evolved and in January of 2015, YellowDog was incorporated. Today, YellowDog serves 2,000 customers in 45 countries worldwide where it works with businesses in Media & Entertainment, Financial Services, and has applications for Aerospace, Life Sciences and more.

Founder, Gareth Williams

Nurtured in Engine Shed with the support of the incubator, SETsquared, YellowDog has amassed dozens of awards, including ‘Founder of the Year’ with TechSpark UK, ‘Startup of the Year’ with Bristol Post, ‘Disruptive Technology’ and ‘Excellence in Innovation’ awards with Oracle, and ‘Business Innovation’ with the UK Best New Business Awards. It is headquartered in Runway East overlooking St Nicholas Market, Bristol Bridge, and the Bristol floating harbour, where it employs 35 people including a team working from offices in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Runway East, 1 Victoria Street Bristol, BS1 611 (+44) 330 223 2499 woof@yellowdog.co yellowdog yellowdog.co

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Photo Credit - Tom Weller

ELEVATOR PITCH In 2015 the world economic forum predicted that it would take 118 years to close the gender pay gap. Let that settle in. Two years later this went up another hundred years.

Using intelligent analytics and the unique insights often hidden in a company’s HR and payroll data, Gapsquare maps the expansive space of fair pay & fair and inclusive practices in employment. Their software represents a turning point in ending issues around equal pay, gender pay, ethnicity pay, and disability pay gaps.

Gapsquare exists because of the stark and shocking nature of these statistics. Gapsquare’s CEO Zara Nanu took one look at data predicting long term inequality and at her two incredible daughters and said, enough. Surely in our advanced technological world we can do much better? And thus, Gapsquare was born.

The Gapsquare team envisions a world where the ability to create fair employment is in the hands of employers. They are working with companies like Serco, Conde Nast & London Metropolitan Police, collaborating with them to take the steps necessary to make work better for all and to foresee moments when this fair pay and equality might be falling behind.

Embracing technology, Zara partnered with AI & data expert Ion Suruceanu to offer a software solution to a human problem. Gapsquare’s flagship product FairPay® has since been developed to allow businesses and organisations to analyse and track pay disparity statistics and produce instant reports on equality and diversity data, ready to be presented to teams. This software currently impacts positively on the lives of hundreds of thousands of employees & is making us think differently about work.

WHAT NEXT? “If you are in the business of making change, making progress, and making money, you must embrace the data. The standard in Gender Pay Gap and Ethnicity Pay Gap data has been set by Gapsquare.” — InChorus UK

OUR STORY

Since their feisty beginning, Gapsquare and the Gapsquare team have been empowering employers to reflect on pay as part of their regular strategy. Through pay, much more can be understood & a wider picture of how workforces move through companies can be generated. Gapsquare’s analytical tools have expanded and now offer solutions for HR directors, managers, and employers worldwide. As the software grows more intelligent, embracing AI and helping to predict change for employers, it seems increasingly likely that technology will be crucial in making work better for us all.

FAIR PAY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER The workforce is changing, millennials and generation Y & Z are demanding more of their workplaces and hiring the best talent remains top of the agenda. According to Glassdoor 72% of employees believe that salary transparency will be good for business, 60% of employees would not apply for a job where a pay gap exists & PWC writes that 87% of employers see lack of diversity as a priority issue, yet so much more can be done. 159

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“ANALYSIS OF PAY EQUALITY, FAIR PAY & DIVERSITY DATA HAS HAD AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON GLOBAL TEAMS AND EMPLOYERS.

MEET OUR CEO

WE’RE SEEING CHANGE THAT IS IMPACTING THE LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE.” DR. ZARA NANU - CEO - GAPSQUARE

Dr. Zara Nanu is a powerful advocate for workplace gender equality and wider inclusion and fair pay. Starting her career combating human trafficking and campaigning on women’s rights issues, Zara is now at the forefront of the push for technology to build more inclusive workplaces. As the CEO of Gapsquare, which offers expansive diversity and equality data intelligence & report generation, Zara is utilising data-science and AI to reimagine the future of work.

Gapsquare 0117 230 0066 hello@gapsquare.com @Gapsquare linkedin.com/company/gapsquare gapsquare.com

INTERESTING PUBLICATIONS: Tedx Bristol: “Gender Pay Gap: a long-term plan isn’t fast enough | Zara Nanu | TEDxUniversityofBristol - Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=losO7ApHQAE&t= The Times: The venture capitalists who haven’t got the memo about women in business - Article: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-venture-capitalists-who-havent-got-the-memo-about-women-in-business-n9sjbfkwc

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT DOING BUSINESS IN YOUR CITY?

OECD: Cracking the glass ceiling on wages: Gapsquare CEO Zara Nanu - Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/oecd/cracking-the-glass-ceiling-on-wages-zara-nanu

Bristol is a hub for two things we love, technology and a passion for equalities. The voice of change, of creating a better world shouts loudest the closer you get to this city. We’re proud to have this city as our springboard for change, for making work fair and making workplaces more diverse.

BBC Points West: BBC Points West: Tech Company Gapsquare Tackles the Gender Pay Gap - Video: https://youtu.be/Mp5M3SdzzHU 160

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ELEVATOR PITCH Data3 is a data agency that uses data analytics to help businesses make and save money. We work with companies that want more insight into their business or customers, but don’t have the right skills, enough time in the day or enough money to hire fulltime staff. Most businesses use a marketing or web agency, but a data agency is a new concept. This means we’re educating and inspiring businesses to work in a new way. Think of us as a data SWAT team – a band of consultants, analysers and visualisers that turn data into stories and help businesses grow.

OUR STORY Data3 was founded in 2017 by Helen Tanner – a self-professed data geek and data consultant whose career spans oceanography, meteorology, wealth management, insurance and equity. Now, Data3 has 6+ team members and we work with a wide range of SMEs, from taxi services and building societies, to digital agencies and insurance providers. We frequently see businesses increase their profit by at least 10% – either by increasing sales through datadriven sales and marketing activity, or by identifying inefficiencies and reducing costs. “We believe every business decision should be datadriven. The days of making decisions based on gut feel, or whoever shouts the loudest, should be over. A data-powered business is a high-performing business. That’s why we do what we do.” —Helen Tanner, founder of Data3

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CHAMPIONING THE SMALL GUYS We think small businesses should have access to the same insight as the big brands. Most SMEs, however, lack the data skills, resources, budget or experience. This means there’s a huge divide between the big corporates – who have a huge amount of data resources – and smaller businesses. Our focus, therefore, has been on SMEs. Our solutions range from simple business dashboards to sophisticated tools powered by AI, predictive analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing. Either way, we’ll often start with a Proof of Value, because we know it can be tricky to quantify the value of data. We’ll take a sample of data and explore a problem or opportunity, to show a client what’s possible.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Engine Shed, Station Approach Temple Meads, Bristol, BS1 6QH Email: hello@data-cubed.co.uk Phone: 0117 25 10 100 @Data_Cubed_Ltd linkedin.com/company/data-cubed-limited data-cubed.co.uk

Bristol has been the perfect city to start our business in, with its ensemble of tech-companies and diverse set of businesses – not to mention the meetups, conferences and university links, which give us a great deal of inspiration and a fantastic pool of talent to work with. 2019 has been an exciting year for us. We’ve seen the business grow, and in April we were thrilled to win This is Money’s ‘Great British Entrepreneur Challenge’. Now, we have some big plans for the future. We’ve developed and are testing data product prototypes, and we plan to launch a full-scale product in 2020. Watch this space.

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ELEVATOR PITCH OnCorps helps enterprises improve the performance of their existing business processes by augmenting them with digital decision guidance. By providing personalised, responsive, analytics-based recommendations to front-line decision makers, companies can unlock significant productivity and performance gains.

OUR STORY OnCorps is a customisable AI decision guidance platform supported by a high-end team of data and computer scientists. The OnCorps platform is primarily deployed to support backoffice processes in global financial services companies and for pricing in multinational technology and consulting companies, such as EY and Dell. Using OnCorps technology, businesses have been able to grow their revenue by tens of millions of dollars and have been able to scale their businesses without having to scale their costs. OnCorps solutions blend AI-based analytic recommendations from the existing data together with the application of behavioural science techniques to help guide the decision maker. As an example, when this approach was applied to pricing decisions in a global professional services firm, by using the OnCorps platform the company has been able to unlock an 18% gain in gross margin for the deals priced using OnCorps. This specific solution also won the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own CFO award for the most innovative system. There are over 1,000 users of the OnCorps pricing solution in this firm today.

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and custodian benchmarking to leadership. Finally, they offer a business model that ensures rapid deployment and high-end support. Global clients using this solution today have reported an 80% reduction in labour time associated with these business processes while improving the performance of these processes.

In 2019, OnCorps was selected as the winner of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Best Banking Infrastructure Softwareâ&#x20AC;? by FinTech Breakthrough, an independent organization founded to recognize FinTech innovators, leaders, and visionaries from around the world. One example of their solutions in financial services is helping fund operation teams face their daily challenge to sift through data from fund administrators or other internal systems for quality and compliance purposes. OnCorps offers an advanced, highly configurable fund operations solution. The OnCorps platform automates data integration from each custodian, uses algorithms to score each transaction, and adapts approval workflows to the risk level of each event. Crucially, the system learns from the decision patterns of each analyst, building stronger algorithms over time. Leaders can elect to use manual policy settings until algorithms mature. With all investment and decision data consolidated in the platform, OnCorps can also provide audit trails, what-if scenario modelling, real-time analysis of process performance,

OnCorps was founded by alumni from premier consultancies and research institutions in Boston, Massachusetts, and Bristol, England. Bob Suh, founder and CEO, was formerly the Chief Technology Strategist of Accenture. Co-founders Dr. Laura Lafave and Dr. Peter Hallett, based in Bristol, also held positions at Accenture during their 20+ year careers in technology. The team, now at approximately 50 in total, also benefits from collaboration with scientific advisors from universities including Harvard, Yale and Oxford. OnCorps is a member of SETsquared Bristol and is active in supporting the local tech community.

UK Office, Queens Quay 33-35 Queens Square Bristol, BS1 4LU United Kingdom oncorps.io

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ELEVATOR PITCH Interactive Scientific is a startup company, here to connect humans to the invisible scientific world so that our customers can solve sciencerelated problems more quickly and more collaboratively. Nobody can see atoms and molecules so we are using digital technology to virtualise and visualise science. I N N O VAT I O N I N C O N T E X T

OUR STORY Our core technology is a molecular innovation platform that uses immersive and cloud technology in order to make invisible scientific concepts visible. Our customers are Science-Led Enterprises; for example, the pharmaceutical industry, who are using digital approaches to improve the return on R&D investment and who need to find ways to better collaborate and communicate both inside and outside of their organisations. The technology is one part of our differentiator; we have found a way to take scientific data and make it visible and interactive. What really sets us apart is the interdisciplinary nature of the company, which means that we look at the solution we are developing in a different way to more homogeneous teams. Rather than just focusing on “cool” technology experiences that we produce, we use creative approaches to consider how technology can be transformative across the scientific ecosystem. As the use of data to run organisations accelerates (e.g., the use of AI for drug discovery) it is important that we think about how to validate the information and make the insights accessible to diverse teams. Using immersive and visualisation approaches, we can quickly and easily aid collaboration and communication of these insights. Bristol is a special place to work because of the genuine community that exists here. People don’t just pay lip service to supporting each other, we actually do! Dr. Becky Sage, CEO of Interactive Scientific, says of the Bristol ecosystem: “I grew up here and it wasn’t until I moved away in my mid-twenties that I realised how open-minded and creative Bristol is as a city. It is much less siloed than many other cities that I have worked in. Through the challenging and the good times with the business there are people that we can call; we are part of the SETsquared incubator and that has been very important, helping us to find opportunities and support and for amplifying our successes.” Interactive Scientific has already been through many phases since its formation in 2013. The widespread use of digital technology in Science-Led Enterprises is projected to grow quickly over the next 10 years. However, the use of tools like ours is in early stages so we have had to find ways of keeping going and carrying out customer education in an emerging market. This has involved carrying out projects, pivoting and working with partners to raise our profile. Funders such as Innovate UK and Ufi Charitable Trust have been instrumental in helping us to develop during the early stages; they understood the vision from the start.

world and got a lot of useful press coverage, including a slot on Sky News. Association with a global partner is very helpful; it has made us stand out above other companies at a similar stage to us. Although we have been going for a number of years, this still feels like the beginning. We have built strong foundations and we are working to achieve our goal to be a major player in the digital transformation of Science-Led Enterprises, which will ultimately lead to a more productive, diverse, collaborative scientific ecosystem, solving global challenges together.

A highlight for us was being chosen by Oracle to be part of their Your Tomorrow Today PR campaign. We appeared on billboards all over the

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Dr Becky Sage, CEO

Engine Shed Station Approach Bristol BS1 6QH info@interactivescientific.com

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Col8 is a next generation video delivery platform. Our tools combine video with data, providing an intuitive interface to explore and understand video content at scale.

ELEVATOR PITCH areas from Marketing to Oil & Gas, we found the basic problem with video is simply getting to the important parts faster.

Imagine you were searching the internet through Google but it only brought back the titles of webpages and nothing from any of the other rich content—think about how hard it would be to find literally anything. Well, that is how hard it is to use video at the moment; we know the names of files and when it was taken but very little else.

Once we realised this, our eyes were opened to a world of possibilities where our technology could help. With prior experience in the defence sector, we decided this was the area where we would begin trying to make a fundamental difference.

At Col8 our mission is to make video more powerful by bringing together data recorded from any source to give better context and then find the important parts faster.

How does the idea born in the mountains of California for an extreme sports video platform now help sectors like security and defence protect people around the world?

Receiving our first outside investment in early 2019, we were fortunate to begin a partnership with defence consultancy Techmodal to bring the power of our technology and their industry experience to market. This has led us to areas we never even imagined, like helping the army maintain equipment more efficiently by combining the onboard video with sensor data from the vehicles, through to using drone detection sensors on our platform combined with city-wide CCTV networks to help quickly find and stop malicious pilots.

Like many new ventures, it was formed by a couple of people annoyed with a problem in an area they are passionate about. The same is true for Col8, founded in 2016 by Charles and Rupert in Bristol to help them share the GoPro footage they were recording on their adventures. After exploring the sports tech market for a year, we began asking the question, “Is video hard to use for other markets?”—the answer being a resounding yes. Exploring

We are often asked what makes us and our product special; for us, it is a straightforward answer. Most high-tech startups want to build the flashiest thing with the latest craze but often forget the whole world is filled with equipment and people that can’t change instantly. We build with the customers in mind and how we can bring them solutions to problems using what they already have.

OUR STORY

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Charles Smith – CEO

Jack Dyrhauge – Business Development Manager

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Rose Nichols – Senior Developer

An analogy we always like to use is most startups are trying to build the “Teslas” of AI, but no one wants to build the road networks these new tools will travel on. It is probably because it is genuinely hard work; it is optimising the movement of data, it is finding the cheapest way to get to an answer without having to use massive computing power. The key to the future for us is building these efficient networks so video and data can move from source to processor and beyond, and we want to be the platform that everything runs on.

Rupert Jabelman – CTO

Harbourside House The Grove Bristol BS1 4ND +44 (0)117 251 0190 info@col8.net col8-ltd col8ltd www.col8.net

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“Our world is built on biology and once we begin to understand it, it then becomes a technology.” – RYAN BETHENCOURT

BIOTECHNOLOGY & HEALTHCARE

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Vitamica

ELEVATOR PITCH Across the world, concern is growing over the fact that many infections are becoming more difficult to treat with antibiotics. Left unchecked, we are at risk of losing our ability to manage infections and even minor wounds or surgery may prove life-threatening. For 80 years, antibiotics have kept us safe from bacterial infection, but their protective capacity is under attack from increasing resistance of bacteria to our current range of available drugs. Slowing this growth in resistance will be helped by a more targeted use of antibiotics, and doctors need a rapid way to decide whether an antibiotic is necessary, and if so, which antibiotic will be effective.

OUR STORY Vitamica was set up to address the need for a rapid method to determine which antibiotic will successfully treat an infection. This process is called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;antimicrobial susceptibility testingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (AST) and currently takes 2-3 days in a hospital laboratory. Our aim is to reduce the time to 1-2 hours and to 171

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allow testing to be carried out in surgeries, clinics, urgent care centres, and nursing homes. We want to help doctors prescribe an effective antibiotic right from the outset of treatment; this is better for the patient, the health service, and the global population as a whole.

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Even though Vitamica is in its early stages, we are firmly embedded in the Bristol technology and innovation community. This, in turn, leads to the regional and national awareness that is so important for new companies. The support available fuels our confidence in raising investment for further development towards creating a world-beating medical diagnostic tool that will safeguard antibiotics for future generations.

The idea behind the company came from research within the School of Physics at the University of Bristol and was stimulated by collaboration between specialists in physics and microbiology. These collaborations grew to include diagnostic partners, and the company was established in early 2018. Research into rapid AST is taking place around the world because of the global nature of the antibiotic crisis. We believe our approach has a novelty and a simplicity that will prove decisive in the search for a truly rapid test method—we focus on measuring the internal ‘pulse’ of living bacteria and how this is affected by antibiotics. The infrastructure around Bristol for collaborating and exploring new ideas is vital for innovation, and we will continue to tap into the diverse range of skills to support our technical developments—whether it is access to patient samples, artificial intelligence, or prototyping.

Vitamica Ltd Future Space Filton Road Bristol BS34 8RB contact@vitamica.co.uk @VitamicaAMR vitamica.co.uk 172

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ELEVATOR PITCH FluoretiQ is the brainchild of husband-and-wife founders Dr. Neciah Dorh and Josephine Dorh. Originally from St. Lucia, Neciah met his wife Josephine, an ex–oil and gas engineer from Cameroon, whilst they were both studying at the University of Bristol.

OUR STORY “The idea really came together in a meeting arranged by Dr. Andy Collins (QTEC, or Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre) with Prof. Carmen Galan and Dr. James Spencer (University of Bristol)”, recalls Dr. Dorh. Each side held complementary pieces of the solution and in the true spirit of collaboration, a new method for quickly identifying bacteria was born. Guided by Professor Martin Cryan, also from Bristol University, FluoretiQ was founded to solve a problem that costs thousands of lives and millions of pounds, the rapid identification of bacteria which will lead to better antibiotic stewardship—saving time, saving money, and ultimately saving lives. We have all been there. You don’t feel well; you go to the doctor who takes a blood or urine sample and sends it to a lab for analysis. In the absence of knowing exactly what bacteria is causing the illness, the doctor prescribes a broadspectrum antibiotic. A few days later the test results are back, and the doctor is then able to prescribe a more specific antibiotic to deal with your infection. Sadly, during this waiting period, symptoms can become much worse and many patients are admitted to hospital. In the UK alone we spend over £150 million each year on additional bed days due to slow diagnosis, and over half a million of us die from super-bug infections each year.

MEET OUR TEAM (From Left to Right) Maria Garcia Flores (Organic Chemist), Samuel Guthrie (Data Scientist), Dr. Neciah Dorh (Chief Executive Officer), James Preece (Product Manager), Josephine Dorh (Chief Technical Officer), Mat Kyriakides (Biochemist) and Dr. Sandra Medina Villar (Senior Chemist)

Enter Neciah and Josephine with a vision to revolutionise bacterial diagnosis with their startup company FluoretiQ.

The ultimate goal for FluoretiQ is to have a point-of-care QUANTEF in every doctor’s surgery where a nurse takes the patient sample, pops it into a desktop QUANTEF that advises on the best course of antibiotics, while the patient waits just a few minutes.

Using quantum-enhanced technology as their platform, the FluoretiQ team have devised a method to identify a bacterial species in fifteen minutes flat, over 200 times faster than today’s method.

The market for QUANTEF is large, globally $5 billion, and FluoretiQ intends to address that market by attracting the attention of a global strategic partner that will help with commercialisation and distribution. Already attracting attention with its ground-breaking technology, FluoretiQ has won awards from LaunchGW as the people’s choice for ‘Best Science Startup’ and is currently nominated for an OBN award in the ‘Best Medtech Startup’ category.

The product line of analysers, codenamed QUANTEF, is initially aimed at laboratories, enabling them to radically improve turn-around time. Around the size of a laser printer, the high-throughput devices are being designed for the global mass market.

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Housed in the Unit DX incubator in Bristol with a young family, Neciah and Josephine enjoy the multi-cultural community of Bristol with its tradition of academic and industrial collaboration, essential to the long-term success of FluoretiQ.

info@fluoretiq.com @fluoretiQ fluoretiq.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH Today, over half a million women die of breast cancer every year. Yet, if a tumor is less than 1cm in size when it is detected, with no lymph involvement, survival rates at 5 years are comparable with someone who has not had cancer. Micrima believe the way to reduce this number of deaths is frequent screening from an early age. To that end they have developed a system for breast imaging using harmless radio-waves.

Originally based on technology for the detection of buried landmines, the early application to breast imaging was spun-out from the University of Bristol, as Micrima. The founders of the company recognized the impact the technology could potentially have on breast cancer detection and mortality rates. When the company was spun-out of Bristol university the decision was made to stay in Bristol as this was where the relevant engineering talent was. Today, the company consists of 23 hardware, software, and product development engineers with a small commercial team. It is continuing to expand in all areas of the business to meet the strategic aims of the company.

OUR STORY

MARIAÂŽ: A UNIQUE PRODUCT

Micrima believes that to provide early detection of breast cancer you need to be able to offer comfortable, frequent screening from an early age. Interestingly in one report 46% of women who did not return for a second round of screening sited pain as the reason. With all this in mind, Micrima has set out to develop a system that is comfortable for the patient, easy to interpret, good in dense tissue and can be used frequently from a much younger age in order to detect cancer early.

MARIAÂŽ (Multistatic Array Radio-wave Image Acquisition) is a revolutionary product from Micrima that uses radio-waves to detect breast cancer. The data acquisition requires the patient to lie on their tummy on the bed, with the breast that is to be imaged pendulant

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through a hole in the bed. The breast is cupped by a ceramic insert, underneath which there is a radio-wave array containing 60 antennae that each transmits and receives. They each do this in sequence, taking 22 seconds before the array rotates. The same process is repeated twice more to build up a 3D map of the tissues throughout the breast in one min six seconds. MARIA® measures the signal reflected at the interface between tissues of different electromagnetic material properties showing reflections from the edges of lesions. This data is currently shown as an image but there is a wealth of information not currently displayed. The next step in the development of this product is, working closely with clinical partners, to confirm what other data will enhance the cancer detection and improve the interpretation time. Today the MARIA® breast scanning system needs to be used in conjunction with other imaging methods for cancer detection but it is hoped through further data collection and development of the algorithms the system can start to identify different structures in the breast and begin to identify the likelihood of a structure being malignant or not. Then it can be considered as a stand-alone modality and eventually a screening tool. Professor Lain Lyburn, a consultant radiologist at Thirlestaine Breast Centre, Cheltenham, recently said, “We have been involved in the evaluation of the MARIA® system for some time now and whilst it is currently offered as an adjunct to other imaging modalities, particularly where dense tissue is involved, the technique promises the exciting ability to distinguish between tissue types in the future. Any imaging modality that can readily give this sort of functional information has the potential to influence many points in the diagnostic and treatment pathways—there could be less need for biopsies and possibly a reduction in overtreatment. ”

In recent years, Micrima has been recognized with several awards. Most of these awards are focused on the technology and innovation of the MARIA® system. These include general innovation awards, like the ‘Medilink SW innovation Award in 2018’. Micrima has also been honored with ‘The Frost and Sullivan New Product Innovation Award—Breast Imaging in 2019’ and the ‘Global Health and Pharma Best Oncology Diagnostic Imaging Device Manufacture in 2019 Award’. The ongoing primary goal for Micrima is the evolution of the MARIA® software to deliver increasing degrees of tissue differentiation. The company is hopeful to be able to identify the type of malignancy along with the diagnosis of the disease. “If we can assist radiologists by indicating which are low grade, slow growing, and can/should be monitored over time, and which are invasive, high grade, and rapidly growing, this could have huge implications for the treatment of breast cancer. There is also the possibility to use this technology for detecting other types of cancer in the body in the future,” says Roy Johnson, Micrima’s Executive Chairman.

@MicrimaLimited linkedin.com/company/10085901 micrima.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH Cell therapies represent a new era of living medicines. Stem cells are able to remodel and regenerate tissues, and your immune cells regularly fight off disease. Current cell therapies face 3 major challenges, though: delivery efficiency, survival, and maintaining function. CytoSeek is developing its artificial membrane-binding protein (AMBP) technology to address the unmet needs in the cell therapy industry.

suppressing immune cells. At CytoSeek, we are developing AMBPs to coat immune cells with proteins that reduce the suppressive effect of solid tumours. Our mission to enable the first cell therapies that can destroy solid tumours, and improve the lives of the millions of people worldwide diagnosed with cancer every year. AMBPs were developed in Professor Adam Perriman’s lab at the University of Bristol. CytoSeek spun out of the lab in late 2017, and has recently raised a £1M seed round to translate the technology from the lab bench towards patients’ bedsides.

OUR STORY AMBP technology involves producing protein-based constructs that spontaneously insert into the membranes of cells—we call these ‘anchors’. These anchors are naturally occurring proteins that we’ve redesigned to make their surface more positively charged, before coating them in a negatively charged surfactant. These anchors are then fused to other proteins or enzymes to create constructs with new functions. To coat cells with these constructs, you simply add our AMBPs to a cell culture, wait for a few minutes, then wash off any excess. This process enables virtually any cell to be augmented with a range of functions.

Our AMBP approach is radically different to the current state of the art. The typical approach is to genetically modify cells using viruses to make them produce proteins that target cancer tissues. This method is costly—the first cell therapies were estimated to cost approximately £50,000 per dose to manufacture. CytoSeek’s approach doesn’t require genetic manipulation: our AMBPs insert spontaneously into the membrane on the surface of cells simply by mixing them together. We are currently engaged in proof-of-concept studies to demonstrate enhancement of cell therapies for cancer, heart disease, osteoarthritis, and diabetic wound healing. We are looking to partner with cell therapy companies to bring these products to the clinic and ultimately enhance human health.

Cells from human donors are capable of destroying cancerous tissue— in 2018, two cell-based drugs were approved for treating types of liquid tumours (such as leukaemia). Solid tumours, though, fight back by 177

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Professor Adam Perriman, Founder and CSO

CytoSeek’s breakthroughs open the door for the development of a nontoxic, non-immunogenic, and non-GM cell functionalisation technology that can provide homing, adhesion, immunomodulation, and hypoxia resistance to therapeutic cells. Excitingly, we are only scratching the surface of what can be achieved with this technology. As use of cellular therapies grows, so will the need to rapidly tailor cells to specific environments. The cell therapy market in Europe is second only to the Americas. Within Europe, the UK has the highest number of advanced therapy companies. Cell therapies are a key part of the UK Government’s future growth strategies: in 2018, the UK pledged £188 M in the Industrial Strategy Fund to invest in leading-edge medicines manufacturing, including £12 M to the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult to accelerate cell therapy development. Bristol is quickly becoming a hub for science spin-outs and startups. CytoSeek is a member of Unit DX, a science incubator, which launched in 2017 and is now home to 32 companies. There are now plans to build 2 more facilities in the coming years, termed Unit DY and Unit DZ, to meet demand. CytoSeek was awarded the ‘Rising Star’ award at the inaugural Launch Great West awards event, run by Spin-up Science, in May 2019.

CytoSeek, Unit DX, Albert Road, Bristol, BS2 0XJ 0117 331 2034 cytoseek cytoseek.uk 178

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ELEVATOR PITCH FOLIUM Science is a UK-based bioscience business that was founded in 2015 by a team of passionate scientists and entrepreneurs who have a vision to apply their new technology to transform farming. Buoyed by exciting preliminary proof of concept data, the growing business set up research and development laboratories in 2017 at the UNIT DX Science Incubator in Bristol, a specialist laboratory facility with science-focused business support.

OUR STORY FOLIUM Science’s innovative and patented technology is called Guided Biotics ™. Guided Biotics™ will dramatically reduce the reliance upon antibiotics in animal rearing. This is very important because many bacteria are resistant to antibiotics, meaning that antibiotics are becoming less effective in combatting infections in animals. This has implications for human health too, because many of the bacteria that affect animals can also affect humans. Sadly, 700,000 people a year die due to the failure of antibiotic treatment, and this is forecast to rise as more bacteria become antibiotic resistant. New technology to replace antibiotics is urgently needed. FOLIUM Science is developing products that can be fed to chickens, cattle, or pigs that will not only reduce the number of undesirable bacteria in their digestive systems but also reduce dramatically the need to use antibiotics. This means animal health improves without the use of antibiotics, and there is less risk of bacterial infections reaching the food we eat. “We chose to be based in Bristol partly because of the top-quality scientific support from Bristol University and partly because Bristol is a vibrant city that offers a lot for a young team and a business such as ours,” says CEO Ed Fuchs. “The science ecosystem that has developed at Unit DX is a perfect starting point and launch pad for our research.” FOLIUM Science’s technology has been gaining significant attention in the last 12 months. Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, has already awarded three substantial grants to support the work, and the business was selected from over 250 entrants to be part of the Pearse Lyons Accelerator, a support programme for young businesses sponsored by Alltech, the multinational animalfeed business. The media has also shown much interest; numerous press interviews have taken place with the agricultural and mainstream publications, including the highly regarded Forbes magazine. The FOLIUM Science team at Unit DX is now comprised of ten highly qualified scientists supported by Chief Scientific Officer Professor Martin Woodward, Chair of Microbiome Studies at the University of Reading with 40 years of expertise in veterinary microbiology, and by Chief Technical Officer Dr Hadden Graham, bioscientist and renowned expert in the animal-feed industry.

