A group of Bristol and Bath’s leading tech sector entrepreneurs are going to Buckingham Palace on Monday (9 June 2014) for a special reception given by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
The event is being held to recognise and celebrate the growing contribution of the technology sector to the UK economy and the country’s proud tradition of innovation.
The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will be joined by The Duke of Cambridge, The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent and The Duke of York, who is a long standing supporter of SMEs and the technology sector.
The Bristol and Bath region’s reputation as a technology cluster is developing rapidly across the UK and abroad and Bonnie Dean, chief executive of the Bristol & Bath Science Park, who is also attending the reception, advised organisers on which businesses and individuals would best represent this growing strength in the region.
Speaking ahead of the reception, Bonnie Dean said:
“We’re delighted to be invited to the Palace as representatives of the UK’s incredibly dynamic and vibrant digital technology sector – which with the convergence of technologies is becoming vital to the future of the UK economy. The Bristol and Bath region is home to some of the most innovative tech start-ups with global ambitions.”
The Bristol and Bath group attending the reception include: Glenn Smith, co-founder and chief executive of MapleBird, a start-up company developing the smallest Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the world; Mark Probert, creative director at Newicon, developer of bespoke, cloud-based software for businesses; Nicola Ray, managing director at technology marketing agency Modern Media; Nigel Austin, CTO at healthcare technology solutions firm Cayder; David Maher Roberts, managing partner at technology start-up consultancy Digital DNA and inspiration behind the revival of business angel investment funds in the region, Jeremy Laycock, director of engineering for Ripjar, a software start-up specialising in cyber security big data systems; Dr Tom Dawson, managing director of Rescon, which specialises in human performance technologies and Simon Bond, innovation director of SETsquared, the award-winning enterprise partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. He is also director of the University of Bath Innovation Centre.
Approximately 350 guests are expected to attend the reception including established innovators and business leaders, academics and investors as well as representatives of technology start-ups.
