Posts Tagged ‘TW09’

BBC: London 2012 is once in a lifetime opportunity

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

2012When the Olympics arrive in 2012 it will be the third time the games have been to London with the BBC having covered them for the first time there back in 1948.

However, in the ensuing years coverage of the event has changed beyond all recognition and the advent of digital and of course mobile has opened up opportunities that were seen as futuristic and merely ‘pie in the sky’ back then.
As Ben Gallop, head of interactive and Formula 1, BBC Sport, explained to a packed room at TW09, “This is genuinely a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.”

Gallop was speaking alongside the Mobile Data Association and revealing how the advent of new digital and mobile technologies would transform the spectacle for us all.

During Sydney 2000 the host broadcaster produced 4000 hours of coverage while the BBC managed just 300 hours, he explained. But when Athens came around these figures had gone up to 4000 and 1250 respectively thanks in a large part to the advent of the Red button and the move towards interactive at the BBC. (more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in TechnologyWorld09 | No Comments »

Praise for TechnologyWorld 09 from Kevin Buckley of Cambridge Design Partnership

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Kevin BuckleyPraise has been flooding in for this year’s TechnologyWorld09 conference, and no-one has been more vocal in his admiration than Kevin Buckley of Cambridge Design Partnership.

The Cambridge Design Partnership specialises in outsourced product development, and was instrumental in the development of both the Dulux Paint Pod and the Road Angel speed camera.

Kevin was particularly impressed with the range of suitable companies to talk to. “We’re meeting quite a few delegates from Japan, which is an area of interest for us. This year all the people we have met have been looking to find UK companies to do business with. All the people here are business development people with an expectation of actually talking to you. So even if you’re queuing for a coffee, you can turn around and talk business to a reciprocating, interested representative.”

“If you put this event on twice a year, we would come to both!”

Tags: ,
Posted by LIVE Team in Sector Champions | No Comments »

Interview with David Mooney from Drallim Industries

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

David from Drallim Industries describes the products he creates, and how innovation is a key aspect in his work.

Tags: , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in Company Profile | No Comments »

Cambridge Wireless Healthcare – The Mobile Continuum of Healthcare

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

WirelessCambridge Wireless Healthcare have been leading a series of seminars at this year’s TechnologyWorld09 conference. This afternoon they led a discussion on the future of telemedicinal health care.
Telemedicinal services represent a huge part of future health care developments. From remote monitoring of patients through to improvements in the care of those who require assisted living, there are many opportunities for telemedicine to both benefit the health care of the poorly and ease the strain on overburdened health care workers.

However, a bias towards traditional monitoring tools still remains in the health care sector. Often times secondary arguments such as agreeing upon standardised communications channels hinder progress within telemedicine services. As Justin Pisani of Hidalgo LTD states, “Unfortunately 2.5ghz doesn’t really have any healing properties.”

(more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in TechnologyWorld09 | No Comments »

Codeworks Connect – promoting digital businesses in the North East

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

codeworksconnectCodeworks Connect is the trade association working with more than 300 companies in the North East. Set up in 2004, they provide expert advice and support to businesses of all sizes – whether single-operators or FTSE 100 companies – helping companies working in the fields of web design, IT solutions, graphic design and pretty much everything else that fits under the digital umbrella.

From regular networking events such as the monthly ‘think and drink’ meetings to coordinating specialist advice, Codeworks Connect helps their members to realise their potential. They are also the organisation behind the prestigious annual Thinking Digital event, which attracts speakers from around the globe, proof (if any was needed) that they have the world-class experience and expertise to support their member companies in their sector.

Twenty people from fifteen Codeworks Connect member companies have attended TechnologyWorld09; the delegates we spoke to explained that the Codeworks Connect team taken pains to provide everything that would be necessary for them at the conference, booking hotels, organising meetings and setting up meetings that may well lead to potential partnerships.

Jill Newey, Managing Director of business development and project management agency Rise, explained that the networking opportunities at TechnologyWorld09 have been key for her business. She found that it has been as valuable to meet other Codeworks Connect member companies as it has been to meet other companies at the event – by sharing the experience and attending TechnologyWorld09 as a group, they have found potential opportunities for working together.