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FOLIUM Science Unit DX St Philips Central, Albert Road Bristol , United Kingdom BS2 0XJ +44 117 403 4035 contact@foliumscience.com foliumscience.com

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“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” - ALBERT EINSTEIN

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City men & women; Bristol Bears men & women and Flyers Basketball, along with the plans for the stadium, he could fundamentally improve the lives of people in the city.

ELEVATOR PITCH In 2016 the first phase of a masterplan to develop Ashton Gate was completed. At a cost of nearly £50m Ashton Gate Stadium was rebuilt and transformed into a 27,000-seater modern, multi-use, 365-day-a-year venue and of course the proud home of Bristol City FC; Bristol Bears Rugby and the Bristol Sport group HQ.

Ashton Gate Chairman, Martin Griffiths: “In the last two years the rebuild of Ashton Gate has injected an additional nine million pounds into the local economy. With a staff payroll of more than a thousand people, we are proud to be one of the largest employers in the city, with 80% of those living within five miles of the stadium itself.”

OUR STORY

With the stadium rebuild a success, and an economic pathway for financial sustainability established, the second phase has been put into action. Extending the stadium footprint to create a state-of-the-art 4000-seater Sports &amp; Convention Centre (SCC) and a whole new “Sporting Quarter” for the city of Bristol.

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At the heart of the new SCC would be Bristol Sport’s pro-basketball team ‘The Bristol Flyers’. Competing in the British Basketball League the Flyers have traditionally had their home at SGS College, Filton. With sell-out crowds every week for the last two seasons, the need to bring them to BS3 with a bigger and better home is critical to their growth.

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Martin Griffiths: “Since the redevelopment, Ashton Gate has become synonymous with hosting the ‘big’ sporting and entertainment events. Starting with a small fan village in 2015 for the Rugby World Cup there were just a few hundred fans. By 2018 and the FIFA World Cup - the fan village had grown to encompass all of the stadium’s outdoor space. Six thousand ticketed fans per match and a global reach of millions as news clips of England celebrations went viral – right the way up to the semi-final!”

Alongside providing a home for the Flyers the SCC will also have two hotels; a multi-storey car park; residential and retail space plus an improved outdoor fan village.

Griffiths began the project with technology at its core. “Before we drew the stadium outline, we designed the technology platform. We wanted to future proof the stadium’s network and associated infrastructure as it was obvious that data, streaming and mobile devices would dominate interaction on matchday. Right from the start we searched for local innovation which has led us to working with some of Bristol’s most interesting tech start-ups as

The second phase is a unique opportunity to build on the success of Ashton Gate as a sports, leisure and events venue and deliver to the city, a true multi-purpose site attracting national and international events.

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Spice Girls In Concert At Ashton Gate Stadium

well as Bristol University Computer Sciences lab. In turn this has led us to set up our own “laboratory” within the stadium where we have been (and will continue to) work with local tech companies to develop new, leadingedge concepts to enhance the experience of visitors to Ashton Gate.

South West business community of the tremendous positive impact the stadium has had on its local environment. What makes us unique is Ashton Gate is a part of a bigger picture.” Reflects Griffiths. As a previous winner of “Business In The Community” at the SW Business Leader Awards Lansdown’s vision has been recognised as “making a significant positive impact within the community and to the lives of individuals around it.”

“We have mixed and matched when it has come to hardware deployment. From industry standards like Cisco to bare metal switches, software defined network technology, leading edge Wi-Fi installations, 5G and now in a new phase - experimental work on Internet of Things’ software and the federation of control systems.”

Mark Kelly, Ashton Gate’s Managing Director concludes: “Delivering matchdays and the concerts is fantastic but this was a proud moment for the whole sporting group, not least for our community programmes all of which are headquartered at the stadium. They were a significant contributor to us winning the award.

2019 saw Ashton Gate host its first Summer Series of concerts. The stellar line-up of Rod Stewart; Take That; Muse and the Spice Girls, secured in the knowledge that there was a four-week window in the “off-season” in which to establish the stadium as a viable concert venue capable of attracting the biggest acts to Bristol.

“The stadium is not only their home but also provides them with unique opportunities for the programmes they run. Be it the Robins Foundation education programmes giving students an incredible classroom space overlooking the pitch; Bears Community Foundation’s Spectrum Work

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Experience which taps into various parts of a working stadium and the Bristol Sport Foundation which promotes, funds and develops sport-based community programmes for the whole group.

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Ashton Gate Stadium, Ashton Road, Bristol, BS3 2EJ Email: events@ashtongate.co.uk Phone: 0117 963 0680 https://www.facebook.com/AshtonGateStadium https://twitter.com/ashtongatestad instagram.com/ashtongatestadium ashtongatestadium.co.uk

“We want Ashton Gate to be the beating heart of sport in the city and a beacon for the community. It isn’t just of benefit to a bottom line or a league table – it is of benefit to all of us who live in this amazing city.” 186

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ELEVATOR PITCH This is yoga reinvented. The pod is an otherworldly cocoon of glowing lights, heady aromas, and enveloping soundscapes, taking you a million miles from the everyday. Expect an intense hit of yoga.

OUR STORY WHAT MAKES US INNOVATIVE/SPECIAL A tiny percentage of our population does yoga. We’re firm believers in its transformational benefits and believe that delivering yoga in its most potent form is the secret to reaching an audience otherwise untouched by yoga. We want to convert the skeptics and draw in the doubters by supercharging the yoga experience.

BREATHE DEEPER. STRETCH FURTHER. SWEAT HARDER. MELT INTO IT.

Everything we use at Hotpod Yoga has been designed with this purpose in mind. We’ve worked with top aromatherapy companies designing our signature scent, we collaborate with artists commissioning music perfect for the pod, and we’ve worked with world-leading inflatable experts, top architects, and heating consultants to create our unique, immersive, utterly perfect pods.

ER.

The clever technology and beautiful designs create the perfect yoga environment. The darkened, mirror-free environment removes any sense of compare and despair. All of this combined with the expertise of our teachers in providing fantastic classes leaves students feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for life!

WORKING IN BRISTOL Hotpod Yoga Bristol is run by Frances Good and George Mitchell and is part of a global franchise with over 50 individual locally run businesses. Being a small independent business with the support of such a fantastic larger community of businesses is mirrored in and what we see happening in Bristol all the time. For us, this is what makes working in Bristol so special. Individuals support individuals, and businesses support businesses. This communal attitude to life is essential for us as that way we can create a practice bespoke to the Bristol audience in order to reach as many pockets of the community as possible.

We believe at Hotpod Yoga the more you put into it, the more you get out of it, so the best way to truly understand Hotpod Yoga is to experience it. It’s time to get into it.

In Bristol, we work with a range of individuals and businesses in a variety of ways in order to make yoga as accessible as possible. Whether it be inflating the pod in the foyer of a business during Wellness Week, or supporting athletes’ training and recovery, or providing a space for people to leave work and switch off immediately, Hotpod Yoga fits perfectly into a busy life, creating the space we all need just for ourselves.

“Combining a deliciously calming atmosphere with an optimal workout temperature of 37 degrees (to aid flexibility), Hotpod Yoga brings together all the health benefits of yoga in one inflatable pod.” - Vogue

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HOTPOD YOGA BRISTOL Unit 2, Tower House, Fairfax Street Bristol, BS1 3BN 07872910368 bristol@hotpodyoga.com Socials: @hotpodyogabristol

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ELEVATOR PITCH The Wave is an inland-surfing destination where anyone and everyone can surf on safe waves, all year round. It brings surfing, nature, and a fresh way of thinking to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities—from a child stepping on a board for the first time to a professional training for the Olympics.

OUR STORY It is the first destination of its kind in the UK and its Wavegarden Cove technology provides up 1,000 waves of varying sizes and shapes an hour—around a wave every 10 seconds. Every aspect of the surfing experience, from perfect waves and supportive lessons, to tried-andtested wetsuits and boards, has been designed to ensure that surfing is fun for all. The 200m-long surfing lake is at its heart, but The Wave is not just about surfing. It’s about sharing incredible experiences with anyone who wants to enjoy them, in a naturally healthy space. We’re about getting back to nature, improving health and wellbeing, helping people feel like the best version of themselves and having a shedload of fun in the process! As well as the surfing lake, there is wonderful food and drink, beautiful gardens, peaceful hideaways and family-friendly camping. Surfing is a rapidly growing sport and will be part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. But there is a supply-and-demand mismatch, with demand increasing but nature only offering surfable waves 30% of the time. The accessibility of surfing has been held back by geographical limitations, weather, swell conditions, and tides. The Wave will be able to overcome all these issues to bring perfect surfing conditions for beginners, intermediates, and advanced surfers. The Wave is the vision of founder Nick Hounsfield, who wanted to bring the joy of surfing and its many physical and mental health benefits to more people—especially those who don’t have easy access to the coast and sea. The first destination to be built is in Bristol and land has been secured for The Wave London, with an estimated opening date of 2022. The team behind The Wave has a roll-out plan to deliver several other sites over the next 5–10 years. The Wave has a clear ethos regarding sustainability. We take a ‘3-Wave’ approach, which means we always consider the effect our decisions have on our profit, the people around us, and the planet we share. 189

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+44 0333 016 4133 info@thewave.com thewave.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH The entrepreneurial spirit of CEO Stephanie Wheen drives the pioneering focus of the whole team. As a physiotherapist for children with disabilities, she recognised the huge gap in provision for her clients and the idea for Gympanzees was born in 2016. Through consultation with other therapists, parents, teachers, and other disability specialists, Gympanzees was designed to provide an innovative twist on leisure, where all the play and fun is also therapeutic, providing health and well-being benefits for this overlooked community.

There are over 1 million children and young people with disabilities in the UK. 84% cannot access regular leisure facilities as they aren’t tailored to their needs. They can’t play or exercise and their health and well-being suffer; whole families are stuck at home with 72% of parents suffering from mental health problems due to isolation.

OUR STORY Gympanzees plans to change that! We are a social enterprise and are building the UK’s first fully inclusive leisure facility in Bristol which will cater for the play, exercise, and social needs of the 58,000 children and young people from 0-25 years who live within an hour of Bristol, and take their families out of isolation.

“It’s such an amazing place, full of wonderful people giving children, many with profound learning disabilities, fun, exercise, and therapies that are so enabling. There are so many reasons why you should pay a visit. If you think Prevention, think NHS Long Term Plan; if there were more facilities like this, children would keep out of hospital for longer; it helps fitness, respiratory levels, etc., and keeps them happier, engaging with other children. Families meet other families and give each other peer support. I can’t stress enough to take your child or ask to have a tour around and tell the world how good it is.” Sarah Ambe, Policy Advisor at Healthwatch Bristol.

While we fundraise for our purpose-built centre, we run ‘Pop-Up’ centres in the main school holidays, proving the need and validating our vision. We have welcomed 4,000 visits to date, with some making a 5-hour round trip for their 1.5-hour session. The feedback has been phenomenal with many reported health benefits including a 5 year old who slept through the night for the first time after her session, a 6-year-old girl who took her first steps, and a 3-year-old boy who had his first-ever laugh.

Stephanie won the Shackleton Leadership Award in February 2018 and the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Award – Award for Good in November

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2018. She is also a finalist for the 2019 Great British Entrepreneur Award – Entrepreneurial Spirit. And Gympanzees was a finalist for the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Youth Development Award in January 2019.

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Dawn came to a Pop Up with her 6-year-old son. In my mind I knew what to expect; I’d watched all the videos and followed all the updates but I still wasn’t prepared...for the amazing feeling I came away with, the actual amount of fun my son and I experienced, the number of smiles, the ability to talk to other adults whilst my son played, the genuine feeling of being in a relaxed play environment during a ‘holiday’ period, the way each and every staff member went above and beyond to make me and my son feel welcomed and at ease, the obvious care and desire all staff showed to ensuring our every need and whim was met—and my eagerness to return for another visit.

But it will always be a team effort, and Bristol is a great place to grow a team. Alongside the 6 board members and 4 part-time permanent staff, Bristol has shown its strong social conscience, providing an amazing 120 people who have worked or volunteered with them since early 2018 and over 70 companies who have donated, fundraised, advised, or supported. Gympanzees has been featured on BBC Breakfast TV, national magazines, local TV, radio, and press. But no media coverage measures up to comments like this from parents:

“Holiday periods for us often mean isolation. We can’t go where we’d like to as every other family is there, making it too visually busy, too physically crowded, too loud, and in turn what should be a fun experience a stressful and overloading one. Home is our safe space and can end up feeling like a trap for us both. Today was different. We hope for a permanent centre.”

Testimonials Kirsty came to the Pop Up with her daughter. A truly magical place where special memories can be made and (walking) dreams can come true. Gympanzees opened up a world in which we can just exist exactly how we need to. It has given our daughter opportunities to try equipment that never would have been available to her before and for us to have quality time together. A great place to meet new people in similar situations and form new friendships.”

Fantastic feedback and happy, smiling faces drive our team.

info@gympanzees.org 0117 2141 179 or 07795 687806 GympanzeesUK gympanzees.org

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“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” - ALBERT EINSTEIN

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ELEVATOR PITCH Aardman is an independent, four times Academy Award®-winning animation studio based in Bristol, UK. Famous worldwide for its unique and entertaining productions, it is home to much-loved characters including Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Morph – as well as being the creative powerhouse behind dynamic and cutting-edge content for advertising partners, digital platforms, games developers and live experiences both at home and abroad. © Aardman / Wallace & Gromit Ltd 1993

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OUR STORY Co-founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1976, the company transferred into Employee Ownership in November 2018 – a move made to secure the independence, the creative legacy and culture of the company for many decades to come, demonstrates the studio’s innovative and forwardfacing approach. The creative partnership between Peter Lord and David Sproxton began during their school days. While still teenagers, the pair created a short 2D animated film for the BBC’s Vision On. It featured a superhero character they named Aardman. In order to bank their first cheque, they needed a company name and so Aardman Animations was born. Peter and David continued to supply material for Vision On while they were at university. After graduating in 1976 they moved to Bristol where the programme was made. Vision On evolved into Take Hart, presenting the pair with an opportunity to create their first clay character, Morph, to form a double act with artist and presenter Tony Hart. Other early work included several short films, commissioned by both the BBC and Channel 4, which allowed Peter and David to develop their novel technique of animating puppet characters to the soundtrack of real-life conversations, in line with their interest in developing an adult audience for model animation.

A few years later, the studio was again commissioned by Channel Four, this time to create a series of short films called Lip Synch. This ground-breaking series further explored the technique of combining animated characters with real voices and included Nick Park’s Creature Comforts, which went on to win the 1990 Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film. In the same category that year was A Grand Day Out, which Nick had finally finished at Aardman in 1989 after having first started work on it as a student in 1982.

Nick Park entered the scene in the early ’80s when he met Peter and David while studying at the National Film and Television School. He was working on his graduation film, ultimately released as A Grand Day Out, which starred the eccentric cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit. Nick was invited to come and work full time at Aardman in 1985. 196

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A Grand Day Out was followed by The Wrong Trousers, Aardman’s first 30-minute film. This second outing for Wallace and Gromit went on to win the 1993 Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film – and has become one of the most successful animated short films ever made. Their third film, 1995’s A Close Shave, confirmed the studio’s reputation as well as establishing Wallace and Gromit as household names, winning the studio’s third Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film, and a BAFTA® for Best Short Animated Film. Then in 2000 came Chicken Run, Aardman’s first full-length theatrical feature film, which received excellent reviews in the UK and the US and outstanding box office receipts, grossing over $220 million worldwide. In 2005, Wallace and Gromit’s first feature, The Curse of the WereRabbit, garnered many prestigious international awards, including the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film and a BAFTA® for Best British Film. These films have been followed by a succession of critically acclaimed movies from 2013 Academy Award®-nominated The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! to 2015’s Shaun the Sheep: The Movie and 2018’s Early Man.

output, over recent decades the company has attracted best-in-class talent in specialisms ranging from 4D and CGI to gaming, VR, attractions and live experiences, plus licensing, rights and brand development.

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Its team of directors, designers, developers and animators use their craft and storytelling expertise to create compelling and impactful advertising campaigns, working with organisations as diverse as Change 4 Life, Serta Mattresses, Chevron, DFS and PayPal. Recent industry-leading projects include the ‘visually astonishing’ (The Guardian) BAFTA®-nominated console game, 11-11: Memories Retold, and the four times Gold Cannes Lions-winning StorySign app which helps deaf children learn to read. In 2019, Aardman’s first major piece of original content for the theme park market – a 4D film with brand new characters, the Bear and the Squirrel – launched at Efteling in the Netherlands. Since 1995, Aardman has worked in partnership with The Grand Appeal charity to help spearhead fundraising for Bristol Children’s Hospital. To date, the charity has raised more than £50 million to help provide cuttingedge, life-saving medical equipment, helping to transform critically ill children’s lives.

Aardman hello@aardman.com aardmananimations aardman aardman.com

The Grand Appeal also runs the most successful charity art trails in the world through Gromit Unleashed, engaging fans in Bristol, the UK, and around the world with truly innovative fundraising events. As of 2019, The Gromit Unleashed brand has raised over £5 million. As the studio has developed and grown, what unites its productions are without fail innovative, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm, reflecting the vision, energy and passion of the talented individuals who comprise the Aardman family. Find out more about Aardman and have a look at some of our work at www. aardman.com.

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ELEVATOR PITCH Rumpus Animation was founded in 2011 by animation director Joe Wood and children’s book illustrator Seb Burnett after they worked together at several studios. Both had moved to Bristol to study animation, lured by the reputation the city has for creativity. Bristol seemed like the perfect place to start their own studio, due to the pool of creative talent and the city’s quirky spirit, and after a few years working out of their spare rooms they moved into a space on Park Street where they have remained and grown for the last 7 years.

OUR STORY Known for creating enchanting and delightful worlds, Rumpus have worked on a diverse and varied range of projects that have reached a global audience. Our ethos has always been to make high quality, character-driven stories with fun at their heart. From music videos, short films, children’s TV shows, and games, we put a dollop of love into everything. Collaboration has always been important to us and we work with talented creatives, makers, and designers from all over the world to create memorable characters in a range of styles and mediums, from puppetry to digital and handmade animation and even the world’s first stop-motion Flash animation. Rumpus are always looking for new and innovative ways to tell stories and in 2013, seeing the uptake in mobile tablets, we began developing narrative games. Our first, based on the adventures of hapless Victorian explorer Bertram Fiddle, was released in 2014 and was featured as best new game on iOS AppStore. Like an interactive animated feature film, its blend of peculiar puzzles and comedy storyline led to over 200,000 downloads worldwide. The Bertram Fiddle games are now available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Mobile and the IP is now being developed into comics and books with a potential TV series in the pipeline. Following the success of Bertram, we set up a team focused on providing animation for other games studios and are currently working on the hotly anticipated Xbox exclusive Battletoads remake along with some narrative indie titles. 199

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Our little studio has expanded enough now so that we are able to develop new game and film ideas alongside regular client work; in just the last six months we’ve worked with some wonderful clients on a broad range of commercial and broadcast content from healthcare to herbal tea, charities, to CBeebies. Our goal is to produce our own children’s TV series and release another original game within the next 5 years, so keep checking back to see what we are up to.

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Rumpus Animation 54 – 56 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5JN info@rumpusanimation.com 07760 257129 RumpusAnimation rumpusanimation.com Bertramfiddle.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH Sun & Moon is a creative-led, full-service animation studio producing highquality character animation for broadcast, commercials, online and games.

OUR STORY Established in 2008 by traditionally trained 2D animators Dylan Shipley and Louis Jones, the story of the studio starts with their friendship, when the pair first met at university. Talented 2D generalists, Dylan and Louis completed their degrees and went on to have the exact same start in the industry, (albeit two years apart). It was in those early years they learned about their craft and honed their skills. Experiencing some of the same hurdles, limitations, and frustrations whilst freelancing at established studios, they learned ‘how not to do it’ as much as ‘how to do it’ and ultimately decided to team up and give their combined efforts a go – freelancers to the power of two! The studio has grown organically and has an agile core team, with the capacity of scaling to 50 in-house crew, giving Sun & Moon the ability to work on multiple productions simultaneously, delivering such celebrated series work as Kit & Pup for CBeebies and Doctor Who – The Macra Terror for BBC Studios, and commercial work for clients such as Clarks, The Woodland Trust, E4, and Fisher-Price. Sun & Moon has proven itself to be a boutique studio that packs a mighty punch, going toe-to-toe with some of the biggest animation studios in the UK, and not only holding its own…but even winning the odd bout on occasion.

Sun & Moon was awarded the title of ‘Future Leader’ by Creative England for its work in the SEN sector, specifically with its game, ‘Eye Can Fly’. It was the world’s first magical flying adventure, designed especially for eye-gaze devices (a camera that tracks your eyes movement). In the game, players learn to control aircraft to become a fully-fledged pilot whilst learning geography skills such as compass directions, landmarks, and regions across the world as well enhancing their eye-gaze skills on the way. The game was a finalist at the prestigious TIGA Games Industry Awards in 2015 and still sells steadily to the SEN market.

Sun & Moon utilised cutting-edge ‘Master Controller’ features in industryleading 2D- animation software Toon Boom Harmony to deliver a complexity and subtlety of rig that hadn’t been achieved previously, enabling animators to deliver a level of performance and fluidity of movement unseen in Doctor Who reconstructions — and in an incredibly short production time. Sun & Moon had only been using the software for three months when Toon Boom told Sun & Moon that they were leading the world with the use of this feature. The studio went on to help mould how the Master Controller tool was developed and deployed in subsequent versions.

The studio was also shortlisted for a Children’s Television BAFTA in 2018 for its work with BBC Bitesize on a short-form series about KS2 Music called ‘Lightning Jelly’. In 2019 Sun & Moon launched some industry-focused animation courses designed for freelancers, graduates, students, and budding animators to give them the skills they’ll need for a career in animation. Led by working industry professionals, Sun & Moon’s courses teach the skills, techniques, and tricks of the trade gained from years of experience.

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Sun & Moon’s culture and work ethic were born from trying to do the right thing, and their values are the focus of everything they do. They believe in their craft and in quality—it’s the difference between okay and WOW. Character is key, too; it’s not enough to just make something move, it needs to take on a life of its own. The team at Sun & Moon quite literally create the illusion of life. They never stop learning and are constantly striving to develop skills and techniques to deliver the very best in character-led animation. “Animation runs through us like a stick of rock, we live and breathe it.” Sun & Moon’s dedicated team of experts are passionate about their industry, the studio, and maintaining its high standards through the content they create. They are serious about animation and genuinely LOVE what they do, going above and beyond in producing and delivering quality animated content that gives clients—in Bristol and beyond—a real bang for their buck!

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Unit 2.5/2.6 Paintworks Bath Rd, Bristol BS4 3EH +44 (0)117 300 9409 info@sunandmoonstudios.co.uk

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“There is a vitality, a life force, that is translated to you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and will be lost.” – MARTHA GRAHAM

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Cinema Rediscovered outdoor screenings (© Jack Offord)

ELEVATOR PITCH

Bristol City of Film strand celebrating Bristol’s UNESCO status and film legacy. Highlights have included free outdoor public screenings on Bristol’s iconic harbourside, 4K restorations of classic films starring Bristol-born Cary Grant, screenings of work by Bristol screenwriter and film director Mike Hodges (Croupier, Black Rainbow), a Bristol Cinema Walk touring the city’s rich cinematic history and hidden treasures, and a deeper look at the fascinating life of Bristol-born Victorian inventor William Friese-Greene, the first person to present a movie camera to the world.

In 2017 Bristol was designated UNESCO City of Film, a permanent global status that recognises the city’s achievements as a world leader in the field of film and the moving image. Bristol now stands alongside Bitola, Bradford, Busan, Galway, Łódź, Qingdao, Rome, Santos, Sofia, Sydney, Terrassa and Yamagata as an official UNESCO City of Film.

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Bristol City of Film is championing a number of city projects that are tackling the Diversity and Equality in the production sector, such as the Bristol Culture Standard, Stepping Up Programme, Visualiser apprenticeship programme, Cables & Cameras and ScreenSkills Trainee Finder scheme. It is working to increase awareness of production careers and raise career aspirations from a young age in all communities belonging to this international city, where people speak 91 languages, come from 187 countries and practice at least 45 religions.

Upon receiving this prestigious title, Bristol became a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), a worldwide group of creative cities working together towards a common mission for cultural diversity and sustainable urban development. Being a City of Film means that Bristol can build on its well-established moving image industry, and further embed UNESCO’s values into how we watch, make and learn about film in Bristol.

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Film for Learning is a new 4-year teacher and senior leader professional development project delivered by Into Film and Boomsatsuma, funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Ten Bristol primary schools are benefiting from the programme, which aims to improve young peoples’ engagement, participation and attainment in literacy by supporting teachers and senior leaders to use film as a tool for teaching and learning.

The status is helping Bristol’s film community engage with and learn from other cities around the world, by forging international collaborations, creating new artistic exchange programmes and exploring cross-cultural projects that combine film with other mediums within the Creative City fields. Here are just 3 examples of new projects coming to life under Bristol City of Film:

The reputation of the BBC’s Natural History Unit here in Bristol is incredible – it doesn’t matter where you go, North America, New Zealand or China.... The broadcasters and the BBC make Bristol the undeniable home of natural history, and I think people in Bristol are pleased that this is the centre of creation. It’s not only a centre for Britain – it’s worldwide”. Sir David Attenborough

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Cinema Rediscovered, presented by Watershed, is the innovative festival that brings the best digital restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities back to the big screen in Bristol. The event now features a dedicated

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Cinema Rediscovered outdoor screenings (© Jack Offord)

UWE Bristol, City Campus Film students

BFI Film Academy Bristol

WHAT MAKES BRISTOL A CITY OF FILM? Birthplace of motion picture pioneer William Friese-Greene and Hollywood icon Cary Grant, Bristol is home to Oscar®-winning entertainment studio Aardman Animations, cutting edge output from the BBC Natural History Unit, and ‘Green Hollywood’, the largest concentration of firms producing wildlife content in the world. The city boasts 11 annual international film festivals and offers a choice of 11 cinemas, including Watershed, the internationally renowned film culture and digital media centre. Two world-class universities – UWE Bristol and University of Bristol – offer a total of 28 film-related degrees. The combined work of Bristol Film Office, a one-stop-shop for filming support and The Bottle Yard Studios, the largest production facility in the West of England, attracts a steady stream of productions into the city, including features like Stan & Ollie and Hellboy, and high end TV dramas like Poldark and Sanditon, generating inward investment worth more than £15 million per year. Over 130 production and postproduction companies contribute more than £140 million in a sector that employs approximately 3,700 people. Bristol’s diverse talent and focus on social mobility, coupled with its thriving TV sector, has helped secure its position as home to one of Channel 4’s new creative hubs, home to Drama, Factual and Popular Factual commissioning teams, as well as a Creative Diversity department, supporting on-and off-screen diversity.

Early Man (© STUDIOCANAL/Aardman)

Bristol UNESCO City of Film c/o Bristol Film Office, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL cityoffilm@bristol.gov.uk +44 (0) 117 922 3958 BristolFilmCity bristolcityoffilm bristolcityoffilm.co.uk 206

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Poldark (BBC/Mammoth Screen)

ELEVATOR PITCH Run by a small team who all have professional backgrounds in the industry, The Bottle Yard Studios has built a strong reputation for being responsive, flexible, and fully understanding of producers’ needs. At the helm is Studios Director Fiona Francombe, whose background in location management led her to envisage the potential for a dedicated Bristol studio, a vision she originally took to Bristol City Council which sparked the concept of The Bottle Yard. Fiona has led the development of the Studios from the outset, and in 2019 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The University of the West of England for her exceptional contribution to film & TV production.

