CoInnovate Conference aims to celebrate and showcase the collaborative nature of the tech South West cluster. Held on 11 & 12 October in Cardiff’s Mercure Hotel, it brings together industry leaders and businesses for a roster of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions.
The line-up includes high profile speakers such as: Rob Rolley, Technology Director at General Dynamics; Nick Crew, Operations Director of Airbus Endeavr Wales; Caroline Thompson, Entrepreneurial Development Manager at NatWest and that’s just to name a few.
The event offers free platforms – SME Expo and Pitch Live! for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contributing to technology and innovation to showcase their capabilities to business leaders, investors and other like-minded collaborators.
With a focus on Aerospace & Defence, Life Science, Medical Devices & Diagnostics and Power, Energy & Transport, we caught up with conference manager Dr Denise Powell to find out more.
TechSPARK: In a nutshell, what is CoInnovate and how did it come about?
Denise Powell: CoInnovate is a unique open innovation initiative that is designed to bring leading innovators together in the spirit of collaboration. It was developed in 2015 by a number of multinationals, the Welsh Government, the ESTnet and the KTN (Knowledge Transfer Network) to engage technology providers in addressing opportunities and challenges.
“We will be well positioned to tackle some of the grand challenges that societies are facing globally”
Leading innovators across industry and academia will come together to share best practice on innovation methodologies and explore key initiatives, technologies and opportunities needed in building sustainable technology clusters. By aligning expertise across hardware, software and processes, we will be well positioned to tackle some of the grand challenges that societies are facing globally; from power consumption and safety through to the increasing pressures on transportation and healthcare.
SMEs are playing an increasingly important role in technology development, thanks to their agility, creativity and specialism. In recognition of this disruptive community of innovators, CoInnovate offers free platforms for SMEs to showcase their capabilities, including Pitch Live! and SME Expo.
TS: Who should come along?
DP: The event welcomes delegates who engage with or work across the innovation ecosystem spectrum; from scientists, designers and engineers through to business leaders and entrepreneurs.
“Innovation (extracting value from ideas) goes beyond pure technology; it needs a deep understanding of the application space”
We have found that diversity is key for our Innovation Camp workshops. This is where teams explore a problem-space and come up with a potential collaborative project that will address the challenge. Innovation (extracting value from ideas) goes beyond pure technology; it needs a deep understanding of the application space, a lot of creative thinking, effective design principles and an engineering mind-set to have an appreciation of the challenges in progressing technology through to commercialisation.
This year’s challenge themes will need a broad range of capabilities, including connected devices, Big Data, sensors, metrology, AI, VR, image recognition and visualisation, power management and materials to name a few. The Innovation Camp at CoInnovate is a great way for SMEs to promote their expertise, connect with like-minded collaborators and potentially build their capabilities into collaborative projects to develop new technologies, products or services.
TS: What will the judges of the Pitch Live! session be looking for?
DP: The entry review panel and the Pitch Live! panel will be looking for exciting technologies, capabilities and ideas that have the potential of delivering a positive impact on industries, markets or society. The route for implementation and growth is also important and extra consideration will be given to those looking for collaborative partners.
Winning: Llinos Lanini and Eugene Fitzgerald
with the winner of last year’s Pitch Live contest
TS: What theme are you focusing on?
DP: Successful technology clusters can deliver a major impact on economic growth. A critical, united mass of activity and expertise is essential in attracting inward investment, skills and international companies to locate or collaborate with regional organisations. Close proximity alone is perhaps not enough, but it is the interaction of these organisations and individuals around opportunities, collaborating across sectors and fuelled by creative thinking that may go on to deliver real impact.
“Entrepreneurship and spin-offs lie at the heart of technology clusters”
Entrepreneurship and spin-offs lie at the heart of technology clusters, but strong involvement from academia, large organisations and government are also key parts of the puzzle. In essence, it comes down to having the right environment for accelerating the commercialisation of ideas and technologies through partnerships and we will be exploring the ingredients that will support such environments.
TS: Why have you chosen to host the event in the South West?
DP: Stretching from Swansea to Swindon and the GW4 regions, all with top-class universities, a budding culture of entrepreneurship, leading multinationals and a positive community feel, the South West of the UK has a lot to offer. Better collaboration within the region will undoubtedly add to the successes already established.
“We are well-positioned to continuously disrupt and deliver economic growth”
It has been recognised that significant expertise and skills exist across in the region on compound semiconductor technologies. These are key enabling electronic materials that will drive future technologies in a number of markets and applications, including transport, healthcare, communications and power management to name just a few. Combined with the capabilities the region has to offer on aerospace, defence, medical devices, software and lighting, we are well-positioned to continuously disrupt and deliver economic growth. We look forward to discussing how we can join the dots and position the region as a leader in a number of areas.
We encourage SMEs to get involved with Pitch Live! and SME Expo and bring their creativity and energy to the Innovation Camp workshops!
CoInnovate conference is being held on 11-12 October at Mercure Holland House, Cardiff. People working in technology and innovation should register at www.coinnovate.co.uk where you can also register for the Pitch Live! and the SME expo too. Keep up with updates by following the Hashtag #CoInnovateConf.
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[Image Credit: Huw John]