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine is at TechnologyWorld09 to represent CannyBill, a web-based invoicing and billing solution for businesses and web designers. The idea for the company came about 18 months ago, after Wladimir’s web design company did some work to launch an e-commerce company. Looking for to improve brand awareness and meet new people, Wladimir explained that Codeworks Connect helped his company to attend the event when costs might otherwise have been prohibitive.

 Ross Conney, a representative from premium spam and virus filtration company emailcloud, said that attending TechnologyWorld09 alongside other Codeworks Connect members had not only been financially viable but had also been much more practical – his company doesn’t necessarily need a stand of its own to demonstrate its product, and sharing the Codeworks Connect stand with other brands gave him the chance to attend a show without a huge financial investment. He also commented that, out of the nine business leads he has made so far, two have been with other Codeworks Connect companies; like Jill, he believes that getting to know other member companies will for many brands be just as valuable as any other contacts they make at events such as TechnologyWorld09.

 Other Codeworks Connect member companies attending TechnologyWorld09 include: 

Pebble, Komodo Design, Rozmic, Auto Sum Accounts, Orange Bus, Orangepanda, Oolioonline.com, STCS, 5G Technologies Europe

Tags: ,
Posted by LIVE Team in Company Profile, Sector Champions, Sector Specialist | No Comments »

Software as a Service

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

cloud-computingDay Two of Technology World 09 saw a seminar chaired by David Terrar, Chief Executive Officer of D2C, discuss the benefits of implementing the Software as a Service business model.

Despite advances in cloud computing, there is still a psychological barrier between the Software as a Service model and UK businesses. Many companies still cling to an “on premises” approach to both storage and applications despite the many benefits offered by remote options. However, as Nigel Hartnell, director of FFastFill PLC warns “there isn’t going to be another model for ten or fifteen years for mainstream applications ” . It is an approach UK business must be ready to adopt if they are to keep costs down and compete worldwide.

Software as a Service providers offer remote hosting and management of software and data. They remove the need for costly servers, time consuming installations and pricey IT maintenance. With applications in the Software as a Service model being web-based, employees can easily access all the data and tools they use in the office from anywhere around the globe. And with data stored on multiple servers around the world, information is kept very safe in regards to disaster recovery.

Using the Software as a Service model also offers incredibly attractive pricing options. Often the price of ownership is lower than a traditional installation in terms of long-term maintenance and development costs. With payment for the software usually in the form of subscriptions, the model offers flexibility, as the long-term commitment made to expensive installed software does not apply.

With so many potential benefits on offer, the advantages of adopting the Software as a Service business model cannot be denied. It can push costs down and drive productivity up for UK businesses, and should be seriously considered by any companies looking to cost-effectively expand.

Image Credit: Examiner

Tags: , , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in TechnologyWorld09 | No Comments »

Interview with Dan Illet from Greenbang

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Dan Illet from Greenbang discusses the potential effect of low carbon technology on the economy, and looks at innovation in the green arena.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in Sector Specialist | No Comments »

Monetising the mobile infrastructure with Spot ID

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

spotid_It’s a boom time for designing and deploying mobile business models in the UK. But are British companies maximising the potential revenue that could be extracted from the mobile infrastructure? According to Luke Glen of Spot ID, businesses are not leveraging the potential of many communications channels at their disposal.

Spot ID looks to maximise customer reach by bridging the gap between the physical and online shopping domains using a mobile phone and social network channels.

Any product or deal can be given a unique ID tag which Spot ID users can use to gather and share information from via a messaging service. The service sends a direct response to the consumer’s request for information onto their mobile phones, which, unlike traditional search engines, does not feature any advertisements which could distract a consumer away from their original intended purchases.

What many businesses fail to capitalise upon in the mobile market is the growing importance of social communications networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Here Spot ID comes into it’s own; users can direct information gathered from Spot ID to their Facebook and Twitter accounts which, using a drag-and-drop interface, can easily be shared around their social networks. It’s the logical evolution of “word-of-mouth” product promotion.