Spanning seven acres, or more than five football pitches, The Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove, South Bristol, is the largest dedicated film and TV studio facility in the West of England, with eight stages, giant green screen studio, workshops, production offices, and a range of other production areas. Today the site’s vast warehouses buzz with filming activity from productions like Sanditon (ITV), Poldark (BBC), Fortitude (Sky Atlantic) and The Spanish Princess (Starz)—but it wasn’t long ago that they were totally silent. For more than half a century it was home to a bottling plant with a production line that at one point produced more than 3 million litres of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry per year, but when the winery industry departed, the huge warehouses stood empty. In 2010, site owners Bristol City Council took the innovative step of reimagining the site as a creative hub for Bristol’s TV and film sector, and The Bottle Yard Studios was born.

For every ‘broadcast hour’ of on-screen drama made at the Studios last year, an estimated 14 FTE jobs were created on site. More than 500 FTE jobs in total were generated by productions and businesses on site in 2018, and the Studios contributed to an estimated £15 million inward investment spend into Bristol from filming-related activity.

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The Studios actively supports training for career entrants. A 2-year Media Production Diploma course for 16-18 year olds, delivered by Boomsatsuma on behalf of Bristol WORKS, has been taught on-site since September 2018, giving young students a unique learning experience in a working studio environment. The Studios also collaborates with UWE Bristol, University of Bristol, Screenology Film School, Creative Skillset, and other skills and education providers.

Today, Studios attract UK and overseas film and TV titles of all sizes; more than 50 productions have passed through since doors opened. The site exists to bring money into the local economy, keep local crews working at home, and raise Bristol’s film profile across the world. Its creative hub of more than 20 business tenants deliver a host of specialist services including creative, digital, technical and audio/visual expertise, grips, transport, and structural, fire, and safety assistance. 207

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Fortitude (Sky Atlantic/Fifty Fathoms)

Made at The Bottle Yard Studios: Sanditon (ITV), The Trial of Christine Keeler (BBC One), The Spanish Princess (Starz), Poldark (BBC One), Hellboy (Lionsgate), Fortitude (Sky Atlantic), The Crystal Maze (Channel 4), Tipping Point & Tipping Point Lucky Stars (ITV), Andy’s Safari Adventures (CBeebies), Eric, Ernie & Me (BBC Four), Ill Behaviour (BBC Two), Three Girls (BBC One), The White Princess (Starz), Broadchurch (ITV), Trollied (Sky1), Crazyhead (E4/Netflix), Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (BBC One), The Living and the Dead (BBC One), Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures (CBeebies), Galavant (Disney/ABC Studios), Wolf Hall (BBC Two), The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies (ITV).

(Responding to Fiona Francombe’s Honorary Doctorate from UWE) I’m delighted to see one of Bristol’s local stars honoured for her contribution to the local film and culture sectors. Fiona’s work has ensured that The Bottle Yard Studios has established itself amongst the film and TV industry as a top-class facility that attracts major productions on a continuing basis and has contributed greatly to Bristol’s growing reputation as a centre of excellence in the sector. Her efforts, alongside other partners from across Bristol, helped ensure our success in attracting Channel 4, and she continues to help build what will be an important and fruitful relationship for the whole city.” Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees

AWARDS Best Business Services, Bristol Life Awards 2018

Filming at The Bottle Yard Studios and in Bristol has been a wonderful experience. The crew, the people of Bristol, the beauty of the city and surrounding countryside have provided Keeler with the perfect backdrop to create 1960s London. I will be a vocal advocate of filming in Bristol and dearly hope to come back soon.” Rebecca Ferguson, Ecosse Films (Producer, The Trial of Christine Keeler, BBC One)

The Bottle Yard Studios, Whitchurch Lane, Bristol BS14 0BH +44 (0)117 357 6888 thebottleyard@bristol.gov.uk thebottleyard TheBottleYard thebottleyard.com 208

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ELEVATOR PITCH We are JMP. We are a creative content and communications agency based in the wonderful city of Bristol, and working across the UK and beyond. We make authentic, creative and considered contentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we call it content with purposeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but our services do not end with the content itself. Our experience has taught us that too many companies can fall into a trap of merely uploading their content without putting much thought into how that footage or imagery will work most effectively. With an in-house communications team offering PR, digital marketing, and social media services, we not only make breathtaking, eye-catching content, we also help our clients create long-term relationships and engagement. From concept to delivery, our approach is methodical and strategic as well as creative and dynamic, allowing you to maximise the impact of each campaign. Whether you are an established corporation, an energetic startup, or a one-man band, we have the expertise to help your brand tell its story to the right people. 209

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OUR STORY Innovation goes into our roots, beginning with our birth in 2011 when we arrived on the scene all fresh-faced and exuberant as a sports-photography agency. Founded by Joe Meredith and originally operating out of a flat and then a converted garage, we have grown, added new skills, great people, and fantastic clients, then grown some more and added further new skills, great people, and fantastic clients. JMP is now based in spacious offices in Coombe Dingle, four miles from Bristol city centre, where our video editors, camera operators, photographers, digital marketers, writers, account managers, and other talented folk work both hard and smart on a range of exciting projects for a diverse group of clients across industries ranging from sports and entertainment to technology and recycling. We remain as hungry as we did back in the early days and, while sports photography proudly remains a big part of what we doâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Rugby Football Union, Sky Bet, Bristol Sport and Ashton Gate Stadium, Exeter Chiefs, Bristol Rovers, and Worcester Warriors are among the clients who use our photography servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we are now a rounded content and communications 210

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agency offering a full service that includes video production, PR, social media, and sponsorship activation. As a company that has grown exponentially in recent years, we love working with other brands and organisations who share our passion for improvement, development, and advancement. The focus is on helping great businesses tell their stories in an engaging way. As our founder and managing director explains: “We have made incredible progress over the past eight years and we have no intention of sitting still. We’ve been able to recruit like-minded creative and talented people—and that is what gives me the buzz every day. The aim is to keep growing and bringing in talented people who can ask us questions and drive us forward. “So much has changed since I was driving all over the country trying to get JMP off the ground—but one thing which has endured is that we go above and beyond for our clients. “When that approach is allied with the expertise and energy we have at JMP, it only fills me with confidence about the future. I’m very excited about what we can produce in the coming years and who else we will meet on the journey.” 211

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CLIENT TESTIMONIALS JMP is a true partner for us at Sky Bet. They have embraced our ambition and are able to offer us a full service right through from research to pre- and post-production. In a world where brands are looking more and more to fast turnaround ‘premium social’ output that is affordable, JMP could not be better placed.”

Joe and the JMP team have provided fantastic photography and filming services for us here at the Studios, always nailing the brief and giving us exactly what we’re looking for—incredible images that reflect the beauty and magic of our studios. It’s the quality of their team, their creative approach, and their ability to always hit deadlines which means they always deliver content that we love.”

– Kevin Brain, Head of Social & Content at Sky Bet

– Jack Franklin, Senior Events Manager, Abbey Road Studios

Working with JMP has allowed us to get our message out to the wider community. We have successfully raised our profile, and, particularly via social media, managed to reach new audiences. The entire team is great—creative, professional, and fun to work with.”

36 Westbury Lane, Coombe Dingle, Bristol BS9 2PP Email: mail@jmpuk.com Phone: 0117 968 5394 @jmp_uk JMPUK jmpuk.com

– Charlotte Hanna, Head of Communications at YTL Arena 212

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ELEVATOR PITCH We are Bristol photographers specialising in architecture, interiors, food & lifestyle imagery. At Evoke Pictures, we believe every photo shoot is unique. We don’t do generic. We don’t do boring. Instead, we work closely with our clients to understand their needs, visual identity, and brand values. We craft memorable, contemporary images that reflect and enhance these. Our creative approach ensures your images are innovative and vibrant to help your business stand out in the crowd.

OUR STORY With over 20 years of commercial experience, our work primarily encompasses food, interiors, events, and professional headshots for multiple platforms. From the Old Stocks in the Cotswolds to the Bristol Old Vic, we work across the region delivering striking images inspired by a genuine passion for the visual arts. All our images are delivered via our cloud server, with password-protected download files to make it as convenient as possible for all our clients. We also provide professional retouching, editing, and resizing of images for all online and social media needs. We have an authentic love of food that is reflected in all our food photography. We have worked with some incredibly talented chefs and fantastic restaurants across the country and love nothing more than creating mouth-watering images that reflect the quality of their work in fresh and evocative ways.

The Old Stocks “Evoke Pictures have delivered a variety of shoots for me, from weddings to interiors and food imagery. Throughout each process, they have always delivered amazing shots, photographed things in really innovative ways, and ensured that the photography follows our brand and positioning in terms of style and detail. Always enjoyable to work with and flexible in their approach, I highly recommended them for all types of photo shoot.”

—Jim Cockell

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fran@evokepictures.com 07979551580 evokepictureslifestylephotography evokepictureslifestyle evokepicture evokepictures.com evokepictureslifestyle.com

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Matt, Creative Head

MY JOURNEY Hi, I’m Matt. I’m 27 and settled with a lovely home with a beautiful girlfriend, my 2 gorgeous daughters and our little French bulldog cross pug. I’ve never been a great wordsmith but I will attempt to tell you a little story about myself.

sony A200, I was able to use my ingenuity to swiftly learn the process of composition and construction of an image. That past 3 years have given me time to saturate my brain with the world of photography. I draw my inspiration from some of the most current photographers across every genre.

I was brought in to this world in August 1990 by two loving parents who’s positivity and determination made me the man I am today. They’ve always encouraged me to be creative and have an Inventive imagination.

I like to think that I treat my photography like I treat my work. To build a Wing means that every component is inspected and crafted to the highest possible standard. I try to take this principle and adopt it into my Photography.

With a nudge of inspiration from my elders I suddenly became fascinated with how things worked. I spent my days as a child taking things apart and discovering just how interesting life truly was. This fascination with being somewhat destructive slowly turned in to creativity. My attention slowly turned to the mechanical world of engineering.

I have now decided to pursue a career as a photographer. I know where I’d love to end up in my life but that bit is not important. I’m just enjoying going out meeting new people and doing something I love.

My education years from secondary school through to college enabled me to secure myself a National Diploma in manufacturing Engineering with the highest pass rate. It wasn’t long before I got myself a job working and building the wings for one of the UK’s leading aircraft manufacturers.

I just hope I can inspire you to do the same.

After several years of focusing on work, my brother introduced me into the world of photography. I was immersed with the variability and workmanship that it involved. With a generous hand me down, A

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“If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it.” - GORDON MACKENZIE

Photo By Carolyn Eaton

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Luke Jerramâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multidisciplinary practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live arts projects. Living in the UK but working internationally since 1997, Jerram has created a number of extraordinary art projects which have excited and inspired people around the globe. With many of his artworks in permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Wellcome Collection in London, he also tours his art installations to art festivals and museums worldwide. In 2018 alone, he had 73 exhibitions in 21 different countries.

Luke Jerram is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, UWE. In 2019 he set up and funded a Dreamtime Fellowship for recent graduates in his home city of Bristol. He is now known globally for his innovative arts practice and large scale public artworks. Gaining extensive international media coverage he has exhibited with many of the established cultural organisations around the world.

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“I’m only limited by my imagination in what can be produced. Anything is possible.” Luke Jerram

Jerram’s ongoing research of perception is fueled by the fact that he is colour-blind. He studies the qualities of space and perception in extreme locations, from the freezing forests of Lapland to the sand dunes of the Sahara desert. New ways of seeing and new artworks emerge from these research field trips. Works such as Retinal Memory Volume, Sky Orchestra and the Impossible Garden have emerged from Jerram exploring the edges of perception.

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ARTWORK Many of Jerram’s most successful artworks leave space, for either the public, curators or other artists to be creative. Examples include Play Me I’m Yours, Museum of the Moon, Park and Slide and Withdrawn. Jerram builds and manages specialist teams of engineers, craftsmen and technicians to help him realise his works. From composers to glassblowers, medieval musicologists to hot air balloonists. Learning from each artwork and moving on, Jerram is continually re-inventing his arts practice. Over time however, narratives connecting these different artworks have emerged and continue to evolve. His artwork the Museum of the Moon is one of Luke’s newest arts projects that has caught the public’s imagination which so far has been presented in different ways, more than 100 times in 30 different countries. Experienced by more than 4 million people worldwide, the artwork has recently toured India with the British Council, been presented at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and exhibited in Aarhus, Denmark for the European Capital of Culture. 221

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Since 2008 his celebrated street pianos installation ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ has been presented in over 70 cities and been enjoyed by more than 10 million people worldwide. Launched by the French Minister of Culture in Paris and Mayor Bloomberg in NYC, the installation has received press coverage in almost every newspaper and television station around the globe. This art project created a global movement of pianos being installed in public places across the world by organisations and individuals, for people to play. The concept has now become part of culture.

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Commonwealth Games 2018, University of Salford Engineering, Warwick University, DFCS, Institute of Physics, Channel 4, Canary Wharf Group, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, The Polish Cultural Institute, University of West of England, BBC Radio 3 and 4.

Arts Organisations European Capital of Culture 2010, European Capital of Culture 2017, Art Centre Melbourne, ROM, Jerwood Centre, De la Warr Pavillion, Compton Verney, NESTA, Site Gallery, Arnolfini, ICA, Watershed, UK City of Culture, RWA, Witte de With, Arts Catalyst, Museum of Glass Washington, Museum Micropia, National Glass Centre, UMOCA, Futurecity, Grizedale Sculpture, Birmingham Museums Trust, Corning Museum of Glass, Museums at Night, All Rights Reserved, Provincial Domain Dommelhof, Brighton Festival, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, INSITU and Without Walls.

Jerram’s Glass Microbiology artworks are in museum collections around the world including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Shanghai Museum of Glass, Wellcome Collection (London) and Corning Museum of Glass (USA). In 2010 Jerram won the coveted Rakow Award for this work and a fellowship at the Museum of Glass, Washington. In 2015 his sculptures were presented alongside the work of Leonardo da Vinci at the Artscience Museum, Singapore. Jerram’s sculptures are also respected in the scientific community with features in The Lancet, Scientific American, BMJ and on the front cover of Nature Magazine.

Scientific Community Wellcome Trust, UK Space Agency, EPSRC, Leverhulme, Pirbright Institute, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), KREBS – University of Sheffield, Cosmo Caixa, Bristol and Bath Science Park, ISVR University of Southampton Phaeno Science Museum, Singapore ArtScience Museum, The Science Museum London, MUSE Trento,Think Tank, at-Bristol, University of Bristol and The Association for Science and Discovery Centres.

The Sky Orchestra is another critically acclaimed large scale touring project, which grew out of Europe’s largest arts award – a three year NESTA Fellowship. In 2013 they flew over Derry/Londonderry for UK City of Culture. The Mayor of London and LIFT commissioned Sky Orchestra to fly over London to celebrate a year to go until the London Olympics 2012. In 2007 they launched the Sydney Festival and in 2006 they were commissioned by the RSCand Fierce to fly over Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Theatre and Music Organisations RSC – Royal Shakespeare Company, Sydney Festival, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Kimmel Centre, LIFT, City of London Festival, Concurs Maria Canal, Helsinki Festival, Incubate Festival, Colston Hall, Fierce Earth, St.Georges Bristol. Lakes Alive, Provincial Domain Dommelhof, Brighton Festival, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival and Without Walls.

Jerram has also created unusual gift artworks for his friends and family. In 2006 he made a Talking Engagement Ring for his girlfriend. The ring has his proposal etched onto the outside of it which can be played back using a miniature record player. In 2011, the Talking Ring project was presented at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Electronic Multimedia Arts: 01SJ, Osnabrueck Media Arts Centre, Frequency, FACT, Watershed, RIXC, Da2, ACMI, TecArt, GoGoBot, V2, GOGBOT.

CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS Organisations from many different fields have commissioned Luke’s artwork since he began his career.

Luke Jerram Ltd Unit 5.8, Paintworks Bristol, BS4 3EH Email luke@lukejerram.com Phone: +44 (0) 117 9713419 lukejerram.com

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The new exterior of Bristol Old Vic on King Street, by Philip Vile

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visiting a Young Company member in Bristol Old Vic’s ‘Noises Off’ corridor, exploring 250 years of sound technology, by Jonathan Rowley

ELEVATOR PITCH

As a key cultural destination in Bristol, we look to explore the way a theatre can bring people from across social, political, and cultural divides into the same room to share a moment together. It’s no longer enough to be a place of entertainment when we’re seeing the creativity of young people being cut from the education system and disenfranchised individuals having no creative voice. We believe a unique part of our role as a subsidised theatre is to ensure we reflect and represent the rich diversity of stories from every part of Bristol, while also bringing people together to discuss the important issues of today. This ambition of ours has been reflected in this year’s Bristol Life Awards, where we won not only the Arts Award for our profound Year of Change but also the final Platinum Award, commending us for underlining our position as a cultural space which takes its civic responsibilities seriously. Our new building and our work with young people was even given the Royal seal of approval in February 2019 after a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex themselves.

Built in 1766, Bristol Old Vic is the oldest continuously working theatre in the English-speaking world. In 2018, our theatre fundamentally shifted its relationship with Bristol as we heralded in a new era. Our historic playhouse aims to inspire audiences with original productions, whilst nurturing the next generation of artists, whether that be through our 350-strong Young Company, our many outreach and education projects, or our trailblazing artist development programme, Bristol Ferment. We use our funding to support experiment and innovation, to allow access to our programme for people who would not otherwise encounter it, or be able to afford it, and to keep our extraordinary heritage alive and animated. As a theatre we have spearheaded some of the UK’s most iconic productions, from Sally Cookson’s Jane Eyre to Tom Morris’ Touching the Void, making Bristol’s reputation for unique creativity known across the country.

It is ingrained within our company ethos to be at the forefront of theatrical innovation—whether that be by putting the Peruvian Andes onstage in Touching the Void, by recording the entirety of The Grinning Man using motion-capture technology, or by introducing an immersive augmented reality experience into our theatre’s heritage offer, enabling visitors to explore the building’s many iterations, from its Georgian origins straight through to Peter Moro’s divisive 1970s design. Most importantly, however, we also actively encourage and enable home-grown artists around us to be their most innovative. Our bi-annual Ferment Fortnight gives emerging South West–based creatives a chance to showcase their works-in-progress on our stage, encouraging audiences to offer feedback and shape the development of the pieces, whilst our new heritage installations have seen Bristolian artists collaborate on beautiful and exciting illustrations of our theatre’s rich history. Investing in the creatives of tomorrow is at the core of what we do.

OUR STORY In September 2018, we unveiled a brand new building to transform the front of house space into a welcoming place for the city to come together, launched a new heritage experience interpreting the theatre’s 252-year-old history, and opened a new Studio theatre built to support and inspire the theatre-makers of the future. It was crucial for us to create a public venue that felt welcoming, accessible, and a home from home. Steve Tompkins’ award-winning architectural design achieved that in spectacular fashion, completely transforming Bristol Old Vic with a perfect blend of old and new, uncovering our theatre’s original 1766 wall for the first time and creating event spaces to generate additional income streams. Our new business model is unique to UK regional theatre, utilising our unprecedented archives to create a new tourist destination for Bristol, whilst running a successful retail and events business, in tandem with our expectation-busting programme of work on our stages.

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Two Young Company members testing out ‘A Window to the Past’, an AR experience enabling users to see what the theatre looked like 250 years ago, by Chelsey Cliff

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The new interior of Bristol Old Vic’s front of house space revealing the theatre’s original Josh Williams playing Joe 1766 wall with busy crowds, by Philp Vile Simpson in Tom Morris’ Touching the Void, by Geraint Lewis

Testimonials Channelling the energy you have into the creative arts and theatre is important. You can know that there’s a place here (at Bristol Old Vic) where you can find community and explore self-discovery. It’s more than just a hobby.” The Duchess of Sussex, speaking to young people at Bristol Old Vic

You would think that being the oldest working theatre in the world would be enough for Bristol Old Vic. But Bristol Old Vic has not been happy resting on its considerable laurels. As well as challenging itself artistically, the theatre has focussed on properly connecting with the city in which it operates. It has done this physically in 2018 by creating a stunning new entrance. The result being that passers-by no longer do so. They come in. They meet, they eat, and they drink in a space that has quickly transformed the public face of the theatre.

Bristol Ferment Producer Ben Atterbury (pictured standing) in discussion with South West–based artists during Ferment Fortnight, by Chelsey Cliff

Bristol Old Vic has been at the forefront of driving new conversations. A number of original funders made their wealth from the transatlantic slave trade. In trying to reconcile this fact, and the ongoing support from historic institutions with links to the slave trade, while making a commitment to inclusion and diversity, the theatre has undergone significant soul-searching. The result of which has been the ambitiously titled Year of Change programme which has consisted of productions and initiatives signalling a new approach.

“It has also done so by putting itself at the centre of the difficult debate around one of Bristol’s most important issues—racial division and inequality in the city. The theatre made 2018 its Year of Change, through which the Bristol Post has worked with Bristol Old Vic and Ujima Radio. The initiative has very much been brought to life by the hard work of Bristol Old Vic staff. The result has seen Bristol Old Vic at the centre of a sometimes-challenging city-wide conversation ending with a series of robust action points which I genuinely believe will change the future of how Bristol’s racial divides are tackled.”

“Culture can’t force government policy, create jobs, or reduce reliance on benefits but it can help a city, a nation, to reimagine itself. Bristol is a whole made splendid by its parts. When those parts work together, sparks fly.”

Mike Norton, Editor, Bristol Post

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Waveshed by Joe Magee, periphery.co.uk

ELEVATOR PITCH “We design our programmes to have a local, national, and global impact. Our open approach and accessible venue ensure people from all backgrounds feel welcome. By providing the space and opportunity for different worlds to meet, Watershed plays an active role in strengthening the aspiration and the connections of the local ecology.” Clare Reddington, CEO, Watershed

Watershed opened as ‘Britain’s first Media Centre’ on 7th June 1982 in the first floor of two refurbished Grade II listed sheds on Bristol’s historic harbourside — the same year that Channel 4, the Commodore 64 and Sony’s first CD player also launched. Our aims were to champion independent media creativity and emergent art forms and we have held on to those founding principles of open access, cultural diversity, and innovation, forging an international reputation for developing audiences, ideas, and talent.

We are distinctive in our attitude to curation and programme, innovating at the intersection of art, technology, and society: playfulness, relevance and care are key. Watershed takes a hands-on approach to nurturing and developing talent — Rife is our youth-led online magazine, both a magazine and a professional development programme, which genuinely changes lives by nurturing young talent from diverse backgrounds, connecting them to opportunities and careers they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

OUR STORY Since 1999, the original focus has evolved to embrace cultural and technical change driven by digital technologies. Working with Bristol-based companies, the local creative cluster, the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England, Watershed has become a pioneer in producing digital creativity collaborations crossing cultural, commercial, and academic sectors.

We are one of the leading UK independent cultural cinemas dedicated to screening the broad range and diversity of UK independent and world film. As the lead organisation for Film Hub South West, one of the BFI’s Film Audience Network 8 regional Film Hubs, we develop audiences and filmmaking talent across the UK. We also partner with Bristol City Council to develop and promote the city’s status as UNESCO City of Film.

In 2007 we purchased the head lease on the building to take control of the ground floor, improve accessibility and generate new income which allowed for the launch of the Pervasive Media Studio in 2008 which has grown to become a world-leading centre for creative technology, innovation, and talent development.

Watershed is the beating heart of Bristol.” Stephen Fear, Entrepreneur Watershed’s impact is not characterised in a single programme or project, but in our ethos of openness, inclusivity, and responsibility. These attributes are shared across our whole organisation and lead to engaged audiences, flourishing talent, and a competitive creative sector.

Our accessible facilities include three cinemas, a suite of three flexible event spaces, the Pervasive Media Studio, the linked Studio 5 workspace for freelance creatives and micro companies, workspace for young people, a large café/bar, and offices. With audiences and participation at our heart, we present a diverse cultural programme of films, events, festivals, artist commissions, workshops, and conferences. 225

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Exterior of Watershed - Photo by Toby Farrow

Watershed Box Office - Photo by Chelsey Cliff

Cinema 1 audience - Photo by Jon Craig

Cinema Rediscovered, Outdoor Screening - Photo by Jack Offord

Rife Alumni - Photo by Jon Aitken

Watershed Café & Bar - Photo by Chelsey Cliff

View of Bristol’s harbourside from Watershed’s balcony - Photo by Chelsey Cliff

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ELEVATOR PITCH Colston Hall is the largest concert hall in the South West and Bristol’s home of music. Run by the charity Bristol Music Trust, our audiences have been enjoying music here since 1867 and the building remains at the heart of cultural life in the city and wider region. Now we’re breathing new life into the historic building through a large capital programme, creating a space to listen to and create music for the next 150 years. Between 2018 and 2021 the Hall is completing the largest capital redevelopment ever to take place in the South West arts sector. Backed by Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, HM Treasury, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership amongst many others, the transformation of the Hall is recognised as being vital to supporting the cultural future of Bristol and the region.

OUR STORY Over the last 152 years, our story has been bound up with the story of music itself: the seismic shifts in sounds and styles that have defined modern culture have played out – in spectacular fashion – on our stage. From impressive choirs and orchestras to grandees of the swing age; from the pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll to the great family tree of genres they inspired.

Our £48.8 million redevelopment will: • BUILD an exceptional classical and contemporary music venue for Bristol • CREATE world-class spaces for education and enterprise • BREATHE new life into wonderful Victorian buildings by opening up and restoring the unique Bristol Byzantine colonnades and 150-year-old historic façade • PROVIDE greater comfort for audiences and artists with new seating and air-conditioning

Some of the world’s biggest music stars have performed on our stage, including The Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Motörhead, and Bob Dylan. Our imposing and iconic foyer has made Colston Hall an architecturally significant and striking addition to Bristol’s skyline and adds a modern twist to the distinctive Bristol Byzantine façade of the original hall. 227

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Colston Hall Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5AR 0117 203 4040

• IMPROVE backstage facilities for artists • REVITALISE The Lantern venue, creating a beautiful and flexible space for use as both a performance venue and conference facility • OPEN up our incredible Victorian cellars to create a third performance space • CREATE a new education centre in our historic cellars to provide a new home for education programmes which will engage thousands of young people every year. Alongside this dramatic transformation, Bristol Music Trust has committed publicly to renaming the venue – ending the 150-year association with slave-trader and merchant Edward Colston. This bold move was hailed in an article published in The Guardian as “probably the first significant change in the UK,” by Nicholas Draper, director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at UCL. The move is inspiring the Trust to connect more widely across the city and place inclusion at the heart of the Hall’s work. While historic perceptions of celebrating the transatlantic slave trade are being turned around, the transformation of the building will also ensure that it is one of the most accessible in Europe for disabled artists and audiences, while also providing a base for the city’s award-winning music hub – educating thousands of children across the city every year. To truly deliver on the promise of this once in a generation project, the Hall’s vision for the future is one which brings a diverse programme of incredible artists from around the world to Bristol, nurtures new home-grown talent, brings people together through music performance and opportunities for life-long learning, creates everlasting memories and opens our doors to everyone – transforming not just the building, but the role of the concert hall in the life of the city. 228

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BRUNEL’S SS GREAT BRITAIN – BRISTOL’S TOP-RATED ATTRACTION ELEVATOR PITCH Launched in 1843, the SS Great Britain was the world’s fastest, largest, and most efficient ocean liner. She is one of the most important historic ships in the world, and, when she was launched, she was called ‘the greatest experiment since the Creation’.

OUR STORY Today, Brunel’s SS Great Britain is Bristol’s top-rated visitor attraction (TripAdvisor 2019), with visitors exploring two museums as well as the ship herself. They discover the extraordinary story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and how his legacy inspires today’s engineers and architects.

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION OF ENGINEERS AND ENTREPRENEURS Complementing the ship’s rich history, it is the SS Great Britain Trust’s innovative education programmes and approach to museum interpretation that sets it apart from other attractions, with visitors of all ages being encouraged to touch, see, hear, and even smell exhibits.

Rolls-Royce. The education programme truly inspires the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs by providing pupils with inspirational experiences and role models. Dr. Rachel Roberts is the Trust’s Director of Education and STEM: “As a family-friendly museum, Brunel’s SS Great Britain is already a fun, engaging place for informal learning. Our education programmes build on that, inspiring young people with Brunel’s achievements and ambition, embracing both his successes and failures. Established eight years ago, Future Brunels takes twelve secondary school pupils on a five-year programme, during which time they meet engineers and role models on a series of activity days. At any one time, we have 60 children in the programme, with ambition to double in size. Evaluation shows that, following the programme, these young people are selecting STEM subjects and considering careers that they otherwise would not have done. It’s thanks to local companies delivering this programme with us that we have such a collaborative opportunity to help nurture the STEM talent pipeline and break down barriers which often prevent many young people considering careers in engineering and technology.”

Dr. Kate Rambridge is Head of Interpretation: “Families explore every cabin and saloon aboard the ship, meeting costumed characters and encountering sounds and smells along the way. They engage with the ship the whole time and can even choose to climb the rigging. Getting up close to Brunel’s ground-breaking screw propeller and the working replica 1,000-horsepower engine provides great learning experiences without any textbooks or interpretation panels. In the Being Brunel museum, visitors step inside a moving train carriage and attempt to draw a perfect circle just like Brunel did when he was travelling on the very earliest railways.” That same approach of delivering engaging experiences continues with the Trust’s flagship Future Brunels programme, developed in partnership with businesses including Aardman Animations, Renishaw, Airbus, Babcock, and 229

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Nicola Grahamslaw, Ship’s Conservation Engineer

PIONEERING CONSERVATION The SS Great Britain’s heroic salvage and ongoing conservation story provides further inspiration.

Britain the Portimão Museum Prize – Europe’s Most Welcoming Museum 2019. And the most recent development – the Being Brunel museum – has won multiple awards for architectural and building innovation as well as the 2019 Museums + Heritage Award for ‘Permanent Exhibition of the Year’.

Nicola Grahamslaw is the Trust’s Ship’s Conservation Engineer: “The ship’s salvage from the Falkland Islands 50 years ago was an immensely ambitious and risk-taking project which characterises the ship’s whole life, really. The dehumidifying method we’re now using to conserve the ship’s hull is also pioneering, and we’re continually working on new projects, including upgraded sensor and control technology and collaborating on research with universities, to improve that process and reduce its carbon footprint. Sealed beneath an eye-catching glass sea, visitors head down into the historic dry dock and can see the system in operation.”

Brunel’s SS Great Britain Great Western Dockyard Gas Ferry Road BS1 6TY Bristol United Kingdom 0117 926 0680

The SS Great Britain Trust’s education programmes, visitor experience, and conservation work consistently win awards. For example, judges of the prestigious European Museum of the Year Awards gave Brunel’s SS Great 230

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15 Berkeley Square, Clifton Bristol, BS8 1HB 0117 9210455 info@thesquareclub.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH The Square Club was founded in 1999 as a Private Members Club in Bristol for the creative industries encompassing arts, media and music. Just prior to the millennium, with Bristol booming as a catalyst for creative industries in the South West, Hilary Lawson, postrealist philosopher, founded the club, to create a unique and dynamic environment for like-minded creative professionals to meet, collaborate and propel their ideas forward.

OUR STORY Today, The Square Club thrives on the same ethos. Wealth and status carry no merit here. Instead membership consists of people with one key thing in common – a creative soul. The Square community encompasses over six hundred of Bristol’s innovators, and is the only members club for creatives in the city. Unlike other members clubs, The Square stands out with an allencompassing services offer. Connected with the Berkeley Square Hotel, members get discounted accommodation on top of their other club benefits. Members of the club have use of the space to network, relax, socialise and host their own private or public events. The Square itself has an events programme running throughout the year, hosting a range of events from poetry nights to workshops and tastings to live music. It also presents high-profile guest speakers such as Michael Eavis, Joe Boyd and Marcus du Sautoy. The Square is a community and it’s this family culture that makes its members stick around for the long term! The Square is equipped with a boutique lounge, award-winning restaurant The Square Kitchen, the Lower Deck cocktail bar, and an outdoor Terrace – the hidden gem of Clifton that offers al fresco charm. Next door, the club has opened a recent hot desking and co-working office space, Square Works, which has added to the club’s clout with state of the art creative studio spaces and fully equipped conference suites.

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A GROWING BUSINESS WITH INDEPENDENT SPIRIT

Fresh, healthy food and specialty coffee served fast, by the best team in town.

Friska retains its independent spirit even as it opens stores at an ambitious rate. Unwilling to compromise quality for growth, the team has invested time in its important supplier relationships. Take coffee. All of Friska’s beans come from one farmer in Brazil—Pedro Gabarra. The team has been out to visit him twice with Clifton Coffee, Friska’s roaster of choice. Friska puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to ingredients, refusing to move away from high-welfare meat, free-range milk, and proper bread from Hobbs House bakery. Keeping these values at the heart of the company is why Friska was voted best ethical restaurant in the 2014 Observer Food Monthly awards.

OUR STORY Griff Holland and Ed Brown met in their mid-twenties having both graduated from the University of Bath with degrees in Economics. After deliberating the type of business to start, the ambitious duo landed on the idea of Friska. Their aim was simple—to make Friska your favourite place for breakfast, lunch, and coffee, served by the best team in town. Ten years later, Friska now has eleven sites across Bristol and Manchester. Serving fresh food, fast, alongside specialty coffee, has proven a successful business proposition in a seriously competitive quick-service restaurant industry. Griff and Ed believe what sets Friska apart as a business, however, is the hospitality. They know that to give every customer who walks through the door a great experience, the whole team has to be happy—that means from recruitment, through training up to rewards, people come first.

With ambitions to head to other cities, maybe even the capital, Friska is determined to take its signature healthy fast food and coffee to more communities across the UK, but it remains even more committed to basing its expansion on the same quality and ethics it started with a decade ago.

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Ed and Griff, Co-founders

A LOVE OF THE UNDERDOG Bristol is an incredible place to start a business, especially one centred on food and coffee. The Bristol people take you into their hearts. They back the underdog against the industry giants, and they continue to champion your business when you become a local success story. Friska identified the same love of the independent spirit in Manchester which is why it has made such a successful second home for the brand.

LOOK AFTER YOUR PEOPLE, THEY ARE YOUR BRAND Griff and Ed say, “Look after your people. In our industry there will always be turnover because in the UK, hospitality is not seen as a career for life. We would like this to change, but while we support people in moving on from Friska we want to look after them for as long as they’re with us. Whether that’s bonuses for managers, ‘party pots’ for store teams, health benefits, monthly ‘A-team’ nominations, or two full-team parties a year, we all work really hard, we need to, but it doesn’t mean we can’t have fun along the way.”

Friska S1, Bristol & Exeter House Lower Approach Road Bristol, BS1 6QS FriskaFood friskafood.com 236

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ELEVATOR PITCH to life, not to mention the damage caused by the energy drinks industry. Helena and Simon are using cold brew coffee to whip those guys into shape and become the number one coffee choice for a whole generation. They like to challenge how things are done and believe that life should be colourful and vibrant, just like their coffee!

TrueStart Coffee is one of the fastest growing young drinks brands in the UK. The young, wild-for-life brand is a reflection of founders Helena and Simon’s attitude to life – it’s as vibrant and full of personality as their coffee! TrueStart’s award-winning range of drinks are the only flavoured Cold Brew Coffees in the world that have no sugar, no calories and nothing artificial. They are vegan and Rainforest Alliance certified, and the coffee comes from where Helena used to live in South America.

Proudly independent, family run and packed with good vibes, TrueStart believe in having it all — you can feel on top of the world while doing good for the world. Helena and Simon have massive ambitions for TrueStart, and want to prove that it is possible to become a global brand that makes people feel wild for life without compromising on ethics. High ethical standards thread through everything TrueStart does. Their award-winning drinks are slowly brewed overnight to craft a range of super refreshing, naturally energising drinks that are bursting with flavour but have no sugar, no calories and nothing artificial. TrueStart Cold Brew Coffee is vegan, Rainforest Alliance certified and sourced from where their founder Helena used to live in South America.

OUR STORY TrueStart Coffee is a vibrant, ethical Bristol brand and one of the fastest growing young drinks businesses in the UK. Founders Helena and Simon Hills launched TrueStart’s range of incredible flavoured Cold Brew Coffee drinks at the start of 2019, after having the idea when they stopped drinking alcohol and quickly became bored of the adult soft drink options in the pub. At one of their favourite music festivals that summer, all they could buy to drink were traditional sugary energy drinks and they ended up making cold coffee in a bottle every day instead.

TrueStart are bringing a festival mindset to daily life, and provide energy for all of life’s experiences — from the everyday to the extraordinary. Helena and Simon certainly don’t do things by halves; they had their first baby just 4 weeks before they launched their drinks, opened TrueStart’s first cafe three months later and now with a 14-month-old at home, they have another baby on the way! Helena said, “We don’t do things by halves but we thrive on diving into the unknown. Life shouldn’t be predictable, because normal is boring! TrueStart is all about encouraging people to embrace their wild side and dive in to new adventures. We want you to own the unknown, be your boldest self, and go Wild for Life!”

A recent trip to the US had already sparked Helena and Simon’s interest in cold brew and they saw a massive opportunity to disrupt two industries — coffee and soft drinks – with products that win you over with their uniquely incredible taste, and a brand that has the energy, ethics and provenance to deeply connect with a huge demographic of young coffee lovers. Huge dinosaur brands dominate the coffee industry, with countless sugary, milky, poor quality products that do not resonate with the younger generation at all — they are worlds apart in terms of ethics and attitudes

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Founders Helena and Simon Hills (Centre) with their team Harry (Left) and Nate (Right)

WHY BRISTOL? Bristol is an incredibly vibrant, creative city packed with innovative independent food and drink businesses, making it the natural home for TrueStart. We get bags of energy from this city and are proud to be a part of the booming foodie scene that prioritises local and ethical suppliers over everything.

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It’s been a real privilege to support and witness the growth of TrueStart since they joined the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator in Bristol in 2018. Helena and Simon have consistently demonstrated the growth mindset, innovation and passion that we expect out of our future business leaders and will ensure that TrueStart takes the drinks market by storm. Their commitment to challenging the status quo and success is admirable, as is their ability to secure Rainforest Alliance certification while developing a top quality full flavoured cold brew coffee. - Darren Pirie

Head of Entrepreneur Proposition & Experience NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland & Ulster Bank

AWARDS • Best New Beverage Concept - UK Soft Drinks Conference - Winner 2019 • Gold FAB Award - Non-alcoholic Drinks 2019 • Helena has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the West two years running (2018 and 2019) • Amazon Consumer Business of the Year Finalist 2018 • Great British Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 • Bristol’s Best Independent Coffee Retailer 2018 • Natwest Everywoman Brand of the Future 2017 • Entrepreneurial Spark Entrepreneur of the Moment 2016 • RBS Global Focused Women Award Nominee 2016 • GB Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist 2016

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We believe you can feel on top of the world while doing good for the world, and that’s why we’ve partnered with Cycle of Good to turn our waste into beautiful things that help end poverty in one of the poorest communities in the world. Hessian coffee sacks are beautiful. That’s right. They come in all sorts of prints and are super strong, so it seems like such a waste to use them just once and send them to landfill. So instead, Cycle of Good take our old coffee sacks to Malawi, where they employ 12 Malawian tailors full time, paying above national living wage and offering full employment rights such as paid holiday and pensions. These talented tailors transform our sacks (plus old bicycle inner tubes and stunning locally printed cloth) into incredible, functional bags. https://www.truestartcoffee.com/blogs/ wild-for-life/bags-of-good-from-malawi

Runway East, 1 Victoria Street, Bristol, BS1 6AA, UK Phone: 09460193 Email: divein@truestartcoffee.com facebook.com/truestartcoffee twitter.com/truestartcoffee @TrueStartCoffee Hashtags: #DiveIn #WildForLife truestartcoffee.com 240

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ELEVATOR PITCH Triple Co Roast is an open-access speciality coffee roastery in the heart of the city of Bristol, England. It was founded by local Bristol boy Jo Thompson in early 2015 after he spent two years studying out in California, learning coffee and roasting at home. The mission is triple and always has been. To roast highquality coffee beans, small batch. To buy green coffee via direct trade with bean farmers and to focus on having amazing roaster-to-customer relations. We are open-access and transparent, meaning you can come and visit and ask questions!

OUR STORY Our company is the fruit of a search for full picture positive and ethical business, no cornercutting. It was a desire to provide Bristol with sweet quality coffee coupled with a push to contribute to the community and culture already surrounding this growing industry. As we began looking into the ethics behind buying green coffee and it’s importation, we saw how coffee transparency and traceability gave back to the farmer. These foundational truths mean we source our green coffee through relationship. This results in farmers getting a fair price for their crop and us getting quality coffee we know we can trust. From day one we have prioritised direct-trade and directly-traded coffee beans. We visit our partners out in Narino, Colombia, every year where we get the bulk of our coffee. Each year we have bought more and more coffee from them. What started as a couple of sacks of beans has turned into shipping containers’ worth of coffee. Our relationship with the growers out there has evolved from a business one to a friendship. It’s more than just buying coffee now, it’s supporting friends and families, who are pushing speciality coffee in a country rooted in commercial-grade coffee.

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B R I S T O L 11 Charles Street, Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3NN +44 7944 530027 Jo@triplecoroast.com Triplecoroast TripleCoRoast triplecoroast.com

Jo Thompson

, TCR Founde

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Before I put my stuff in the washing machine, I use the App for dusting, hoovering, and changing my bedding.

Getting the RIGHT levels of support for people with Learning Disabilities.

AutonoMe Service User

ELEVATOR PITCH Founded in 2015 by combining his skills in video production and his life expertise in helping people with Learning Disabilities and Autism overcome barriers to their independence, William Britton aims to make a huge impact on the industry so close to his heart. “We are a support provider for people with learning disabilities. We’ve supported people from 12 years old all the way up to those in their early 70s. Everyone who uses our service has a learning disability of some sort. We help support them with a wide variety of activities in the home such as preparing and cooking food, cleaning the house, developing personal hygiene skills, and keeping safe and secure”.

OUR STORY AutonoMe works closely with Local Governments across the country and their key partners to fundamentally change the way they support residents with Learning Disabilities and Autism. What makes AutonoMe special is that support with activities is not delivered in the traditional method; that is, by a person. Instead, AutonoMe provides high-quality tailored video content delivered through the App with home-based activities as and when the user chooses. This enables Local Governments to combine traditional support methods with technology to deliver cost-effective support packages that better understand and meet the needs of their population. “By monitoring the way our users interact with our App, our team is able to study this data and provide continuous feedback to the local government and their key partners”. Since founding AutonoMe, William Britton has brought together a team of industry experts to continuously study and interpret user data in line with individual outcomes. The team provides reports, using real-time data as evidence, to help the authority ensure users are getting the right levels of support at the right time.

Bristol has an excellent ecosystem to start a tech company that AutonoMe has clearly benefitted from. Through this ecosystem, AutonoMe had access to workshops, meeting space, investors, thought leaders, experts, legal advice, marketing, board members, mentors, staff members, and much more. Bristol has a thriving tech scene keen to share openly and honestly what it takes to found a company and scale it up and it has the support you’ll need along the way.

“Our vision is to become the largest support provider in the country, helping thousands of people with Learning Disabilities and Autism each day overcome barriers to independence. We use our data to measure and celebrate their success whilst working closely with authorities to build data-driven services fit for the 21st century”.

“The opportunities I had to meet and network with other tech founders with big ambitions was pivotal to building the foundations of the company. Being able to gather expertise and insight from a variety of people who have been there and done it was incredibly beneficial not just to the company but for my personal journey as a founder-turned-CEO”.

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We strive to make the girls as independent as possible. One is very capable in the kitchen, and the App really developed her skills. We’ve taken a massive step backward in our involvement since using AutonoMe. Reflecting on the advice and skills needed to build a company, William explained that “communication is key— if you can’t communicate your ideas in a way people can digest or understand then you don’t have a business. You’ll need to communicate with your clients, staff, suppliers, investors, mentors, and board all the time. Spend time working on this skill and it will pay dividends. “I founded AutonoMe when I was in my late 20s with lots of naive optimism. I didn’t realise at the time I would be poor for a long time—accepting that is wise! I did question myself a lot but I’ve always been able to remain clear about who I am, what I stood for, and what I wanted to achieve. This helped me get good people around me to gravitate towards the mission. We’re only successful because we have a great team and everyone works really hard. For others looking to start their own company, I’d say get in good people who can see what you’re trying to build and make sure they share your vision”.

Support Worker helping an AutonoMe User

MILESTONES Cambridge Social Ventures Prizewinner 2019 Digital Leaders ‘Public Innovation’ finalists 2019 UnLTD Grow IT award 2016 IoTUK Health and Social Care ‘best user design’ Prizewinner 2016 Start-up of the Year 2015 finalist

Engine Shed Station Approach Bristol South West BS1 6QH Email: info@autono.me.uk Phone: 0117 205 0654 twitter.com/AutonoMeNews facebook.com/AutonoMeNews AutonoMe autono.me.uk

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Turning street hustlers into legitimate business entrepreneurs ELEVATOR PITCH Imagine if... ...young people and adults who find themselves caught up in a range of illegal activities, from selling drugs to theft and robbery, could believe that they could achieve greatness. Imagine someone showing them the knowledge and confidence to apply what they have learnt from the streets to a legal hustle instead. It’s not where you’ve come from, it’s where you’re going that’s important. Street2Boardroom was founded in 2016 by Clayton Planter, who has a successful track record of working with young people and adults from the streets, urban neighbourhoods, ghettos, projects, and disadvantaged backgrounds.

OUR STORY Clayton decided to start Street2Boardroom when he noticed that the current system did not allow these people to increase their full potential and find positive, relatable role models. Street2Boardroom gives young people and adults the skills, knowledge, and confidence to apply what they have learnt from the street to a legal hustle instead. We believe that everyone has greatness within them. They just need the opportunity—the chance. Governments and councils have good intentions but repeat the same processes expecting different results. We may seem the crazy ones, but in a crazy world, we are the sane genius who dared to disrupt the status quo. We believe that great societies work when people are true to who they are and are free to express this—because if we were all the same, we would never evolve. Everyone, regardless of background, has greatness within; it’s time to start unlocking that.

“However, I’ve seen genius in these people. My experience of working in the council and working in the corporate world showed me that my friends were taking more risks on the streets than I was in the corporate world and that it was the same skills, and often the same motivations—profit, making money—that drove us. It was just different vocabulary and methods!”

And so we don’t accept today’s problems; we build tomorrow’s solutions today.

Even though Clayton wasn’t involved in crime, he felt that he faced a lot of the same challenges as his friends: being a young black man, living in a disadvantaged area, with few opportunities and low expectations from the world around him.

Street2Boardroom offers a 4-week motivational programme to teach participants the basic skills needed to set up their own business. The course covers a variety of business subjects, including financial support, marketing, street business versus corporate business, business jargon, and more. Participants will also benefit from inspirational talks led by successful people whom they can relate to. The programme takes place in a corporate environment between 9 am and 5 pm, which adds to the uniqueness.

“People saw where I came from but they couldn’t see where I could go,” he says. Clayton calls for community leaders and company directors to sit up and see the talent that is out there beyond the traditional boardroom walls. His message is already getting results.

“The reason I started Street2Boardroom was that some of my friends in the community were always getting on the wrong side of the law,” Clayton says.

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creating our own lane,” Clayton says. “We lived the change that we wanted to see, rather than talking about it. It’s not a course; it’s a lifestyle. It’s changing how people see themselves and how they see each other and it’s creating opportunities that go beyond what people thought was possible.” In a personal letter to Clayton, Prime Minister Theresa May wrote, “By setting up Street2Boardroom you have created a successful and pioneering model that is helping disadvantaged young people to transform their lives and get on in the workplace. Through your innovative skills programme, you are helping young people fulfil their potential and start their own businesses. I wish you every success as you continue this important work.” 248

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PRACTICE Co-creation and collaboration are central to our work, ensuring that innovations and programs are developed by people, rather than pushed onto them as pre-determined technical ‘solutions’.

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Our co-created tools and approaches have been shared widely, through networks including the European Network of Living Labs and with partners on international ‘smart city’ initiatives. These include:

Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) supports people to harness the power of technology and creativity to develop new tools and ideas that will benefit people and the planet. As Bristol’s Living Lab, we support communities, entrepreneurs and organizations to come together to innovate, experiment and address social challenges.

• The Bristol Approach to Citizen Sensing (bristolapproach.org) • Tips & Tricks for Living Labs, and Tips & Tricks for Academics working with Communities • Data Toolkit for organizations running data projects with young people (datatoolkit.org.uk)

HISTORY KWMC is a digital arts center and charity based in Knowle West, South Bristol. Since 1996, our team has supported people to use creative technology to imagine and enact the change they want to see in their lives and communities.

PROGRAM OUR CURRENT WORK INCLUDES:

Knowle West is an area of approximately 12,000 people. It may not immediately call to mind ‘smart tech’ or ‘innovation’, but it’s proven an exciting test bed for new ideas — with innovation driven by community needs.

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Training and support to help young people and creatives from underrepresented groups enter the digital workforce • A program investigating new ways for communities to create the housing solutions they need • An award-winning digital manufacturing space that offers access to new making technologies and business support • A ‘citizen sensing’ program supporting communities to build and test sensors to gather data about issues that are important to them

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Photo Credit: Ibolya Feher

Photo Credit: Laura Dow

IMPACT In the last 10 years, we have engaged over 20,000 individuals across Knowle West, Bristol, and the world. In 2018 KWMC was named as one of Creative England’s CE50 — an annual list of “the most exciting, innovative and disruptive creative companies and individuals.” Creative England praised KWMC for “exceptional work within the local community” and driving “real change”. In 2018 our housing initiative We Can Make was named one of Nesta and The Observer New Review’s ‘New Radicals’. In 2017 The Bristol Approach to Citizen Sensing earned URBACT Good Practice status. Photo Credit: Ibolya Feher

FUTURE Our vision for Bristol is a city of inclusive growth, where valuing and learning from different perspectives, and championing diversity of thought, are central to innovation. Through our work, we want to ensure that everyone, particularly those most at risk of social and digital exclusion, can access technology, knowledge, and ideas, so that, together, we can create equitable solutions to society’s challenges.

Knowle West Media Centre, Leinster Avenue, Bristol, BS4 1NL E-mail: enquiries@kwmc.org.uk Telephone: 0117 903 0444 @knowlewestmedia kwmc.org.uk 250

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OUR VISION IS OF A WATER SECURE WORLD ELEVATOR PITCH We work to alleviate water poverty overseas, providing access to safe water and sanitation for some of the 664 million people that live without it. We support marginalised communities to gain access to clean drinking water, toilets and good hygiene, and use this access as a gateway to further development. In the UK, we work to change public behaviour away from practices, processes and products that negatively impact global water resources.

OUR STORY FRANK Water was established in 2005 after founder, Katie Alcott, contracted dysentery from drinking dirty water during her time spent teaching in India. She recovered and decided to do something to help those people that had no choice but to drink contaminated water every day. After three years studying at University in Bristol, Katie set up FRANK Water. FRANK Water’s work contributes towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 — providing access to safe water and sanitation for all by 2030. We work with NGO partners to reach the most remote villages, those that may have been left behind by progress. In the UK, we encourage people to consume water sustainably — wherever they are. Our UK Refill Service tours the country, encouraging the general public to refill with tap water instead of buying bottled water. We work with restaurants and bars to make it easy for diners to choose tap water over less sustainable drinks. Our Pledge to Refill campaign calls on people to make their pledge to commit to carrying a refillable bottle. Based in Bristol, FRANK Water has benefitted from the city’s support since day one. Bristol’s progressive approach to sustainability encourages and supports organisations based in the city to follow suit. FRANK Water’s decision to stop selling bottled water in single-use plastic inspired several large food businesses to take their own steps to reduce their environmental impact. 251

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11 Elmdale Road, Bristol BS8 1SL hello@frankwater.com +44 (0)117 329 4846 frank_water_charity Twitter @frankwater frankwatercharity frankwater.com

Milestones 2005 - FRANK Water is founded by Katie Alcott 2006 - FRANK Water funds its first water project in India 2010 - FRANK Water launches the ‘Turn me on’ campaign to bring back water fountains across Bristol. 2010 - FRANK Water’s Refill Service is launched at UK music festivals. 2017 - FRANK Water launches #PledgeToRefill & expands its programme to start work in Nepal 2018 - FRANK Water Founder, Katie Alcott awarded Honorary Doctor of Law by University of Bristol 2019 - FRANK Water Founder Katie Alcott is awarded an MBE 2019 - FRANK Water reaches more than 403,000 people in 520 communities with safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.

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“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.” — SALVADOR DALÍ

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“The whole project was planned thoroughly by Atomic Smash, allowing plenty of time for detailed planning sessions with our whole team and keeping us involved and informed at every stage. The feedback on our new website has been overwhelmingly positive, from existing audience members (many of which discovered our massive audio archive for the first time because of the new website) and new audience. Atomic Smash have been hugely supportive in the year since we launched the new site, and are always thinking about ways we could develop in the future.”

ELEVATOR PITCH Atomic Smash is a specialist Wordpress and WooCommerce agency based in the heart of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. Founded in 2010, the company has grown from its two co-founders into a 10-strong team of digital designers, developers, and problem solvers.

OUR STORY

Zoe Steadman-Milne, Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, Project Producer

Having graduated from university together, founders David Darke and Piers Tincknell wanted to build a studio that placed the unlimited potential of the internet into the hands of individuals, companies, and charities to tell their stories online. Being passionate creative-technologists, they quickly identified WordPress as the platform upon which to achieve their vision, and remain advocates of Open Source technology to this day. Atomic Smash now manage over 30 enterprise-level websites for clients ranging from art galleries to financial services organisations, and focus on providing a cycle of continuous improvement: namely starting by identifying missed business opportunities for their clients’ websites, designing solutions, building, testing, implementing, and measuring—before beginning the process again. This model of delivery means that their projects are more than just static content showcases— rather they are online platforms that can evolve with the ever-changing business needs of their clients.

One of Atomic Smash’s recent projects for Positive News magazine

Recent projects include a complicated membership system and e-commerce store for Positive News magazine; a ground-up overhaul of the bookings system for holiday-lettings site Sawday’s, and a new platform for Spike Island Artspace.

Highly commended as Best Place to Work in Tech at the 2019 SPARKies Awards, Atomic Smash also take workplace culture seriously. With a monthly film-night, lunchtime boardgames sessions, and plenty of afterwork drinks, the close-knit team love spending time together, and not just in daily stand-up meetings. Always on the lookout for talented and passionate individuals to join their team, they’d love to hear from you if you think you’d be a good fit. Check out atomicsmash.co.uk/jobs to see the latest vacancies.

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David Darke, Co-founder

Piers Tincknell, Co-founder

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Atomic Smash were proud to completely redesign and build Bristol Prideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website in time for this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s festival.

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ELEVATOR PITCH Potato works with brands to deliver digital products that people love—and they just happen to be some of the best in the world, including Google, Mozilla, and the BBC. We also launch our own ventures, and our approach gives us the freedom to experiment and focus on creating digital products that have a positive impact on people and the world around them. In 2019, we won government funding to create a state-of-the-art immersive experience, redefining how audiences will interact with brands in the future. Together with Tiny Rebel Games, Sugar Creative, and University of South Wales Games, we founded ‘Fictioneers’, a venture dedicated to this ambitious project. The first initiative features Aardman’s iconic Wallace and Gromit characters, as well as the City of Bristol. Bristol, a leading UK city in terms of innovation and home to many business HQs, was an obvious choice to open the second Potato studio not long after launching in London in 2010.

Designer Taavi shares his passion for synthesizers with the team on World Music Day.

Our teams in Bristol are motivated by working with purposeful partners and startups. We’ve empowered our teams by giving them accountability for the products they design and develop. We’ve created a work environment where trust and transparency guide our decisions, and we continue to work with our partners to drive measurable change.

Potatoes have the freedom to think differently and are trusted to get things done, delivering digital products that break new ground.

In our mission to design, develop, and launch purposeful and effective digital products, we use rapid validation and iterative product development. By putting our ideas and assumptions to the test using prototypes and experiments, we create better products, prevent time and energy being wasted, and create happier teams and stakeholders. Bristol is an integral part of our studio’s identity. We’re proud of our city and are driven to give back through our work and people wherever we can. We contribute to public sector hackathons, host coding workshops for beginners, provide mentors for STEM initiatives, and support the city’s diverse tech meet-up communities.

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Muffin loving the dog-friendly workplace.

We regularly host events from Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design and tech communities.

Helping Natwest with the digital transformation of their offline services.

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valued and take ownership? We understand what makes people tick and we offer the real deal so our clients can, too. We deliver engaging strategies and powerful creative straight from the heart, with a real sense of pride and authenticity in everything we produce. We’re brave, too—we’re not in business to blindly give clients what they ask for, we give them what they need. We pride ourselves on our relationships, those we’ve kept and those we’ve walked away from.

ELEVATOR PITCH

Our own culture is one of collaboration and creativity and that’s what makes us innovative. We encourage bravery, we question everything, and we constantly look for better ways to help our clients. We believe Home should be a place where people feel valued and trusted with the freedom to develop their career creatively and strategically with purpose and pride. If a team member has an idea, whether it’s a tool, a technique, or a redhot thought leadership piece, we back them 100%. In fact, it was one such idea that spurred us on to set up a sister business. We’re now collaborating with some of the top positive psychologists across the globe on a suite of enterprise tools that will transform the world of work forever.

We’re an award-winning employee engagement agency that helps large organisations to communicate with their people. It’s our mission to make sure every employee understands the company they work for and the vital part they play in its success. Doing this helps create cultures that energise, inspire, and transform and makes every employee feel right at home.