Spot ID looks set to become  an excellent alternative to Short Codes, a costly format in short supply which companies currently rely too heavily  upon to reach their target consumers.

For more information, visit Spot ID.

Tags: , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in Sector Specialist | No Comments »

Social media: debate and definitions

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

twitterWhen the first day of TechnologyWorld09 came to a close yesterday, the last session of the day addressed the question on the lips of every CEO looking to crack the world of Web 2.0: How can businesses use social media to create value? Unfortunately for all the companies at TechnologyWorld09 and beyond, the answer can’t yet be summed up in less than 140 characters.

For a start, the audience signalled that the question required definition. Just what is social media? Marketing and Communications expert Helen Keegan summed it up neatly as ‘media that is two-way instead of one-way’; Redcacto Director Benjamin Ellis reaffirmed this idea by explaining that the reason many companies are afraid of setting foot into the social media arena is that we are ‘obsessed with controlling brands’, something that is impossible to do in an open dialogue.

Next, we need to define ‘value’. And here comes some key advice: judge your social media success by the value its activity has added to your business or the amount of additional product you have sold, not the number of followers you have on Twitter. But, unfortunately for those hoping to hear the secret, nobody can yet guarantee how to add that value using online communities.

One message came from the panel loud and clear: there are no experts. Not yet, anyway – in a field so young, with rules as yet undefined, there is no hard and fast, step-by-step process to social media success.

And this was reflected in the differing standpoints of the panel. Helen advised companies to ‘join in. There’s people already doing it. You can learn from what they’re doing by joining in.’ However, Toby Constantine, Marketing Director of Market Evolution, reminded us that there is no need to rush, describing the opportunity as ‘an opening door’, and recommending that businesses only ‘get involved when you are ready’. Just as the world of social media is itself a dialogue, the ‘rules’ for businesses within social media are still very much up for debate. 

Tags: , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in TechnologyWorld09 | No Comments »

Company profile: Games for Life

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

gamesfor_lifeGames for Life is a UK company providing a range of ‘mind-controlled’, brain-training computer games for children that are not only educational but can help to tackle the symptoms of attention-related disabilities.

While at university, Director Ian Glasscock – specialist in psychology and cognitive neuroscience – researched technologies that could sense human sensory activity. Fascinated by the monitoring of brain activity, he discovered that certain technologies were actually capable of improving attention spans and, working with his daughter to test the effects of these technologies, Games for Life was born in June 2008.

The games themselves involve a headpiece, which is fitted with sensors in order to non-invasively monitor electrical activity in the brain, linked to a computer. When the wearer is completely focused, characters within educational game will move effectively to complete various tasks – however, whenever concentration is lost, the characters will simply stop.

“It’s the same premise as physical exercise,’ explains Ian. “This really is ‘brain-training’. Other brain-training technologies out there don’t necessarily require the user to be focused. You can use them whilst listening to music, or while the TV is on in the background. But when playing our games, the child really has to concentrate properly, and this is what can help to improve the symptoms of attention-related disorders.”

In July this year, Games for Life completed a study with Hertfordshire County Council schools. The results (which are to be released very shortly) were positive, showing that pupils experienced a reduction in the symptoms of attention-deficit disorders, and Ian hopes that parents and educators will become increasingly aware of technologies that can provide a non-medical solution to these learning disabilities.

“What’s frustrating for me is that parents visit my lab on a weekly basis, unaware that technology can offer a non-medical alternative to their child’s condition,” he explains, conscious that some parents and children would rather not take medication. “They don’t realise that there are alternatives. But what inspires me is using pioneering technology to provide a real-life, real-world solution.”

For Ian, TechnologyWorld09 has not only been a chance to see what innovations are taking place in the UK, but also what government-related support infrastructures are available to growing UK technology companies. “We’ve found them to be extremely supportive,” he explains. “It’s a chance to speak to someone who knows more than I do about business support.” 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted by LIVE Team in Company Profile | No Comments »
 1  2  3 »