OUR STORY

For us, innovation means not being afraid of change—it’s what made us who we are. At the time, creating an agency that specialises in employee engagement seemed crazy to our peers, but we started a whole new genre, a different kind of agency that nobody else was offering. We’ve had many imitators since. Six years ago, we took another leap, this time into the US market. Our tiny Bristol-based creative force of nature took on the gigantic PR machines in America and showed them the way. The US now makes up 60% of our business.

Home was founded by Carol Whitworth in Bristol in 1981. Back then we were known as ‘Bi-Design’, an all-singing, all-dancing creative agency, creating brands for some of the largest companies in the UK. Our approach was from the inside out. Getting under the skin of businesses, really understanding what the employees thought of the company—why they liked it, what it mean to them, how excited they were coming to work every day—this was key to us creating a brand that galvanised the workforce and reflected the people within it.

But Bristol is still the centre of our world. It’s a fabulous city and we’re proud to call it our home. In recent years we’ve been able to give back to the place we love, working on some amazing passion projects. We created an exciting fundraising film for the refurbishment of the iconic Colston Hall, helping to generate the funds to make it into a world-class venue for the future. We also created the brand identity for The Wave—an amazing inland surfing lake, it’s the first of its kind in the UK and it’s due to open in autumn 2019.

We found that our clients went from strength to strength and that their employees consistently went above and beyond, delivering excellence along the way. Obviously, the beautiful creative was the focal point, but the real magic was the engagement that had been created. We realised that having employees with a sense of ownership, of belonging, of value and true purpose is what really shapes a brand. Achieving that is vital to any organisation.

Over the years we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the largest organisations in the world, helping them with their biggest business challenges and transformations. We’ve been recognised, too, receiving ‘Consultancy of the Year’ from EE, a haul of Global Trend Awards for our film work, and the ‘Best Brand Campaign Award’ from both Design Week and The Drum. But we’re most proud of our very own ‘Happiest Workplace Award’ because of all the things we do, that’s the most important. Home is a place where we find joy, in what we do and how we do it. We’ve built our very own vision of what a business should look like and we aim to help other companies all over the world to achieve it, too.

The varied experience of our early years made us who we are today, and by the early 2000s Home had evolved and we were fulfilling our true calling. We began to specialise in achieving outstanding employee engagement with some of the biggest brands in the world. We brought in great business strategists and meticulous account managers to support our established (and wonderful) creative team. We’ve never looked back. Today, employee engagement is key to every organisation and we’ve seen a growing awareness of it, particularly over the last decade. Customers are nowhere near as brand loyal as they once were—the internet has made the world far smaller with much more choice, and to top that, we all want exceptional customer service, too. It’s only now that organisations are realising that great customer service needs a truly engaged workforce.

Home, 7 Unicorn Park, Bristol, BS4 4EX Phone: +44 [0] 117 9411 200 Home, Bristol

We’ve been specialising in employee engagement for quite some time now. We’ve become leaders in our field both here in the UK and the US. Those words and phrases that we built our business on in the eighties still remain the same. How do we create purpose? How do we make employees feel

@home_in_bristol @home_in_bristol thisishome.co.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH We specialise in Customer Relationship Marketing, helping brands to unearth profitable connections with their customers through valuable insights and effective communication.

OUR STORY Founded in 1993, Armadillo saw the potential to develop a business that provided motivating and inspiring customer journeys. Today, Armadillo introduces and runs innovative CRM strategies for brands such as McDonald’s, Disney, P&O Cruises, Cunard, and Hotels.com. Our CEO, James Ray, has been with the business since 1996. His expert knowledge and drive have seen him spearhead Armadillo’s evolution into the agency it is today. In this digital era, the possibilities are limitless, from social media to realtime messaging and apps. We harness strategy, data, and tech to deliver effective and creatively crafted CRM solutions that ensure a customer’s engagement with a brand feels effortless. Our way of working cultivates curiosity. We like to dig deep to understand our clients’ business, their customers, and their market. Becoming a strategic partner with our clients is what ensures us results and long-term relationships. We believe in letting data shape creativity. Winning a DMA Gold for our McDonald’s ‘Monopoly Wiiiin!’ campaign in the ‘Best Use of Email’ category was proof that it works. The message reflected the real-life experience of the audience and was delivered in a timely and relatable way. The campaign saw unprecedented results for the brand, encouraging an incremental 400,000 players to the online game; a 10% conversion rate which equated to 13% of the entire promotion traffic across all channels. When it comes to innovative CRM, we like to challenge our thinking. The appointment of Ann Hiatt, ex–Google and Amazon advisor, as Non Executive Director has done that. “Armadillo is on an exciting growth trajectory, building on their already strong foothold in digital CRM. I look forward to applying my Silicon Valley learnings and partnering with Armadillo’s leadership in their mission to apply new technologies and ideas to their business”.

The South West is a hub for innovative creative and tech businesses and Armadillo is proud to be the only independent, owner-managed CRM agency in Bristol. Our Executive Chairman, Chris Thurling, is also Chair of Bristol Media, the membership organisation championing the West of England’s creative industries. Though Bristol-based, we individually hail from many locations, bringing a mixture of big agency experience and fresh, innovative minds to the table.

We also run Technology and Society events, joined by numerous entrepreneurs, startups, editors, and guest authors, including David Rowan, Timandra Harkness, and Jamie Bartlett. These sessions have formed networks, sparked ideas, and produced content that we’ve shared with the wider community.

At Armadillo we’re a happy team, but we take what we do seriously and are always keen to help clients dig a little deeper.

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Fifth Floor, North Building The Quorum Bristol BS1 3AE Email: info@armadillocrm.com Phone: +44 (0)117 403 0363 twitter.com/wearearmadillo linkedin.com/company/armadillo-crm instagram.com/wearearmadillo armadillocrm.com 262

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ELEVATOR PITCH Mr B & Friends is a brand expertise consultancy. We help our ambitious companies from a range of sectors to transform, grow, and improve their businesses through strategic and creative consulting.

OUR STORY Mr B & Friends was started by CEO Simon Barbato in 2006. Simon had previously spent two decades working for renowned advertising and marketing agencies in London before growing and selling a consultancy. Simon Barbato - CEO

Starting out with two clients Simon set up a new consultancy in the South West, collaborating with freelancers such as ex-Interbrand Creative Director (and now Mr. B partner) Steve Richardson. The work continued to come in until in June 2006, there was enough ongoing to make forming an agency viable and from there Mr. B & Friends was born. In the thirteen years since, the agency has gone from strength to strength, outgrowing two offices in Bath and gaining an enviable list of clients across sectors from sport to travel to technology. Having moved to Bristol’s thriving Temple Quarter in 2017 the agency has continued to attract a diverse range of clients from across the UK. Bristol is a thriving place to be – a magnet for tech, digital businesses and startups. We’re currently working with some of the future leading lights of the Bristol economy to create impactful campaigns. Our team is packed with talent that works across the marketing and media landscape bringing together thinking and doing, ideas and execution, traditional and new to create brilliant, inspiring work. We put our clients first. Ideas, relationships, and results with no egos, no trophy-hunting and no added nonsense. Our staying power comes from constantly evolving. World events can have a huge impact on business, so we’re constantly thinking and trying to be better and produce even higher quality results. Last year we introduced a Pod structure, where we trialed an autonomous unit comprising team members from client services, strategy, creative, and production. The Pod was tasked with project delivery, budget management, and client satisfaction for a smaller range of clients. Having seen the success of the first pod, we’ve rolled this structure out across the company. We’ve also invested heavily in digital innovation, bringing in a digital strategy director to guide clients on digital business transformation, as well as bolstering our digital capacity with several new hires, covering all areas of digital projects. The next year will see us further increasing our capabilities in digital innovation. Mr. B & Friends has two sister companies housed within our offices. CXCo is a customer experience consultancy that works with companies to improve their businesses from the outside in, while Noble Performs is a digital performance agency. Noble Performs is a joint venture with US-based company Noble and delivers all aspects of digital marketing from SEO to PPC. These two companies have helped us to provide our clients with a comprehensive and seamless offering. 263

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Mr. B & Friends 3 Temple Quay, Temple Back East, Bristol, BS1 6DZ Email: hello@mrbandfriends.co.uk Phone: +0117 4400 600 linkedin.com/company/mr-b-&-friends twitter.com/MrBandFriends instagram.com/mrbandfriends facebook.com/Mr-B-Friends-114232438685367/ Mrbandfriends.co.uk 264

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Goram & Vincentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Senior Management Team. From left to right: Gary Lake (Technical Director), Damian Connop (Founder/Creative Director), Cheryl Franklin (Production Director) and Jen Wagner (Commercial Director). Photo by Adam Gasson.

IN A NUTSHELL We are an ecommerce agency that designs and builds enterprise-level ecommerce solutions for ambitious global brands. Our specialism is to grow existing market share and to exploit new market opportunities across the world with agility, innovation and cost-effectiveness.

MADE IN BRISTOL

Enterprise-level ecommerce with small agency agility.

Over the last 10 years weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve grown by design and coincidence to become one of Bristolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most progressive and innovative digital agencies. We were founded in Bristol in 2009 as a traditional brand design and advertising agency but within a year found ourselves producing larger, more demanding digital projects for local and national brands. In 2010 we merged with a likeminded young digital agency on Park Street and became Goram & Vincent. From that point on we began to see the thirst for direct ecommerce and how new global market opportunities were opening up for emerging and existing brands of all sizes. Combined with an ever-growing, experienced and ambitious team, we made steps to reposition ourselves as leaders in global ecommerce and digital marketing. 265

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Bristol is our home and a constant source of our inspiration and energy - the perfect city in which to build an innovative digital agency where our team and clients can flourish.” Damian Connop, Founder / Creative Director

INNOVATIVE THINKING

WHAT WE BELIEVE IN Our success to date has been built on our Three Pillars: passion, positivity, and balance; our infectious enthusiasm and eagerness to learn and share knowledge, our energy and optimistic outlook towards everything that comes our way, and our ability to see both sides of every story with humility and grace. With the global digital space becoming more complex and challenging we believe it’s even more important to build a team and long-lasting client relationships on trust, inclusivity, and creativity.

Our key offering is to deliver enterprise-level ecommerce with the agility of a small agency—bringing disproportionate advantage to micro, small to medium and large enterprises. This agility is attained through a deep understanding of our client’s business, an innovative mindset, and a high level of digital expertise. This offering allows us to turn traditional perceptions of size and capability on its head and paves the way for us to bring true value to any ambitious brand that shares our values and mindset. For us, innovation is a continuous process of trying new things, getting them to market quickly, failing fast—and failing well—and nurturing an agency team that can scale and compete at the highest standards. In addition, we are fortunate to have an abundant and vibrant talent pool here in Bristol that we can draw and build upon, particularly in the area of web design and development. We are proud to be part of this local economy and continue to contribute, share, and collaborate with like-minded people and businesses who share our passion for ecommerce within Bristol and beyond. goramandvincent goramandvincent.com 266

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We want to leave the world in a better place than we found it. Our approach is to teach the world UX. Becky Taylor and Ollie Francis, Founders of Deckchair

We live in a digital world that is, amazingly, still not built around the user. UX is changing this and we think weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve played a part in that happening. User experience (UX) is about identifying the problem first. Using design thinking and being user-led. Observing human behaviour and building with the contents of their brains.

Our 5 guiding principles These are at the heart of everything we do, they guide us through all of our projects. Great for solving any problem, give them a try!

Investing in UX sees a lower cost of customer acquisition, higher levels of customer retention, and increased market share. UX has a huge impact on user satisfaction, happiness, and even safety. You can make a significant impact by truly understanding the needs of the user, and designing around them. Our founders Becky and Ollie have worked together on digital projects for nearly 20 years; collaborating with teams in some of the most innovative organisations in Bristol and beyond. Our role is often one that supports and inspires innovation. We specialise in creating digital experiences for membership organisations that have complex data and long-term customer relationships. We have strong principles about who we work with, seeking people who want to make a positive impact on our world. We want UX to be a force for good. We have recently worked with the University of Bristol, Department of Health, and the Institute of Environmental Analytics. Projects where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve improved the user experience have reached millions and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve helped our clients increase revenue and donations by up to 147%. 267

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The Wheel of UX The basis of our process at Deckchair, the essential building blocks of any user-centred digital project or product.

We have defined some guiding principles that we think every organisation should embrace. Our mission is to share these principles with the world and make UX thinking and process the conventional way to approach digital projects. We run a UX design course in Bristol in partnership with training provider DevelopMe and are creating a UX mentoring network to help experts share their knowledge with others. Our aim is to create a framework that inspires the world to embrace UX process and design thinking to solve problems. By sharing our knowledge and passing on our skills to

others, we believe that UX can change the world for the better. We love living and working in Bristol—it embodies the values we have as people. Over the years of working here we’ve seen the benefits of being open, honest, respectful, and caring. By being agile, embracing change, and getting the right support, we continue to craft a consultancy that we’re proud of. Bristol’s collaborative culture has enabled us to do what we love doing, make a real impact, and work with great people.

“The impact of UX is crystal clear: the more satisfied your users are, the more likely they are to do whatever it is you are encouraging”. —Abby Covert 268

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ELEVATOR PITCH CREATIVE POOL 2019: INDEPENDENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR

We’re Taxi Studio, the independent Brand Design Agency with a fervent belief that Courage and Collaboration deliver true success. We call this Fearless Creativity. And it drives everything we do.

OUR STORY FACTS Fearlessly starting a business in Bristol in 2002 (when London was where it was all ’appening) it’s now 16 years on and we’re going from strength to strength and still proudly independent. Now a 50-strong team having added 16 more superstars during 2018 and still ahead of the curve with over 60% of us female. Working with local initiatives that need our support, startups that need a brand to get them going, and the big players that we’ve collaborated with for years, including Coke, Nestlé, Carlsberg. For us it’s all about real relationships—it’s one of our values.

FIGURES 2018 neatly scooped us 18 awards across multiple categories and countries. We established relationships and started working with five major global brands to ensure our spread of clients is healthier than ever. These new relationships have meant we’ve opened up work streams in Canada, SE Asia, Africa, China, Korea, Qatar, Russia, and India. A band of six juniors from across the business formed a junior-led initiative called Jun1hr (pronounced Juni-Hour) to get together and work on a broad range of projects, to bounce ideas, craft skills, and contribute new perspectives. To us, it is the epitome of Fearless Creativity.

FABULOUS We entered the DBA Design Effectiveness awards for the first time with our work for the rebrand of Carlsberg EXPØRT and won the Grand Prix. Bar set very high. We launched our largest ever on-going project in the form of Carlsberg’s Global Rebrand and collaborated with Coca-Cola to support their evolution into a total beverage company. To add the cherry on the top, we were named the best agency outside London for the second year in a row and received the title of No.2 Independent brand design agency on the planet. Pretty fabulous.

And we’ve gone out of our way to support the next creative generation. We launched Creative Discomforts with D&AD at New Blood aiming to instil creative courage in new designers. And locally we’re involved with Werkhouse— as part of its inception and continued delivery—an industry-led design learning initiative to help find alternatives to the design graduate pathway, supported by a host of local Bristol and Bath design agencies and held annually over a weekend in our studio.

FUTURE-FOCUSED We refreshed our employee promise, to ensure what we’re offering is fair— fairness being another of our values. Everyone now benefits from flexible working, individual training and inspiration budgets, healthcare, and enhanced maternity and paternity. We also launched an internal ‘Good for Something’ award—a chance for some formalised peer-to-peer recognition with an end-ofyear vote and reward for the winner.

And of course, we visit as many universities as we can and offer paid internships to those whom we think are a good fit. Our instincts are pretty honed; we hired the last two interns!

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Zone 7, 470 Bath Road Bristol, South West, BS4 3HG (+44) 07791153363 Joshua@taxistudio.co.uk taxistudio taxistudio.co.uk

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WHERE TRAVEL BRANDS GO NEXT We’re a team of highly experienced digital specialists working exclusively with leading travel and leisure brands. ELEVATOR PITCH Based in Bristol, a city situated in the beautiful South West of the UK and within minutes of some of the UK’s best walking, mountain biking, and surfing locations. The city attracts a young, tech-savvy crowd and serves up a laidback environment of bars, restaurants, and nightlife that has given Bristol a well deserved reputation as the UK’s ‘Best city to live’. This has been a vital factor in attracting and retaining talented employees, although it’s not the only one. 3Sixty also offers employees exceptional holiday allowance, flexible working hours and location. Plus many other well-being benefits such as annual company trip abroad, free healthy food and drinks, and an adorable office dog.

3Sixty is an award-winning digital agency that creates exceptional websites and apps for leading travel and tourism brands.

OUR STORY Now in our 20th year and with a strong reputation as one of the South West’s most respected businesses, 3Sixty has worked on projects for a range of businesses, including ITV, Renault F1, and Deutsche Bahn. To set ourselves apart from the competition, in 2017 we chose to specialise in the travel and tourism industry, which quickly led to industry recognition in 2018 when we won ‘Best Digital Agency’ at The Travel Marketing Awards. Today we work with a diverse range of travel businesses from global cruise lines and tour operators to startups and niche operators.

OUR VISION Over the next 20 years we plan to develop a range of software products that make finding your next holiday easier, faster, and cheaper. We’ve taken a big step in that direction with the design and build of 2 digital products: 1) Wanderly® – A website platform that makes it easy for nontechnical travel and tour agents to build their own website. Wanderly integrates multiple back office and payment systems which make booking and payments quicker and easier. Travel businesses can now be up and running in days, rather than months. https://www.wanderly.travel/ 2) Tripsmarter® – T he clever travel inspiration platform that makes finding your next holiday inspiring and fun. It uses machine learning to understand customers’ holiday preferences and match their perfect holiday. In return, travel businesses get extremely rich data about their audience, allowing them to personalise their marketing and convert potential customers into direct sales.

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“3Sixty are also an absolute joy to work with. It’s very rare indeed to find an agency who will so passionately engage in a project and be so committed to its success. I’d wholeheartedly recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone looking for an innovative digital agency.” Gareth Allen, Celebrity Cruises, Digital Manager UK & Ireland.

Ryan Anthoney

Phone: 0117 911 3734 Email: hello@3sixty.co.uk linkedin.com/company/ixport twitter.com/xport_i instagram.com/3sixtystudio facebook.com/ixport.co medium.com/3sixty-thinking 3sixty.co.uk

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AIDA - AI curator at the 2019 Cheltenham Science Festival

ELEVATOR PITCH HELLO

BOTS

We’re Tiny Giant. A Bristol-based marketing practice formed by two award-winning creatives. We say modern advertising is bland, boring and easy to ignore.

Whether it’s promoting a product or inspiring a conversation, experience bots can instantly improve your customer relationships. If you need a brilliant bot, that’s on-brand and on the money, you’re in the right place.

VOICE

That’s why we fuse big ideas and smart tech to create experiences that get you noticed. We help brands develop brilliant voice apps, engaging storytelling bots, fun AR filters - and more.

Google Assistant and Alexa are rapidly changing the way people shop, learn and interact with brands. At Tiny Giant, we can define your voice strategy, build voice apps and write conversational copy that’ll make your brand a joy to talk to.

We also use AI to kickstart mind-bending adventures, taking your creative thinking in a whole new direction.

We’ve even created our very own voice newsletter. Check out Alexa Flash Briefing: Tiny Giant Tales.

AUGMENTED REALITY Customers love to be delighted. Customers want to be wowed. We’ll help you add an extra dimension to your marketing through AR filters that turn everyday storytelling into epic experiences.

HOW WE HELP OUR CLIENTS CONTENT

CREATIVE AI

Our clients don’t just come to us for content. They want sales, brand awareness, bookings, likes and new customers. Which means our video, web and voice content delivers exactly that.

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Tiny Giant (left to right): Richard Norton, Derek Ahmedzai and Kerry Harrison

CREATIVE AI PROJECTS AI CURATOR OF THE CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FESTIVAL This year, we created the first-ever AI curator for the 2019 Cheltenham Science Festival. Over several weeks, we brought AIDA to life - a neural network that devised a foreword and dozens of potential talks for the event. After going out to a public vote, one of the AI-generated talks was chosen. It was then delivered at the festival to great acclaim. Kerry speaking at Facebook

The project was shortlisted in the Most Innovative Use of Tech category at the SPARKies Awards.

AI FOOD AND DRINK EXPERIENCES As technology evolves, we believe human-AI collaboration is the way forward. Our creative food and drink adventures are the perfect proof. We use machine learning algorithms to generate deliciously different recipes, then team up with experienced bakers, mixologists and artisans to make the recipes a reality. Over the last year, our AI generated cakes, cocktails (and more) have delighted delegates at a whole range of events from agency launch nights to conferences and marketing festivals. The favourites to date? It has to be the courgette and sour cherry champagne cocktail. And the Guinness, vanilla and marmalade cupcake.

kerry@tinygiant.io @wearetinygiant https://anchor.fm/tinygiantjams Event: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll Be Back South West tinygiant.io

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Chris Goodfellow, Founder

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ELEVATOR PITCH At Box 2 Media, we aim to create content that inspires action. For our audience of startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses, time is short but there’s an endless amount of advice available. A lot of the time, a Google search can leave you more confused than when you started. We’re a startup, too, so we have firsthand experiences of a lot of the challenges we write about. Bristol is a city full of startups and fiercely independent businesses—there’s a real buzz here and it’s incredible to work among entrepreneurs who have game-changing ideas.

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OUR STORY We really believe in the value of great content. We try to make each word count. There’s a strong emerging market for it, too—people are tired of sifting through hundreds of listicles and advert-laden pages.

With our content, we try to cut through the noise. We’re big believers of showcasing stories from real businesses, rather than telling you what we think the answer is. We’ll tell you what three or four people in the exact same position as you did. By the end of our articles, you should always be driven and informed enough to act.

We’re innovative because we’re combining the quality of print journalism with the accessibility of online content. Content doesn’t have to be something you throw together every couple of weeks to keep your blog ticking over. It can be inspiring, insightful, and eye-opening for people. All you have to do is understand its value.

We come across a lot of people who think content is only there to boost their search ranking. That is a factor, but if your content strategy is based entirely on SEO trends, it won’t be worth much.

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We are Luna 9 – Creative problem solvers on a mission to connect people through design. We take complex information and make it easy to understand. WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO Based in the heart of Bristol, Luna 9 is a specialist information design agency. We’ve partnered with organisations like NHS England, Dyson and a host of international charities to help them communicate in more visual, simple ways. We named our company after the first satellite to successfully land on the moon; breaking new ground and relaying information that shaped how people viewed the world. Nuclear

It’s our belief that great ideas should be shared. We’re living in the information age but so much knowledge is lost because it’s not being communicated in the right way. Through intelligent design and creativity, we improve the way information is presented, shared and experienced. Here at Luna 9, we make information matter. We immerse ourselves in our clients’ challenges, asking the important questions and working in partnership to learn as much as we can about their message and, crucially, their audience. Since our launch in 2018, we have worked on some amazing briefs for clients across a range of sectors, all with the same goal – to bring clarity and engagement to their communication using immersive digital design, interactive documents, infographics and animation.

“ Whenever you guys show me something, it’s like… BOOM!” Programme Director, Conciliation Resources

OUR STORY 50

£ Billion

We are proud to have previously worked at some superb creative companies, and that has gone a long way to shaping our vision for Luna 9. When we started the agency, we were determined to carve out a niche as experts in our field. Bristol is blessed with lots of amazing design and digital agencies so we wanted to specialise in what we are really passionate about – making complex, fascinating things easy to understand. The interconnected communities here, across all sectors, have welcomed us with open arms and further cemented our desire to collaborate and share knowledge.

Going forward we’re excited to grow our team further and work with more amazing clients; from start-ups to international organisations. We’re on a mission to help bring a little more clarity to the way we all share information, and we’re only just getting started.

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Email: info@luna9design.com Website: luna9design.com

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Michael Green - Managing Director Michael is passionate about growing Luna 9 and working with our clients to revolutionise the way they communicate. He’s always got film soundtracks on his headphones and dreams of conducting business meetings on the golf course. So far there have been zero.

@luna9design @luna9design company/luna-9

Owen Davies – Creative Director Owen oversees Luna 9’s creative output, and applies his keen eye for detail to all aspects of his life. He hand-built furniture for the company office and often supplies the team with vegetables grown on his allotment.

The UK Energy Landscape – Top left An interactive map allowing the user to navigate their way through our country’s energy infrastructure. UK Imports and Exports – Bottom left A digital report using interactive graphs and infographics to illustrate the changing aspects of UK trade. Orbit Postcards – Right A set of six illustrative postcards exploring notable satellites to have been launched since Sputnik in 1957.

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Broadley Creative

SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF COMMUNICATING COMPLEX INFORMATION AND IDEAS Enabling innovators to get funding and build revenue by highlighting the value and importance of their ideas. Presentations and strategies untangle complicated information for clear communication with their clients and customers. When I came to Bristol to study Graphic Design, I found a great place. It’s a small city that feels like a big city. People have made a lifestyle choice to be here and not in London. It’s friendly, collaborative, and is full of vibrant stories! It’s exactly the reason why I decided to base my business here. Telling a story can be complex, but it’s something I am passionate about. My father was an innovative design engineer in motor racing from the ’60s to the ’90s. He had both technical and practical problem-solving skills with very high standards! He had a huge impact on my life, instilling me with core problem-solving skills that help me handle complicated content. Working alongside my customers allows me to delve a little deeper to identify the intelligent details that makes for an engaging and inspiring story. I then combine design methodologies and structural elements, information design, 279

illustration, and photography to create a whole story that has a backbone of complex information but also is a compelling story that is easy to understand. Helping Sustrans present ‘Paths for Everyone’ to Parliament, in their fundraising project to raise over £2 billion to develop the National Cycle Network, was a hugely rewarding project. Multiple stakeholders made for many voices! Distilling the information into an engaging report that contains both research data and community value so it’s not too heavy or dry was instrumental for conveying the project to a wider audience.

Realising the vision: what needs to happen

n it Ru it Fix w it Gro ove it L d it Fun

For everyone

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“ There’s so much information out there that you need to do something that’s going to cut through the barrage that people are faced with every day so it stands out and they want to read it. That’s exactly what Diane does for us.” Jenny Claydon, Former Content & Publications Manager, Development Initiatives Like many other businesses, being based in Bristol allows me to collaborate locally, but also internationally. Working with the UN OCHA, the financial arm of the United Nations, for the past eight years demonstrates how we took a dense 60-page data-driven report and presented it in an engaging visual way, so that non-analysts were interested in reading it. So much so, they entered the Data and Trends report into the Washington Publisher’s Book Design and Effectiveness competition, where it won the Technical Text category in 2015. In every project I strive for simplicity in communication and purpose in form or technology to get my client’s business to where it needs to be. 07815 206658 Unit 1.4 Temple Studios, Temple Gate, Bristol BS1 6QA UK broadleydiane broadleycreative broadleycreative.co.uk 280

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ELEVATOR PITCH Socialight create powerful influencer marketing campaigns for hospitality & leisure businesses. However, Socialight is not an agency. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an app. This means we can create powerful campaigns without the extortionate agency fees. How do we do this? Every campaign is driven through our smartphone app created for influencers. With access to thousands of influencers at the press of a button, Socialight can create agency-standard influencer marketing campaigns, featuring exceptional quality-content creators who can tell powerful stories about a brand to thousands of likeminded people, without the brand having to spend large sums of money, or without having to spend hours of their personal time organising and coordinating influencers. Nicolo Licata

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OUR STORY With technology paving the way for simple tasks in our everyday life such as ordering a takeaway or a taxi, shopping for clothes or booking a table at a restaurant, Socialight apply the same logic to business. What would typically take weeks of planning and executing, can, in fact, be replicated through simple technological processes that saves everybody involved a huge amount of time, thus, saving money spent as well.

campaigns for any restaurant, hotel, pub, bar, or leisure attraction by becoming available to any business across the UK.

Socialight was born September 2017. The business was founded by Iain McFarnon and Nicolo Licata who had both worked within the hospitality & leisure industry for a combined 18 years. The idea was founded under the desire to begin offering a legitimately cost-effective way of marketing businesses after years of witnessing, firsthand, a number of failed solutions.

For those considering using influencers to market their business, here’s our take: Influencer marketing is not using Love Island contestants to promote your brand. These, among other high-profile Instagrammers, fall under the category of celebrities. Yes, in 2019, you can be classified as a celebrity for having been on TV and having lots of followers.

Socialight are proud to have worked directly with fantastic independently owned businesses in Bristol such as The Cowshed, Brace & Browns, Bosco, AQUA, Tincan Coffee House, all the way up to large, national groups such as the Harbour Hotels, New World Trading Co, and Revolucion De Cuba. We’ve also had the pleasure of working with long-lasting staples of the Bristol community such as The Bristol Zoo and The SS Great Britain in creating amazing influencer marketing campaigns.

‘Real’ influencer marketing is understanding that through the power of social media, you can use normal people who have amassed a following ranging from 1,000 to a few hundred thousand followers to raise awareness of your brand, but more importantly, educate potential consumers about your brand. The key part that makes these influencers different from celebrities is that they are powerful content creators who have a particular interest in a key subject or lifestyle that others relate to. This is what makes them a powerful marketing tool. They’re relatable. Something that celebrities quite often aren’t for us normal folk.

We are also proud to be affiliated with brilliant organisations such as NatWest, who inducted Socialight into their Growth Accelerator scheme after we were recognised as a forward-thinking business, delivering exceptional results to our clients. This has since led to Iain McFarnon being nominated for South West Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year.

SocialightBristol Socialight App socialightapp socialightapp.co.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH The Social Detail is a team of skilled social-first marketing professionals who deliver effective and inclusive social media strategy, management, and training. We focus on aligning any social media actions with high-level company goals and are on a mission to encourage brands to join the inclusive marketing movement. People often forget that the online world is primarily a place to connect, and this should be no different for businesses navigating the online world. Businesses want to build relationships with the right audience, and build rapport and trust, which are essential to a company’s growth. We understand this, which is why we do what we do.

OUR STORY Our core values centre around understanding the brand’s history, which enables us to deliver services such as strategy, coaching, inclusive marketing, content management, and Facebook ads. We excel in implementing our knowledge of social media to achieve results for clients such as SETsquared, Black Girl Convention, Future Space, and many more. We also regularly liaise with key organisations across the city, which makes Bristol a noteworthy city to work in, due to the access of such a diverse range of brands. “The Social Detail has supported BSWN with our social media strategy and branding across several different social media platforms. They helped us successfully reach new audiences and get new followers interested in our content. We would recommend The Social Detail to anyone, especially organisations like ours who are looking for socially conscious marketing.” —Sado Jirde, Director, Black South West Network

OUR VISION We envision developing a tool which will aid brands and marketers alike in creating inclusive content. In this way, inclusive marketing no longer stands as an afterthought, but is the norm in marketing practice.

Our story begins in 2017 when our founder Joyann Boyce wanted to be the bridge for Bristol SMEs to expand their business online. As the clientele increased and we began to work internationally, it became more apparent that the organisations The Social Detail worked with, and organisations as a whole, were lacking in terms of their inclusivity marketing strategy or simply didn’t have one. This partnered with the fact that statistics on internet users being put off by lack of accessibility and on users buying into brands solely based on diversity representation. Discovering that 70% of Millennials are more likely to choose one brand over another if that brand demonstrates inclusion and diversity sparked the need to bring inclusive marketing to the forefront of our clients’ marketing strategy. We do this through education, support, and incorporating inclusive marketing into business processes and content creation. “Working with Joyann and her team at The Social Detail was a really positive experience for SETsquared Bristol. The inclusivity marketing audit we collaborated on was eye-opening and gave us a great understanding of how to engage with our audience from different perspectives, making it a total success.” —Paul Forster, Community Manager, Bristol SETsquared

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We listen. We are rooted. We are current. We are positive.â&#x20AC;?

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.â&#x20AC;? - F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 2 8 6

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OUR STORY It’s about the thinking. It’s about the execution. It’s about the commitment to never being boring.

AMBITIOUS is an independent PR led communications agency that delivers integrated strategic communications to help your business reach its goals and its potential. We a very proud to have been voted Best PR Agency 2018 and 2019 at The Drum Magazine’s RAR Awards.

A challenger to the traditional PR agency model, AMBITIOUS is structured to encourage entrepreneurial spirit and every client works with a Director who has a vested interest in our company.

To those who believe that B2B and corporate public relations is a cold, lifeless space for ideas, we say, think again. 287

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ABOUT US Our clients are local, national and international and include medium and large corporates and multinationals, business founders and fast growth and funded startups. The industry sectors we are strong in include property and construction, education, technology and innovation, healthcare, high-value design and engineering, and professional services including financial services, law and management consultancy. Our past and present clients include high profile and respected enterprises such as CBRE, Aardman Animation, HCA, NHS, Clarks, Dickies Workwear, Sanlam, Accord Healthcare and Department for International Trade. AMBITIOUS also represents membership bodies such as Bristol Media and the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW). Our team includes PR consultants, digital and social experts, brand specialists and content marketers who are united by a shared purpose to do great work. Our culture is progressive, collaborative and non-hierarchical and we have five key values: 1. Enterprising always: Work smart and give ourselves permission to think in different ways to give clients a competitive advantage.

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2. Influence with integrity: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always right to do the right thing. 3. Infectious energy: Put passion into everything we do. 4. Generous collaborators: We build relationships on trust and mutual respect with clients. 5. We own it: We are accountable for our own actions and the actions of our team.

We take a strategy-first approach and take time to understand the context of the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industry and then fuelled by insight, creativity, and clever ideas, we strive to build relationships and engage with the target audience through multiple touch points online, offline and everything in between.

127 Hampton Road, Redland, Bristol, BS6 6JE 0117 905 1177 hello@ambitiouspr.co.uk Ambitiouspr ambitious_consultancy ambitiouspr.co.uk

Our services include strategy & planning, media and blogger relations, social media management, content marketing, strategic partnerships, internal communications, influencer and stakeholder engagement, issues and crisis management.

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ELEVATOR PITCH Why do businesses need guerrilla comms?

Securing an 88M reach in just one month through international press. Trending on Twitter. Generating £2.5m in a crowdfunding comms campaign. Landing primetime TV and radio slots. Increasing engagement online by 346%.

Where traditional agencies have a rather black-and-white approach to marketing, we pride ourselves on our ability to really listen, understanding their business, their challenges, and their goals, and developing comms that deliver engagement, reach, and impact. Guerrilla pervasive comms that aren’t built on high costs but on creativity make them far more effective.

OUR STORY

Where are you bringing reach?

All in a day’s work for OggaDoon.

Globally.

After turning a loss-making business into a profiting one within a year (at the age of 24), working as the National Marketing Communications Manager for a multinational business, and being a partner in an environmental comms business, our founder Caroline Macdonald knew there was a different way to deliver impactful comms without following the same old pattern.

In cybersecurity, we work with GCHQ Cyber Accelerator alumni, securing global press and growing investment. In telecoms, our nominations have made our clients worldwide award winners.

OggaDoon was born. The guerrilla comms business isn’t the traditional setup of a heavy-handed PR firm, nor was it just focused on the new excitement buzzing around SEO and social media.

In sustainability and environmental low carbon, we’ve led the comms for record-breaking investment rounds and worked with communities to drive change.

What is guerrilla comms? Authentic, engaging, disruptive, and cost-effective comms. Guerrilla communications takes all that’s best from a brand and launches it in unexpected ways, driving reach and generating impact. Our use of guerrilla communications sets us apart from the rest.

In property, we deliver outstanding press and media, securing national and international coverage. In events, we’ve increased digital traffic by 86% MoM leading to sellout events. 289

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Caroline Macdonald - Founder, OggaDoon

And what’s the impact?

Increasing domain authority from 7 to 25 in just 3 months for the National Centre of Integrative Medicine Securing clients coverage in titles including The Telegraph, Thrive Global, BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire, The Guardian, and more Driving 300% improvement in performance for social media for Immortal Sport Launched an app at national event, securing celebrity interviews and over 700 downloads in 4 days Exceeding delegate attendance by 120% for international conference CoInnovate 1 piece of creative content leveraged to secure £15,000 sale for one client Secured more than 50 pieces of national and international coverage for YellowDog in one year—that’s one a week 8 radio interviews and 2 TV appearances were secured for TEDxBristol 2017

adapting to our needs and flexing the availability of resource. Providing strategic advice and co-creation of ideas one minute, and then high quality content creation and social media support the next.” —Nick Sturge, Director at Engine Shed “OggaDoon delivered a bespoke marketing course to staff at the Prince’s Trust. Emily Perkins was wonderful: she had researched us thoroughly and understood our company and our target market well, meaning that every minute of our session was precisely targeted to our needs. Emily has continued to stay in touch and to think of us when talking to other companies where there might be shared interests. I couldn’t recommend OggaDoon highly enough for their expertise, their down-to-earth approach and their sheer commitment to their customers!” —The Prince’s Trust Runway East 1 Victoria Street Bristol BS1 6AA info@gympanzees.org 07970 233490 OggaDoon OggaDoon.co.uk OggaDoon.co.uk

And that’s just a snippet of the success we bring our clients. Read on to hear what they think of our work, and get in touch at www.oggadoon.co.uk/ contact. “We have worked with Caroline and the OggaDoon team for 2 years now and have benefitted hugely from the flexibility of support and guidance: 290

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ELEVATOR PITCH Greenhouse PR was formed over a decade ago with a single-minded belief in the power of PR to deliver positive social and environmental change. We work exclusively with pioneers who have the ideas, solutions, and technologies to accelerate positive change. We champion the changemakers and support the urgent transition to a sustainable world where people and planet can thrive.

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PURPOSE BEFORE PROFIT Our campaigns range from future-proofing the UK’s energy and EV networks to campaigning for local pension fund divestment from fossil fuels. All of our clients subscribe to the highest standards of social and environmental performance.

Our highly committed and values-driven team crafts a new narrative about what’s possible, using positive, solution-led stories to spread a message of hope while emphasising the urgent need to act. As a specialist green PR agency, Greenhouse is uniquely placed to champion the change-makers and support the urgent transition to a sustainable economic model that benefits both people and planet.

We believe that business can be and should be a force for good. As a certified B Corporation, we have undertaken a rigorous assessment to ensure that our ethical business practices are embedded in every aspect of the company.

We deliver award-winning campaigns for our clients. In 2018 we were awarded Communications Agency of the Year at the Business Green Leaders Awards and Small Consultancy of the Year at the PRCA Awards. The agency has also been shortlisted for the PR Week 2019 Awards in the Specialist Consultancy of the Year Award.

Headquartered in Bristol, the only UK city to be awarded the title of European Green Capital, our ambition is to grow to a turnover of £3 million and 30 staff over the next three years, working with the UK’s leading sustainable brands to scale impact and accelerate change. 291

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ASPIRE TO INSPIRE Specialising in the green sector has enabled us to build a thriving, profitable business. A shared mission and purpose with clients and staff mean you can create a company culture based on mutual respect and support, where happy and motivated staff are intrinsic to our success. By offering flexible working arrangements and promoting a healthy work/ life balance, with weekly yoga classes, organic food, subsidies for cycling to work, and free tickets to green festivals and events, we have good staff retention rates.

Greenhouse PR 3rd Floor, Unit 32 St Thomas Court, Thomas Lane Bristol BS1 6JG Phone: 0117 214 1250

We aspire to inspire. Although we have been mastering our own environmental policies for many years, we now see our position in the industry evolvingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to help other agencies and individuals to fulfill their potential and change the whole industry for the better.

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“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” - ALAN KAY

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ELEVATOR PITCH Runway East is where startups take off. We provide the space and community for entrepreneurs, innovators, dreamers, and doers to meet, think, and (occasionally) drink together. We opened in Bristol in 2018. We knew that it was a booming city with a heavy focus on tech startups—it was the ideal fit for us!

OUR STORY In 2018 alone, Bristol had over 24,000 people working in digital tech. All of those people need a place to work, and that’s exactly what we’re providing. Since moving here we have welcomed many incredible award-winning companies into our space, Yellow Dog and Immersive Labs to name a few, and we couldn’t be more proud of the community and networks we’ve built. We want to be a part of every idea—no matter how small—and be there to support its growth. Community is always first at Runway East. We bring together all sorts of people to allow new ideas to spark and blossom. This is done through our amazing in-house events (including dog shows, pizza parties, and cake every Wednesday) or simply by promoting a genuine open community; it’s what we’re all about. Whilst many coworking spaces have continued to focus their efforts on the capital in 2019, at Runway East we recognised the flourishing tech scene in Bristol and as a result, opened a new site there in summer 2019, the first London coworking provider to do so. Runway East now provides more than 1,000 members across three sites in London and one in Bristol with the flexibility and convenience they need as they grow their businesses, as well as access to a community of peers, investors, mentors, and service providers that can support them in achieving that growth. Moving to Bristol is perhaps our most notable achievement because it was such a bold move for a small coworking space with only two sites in East London to put our faith in Bristol—a city we did not know well past the glowing reviews from Bristolian founders at our London sites. With our occupancy currently over 95% and plans to open Bristol 2.0 as the tech scene continues to grow, we couldn’t be happier with how things have gone. We are constantly learning what our members like, what to do more of (and less of) by constant communication. Growing, learning, and every aspect of Runway East depends on our members.

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Runway East HQ 20 St Thomas Street, London, Se1 9Rs 0203 137 9953

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ELEVATOR PITCH TCN UK focuses on finding unloved buildings and regenerating them into vibrant communities. By taking a long-term view on development and ownership we ensure we are embedded in every community we operate in. Most of our activities are based around workspace with ancillary uses.

OUR STORY TCN UK originated out of a partnership with a Dutch architect. Richard Pearce and Toby Bidwell founded the UK business in 2006, backed by our Dutch partner. Since 2014 TCN UK has been independently owned in the UK. This Dutch heritage gives an irreverent, surprising edge to the way we develop and the way we manage our completed projects. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look for scale or growth for the sake of it, we look for opportunities where we can help enable businesses to grow and to make positive change. We differ from many of our developer competitors by taking a long-term view and focusing on repositioning and reuse of unloved buildings. Why knock down and rebuild something when creative reuse can help deliver cost-effective space? Our strengths lie in our ability to deliver affordable, flexible space which is original and gives our companies a platform to grow. Our vision is to continue building a portfolio of creative, independent communities for the long term. If we can enable business growth, positive change and happiness across the UK then weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be happy. 297

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MILESTONES Enterprise Zone Business of the Year 2012

TESTIMONIALS Temple Studios Claire Young, Account Manager, Digirank: Working here, it feels like you’re part of something and the building has a cool, industrial-chic vibe. Piers Tinknell, Founder & User Experience Designer / David Darke, Founder & Technical Director, Atomic Smash: We have been based in Temple Studios for more than 5 years. It has had a positive impact on our business and has allowed us to grow into our original space and more recently move into a larger space to fit with our growing business requirements. Clare van Someren, Senior Landscape Architect, Churchman Landscape Architects: Temple Studios is a great office to be based in. It manages to effortlessly marry together a relaxed creative environment with a cool hardworking professional vibe. The refurb of the old industrial buildings has been carried out really well; the spaces are light and airy and retain original elements and character which, as a design office, is important to us. When we bring clients and collaborators in they are all very impressed and the building’s history is a talking point. The location next to Temple Meads makes life easy when travelling to London for meetings. Jonny West, UX/UI Designer, saintnicks: Central. Connected. Collaborative. Location is everything.

Temple 1852 Carlton Bodkin, Director, Practical Architects: Just walking through the front door of Bristol & Exeter House, wakes me up, and gets me motivated ready for a day at the office. It’s such a special place. Andrew Brooke, Associate Architect, SRA Architects: The office has genuine character and history and is a great place to come to work every day – it’s a real talking point with clients and visitors.

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Bristol’s First ‘Proworking’ Space

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ELEVATOR PITCH In May 2019 we officially opened Phase 1 of our £9m renovation, representing what we believe is an evolutionary step in the city’s coworking movement, as Bristol’s first space dedicated to ‘proworking’.

There is a shortage in the Bristol market for office space that can accommodate growing businesses and so we’ve shaped Origin to respond to this need. We designed Origin so businesses can start, grow, and scale with us, and our facilities also include a wellness centre, members’ lounge, and roof terraces with enviable views across the city.

Origin Workspace is aimed at entrepreneurs, startups, and scale-up businesses that seek a high specification finish and require their workspace to match their professional identity. Furthermore, we’re aiming to bridge the gap between Filton in the north of the city and Temple Quarter, creating the backbone for a third business hub in Bristol.

The premise behind Origin Workspace is to provide community, counsel, and support in one place, something that Origin Workspace’s founder, Heather Frankham, found hard to access in the early stages of building her first business, Lifetime Training. Heather successfully sold and exited this company in 2016, by which point it was the UK’s number one apprenticeship and skills training provider and employed over 1,000 staff.

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It took Heather many years to build Lifetime Training because she began with zero connections. Having now gone through every stage in the life cycle of a business from a sole trader startup, to scale-up, to a market leading business, Heather’s goal with Origin is to create a collaborative space where businesses can start and grow in a supportive environment. Origin Workspace’s vision is to help tomorrow’s business talent succeed with all facilities, advice, support, and experience on tap to provide the best possible start.

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To demonstrate its commitment to the local community, Origin Workspace is also home to Origin Startup, a 12-month invite-only flexible package that provides entrepreneurs and small businesses with £18,000-worth of dedicated mentoring, office space, training, and networking opportunities. There are currently 10 companies on the Origin Startup package.

At 42,000 sq. feet, Origin Workspace has capacity for 400 members who can chose different types of membership including lounge, hot desk, dedicated desks, and private office space. Meeting rooms and event spaces are also available to hire. An active events programme is open to nonmembers.

40 Berkeley Square, Bristol, BS8 1HP Tel: 0117 440 0400 Email: info@originworkspace.co.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH DeskLodge is a community of award-winning coworking spaces, built with productivity in mind. Our innovative spaces offer a blend of coworking, private offices, fixed desks, and meeting rooms. With a focus on building innovative communities and collaborations, we aim to help businesses grow and attract the best talent, whilst enjoying our amazing workplace culture. DeskLodge is best known for our bespoke, quirky dĂŠcor; it singles us out from everyone else by creating a colourful and fun environment that keeps you inspired, and your mind active and stimulated! We also believe strongly in diversity in every sense and create coworking spaces for everyone from large tech firms, to accountants, and graphic designers through to specialist gardening businesses. There is a space for everyone, from all backgrounds and industries. We understand that flexibility is essential for our members and offer a range of membership options and packages, to ensure their productivity is at its peak, helping them to attract the best talent and have an amazing workplace culture, within a fantastic community.

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OUR STORY Inspired by the amazing Google office space and by the idea to create a local coworking village to cut down on long commutes, DeskLodge founder Tom Ball opened the first DeskLodge at Old Market in Bristol in 2015, following a few experimental and temporary coworking hubs along the way. “I think having very different people, with very different ways of thinking, working in a space together, is important. We are also thinking about how to make the space more and more inclusive. “We watch which places get used the least and try to swap them for better places and create more of the most popular seats. We can’t seem to get enough of the bar-height tables!” DeskLodge is currently based in two thriving UK locations; Bristol and Basingstoke. Bristol was named one of the Top 10 cities for tech in Europe and the top environmentally sustainable city in the UK. Basingstoke is an up-and-coming location that was named one of the Top 5 places for investment in digital technology in the UK. We are super proud of our locations!

“When you choose an office you are effectively choosing the culture you will be working in, you choose a culture that will impact your team, to make it the most productive and fun it can be, so they enjoy being at work.

We like to involve ourselves with local technology events, promoting and encouraging networking and collaboration, whilst championing other local events, including the amazing Wallace and Gromit sculpture trail event that saw many brilliant DeskLodgers raising lots of money towards the local children’s hospital (https://desklodge.com/desklodgeblogs/2018/9/11/ gromitgrandappealdesklodge?rq=grand).

“At DeskLodge we recognise the importance of having very different spaces and zones to work in, from fun meeting spaces to quiet spaces, and within those you need different types of furniture, from comfy armchairs with laptop tables in hotdesking spaces to stand-up meeting areas for quick team meet-ups. We work hard to make our spaces productive, to work for everyone.

DeskLodge is like a family; we pride ourselves on having an amazing, friendly team that will always go that extra mile to give our customers the best service in a safe, diverse, and comfortable environment. We keep things fresh by running creative and varied events and social meet-ups to help DeskLodgers make new friends and start conversations for new business collaborations.

“I’m passionate that everyone should be very welcome. Corporates are very different to freelancers but the people aren’t nearly as different as we like to think. Especially the ones who like DeskLodge! “Diversity in every sense is wonderful, a freelance graphic designer can learn a lot from a corporate accountant and vice versa. I think grown-ups invented work so they could play together.”

One of our best achievements was winning the Entrepreneurial Coworking Space of the Year trophy less a than a year after we had opened! We are also very proud to be chosen as one of the 15 coolest offices in the world by The Telegraph, which was just amazing for us! (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ business/2016/09/08/the-15-coolest-offices-in-the-world/desklodge-tent/)

Testimonial from A DeskLodger “DeskLodge has been perfect for a startup business like Good Sixty. It’s great to be working in a variety of really exciting businesses and interesting people. The staff at DeskLodge are just awesome! It’s really refreshing to see a team that genuinely really care about the people working here and are always eager to help whenever they can.” —Chris, Good Sixty.

Our visions for the future are to expand DeskLodge to up-and-coming, secondary UK cities such as Brighton, Sheffield, and Cardiff, sharing the coworking love whilst encouraging productivity, inclusivity, and growth.

DeskLodge Founder Tom Ball’s vision “Coworking will die and it will just be called working. Coworking is currently a massive trend; 100 years ago companies would build and own their power station, but now they use the national grid. I think offices are going the same way. You wouldn’t build your own building and offices anymore; you choose to use a space and cowork within it. Offices are not about impressing clients anymore; they are about attracting the best talent and helping them do their best work.

DeskLodge House, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, BS1 6NL DeskLodge, 5th Floor 1 Temple Way Bristol, BS2 0BY siobhan.adamson@Desklodge.com (+44) 0117 3830130 desklodge.com 304

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With the exponential advancements in technology and the considerations of trust for organisations, BTS will challenge businesses to think about how they will navigate their digital transformation journeys. Key debates are focused on

The Bristol Technology Showcase (BTS) is the first event of its kind to be held at the world-famous Aerospace Museum, home to the iconic Concorde, built in Filton, Bristol. BTS focuses on emerging technologies and those themes encompassed in the fourth industrial revolution with a focus on how they will affect businesses and wider society as a whole. Focusing on some of the key challenges facing organisations today, BTS is aimed at the B2B community with leaders, influencers, and investors responsible for strategy and business plan execution in their respective organisations.

OUR STORY

An organisation’s relationship with consumers/customers Corporate responsibilities in relation to the environment and how technology is supporting this Disruption to human capital needs, staff, and their well-being How regulators and policymakers are dealing with advancements in technology Communities that businesses operate in

Bristol is one of Europe’s leading tech hubs with hundreds of companies and thousands of people in this sector. The city is home to two tech unicorns— Ovo Energy and Graphcore—and is recognised as a leading Smart City in the UK. It has two major universities in the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England, both of which are developing worldclass technological capabilities, and it also houses the world’s number one university incubator in SETsquared. Bristol has plenty to talk about when it comes to technology.

The event will facilitate multiple speakers, panel debates, interviews, demonstrable technology, and innovation stands to provide an excellent networking opportunity. The location serves as a stunning and apt backdrop in understanding the implications of new technologies on businesses, their people, and their investment strategies. The company was founded by Nick Rutherford, a passionate technologist from the South West of England. BTS will deliver new and impactful discussions on emerging and converging technologies within the city of Bristol, further strengthening its reputation as a leading UK tech city. Nick is partnered with his brother Paul on the ownership and execution of the Bristol Technology Showcase.

BTS will continue to build in the years to come and will continue to highlight what is great about Bristol, the leading technologies developed here and in the wider region.

(+44) 07966149127 Bristol Technology Showcase btechshowcase bristoltechnologyshowcase.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH TEDxBristol is one of the largest TEDx events in Europe, delivering talks to sell-out audiences, working with creative partners across the UK and reaching a global audience online. We’re a largely voluntary and not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating thought-provoking, world-class TEDx talks and delivering inspirational, inclusive and friendly TEDx events in Bristol. Licensed by TED.com, TEDxBristol seeks out Bristol and the South West’s brilliant ideas and innovative disruptors, and champions them on the world stage.

OUR STORY Over the past year, Creative Director, Mel Rodrigues and the team have transformed TEDxBristol from a bunch of volunteers putting on a biennial conference to a fully-functioning production team, bringing in funding, creating jobs, and pioneering many exciting cross-city collaborations that have put TEDxBristol on the world map. TEDxBristol is still a nonprofit, but by adopting the ‘startup’ mentality it has grown its vision to work with the most exciting and innovative people on the tech and creative scene, as well as providing opportunities for hundreds of school pupils and community groups to engage in ideas exchange and hands-on creativity. In 2017 TEDxBristol launched its ‘Fresh Talent’ scheme — the goal being to work with emerging stars both off- and onstage to nurture their storytelling and production skills and enrich the city’s creative talent pipeline.

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Bristol is also a very special place for collaboration. From Newicon designing our new website CMS from scratch to Hodos Consultancy providing hundreds of hours of free coaching for our speakers, or Runway East supporting us with free work/meeting space, Bristol businesses have stepped up to the plate and added a huge amount of innovation and creativity to what we do.

A core part of the team’s work is now dedicated to upskilling the next generation of creative and digital talent via training and mentoring with professionals from across the patch. Of note TEDxBristol is Bath Spa University’s biggest industry partner in the media sector. To date, TEDxBristol has worked with over 50 Bristol/South West–based companies and organisations who have given over half a million pounds value in kind, sponsorship, or voluntary hours to the project.

Collaboration is at the heart of everything TEDxBristol does. Its growth is entirely down to connecting with like-minded and ambitious innovators to amplify what we are all doing as a community.”

We think Bristol is the best place in the world for a TEDx event, because of the sheer volume and breadth of exciting things happening and inspirational people living here. We are constantly surprised by the stories we come across. Bristol is full of ‘quiet heroes’ – people doing amazing things for their community or the wider world but not really shouting about it. The sheer ingenuity and problem-solving coming out of the tech cluster alone is staggering. We recently recorded a podcast examining why Bristol and Bath are such thriving environments for tech startups.

– Mel Rodrigues, Creative Director of TEDxBristol

TEDxBristol 2019 Tickets: bit.ly/TEDxB19TIX Listen to our new podcast Reflect Rethink Reboot - Listen here or on Spotify tedxbristol tedxbristol.com 310

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ELEVATOR PITCH The Pitch is an annual competition that aims to find Britain’s best new startup. It’s run by Box 2 Media, although it’s been in different hands in the past. The Pitch is over a decade old, so we’ve had the chance to meet and support some amazing businesses over the years.

OUR STORY The competition is split into two parts: our boot camps and the final. We take 250 startups to free boot camps around the country, where they attend workshops to boost their business knowledge. The focus is usually on areas like sales, marketing, and finance, but it changes each year. The startups always work with a pitching coach, too, who will help them with the content or delivery of their pitch. At the end of a boot camp, each startup pitches to a room of their peers. It’s always a really friendly and supportive atmosphere—we often see founders helping each other with their pitches beforehand and keeping in touch after the event. The Pitch is unique in that way. Even though it’s a competition, everyone ends up rooting for other businesses to do well. The top 15 startups go through to a grand final in London, where they pitch to an audience of entrepreneurs, journalists, and investors. They have the chance to win one-on-one mentoring with our judging panel, which is made up of industry-leading entrepreneurs. The Pitch has inevitably gone through changes over the years, but it continues to thrive because it’s created a lasting community. We’re still in touch with people who competed years ago. Unlike other competitions, it’s never been about pitting startups against each other. The Pitch celebrates startup stories and gives founders the skills and inspiration they need to succeed.

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Chris Goodfellow, Founder and CEO, The Pitch

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ELEVATOR PITCH have really drawn the spotlight to the area. We decided that this rapid increase in commercialisation activity deserved some recognition. We spotted that there are many award ceremonies championing technology and startups but that there was no regional platform to celebrate science and deep tech. This, along with our desire to unite the new community and raise the profile of the region as a burgeoning hotspot for innovation, inspired the award ceremony.

In June 2019, the inaugural LAUNCH Great West awards were held in Bristol. LAUNCH GW celebrates scientific and deep-tech innovation emerging from the South West and Wales. The event provided the opportunity to showcase the scientific commercialisation activity in universities, as well as the growth of scientific startup ecosystems across the region. The term “Great West” refers to the regions of South West England and South Wales, as defined in the Life Science Sector Deal, part of the UK Industrial Strategy. This influential report highlights the Great West’s blend of fast-growing scientific industry and infrastructure, SME ecosystems, and world-leading research. Added together, these ingredients define a community that is primed to realise two ambitious goals: to become one of the best places to start and grow a business and to help build the world’s most innovative economy.

The awards themselves honoured the achievements of startup and spinout companies commercialising scientific research across all scientific disciplines, in eight categories that recognised achievements from recently incorporated ventures to those companies that have secured noteworthy fundraises and exits. Support from organisations and members of the community, instrumental in the startup journey, was also recognised. Award application statistics revealed that more than half of all award nominations were submitted by companies incorporated within the last two years, displaying the impact that the developments and investment into infrastructure for this industry have had in fueling the formation of science-driven spin-out and startup companies and accelerating the growth of this industry.

OUR STORY Until recently, the region has not been renowned for science innovation and has lagged behind the activity seen in London, Oxford, and Cambridge. However, as infrastructure to support science-driven and high-tech companies has developed, we have seen rapid growth in the numbers of these companies in a short space of time. The introduction of engineering and wet lab facilities has lowered the barrier to entry, enabling the community to thrive and gain some traction, while news stories of the incredible successes of some of the more established spin-out companies

LAUNCH Great West is set to be an annual event, celebrating the achievements in science innovation across the region. It will take place in other cities across the South West and Wales in subsequent years. We look forward to seeing how the Great West evolves as an innovation hub and celebrating the achievements and successes of this community as it gains momentum and the companies grow to have a real impact in the world.

@launchGW launchgw.com

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Social Media Week Bristol provides an innovative platform to showcase the South West’s talent and expertise to the wider world, alongside providing grassroots opportunities for networking, knowledge-sharing and engagement with the wider business community across the region.

In 2016 the global conferencing platform Social Media Week landed in Bristol to an overwhelming welcome from the city’s media, marketing and tech community. It’s since become a significant event for Bristol’s business community and 2020 will be its fourth year.

Bristol is widely recognised as a world-leading centre of creativity and innovation and the event brings together key players that contribute to knowledge-sharing. The conference also aims to facilitate collaboration with businesses and enterprises that have yet to fully realise the potential of social media. And, supporting Bristol’s reputation as a connected and collaborative city, Social Media Week Bristol has become a great platform to build online and offline relationships locally, nationally and internationally with delegates traveling from as far afield as UAE, Poland & the US to visit the event.

Starting in New York 10 years ago, Social Media Week is now presented in over 25 cities worldwide and is recognised as the leading platform for sharing insights into how social media and technology are changing business, society and culture around the world. Three successful editions of Social Media Week Bristol have been delivered to date with each event having attracted over 2,000 attendees who’ve enjoyed a range of talks and workshops from leading organisations including CIPR, B&Q, Depop and Aardman Animations.

The week-long conference hosts a range of events, talks and seminars across the city, which are targeted at people of all professional levels and backgrounds. From C-level execs for major brands, influencers and bloggers to startups.

Home to some of the country’s leading brands, creative businesses and marketing and communications agencies, Bristol is the only city in the UK, outside of London, to host this truly global conference.

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The events are curated to deliver a programme that aims to upskill, inform, explore ideas and further the conversation on key industry issues in media, marketing, technology and culture. The programme is geared to support all levels of experienceâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;from those who want to advance their basic understanding of emerging technology, mobile and social media to those who are already at the cutting edge of new trends and want to be inspired. In addition to hosting home talent, Social Media Week Bristol has also enjoyed keynotes from international giants Facebook, Buzzfeed, Twitter, Glassdoor and Yahoo, providing invaluable insights into the importance of social media along with tips and tricks on how to maximize its results for businesses. Helping draw more visitors into the city, the conference has also worked closely with a multitude of Bristol-based businesses and organisations, with sponsors and partners including Business West, Foot Anstey, Access Creative College and ADLIB. Agency sponsors have included Fat Media, Fourth Floor Creative Co, Home, Noisy Little Monkey and Nomensa and industry supporters include the DMA, PRCA, IPA, BMC and CIPR SW.

Tel: 0117 905 1177 info@smwbristol.co.uk smwbristol smwbristol.co.uk

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We base our model on observation, analysis, good practices, and connection with the audience. In this approach, parents have a crucial role.

We started two years ago with the mission of providing a platform to connect technology with young people and the general public.

If we want to encourage kids into the world of science and technology, we need to get the parents involved in the process.

Bristol has a wealth of groundbreaking innovations and a vibrant ecosystem, and our goal is to make this knowledge accessible to everyone regardless of their education or background. In a technology-driven world, we are facing significant challenges: a shortage of STEM skills, gender inequality in the technology industry, and an adult workforce that needs upskilling.

Parents have a huge influence on their children’s decisions, and our experience has shown us that young people but also parents don’t have enough information about the opportunities and new careers in technologyrelated areas.

Technotopia was born to build connections between our communities and the technology made in our region. From talks on artificial intelligence the future of work to workshops and hands-on activities for children, we explore diverse topics in an engaging way.

A Tech Love story

We believe that empowerment and a sense of agency are crucial, and what better place to start than our city?

After two successful events this year and as a part of the newly created Bristol Technology Festival, we are preparing an even bigger celebration of science and technology.

Connecting people with the future

Bristol Tech Fair 2019 is the first event of its kind in our city, and it will bring a range of activities and opportunities for everyone to enjoy.

Young people and adults get enormous benefits from living in a city where technology thrives, and it is in this environment where innovation and creativity flourish.

With the theme of “A Tech love story”, we want to feed the natural curiosity children have around technology, showing them and their parents the joy, excitement, and benefits technology can bring.

Following young people’s interests, we encourage them to be creators of technology, also integrating arts and the design of products that are relevant to their lives.

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Karin Rudolph, Founder

Kids and families will have the chance to experience Virtual and Augmented Reality, participate in and range of sessions including Robotics, Coding, Design and Prototyping, and other hands-on activities. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll also offer a presentation on diversity and inclusion hosted by the Wise Campaign and a Careers Fair in partnership with Tech 3 Shed, which will provide information and guidance on training and job opportunities for parents attending the event. Collaboration has been a key element in our success and we are grateful for the network of local supporters including Engine Shed, Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tech Hub, and The WISE Campaign, among other organisations that share our vision.

The Founder Karin Rudolph is a sociologist with a deep interest in the relationship between people, culture, and technology. Karin decided to start Technotopia in 2017 to connect local technology with young people and a non-technical audience.

Come and join us! Bristol Tech Fair is a FREE event taking place on Saturday, 9th November, 2019 from 10 amâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;4 pm at the Colston Hall.

She is currently developing a model to include young people in the design of new technologies.

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MEET OUR TEAM

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Ben Shorrock – Ben is the MD of TechSPARK leading on our strategy and operations. He sits on several local steering groups including the Bristol Tech Festival, the UK Tech Cluster Group, Tech South West, and the Bristol One City Economy Board. He’s passionate about driving the growth of tech in the area.

TechSPARK is the one-stop community hub for the Tech Industry in the West of England. Through our network, editorial stream, events, and specialist programmes we sit at the heart of the UK’s most connected and collaborative tech cluster.

OUR STORY

Geraint Evans – As our Editor, Geraint leads on everything you see on the TechSPARK website, from editorial to the events and jobs boards.

Founded in 2011 by a team of volunteer tech & digital professionals, TechSPARK is there to promote all the great work being done in the cluster and foster our burgeoning tech cluster. Nowadays we:

Sarah Keates – Our Event Manager is the person behind the 70+ events we run every year – including our flagship SPARKies Awards, Bristol & Bath Cyber Conference and TT50.

1. organise over 70 events a year, including the SPARKies (the largest tech awards outside London), 2. write an unbiased blog of what we think is relevant to the community with no sponsored posting, 3. host an events calendar and a jobs board so everyone can access all the community has to offer.

Ashley Wheeler – As Head of Partnerships, Ash is the person to go to when you want to get involved with our amazing network or support our programmes. Lucy Paine – Community Lead Swindon and Wiltshire, Lucy helps create, co-ordinate and grow our community in Swindon & Wiltshire. Vanessa Champniss – As our Social Media Manager, Ness makes sure people know the brilliant things going on in tech locally and engages our community digitally. 319

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ELEVATOR PITCH Bristol24/7 is the first port of call to find out what’s happening across the city and is at the heart of the local community. Its high-quality, independent news, in-depth features, what’s on listings, and everything in between is produced by a team of experienced and talented journalists. Bristol24/7 represents the whole of the city and works hard to engage with and provide a platform for marginalised individuals and hard-to-reach communities. The free printed magazine has around 70,000 readers each month and the website has over 200,000 monthly visitors. Bristol24/7 also has some of the biggest social media channels in the city.

OUR STORY Bristol24/7 also produces a wide range of annual publications, including the well-respected food and drink guide for the city, EatDrink24/7, the Better Business magazine, Student Guide, and Festival Guide as well as producing the programmes for some of Bristol’s biggest events such as the Harbour Festival and International Balloon Fiesta. But Bristol24/7 is more than a local media company. As well as being Bristol’s biggest independent magazine and website, it has always strived to have a positive impact on the city and the people who live here. An award-winning work experience programme provides real-life experience to a wide range of young people, including those who would not usually get opportunities to develop skills in the media industry. More than 500 people have gained work experience at Bristol24/7 HQ with many going on to follow careers in journalism. Some are now working at national newspapers.

This initiative includes Better Business, a membership which has grown to over 60 organisations since it launched in November 2018. Better Business helps these businesses thrive whilst creating a positive impact on Bristol and the people who live here. It delivers these goals by amplifying businesses’ voices, encouraging collaboration, creating new relationships, strengthening old ones, celebrating business in the city, making staff happier, and finding ways that the business community can help solve some of the city’s problems.

In 2017, Bristol24/7 launched an ambitious social impact programme, delivering projects that have changed the lives of many who live in the city. These projects include How To Be A Chef, a bi-annual 12-week course in partnership with Square Food Foundation, that is aimed at young people who aren’t at work or in other education. The course delivers practical qualifications, invaluable experience, and has directly led to many graduates gaining permanent employment in the industry.

Bristol24/7 also launched a public membership, allowing its readers and the wider community to support the organisation, get involved with our projects and events, and engage with the online content. These members are rewarded with lots of benefits, including the magazine delivered to their

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Lowie Trevena collecting the Diverse Publication Award on behalf of the whole Bristol24/7 team at the Bristol Diversity Awards 2019.

door, free tickets to Bristol24/7 events, and perks from partner organisations, including free and discounted food and drinks, days out with the family, and gig, theatre, and festival tickets. This innovative membership model is proving successful and is allowing Bristol24/7 to expand and improve its editorial output, continue to develop life-changing projects in the city, and further grow and engage its community.

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A team of some of the city’s leading industry figures manages the organisation, each representing our members from the digital, advertising, animation, tech, design, marketing, PR, publishing, film and TV sectors.

We work in partnership with local industries to deliver projects: Visualiser – an apprenticeship program in collaboration with Babbasa, Ujima radio, Bristol City Council and Cirencester College.

Bristol Media is the membership body combining Bristol’s creative sectors into a force for championing the region on the national and international stage.

Our City – our annual short film competition for Bristol’s young people to win £1000 by submitting a 90-second film that captures what makes our city the most creative, rebellious, diverse and pioneering place to be.

About Bristol Media

Ben Martin Apprentice Award (in association with Babbasa and the IPA) – opening the door to young people from all backgrounds to provide an opportunity to break into the creative industry. The winner attends SXSW along with a cohort of agency professionals and is offered paid internships with local agencies to support them in their future employability.

Created in 2005, Bristol Media is a non-profit CIC and one of the largest creative networks in the UK. We are a membership organisation, whose purpose is to put Bristol on the map as a world-leading centre of creativity and innovation in order to inspire talented people to work in the region, as well as attract customers and drive growth.

The CreaTech Manifesto (in association with TechSPARK) – helping local politicians understand the industry by outlining how we can build on the vision to be a globally recognised region leading the combination of creative, culture and tech.

We facilitate collaboration and help develop skills, support business growth and deliver events and opportunities for over 600 of our member companies within the creative industries.

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Membership benefits By joining our membership community, individuals and organisations receive preferential rates for events, unlimited free job advertising on South West Creative Jobs, and can create a member profile in our online directory. We also offer a range of other discounts and special offers with local partners and suppliers, which can be claimed by showing the mobile membership card.

Photo Credit: Jan Andes

Email: info@bristolmedia.co.uk linkedin.com/company/bristol-media-cic @Bristol_Media bristolmediagroup bristolmedia.co.uk

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Women’s Tech Hub is a social enterprise working on increasing gender Diversity in the Tech sector. We believe there is a want in the industry to ensure there are the skills to enable the industry to thrive, and for that we believe that diversity is the key. We have over 1,000 members in our local network that believe in our cause and wish to be part of it, as well as some large and small local companies that wish to support us.

Women’s Tech Hub ~ Bristol grew out of Bristol Girlgeekdinners, where Serrie Chapman and Constance Fleuriot met and recognised a need to share what women in tech were discussing within the industry. They wanted to develop space for clear conversations about the lack of diversity in tech while actively developing solutions—the idea of Women’s Tech Hub was born.

We set up because we recognised that there was a missing piece in the puzzle; whilst we were all working with women’s groups in networking to support women through Girlgeekdinners, grrrlgames, etc., and we believed that there also needed to be a two-way conversation with the industry to help us proactively support our mission. We were also being approached by business who were searching for ways to help improve their diversity but were struggling with a manner in which to reach out to women and other groups.

We have created a great support system for women in tech, focusing on practical strategies such as peer mentoring, training & confidence boosting. We recognise that the more we support each other, the more we can get out there and inspire others. We have many returners in our network and seek to get them back into the industry they love as well as many women talked out of tech who have enough interest to want to change careers and need support navigating the industry. Currently, we run a networking group on Fridays supported by a local co-working space Desklodge where we meet members and help them navigate their way into tech, support women struggling in the industry and offer general support and career advice. We have partnered with a local progressive recruitment agency with this so that we can also manage the interface with recruiters by having a clear and positive engagement.

We would like to eventually franchise and have a Women’s Tech Hub in every city as we see this as a general issue and not just the South West and Bristol’s. We are moving constantly towards this aim through building up a reusable model and understanding what would be needed to expand and allow a franchise model.

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Dr. Constance Fleuriot

Thanh Quan Nicholls

Artist and writer developing my own creative practice and games projects as well as working for others, eg., as a gameswriter for Auroch Digital. As a creative technologies researcher Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked for HP, Intel, NESTAfuturelab, pmstudio/Watershed and other community-based and educational organisations. I help people to develop ideas and research plans and especially enjoy working on projects that encourage people of all ages to be creative producers, rather than consumers.

Having worked across a variety of sectors, I bring 18 years of professional management and economic development experience to senior relationship building and partnerships. I am an experienced creator of new teams and collaborations. I provide market development of workspace, thought leadership on flexible working, city promotion and inward investment, economic development and strategy, research and evaluation, community and business engagement, and project and programme management.

I run grrrlgames to encourage women into games design and am a cofounder of Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tech Hub.

We run a bi-weekly workshop on peer-supported learning where we invite companies offering support to both women learning, or in tech, to improve their skills whilst also supporting our Women Tech Founders members on financial and business support. We partnered with a local group called codehub on this, so whilst it has some women-only groups, we are inclusive of men also. This is now managed mainly by our new COO Susie King, who has stepped up to help the group manage, grow and organise itselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a silver lining for us!!

Serrie Justine Chapman

We have an inclusive careers fair where we ensure that all members wishing to talk to tech companies or looking for a new job to come along and we coordinate the event to ensure that everyone has a chance to speak to the companies they wish to speak to (something lacking in many tech career fairs). The next one is on November the 9th in Bristol at the Colston Hall where we are partnering with the WISE campaign (Women in Science and Engineering) and Technotopia (supporting children and families to engage in tech) to host a Tech Fair. We love collaborating as we believe that through collaborations we are more able to meet our common goals.

Serrie has a 20+ year career ranging from pre-silicon verification of system-on-chip design, requirements management, product management, and model-based system engineering and is currently working as a principal safety engineer in ISO26262 on an autonomous bus project (which she loves!). She has been involved from an early stage in the Bristol Girlgeekdinners project (set up in 2010) and has been an organisor for the past 5 years and a bit.

We aim to improve the diversity in tech to help enable tech to be inclusive, support women into great careers and also allow them to have a supported voice. Since we have been going we have helped over 200 members through support to change or move jobs and careers.

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“I am looking for a lot of people who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.” – HENRY FORD

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ELEVATOR PITCH individual employees. This is what we believe makes it innovative and powerful as it gives complete transparency through a business, from performance management to career progression, and links the pillars of a business together.

NORTHSTAR is a real-time holistic and continuous appraisal system giving staff a feeling of autonomy and ownership over their destiny while also giving Managers and Directors fantastic visibility of activity and ways to develop staff productivity and careers—all delivered in a beautifully presented web platform. We truly believe we are challenging standards and ‘traditional’ thinking with NORTHSTAR.

NORTHSTAR is a technology founded on appraising staff, resulting in better team management and improved mental well-being, as users are able to take control of their career and feel successful and happy. Key to the NORTHSTAR platform is its three modules: People Analytics, Sales Analytics, and Business Analytics. All aim at answering the questions ‘How do we develop the best workforce?’; ‘How do we achieve the best performance?’; and ‘How do we create the best business?’

OUR STORY NORTHSTAR was founded by Glyn Blaize and Darren Ryemill as an ‘out of the box consultancy platform’ for growing recruitment organisations. What the NORTHSTAR team subsequently identified was the opportunity to create a tool to bridge the void between outdated and failing staff appraisal processes, happiness at work, and the CEO’s vision. We have been able to create real-time feedback on activity, to facilitate performance development at all levels in an organisation.

NORTHSTAR forges its own path and does something very different from other platforms. Rather than stop at a great appraisal process and platform, or provide great data analytics, NORTHSTAR blends the two together in a unique mix of activity analytics and agile appraising of staff. What makes NORTHSTAR so special is two-fold. Not only does it help businesses improve their processes and profitability, but it also creates a vehicle to develop employees and present them with better career prospects by marrying their wants, needs, and desires with the goals of the key stakeholders of the business. NORTHSTAR is a product that puts people first. Its people analytics tool means employees have control of their own future, and the business wins.

Our software is completely unique and innovative within the recruitment space. What makes NORTHSTAR truly special is its ability to communicate important data insight in seconds through beautiful visuals which are ‘easy to digest’ and act upon. During the design and delivery of the early NORTHSTAR prototype, we did thorough research to uncover the best way to present data to users in an engaging way. It takes 13 milliseconds to see an image and the brain will continue to process it following exposure. The aim was to present data with striking visuals that were both informative and time-efficient. Each of our software modules presents the data visually, using a colour-coded system to give a quick and clear indication into the nature of the performance.

The future for us is not only bringing NORTHSTAR to a wider market but bringing an additional element to the platform: harnessing the power of machine learning and AI. Bristol and the South West is a fantastic hotbed of technology, innovation, and business, and as we grow we want to be a catalyst for growth in the businesses we work with, thus providing more jobs and economic growth.

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MILESTONES Some notable achievements that go beyond financial success include the 2018 release of docu-series, The Movement, on Amazon Prime which both featured and was won by NORTHSTAR founder Glyn Blaize. The Movement was a competition for rising entrepreneurs to receive significant financial investment by pitching their platform in a series of elimination rounds. Another notable success for the founder of NORTHSTAR was being awarded a position on the Bristol24/7 BME power list 2018; a joint partnership between the University of Bristol, Bristol Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Union, and Bristol 24/7, the list showcases and celebrates diversity across the city.

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2019 Finalist - Bristol Life Awards 2017 Finalist - Recruiter Award / Onrec Awards 2017 Winner - Best recruitment Technology â&#x20AC;&#x201C; RI Awards 2017 Finalist - The SPARKies

NORTHSTAR Innovation Group northstar.ai

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Kristal McNamara

ELEVATOR PITCH Clients often come to us as they have tried a traditional approach themselves and also with other agencies and they have not found the talent they are looking for. With our business background and flexible working focus, we can help them to shape their roles to make them more innovative and attractive, and give them access to our network of talent. We have been able to fill roles where internal HR teams and other agencies have failed, working closely with our clients and using our insight to secure the right fit of skills and culture — and the best talent.

Flexology is a Bristol-based recruitment agency that specialises exclusively in placing talented candidates in flexible roles at a professional level. We work with innovative South West businesses of varying sizes on recruiting both full- and part-time flexible talent with a strong industry focus on Finance, Project Management, HR, and Marketing roles. The world of work is changing, the benefits of flexible working are compelling, with evidenced links to improved business and financial performance. However, in Bristol and the South West, the number of parttime, job share, and other flexible roles are limited and a large and growing talent pool is being overlooked. We very much see flexible working practices as the future for work and employment — in all types of business, for all ages and genders and at all levels of seniority.

We have an extensive business background in Finance and Project Management; Kristal and Shelley left the corporate world and launched the business after being frustrated themselves at the lack of senior roles with any flexibility. They decided to create a solution for the growing pool of talent that wants to work more flexibly.

OUR STORY

We love Bristol; Kristal is Bristolian and Shelley has lived here for a number of years, we are excited to grow our business base here, there is an abundance of talent here and some amazing innovative businesses to work with and support as we grow.

Flexology’s business proposition is unique in the Bristol market, in that we’re the only recruiters who are focused solely on professional appointments on a flexible basis. By this, we mean part-time and full-time roles with flexibility, such as compressed hours, home/office split and early/ late start and finish times.

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Shelley Snelson

Thank you so much for your work on this role, it has been great working with Flexology and I would love to work with you again in the future. You have succeeded in this role where many other agencies have failed! I would have no hesitation in recommending you to others.

Flexology are extremely professional in their approach, taking the time and effort to really understand our business, the roles and the characteristics that would fit in our teams. As a consequence, we had fewer interviews with a very high success rate of candidates interviewed. This has saved us huge amounts of time, whilst the success of the candidates we employed has made a positive contribution to the success of the company.

Bristol-Based Charity, HR Manager

Our experience of working with Flexology has been very, very positive. I’ll look forward to working with Flexology further in the future, in the hope you can help us fill our remaining vacancies.

Bristol-Based Tech company, MD

Bristol-Based Digital SME, HR Manager significant professional experience—rather than experienced recruiters. This is a USP for Flexology. We believe that our business expertise and experience as hiring managers give us a greater, more rounded understanding of the challenges facing both employers and employees— much more so than traditional target-driven recruitment agencies.

St Brandons House Great George Street Bristol South West, BS1 5QT Email: contact@flexology.co.uk Phone: (+44) 0117 2141224 instagram.com/flexologyworks twitter.com/Flexologyworks facebook.com/Flexologyworks flexology.co.uk

In addition to our recruitment services, we also offer consultancy services to innovative and forward-thinking businesses who need support to move from a traditional working pattern by default to a more flexible, agile environment. We love placing candidates in flexible roles, but the chance to transform an entire workplace is even more exciting to us! 332

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Structur3dpeople

MENTORING AND SUPPORTING WOMEN INTO A BRIGHT TECH FUTURE ELEVATOR PITCH

Women in technology need to be seen…. if you can’t see them, you can’t be them

With the fourth industrial revolution, the UK tech sector is booming, creating more jobs than it can fill. Women make up 47% of the workforce in the UK, yet only 20% of tech jobs are held by them. When looking further at the next generation, only 1 in 10 young women are currently taking A-Level computer studies. This fast-growing, dynamic sector is changing our daily lives, from travel to banking and how we eat, where diversity plays a huge part. So how do we support more women to see the exciting careers that technology can offer them?

Social media has great power to influence and inspire. We saw this as a great opportunity to raise the profile of women already working in technology careers, encouraging them to step forward as Tech Role Models, so they inspired a new generation of women. Using a hashtag to take diversity global, our #GettingMoreWomenIntoTech campaign has reached many countries in Europe and further afield, with hundreds of women sharing pictures and bringing together men, women, and teams to support more women into the sector.

OUR STORY

Mentoring is a brain to pick and support in the right direction

With most companies using technology as an integral part of their business, demystifying what digital and technology careers look like is crucial in helping more women to enter and advance in this workforce of the future.

We were constantly hearing from women about the challenges they faced and the barriers that prevented them from entering the workforce or advancing their careers. It steered us to curate and deliver hugely successful, year-long mentoring programmes for women in the UK. We recognised that returners, career changers, students and women who want to reach the highest level in their career all need support and guidance on how to get to the next level. We saw great results within the first 6 months of our programmes, with 50% of women applying for new roles and securing them.

Structur3dpeople is a tech business that helps organisations attract and retain diverse talent and focuses on supporting women through learning and development. It was founded by Rav Bumbra, following a 20-year career in the tech industry. Driven by her innate passion for women to view technology as an attractive career path, she wanted to drive a solution that would benefit both women and employers and one that would positively influence the gender gap in the tech and digital sectors, looking at new ways through which she could encourage, motivate, inspire, and equip more women to fill this void.

With a call from these women to roll out our programmes nationwide so more women could benefit, we looked at innovative ways to provide women everywhere with the opportunity to receive mentoring and support on the “GO”. In 2018 we launched Cajigo®, a mobile learning platform, to empower women globally, building confidence and guiding them through knowledge and advice given by industry mentors, which can also be used by businesses looking to upskill their female employees.

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Reducing the STEM gender gap in schools Studies have shown the gender gap starts in schools and through our research we found that mentoring and support, tailored to the younger generation, can have a huge impact; one that would see inquisitive minds explore what technology has to offer them. Our Cajigo Schools Programme helps teenage girls to understand what being a “woman in tech” really means in the 21st century. By showing these girls the exciting opportunities that tech careers can offer now and in the future, it encourages them to learn more and join in. 90% of the girls we talk to want to work within the technology and digital space and can see themselves sitting on a board in the future. Through raising aspirations, we are encouraging more girls to see their limitless potential in a tech future that is bright.

New policies have to be embraced to attract female talent, creating workplaces where women can thrive With the many challenges faced by organisations in building a diverse and inclusive workforce, we believe senior executives who drive diversity from the top will see greater impact on efforts being made in this space. “Businesses are now starting to understand that diversity does lead to better outcomes and can keep them ahead in competitive times. However, companies are finding it difficult to attract female candidates and when they do, they struggle with retaining the talent they worked so hard to find. New policies therefore have to be embraced to meet the needs of companies today, creating workplaces where women can thrive. Employers have to think about how they are fostering a sense of belonging, to attract women who will want to grow with their business,” says Rav Bumbra.

“Technology is creating new industries and transforming existing ones; exciting, game changing and dynamic careers offer new opportunities for women to wrap technology around their passion to work in jobs that have real purpose to them and in society.” – Rav Bumbra, Founder Structur3dpeople and Cajigo

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where women’s wellbeing was as important as the work we do and, most importantly, the primary purpose was purpose and becoming the change we want to see in the world—together. I hosted a conference “Women on Purpose – Connect, Create, Collaborate”, supported by the RSA, where I talked about this idea. The response from the attendees was remarkable and my call to action from them was loud and clear—this is unique and much needed and we want more.

simplyhappy incorporates evidence-based, practical tools for positive transformation to be used with individuals, communities, and organisations to help increase and improve happiness, health, and wellbeing.

OUR STORY Throughout her professional life, the focus of Michelle Preston’s work has been the creation, support, development of a wide range of wellbeing projects and programmes within the VCSE sectors. simplyhappy is the synthesis of a lifetime’s work and learning, underpinned by Post Graduate Applied Positive Psychology.

“And so SWOP (Simply Women on Purpose) was born, supporting women to improve their wellbeing and create a purpose-driven life using a combination of workshops, presentations, interactive activities, and networking underpinned by positive psychology. Offering low-cost community-based events and workshops where women leave with an expanded sense of possibility, more able to nourish themselves and with clarity on how to become their own changemakers. Creating true connection at all levels, participants are provided with practical tools for positive transformation and for living an authentic life filled with purpose and meaning.

“All of my work has at its core a desire to create positive change whether this is at a personal, professional, or community level,” says Michelle. Her areas of expertise range widely, from positive psychology coaching and consultancy to positive-change facilitation to conscious business creation, support, and development, and more.

“The next stage for simplyhappy and SWOP, a brand new way of co-working for women, is happening here in Bristol. The city has just been named the best place in the UK for female entrepreneurs and so it makes perfect sense to choose this city to launch something truly innovative that helps support this.”

Another project under simplyhappy’s umbrella is Simply Women on Purpose (SWOP), which enables women to harness their personal power to drive forward change in their communities, their workplaces, or in their own lives using the themes of connect, create, and collaborate. “I first had the idea for SWOP four years ago when I started looking for what was out there for women like me, women who place purpose at the centre of all they do, women who have found and follow a path with heart, women who are changemakers, women who are difference deliverers, and women who want to be and do all of these things,” says Michelle.

TESTIMONIALS Michelle is able to take the seed of an idea, germinate that idea, and help you to grow it into a coherent business plan. Like many people with an idea or skills to develop, I don’t have the expertise to develop it any further. Michelle’s innovative and creative approach has helped me to develop that idea and come up with a comprehensive business plan to move forward with.”

Despite searching, she could find no such network and so established it herself. A project and network, SWOP helps women to improve their wellbeing and create a purpose-driven life using a combination of workshops, presentations, interactive activities, and networking—all underpinned by positive psychology. The development of SWOP has been supported since its inception by The RSA (Royal Society of Arts) who also named Michelle as one of five women changing the world on International Women’s Day 2018.

—Karen Monkman, House Steward, National Trust Michelle is inspiring, dynamic, and is a breath of fresh air. A joy to work with, and fantastic on a personal level. Her ideas on social change and helping individuals find their path are amazing, and never feels like hard work at all.”

Michelle explains, “I began creating a new network, where women could come together, where the focus was on being supported and supporting,

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Michelle Preston

Michelle Preston, PGDip, SSE, FRSA Positive Psychologist & Wellbeing Consultant Happiness, Purpose & Meaning Coach Feminine Leadership Facilitator Young Personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leadership Facilitator

07754440837 michelle@simplyhappy.org.uk linkedin.com/in/michelleprestonfrsa @simplyhappynow www.simplyhappy.org.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH ADLIB is a Technology, Data, Marketing, and Creative Recruitment Agency with a mission and impact that goes far beyond recruitment. We connect ambitious organisations with equally ambitious talent. We immerse ourselves in the worlds we operate in. A trusted partner, we’ve supported growth and success at pace since 2001.

OUR STORY We are so much more than a recruitment agency. We care about balancing our purpose and profit. We are committed to considering the impact of our decisions on everyone that works at ADLIB, our clients, candidates we work with, suppliers, community, and the environment.

WE BELIEVE THAT WE CAN MAKE THE MOST DIFFERENCE BY FOCUSING OUR COMMITMENT ON 6 CORE AREAS. We help to close the skills gap. Together with industry partners, we’ve formulated ADLIB Career Workshops that provide the next generation with information about potential career paths within the Technology, Data, Marketing, and Creative sectors—emphasizing the soft skills needed, while providing insights into different career path options.

True Team Diversity and Inclusion.

Work & Life Balance.

Part of Team ADLIB is a recruiter dedicated and committed solely to a mission of team diversity, driven by diversity and inclusion, to help our clients with building inclusive and diverse teams and to support talented people from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.

Our marketing recruitment team’s vision is to provide businesses and individuals with the knowledge, tools, and advice that will help them understand the benefits and approaches to finding the right work/life balance.

Beyond this, each of the ADLIB teams has made a commitment to support a cause close to their hearts, a shared common goal they all believe in and want to champion.

Over the past 18 years as ADLIB, we’ve seen the sectors we operate in as well as the region as a whole change and evolve at an astonishing pace. For us, the special thing about being based in Bristol is the opportunity to evolve with and adapt to the market, celebrating growth, development, and the successes, knowing that future prospects are bright. We are proud to be seen as industry partners and to feel part of the collaborative community that is the South West—and to feel fully accepted into it as recruiters.

Green Tech and Operating Sustainably. Our technology recruitment team’s vision is to increase the awareness of local disruptive green-tech businesses and to educate businesses on how they can operate sustainably.

Dive into Data.

One piece of wisdom we can share in this context is a starting point for a very real solution: Embrace current team diversity challenges as a massive opportunity. We are talking diversity in the true sense, far beyond gender balance. For this, we collaborate with a raft of diversity-led organisations to connect them with businesses, to enable companies to recruit from a truly diverse talent pool and to help diversity-led organisations on their mission to enable the people they work with to thrive and grow as professionals. We believe that only by creating truly diverse teams, we can remain the innovative hub we are as a region that continues to thrive and grow.

Our data recruitment team’s vision is to change the misconception of what it takes to break into and build a long-term career in data—enabling a diverse next gen of talent to consider this career path.

Digital Inclusivity and Accessibility. Our creative recruitment team’s mission is to increase the awareness of digital inclusivity and accessibility. We want to ensure that digital products and websites can be understood, navigated, and perceived so that everyone can interact online and contribute to them.

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ADLIB, St Bartholomews House, Bristol, BS1 2NH 0117 926 9530 hello@adlib-recruitment.co.uk @ADLIBrecruit adlib-recruitment.co.uk

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ELEVATOR PITCH Talent is a leading technology and digital recruitment specialist working with thousands of contract and permanent professionals across the globe. Founded by Richard Earl in Perth, Western Australia, in 1995 with the belief that we could create a company that went beyond the normal boundaries in terms of its compassion and belief in people, it has since grown into a truly global recruitment powerhouse. Our consultants find talent for promising startups, small to medium-sized enterprises, public sector organisations, and multinational corporations across diverse industry sectors—but always with a laser-sharp focus on tech and innovation. With a presence across 16 cities and annual revenue close to £300 million, we’re proud to still be independently owned and operated, and believe being different is the key to progress.

OUR STORY of digital tech businesses in the region is in excess of £7.9 billion. For Talent, being part of the local ecosystem as it grows and drives innovation is essential to cement our place as the leading recruiter in the region, and one that truly understands the tech industry.

Across Talent, we’ve made a commitment to break from the pack and redefine recruitment. We’ve created a truly unique IT, technology, and digital specialist practice providing an unparalleled level of service and care for our candidates, clients, colleagues, and community. This is evidenced by our recent award at the 2019 Recruiter Awards, where Talent was named the UK’s “Best IT/Technology Recruitment Company”, as well as being named a recipient of Gallup’s global 2019 Great Workplace Awards.

Embracing technology innovation to enhance our service and support to our community is a priority of ours. We recognise the contribution startups provide towards the economy and proactively support this direction through our global Unleashed awards, as well as local events in the South West.

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The Talent Unleashed Awards identify companies and business leaders using technology to transform the world, creating inventive solutions to business challenges or social issues, and support and assist them to grow their businesses into truly world-changing companies. To date, over 3,000 startups have gone through the programme and received valuable publicity and recognition, positioning them for future growth in the sector while also promoting the local tech industry. At Talent, we focus on our culture as a business priority and it is this that has enabled us to grow a long-term sustainable business. One driver is to ensure strong employee engagement, and therefore high staff retention. A key differentiator is our strategy of ensuring a culture of diversity and inclusion (D&I) across Talent. Through our authentic, board-driven commitment to D&I, we lift our company profile both internally to existing staff and externally to potential employees. We do this through our People & Culture team, tasked with making organisational improvements and actively promoting an inclusive and supportive environment whilst simultaneously driving a focus on continuous learning and development for our people.

Ground Floor The Quorum Bond Street Bristol BS1 3AE +44 (0) 117 332 0817

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achieved a lot in such a short space of time as a business ensuring that we deliver on our promises.

SR2 stands for Socially Responsible Recruitment. We are a communitydriven tech recruitment startup.

Local Community We donate 5% of our profits to local charities and have so far gifted just shy of £9,000 to our 2018 charity, Caring in Bristol. We will shortly be donating to our 2019 charity partner Changes Bristol who do amazing work in supporting people in our community with their mental-health recovery.

The recruitment industry doesn’t have a great reputation—and we’re here to change that. The cornerstone of our business is built on putting people ahead of profits. It’s only by prioritising our people, our clients, our candidates, and our local community that we can be truly successful. And the more successful we are, the more everyone benefits. It’s a perfect winning circle.

The whole SR2 team have provided over 100 collective hours of volunteering to date across various projects with Feed Bristol’s Homeless.

OUR STORY

We have created a group called ‘Bristol Technology Volunteers’, having identified an appetite within the tech community to give back and put their skills to use within a charity or NFP on a volunteer basis. Lots of charities have technical gripes although don’t have the funds to fix them. With our platform, they can connect with techies who want to help. Whether it’s a new website or database, app development, new equipment, they can turn to Bristol Tech Volunteers for support, something that historically they weren’t able to do!

The Idea: To create a community-focused recruitment company that has a genuine impact, cuts through the stereotype, and has a modern people-first business culture to match. The business was inspired by a book by Dale Partridge called People Over Profit. Having drawn inspiration from the book, founder Chris Sheard started to plan how he could translate what Dale had done with Sevenly into a new IT recruitment company that puts people and the community first. Here began the idea of Socially Responsible Recruitment, SR2 for short.

We have also created ‘Women Rock’, a platform to champion diversity within the South West Tech ecosystem. We consult, gather information, share stories, and give advice to businesses to help them alleviate diversity imbalances. This means helping them establish how to attract, retain, and

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promote diverse talent in their technical teams. We have a blog which contains a myriad of inspirational career stories that we hope will be seen by underrepresented budding techies, thus accelerating a more diverse tech community locally.

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To achieve this, we offer a flexible modern culture with benefits that range from an unlimited holiday allowance, flexi start & end times to extended lunch breaks for people to take care of life admin or take advantage of their free gym membership! All our team are encouraged to get out of the office and volunteer with our chosen charities which is great as they can see the impact that they are having within the local community firsthand. We also run a team boot camp on a Monday at Starks Fitness where we are put through our paces—it ensures everyone is on tip-top form for the week ahead and further contributes towards the goal of all of our team having a healthy body & healthy mind.

Tech Community We invest heavily into the tech community by supporting, organizing, and creating various Tech meet-ups that are free to attend and facilitate networking and the chance to inspire and collaborate with others in a specific field. To date, we have organised and supported over 40 meetups with a combined 4,000 local technical individuals in attendance! Also, we’re proud to say that our consultants don’t just organise these meets and disappear, they take an active interest in the talks, asking questions and making others feel welcome. They also do everything from arranging venues, speakers, catering, event tickets, and the general running of the nights.

What is the company’s vision for the future? The aim is to build SR2 to be the most ethical and community-focused tech recruitment company in the UK—pouring our energy into supporting multiple charities as well as the UK tech ecosystem.

Culture Chris Sheard Runway East, 1 Victoria Street, Bristol, England, BS1 6AA 0117 363 7400 info@sr2rec.co.uk sr2recltd sr2rec.co.uk

A key part of our people-over-profit ethos has been about setting the right culture for our people. We want all our consultants to maintain a healthy work/life balance and, in the recruitment industry, this is something that is nearly always overlooked.

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“There’s always an element of chance and you must be willing to live with that element. If you insist on certainty, you will paralyze yourself.” - J.P. GETTY

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ELEVATOR PITCH Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC) was founded by Jerry Barnes alongside five local influential and successful entrepreneurs in May 2016 and has, to date, provided circa £6M to 18 Bristol-based tech companies, some of whom are progressing to become globally recognised leaders in their specialised sector. These investments have also indirectly provided additional public funds through tax and rates at local and national levels.

Bristol is not as busy as London, but there are plenty of entrepreneurs coming through the system and in the past Bristol relied more on individual backers as opposed to groups. BPEC is now acknowledged as the most important angel group in the South West.

OUR STORY

The Club holds Panel Events each month where prospective businesses ‘pitch’ for investment. Additionally, the Club has a true social aspect with regular events for Members to meet and network.

The Club now has 7 directors, namely Jerry Barnes, Allan Rosengren, Denis Mullan, Julian Telling, Charles Cook, Mark Mason and Heather Frankham. The Club typically invests between £150,000 to £500,000 in businesses in return for a significant minority equity stake and to date has executed 29 funding deals.

The future is looking good for BPEC and we look forward to reaching £10M invested and our first exits coming through.

The Club has over 90 members – all local entrepreneurs with substantial business experience and capital available to invest in Bristol businesses. Not always just a case of funding these growing businesses, most Members wish to get involved in the business they are investing in, providing them with real experience from someone who has a successful track record.

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Ron

Ryan Anthoney

Email: jerrybarnes@bristolprivateequityclub.com bristolprivateequityclub.com

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ELEVATOR PITCH In 2014, crowdfunding and alternative finance were at an early stage and it was almost impossible for new businesses to raise funding to start-up, grow, and scale as bank lending had dried up. Oliver Mochizuki, Derek Ahmedzai, and Baraka Zahabian co-founded Fundsurfer as a new crowdfunding and fundraising company to tackle the lack of access to finance for small to medium-sized companies. Initially, our focus was the development of innovative fintech tools including rewards and donation crowdfunding. We then developed our unique hybrid model to provide crowdfunding, Bitcoin crowdfunding, equity, and debt finance in one place.

OUR STORY In five years we have raised $22m for our clients and grown our network to over 2,000 investors, including family offices, impact funds, venture capital funds, private/direct equity funds, investment banks, and private investors. Fundsurfer is based in Bristol with remote partner teams in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and London. Fundsurfer was the first crypto-enabled, hybrid crowdfunding platform, and is driven by a collective team mentality that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;anything is possibleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Our

Derek and Oliver, Co-founders

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team have deep sector-specific expertise across media & entertainment, impact, tech, real estate, renewable energy, and crypto. A really rewarding part of our work is working with clients at the bleeding edge of technology and innovation. We get to see future technologies as they are being created. Bristol is a fantastic city for innovation. When building the first version of our platform, we were accepted into the SETsquared pre-incubator and accelerator program, an award-winning tech startup incubator. SETsquared provided a brilliant environment, support, training, and opportunities to showcase our company. The local tech ecosystem has been really supportive with Fundsurfer named in Business Leader Trailblazers Top 40 in 2016; our CEO was selected as part of the Insider magazine 42 under 42 in 2017; and Fundsurfer was also nominated for the SPARKies â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Totally Killing it Awardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in 2018.

FundSurfer and Ideanco

advice. With the number of family offices increasing by 46% to 10,000 in the past two years, there is a perfect opportunity for us to streamline the deployment of private wealth finance into innovative companies around the world. Private wealth dwarfs venture capital and private equity combined, and Fundsurfer has built an ever-evolving ecosystem, platform, and network to direct private finance into the companies, cities, and countries that need it the most.

We are working on several exciting projects including the Trillion Fund, an impact-investment portal with the technical and legal mechanisms to supercharge funding into projects in low-income countries. We are also working with partners to develop niche technical and fintech initiatives, including a sharia-compliant equity investment platform. We ran a lean, self-funded model in our first few years to allow us time to experiment and build out our platform. We growth-hacked new business through signing up partners and scouts to access deal flow. It was important to have mentors and advisors who helped us avoid pitfalls and provide

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ELEVATOR PITCH From evolving client expectations to the disruptive technologies rippling through the industry—the world of accountancy is changing. By adopting an entrepreneurial mindset and focusing on innovation we’re meeting these challenges head-on.

OUR STORY Founded in 2012 by Jonathan Gaunt, FD Works was set up with the simple aim of providing ambitious businesses with hands-on finance support and FD-level strategic advice. Our team of 15 specialists now works with over 70 businesses throughout Bristol and across the wider UK. Innovation runs through everything we do as a firm. More than just traditional accountants, we’re an experienced team of advisors, strategists, and consultants. We pair our expertise with the best technology to help those we work with simplify processes and remove pain points. Beyond that, we take time to understand the intricacies of a client’s business and provide actionable insight that makes a tangible difference.

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We believe in the power of collaboration and that success comes from committed relationships that are mutually beneficial and sustainable in the long run. Experience has shown us that good things happen when we share our knowledge, tools, and networks.

Xavier provides accountancy firms and Xero professionals with a comprehensive set of intelligent bookkeeping and compliance tools. In February of this year (2019) the project received Innovate UK funding for a £380k feasibility project looking further into AI for accounting.

To that end, being based in Bristol has been instrumental to our growth. The city has long had a reputation for creative talent, but in recent years has also become the epicentre for technology startups in the South West.

Like many sectors we see finance becoming increasingly intertwined with technology and believe this can only be a good thing, as long as the proposed benefits are fully understood and implemented correctly.

The relationships we’ve developed and clients we’ve attracted in the last seven years reflect our connection with this vibrant business community and wider city as a whole.

Running your own business comes with a raft of responsibilities. When your skills and energy are focused on growing your venture, things like company accounts, administrative tasks, and operational processes can find themselves on the back burner.

We continue to be blown away by the new ideas emerging from Bristol and are proud to count some of the most forward-thinking companies here as our clients.

We believe putting the time in upfront to understand these elements and then developing a ‘tech stack’ to make these processes quicker, easier, and more efficient is crucial. info@fd-works.co.uk 01454 300 999 fd-works.co.uk

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But the Books is a bookkeeping practice helping small business owners who know how to do everything for their business (…but the books) with their monthly bookkeeping and accounts. The business was founded in 2016 by owner Zoe Whitman, an accountant who wanted to empower people to start their own businesses but found that they were often put off by the fear of finances.

But the Books brings the principles of corporate accountancy to small businesses, helping business owners benefit from the insights they can gain from their figures once they have good bookkeeping processes in place.

In 2018 But the Books won the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers’ Small Practice of the Year award, and in 2019 the firm was shortlisted for the British Accountancy Awards Independent Firm of the Year – South West.

Whitman’s view is that success in business is highly dependent on a business owner’s ability to understand their finances. Business owners don’t necessarily go into business because they love figures, but our numbers can tell us powerful stories about what is and isn’t working in our businesses; if your numbers are trying to tell you something you should find out what that is or work with somebody who can do that for you.

Whitman is regularly quoted in national press and industry publications and has been named one of Enterprise Nation’s Top 50 Advisers in 2019. Whitman has ambitious plans for the growth of the business. Having quickly grown But the Books to a team of four, Whitman is continuing to expand the team to be able to service the demand of additional clients whilst ensuring consistent quality service and embracing her values of being able to offer part-time hours and flexible working patterns.

But the Books specialises in working with small businesses in Bristol’s vibrant creative sector. It’s a sector in which Whitman feels But the Books adds real value, and But the Books’ friendly team and jargon-free approach to finance has been fundamental in helping the business stand out from its competitors.

Email: hello@butthebooks.co.uk Phone: 0117 287 2807 facebook.com/butthebooks @but_the_books @but_the_books butthebooks.co.uk 351

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Small Bookkeeping Practice of the Year In November 2018 we were proud to be named the Institute of Certified Bookkeepersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Small Practice of theÂ Year at their annual Luca Awards. Receiving this level of recognition from our professional body after less than two years in business was really inspiring and our Luca Award will take pride of place in our office for years to come.

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VWV’s Bristol office

ELEVATOR PITCH VWV is an award-winning, full service law firm with offices in Bristol, London, Watford and Birmingham. We employ over 420 people, including over 80 partners and approximately 300 other lawyers. Through our established international networks, we also have access to associate law firms throughout Europe, the United States, Asia and in other science and technology hotspots across the globe.

OUR STORY Now located on the historic Harbourside, our Bristol office can trace its roots back as far as 1815. We have acted for (and continue to act for) some of the city’s most well established organisations, including the University of Bristol. Our alumni include Sir George White, who founded what is now BAE Systems. We count amongst our client portfolio a significant number of Bristol’s most exciting science and technology startups and scaleups, including many who you’ll find within Innovate Bristol.

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Nathan Guest leads our Technology practice, which comprises over 30 corporate, technology, IP, data protection, employment, immigration, state aid, tax, property and litigation lawyers. We advise innovative startup, scaleup and SME science, engineering and technology clients on all legal matters relevant to their business and growth.

What Sets Us Apart? Our lawyers are committed to working in partnership with our tech and science startup and scaleup clients, ultimately with the goal of helping them grow their businesses. We take a common sense and commercial approach, using senior lawyers to offer the benefit of their experience, providing free or fixed fee documents, and offering sensible time to pay arrangements. Our primary goal is to provide the legal advice and support that new and innovative businesses need to succeed, but on the basis of a fee arrangement which supports, rather than frustrates, the growth of the business during the startup and scaleup phases. Our approach is also holistic—not just in terms of providing a full spectrum of legal support, but also in introducing clients to other specialists in our network who have the technical and sector expertise and enthusiasm to support our clients. We work closely with our renowned Healthcare, Pharma & Life Sciences, Energy, Information Law and Education sector teams. This means that we are able to offer clients deploying science and technology into those sectors a comprehensive range of legal services and sector expertise to support their business as it grows. We also act for venture capital funds, angel investors and universities, which helps us understand their priorities.

VWV receives the Bristol Life Award in the Legal Category (2018)

Nathan Guest and Charlie Guy, Co-founder & CEO Lettus Grow, and winner of the “Best Elevator Pitch” at SETsquared Bristol’s Tech-Xpo 2018 354

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Supporting the Bristol Ecosystem

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the local universities and have sponsored the University of Bristol’s New Enterprise Competition since 2012.

Bristol is a city with a rich history of innovation, but it is also a city which has historically struggled to draw sufficient attention to the science, technology and engineering advances that have been fostered by companies founded or operating out of the city.

To discuss how we can support your business, contact Nathan Guest at nguest@vwv.co.uk or on 0117 314 5289, or visit vwv.co.uk.

Happily, the city has taken giant strides in its national and international profiling in recent years. Organisations like Tech Nation now rightly highlight Bristol as a city which is out-performing many larger UK cities. Companies such as Graphcore, Ultrahaptics, Blu Wireless, and Ziylo have also put Bristol back on the global innovation map.

“SETsquared has worked with VWV since 2006, most recently providing the invaluable ‘Lawyer-in-Residence’ service to our early-stage, high-tech, high-growth members.

What Others Say About VWV

“Such businesses need special understanding and face particular challenges. The team at VWV have always done an exceptional job at helping solve these challenges, providing the entrepreneurs with professional support with an entrepreneurial style.

We are recognised in the Bristol region for our expertise and collaborative approach, and we are ingrained in the local innovation infrastructure. For example, we provide a (unique in Bristol) free, weekly, 3-hour “lawyer-inresidence” service to SETsquared Bristol (part of the global number one business incubator and enterprise partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey) and a similar fortnightly service to SETsquared Bath (also known as the University of Bath Innovation Centre), services which we have provided since 2009 and 2014 respectively. In 2017, we launched similar services at Future Space, The Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Unit DX. In total, we spend at least 30 hours a month “inresidence” at these incubators. We also support innovation programmes at

“The most important facet of a legal adviser, from an entrepreneur’s perspective, is knowing that you are working with someone who has a desire to understand your business and give you candid advice and feedback. You get this with VWV.” —Nick Sturge MBE, Centre Director at Engine Shed, Bristol, and former Centre Director, SETsquared Bristol

Jim Cossey - Magic Hour on the Docks - taken near VWV’s Harbourside offices 355

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Charlotte Bermingham, Co-founder & CTO of Vitamica, wins “Best Elevator Pitch”, presented by Nathan Guest, at SETsquared Bristol’s Tech-Xpo 2019 0117 925 2020

An Award-Winning Law Firm

VWVLawFirm VWV vwvlawfirm VWVLaw vwv.co.uk

• Law Firm of the Year 2017—Bristol Law Society • Bristol Life Awards—Legal Category Winner (2018) • Ranked in independent legal directories Chambers UK and Legal 500

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“We support technology customers and providers. By that, I mean we advise innovators looking for investors, buyers, or business support. But because we understand the market we also advise those on the other side looking to buy new tech or bring a service into their organisation.

Law firm Foot Anstey was founded back in 1908, but it’s the last decade which has been its real growth story. Turnover has expanded by 95% in the last six years alone, catapulting it from a regional player to a Top 100 law firm.

OUR EXPERIENCE LEADS US TO COMPLEX TRANSFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS SUCH AS NEW TECHNOLOGY PROCUREMENT, MAJOR OUTSOURCING, OR MAXIMISING VALUE FROM EXISTING TECH.

OUR STORY

EMPOWERING ADVICE

Its modern Bristol office, complete with over 160 staff, overlooks the developments currently going on across Bristol’s central Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

“Having a network of contacts means we’re not simply providing legal support, we’re full collaborators in our clients’ success.

While other firms try to be all-things-to-all-clients, Foot Anstey made a deliberate decision to focus on its six-core sector specialisms and grow them organically. As a result, it is currently one of the UK’s fastest-growing law firms.

“We fit into Foot Anstey’s other sectors, so we have a natural focus on RetailTech, FinTech, and CleanTech. We also do a great deal of work in transport and infrastructure. “What clients are looking for is straightforward practical advice which is aimed at solutions. That’s the opposite of the kind of ‘on the one hand this, on the other hand, that’ advice which lawyers are famous for—and isn’t really ‘advice’ at all.

One of Foot Anstey’s sector services is Media and Entertainment, in part serving Bristol and the South West’s world-recognised tech and creative hubs. Foot Anstey’s Technology practice area is run by partner Martin Cuell. He said, “Although we’re a national firm we’re proud of our South West roots. The South West is a special place and we’re heavily invested in the region’s technology community.

“We take the time to understand our clients’ strategy. It’s vital. Only when I’ve understood where a client is trying to get to can I give the advice which will empower him or her to make the right technology decisions.

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2 Glass Wharf, Bristol, BS2 0FR contact@footanstey.com +44 (0)117 915 4900 FootAnstey Foot Anstey LLP Foot Anstey footanstey.com

Martin Cuell Partner

WATCHING THE DISRUPTORS “Supporting the region’s tech sector is something we’re actively engaged in beyond our legal advice.

South West–based businesses such as Bunk, Immersive Labs, and Tickitto. “Bristol has long been an innovative city, but it feels like it’s on the cusp now of something really big. It’s a great place to be passionate about tech.”

“In particular we create collaborative initiatives across the region to spotlight, support, and help connect the technology ecosystem. “Our flagship activity is spotlighting new and emerging technologies by cocurating the annual Disrupt SW index. That identifies and supports the top 25 disruptive tech businesses in the region. This has included innovative

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INDEX 3Sixty Digital

271

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Friska 235

Sandeep Roy (Innovate2Grow/SMEinnovation)

Fundsurfer 347

Scribeless 149

Gapsquare 159

Seatox 151

Goram & Vincent

265

SETsquared Bristol

Greenhouse PR

291

simplyhappy 335

GWS Robotics Ltd

105

Socialight 281

Gympanzees 191

Social Media Week Bristol (SMWB)

a2ztech 125

Harry Destecroix (Unit DX)

Solverboard Innovation Management Platform 145

Aardman 195

Home 259

Spin Up Science

Access Creative College

Hotpod Yoga Bristol

SR2 341

14 187

315 93

ADLIB 337

Innovate2Grow/SMEinnovation 127

STL Tech

Airbus 51

Interactive Scientific

165

Street2Boardroom 247

AMBITIOUS PR

115

287

iXport 143

Structur3dpeople 333

Armadillo 261

JMPUK 209

Sun & Moon

Ashton Gate Stadium

183

KETS Quantum Security

133

Sven Boermeester (Global Village)

Atomic Smash

255

201 24

Knowle West Media Centre

249

Talent 339

AutonoMe 245

LAUNCH Great West

313

Taxi Studio

269

Ben Shorrock (TechSPARK)

LettUs Grow 39

Tech Nation

Luke Jerram Ltd

219

Technotopia 317

Luna 9

277

TechSPARK 319

Box 2 Media

19 275

Briony Phillips (Engine Shed) 12 Bristol24/7 321

Markas Gilmartin (Brewin Dolphin)

TEDxBristol 309

Bristol Connected City

Mark Probert (Newicon)

Temple 1852

Bristol Is Open

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol

Bristol Media

323

Maths with Parents

Bristol Old Vic

223

Micrima Ltd

175

The Pitch

311

Mind Doodle

147

The Social Detail

283

The Square Club

233

Bristol Pound CIC Bristol Private Equity Club

7 97

297

Temple Studios

297

The Bottle Yard Studios

207

345

Monika Radclyffe (SETsquared Bristol)

Bristol Robotics Laboratory

101

Mr B & Friends

263

The Wave

189

Bristol Technology Showcase

307

N-and Group

113

Tiny Giant

273

Bristol UNESCO City of Film

205

NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator

TOG Knives

135

Broadley Creative Ltd

279

Newicon 117

Triple Co Roast

241

Brunel’s SS Great Britain

229

Nick Sturge MBE (Engine Shed)

TrueStart Coffee

237

71 11

Bunk 45

NORTHSTAR 329

Trunki 137

But the Books

351

OggaDoon 289

Unit DX

Col8 167

Oliver Reid (NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator) 16

University Enterprise Zone (UEZ)

Colston Hall

OnCorps 163

University of Bristol

University of the West of England (UWE)

227

CookiesHQ 121

Open Bionics

CytoSeek 177

Oracle for Startups

Data3 161

Origin Workspace

301

Verve Properties (Paintworks)

Deckchair 267

Perkspective Photography

215

VIKA Books

Delib 37

Pervasive Media Studio

DeskLodge 303

Potato Bristol

Develop Me

Engine Shed

Realise Design

107

VENTURER 41 43 141

Vitamica 171

257

VWV 353

QTEC 59

Watershed 225

123

William Britton (AutonoMe)

Evoke Pictures Lifestyle

213

REPLICATE 31

Women’s Tech Hub ~ Bristol

325

FD Works

349

Richard Godfrey (Rocketmakers)

XMOS 131

Flexology 331

Rocketmakers 119

YellowDog 157

FluoretiQ Limited

Rockit 139

Yena 79

173

FOLIUM Science

179

Rumpus Animation

199

Zara Nanu (Gapsquare)

Foot Anstey

357

Runway East

295

Zeetta Networks

FRANK Water

251

Sado Jirde (BSWN)

21 359

Zero Green

153

I N N O V A T E

B R I S T O L

InnovationsoftheWorld.com

SHOWCASING THE BEST OF THE WORLD - CONNECTING MINDS - BUILDING COMMUNITIES

The Innovate series is a 300+ page in-depth study and AR video series that showcases the people and companies that are leading the race within the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems of each city and industry. A book with augmented reality videos, an online platform and a global network with a common goal of ensuring the brightest minds of the world connect and succeed.

IT’S A KIND OF MAGIC...

Make sure your back camera is pointing at the page. Click the Play button that appears onscreen and immerse yourself in the latest updated content with reference to that page.

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