We were lucky to be joined by three excellent speakers, Martyn Wallace of Telefonica O2 who shared his vision on the emerging digital landscape and the impact faster platforms and connected devices will have over the next few years; Tom Crawford of Sense Marine, a truly innovative tech business based in the Alba Innovation Centre who gave a very frank and open presentation on what companies need to do to ensure they create robust sustainable R&D and the importance of it for any technology business; and  keynote speaker Jane Bromley, an world reknown inspirational speaker who asked the audience if they had identified their market, did they understand their clients requirements and was their product right to satisfy these needs?

The presentations provoked many discussions around how to grow a successful technology business, how to capitalise on the opportunities on offer and how to ensure the business evolved as the market changed.

Exhibitors spanned a range of key market sectors including Electronics, Software, Med-Tech, Energy and Digital Media and we were rewarded with the ability to take part in a number of exciting innovative demo’s including Cobra Simulation’s curved screen technology; Sense Marine’s pipe and cable tracking machine; Design LED’s thin, flexible light technology and Tantallon’s Energy Monitoring Software.

Lots of discussions took place between the exhibitors and the attendees around new business, investment deals and routes to market.  Will Alba Open Doors 2 be a reality….watch this space!

The greatest challenges Sales face is getting in the door and communicating value effectively and they now must rely on Marketing to help navigate the buyer’s journey with higher-quality leads, sales- driven programs, and industry-led content.

In this ‘chalk & talk’ workshop Scot McRae, Managing Director of marketing automation specialists McRae & Co,  will outline the new approach winning companies are adopting to drive growth, build predictable pipelines and unify Sales and Marketing into one smarter, joined up approach that maximises ROI:

1. Latest Research: The ever-changing world of B-to-B Buying

2. Unifying Sales & Marketing into one integrated approach: One funnel to rule them all

3. Best practice for….Developing compelling customer-centric content

4. Knitting it all together – A masterclass in Marketing Automation

Location: TechCube, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

• Attend the forum, discuss your issues and challenges with experienced industry entrepreneurs and learn from our ‘Inspirational Global Leaders’.

• Take part in the networking and strengthen your relationships.

• Come along to the dinner and join your peers in celebrating the young talent in our universities; catch up, kick back and enjoy the atmosphere at one of the most relaxed awards dinners you’ve ever attended. 

Date : Thursday, 29th August 2013

Venues :
The Global Forum takes place at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Edinburgh and the Awards Dinner will be held at The National Museum of Scotland

Exhibitions are a place to meet, greet and do business. Investing time and effort in the build-up to an exhibition is only one part of the equation. Equally important is how well your team relates to and reacts with existing and potential customers on stand.

They are the actors and actresses at the show. Well targeted exhibitions provide hundreds of opportunities to trade at a time when customers want to talk. It is a highly competitive market place where you have short. sharp periods of time to make the deal.

Scottish Enterprise are providing a free practical ‘Exhibition Skills’ training session which offers time ‘out of the office’ to prepare and plan business development activity ahead of time. This day programme looks at developing skills for specific exhibitions, up skilling your most prescious asset – your people. This will ensure that each stand operates to maximum efficiency.

This is vital! The lessons learnt will be useful for companies attending shows in the UK and internationally.

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Make sure you get your nomination in by emailing Karen.Meechan@scotlandIS.com with the name of the CEO you’d nominate, company name and 5 bullet points as to why you think they deserve the title of CEO of the Year 2013.

All nominations will be collated and the final list will be voted on by the Scottish Digital Technology Industry. The award will be presented at the Digital Technology Awards event on Thursday 20th June 2013 at Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow.

Do you need to find the decision makers in a large OEM or an IP lawyer that specialises in cloud software?

ICS and the Alba Incubation Service team will host 4 separate speed networking sessions at Scotland’s Technology Show on 11 June in the SECC, Glasgow, in the Technology Connections Zone where we would like to invite you to come along and find the RIGHT connections for your business.

You will be asked to give a one minute pitch to introduce your business and identify who you wish to make a connection with.

The audience will be invited to share any contacts they have and if a contact can’t be identified in the room, ICS will take that away and try to find the right connection for you*

No need to pre-register for the workshop, just register for Scotland’s Technology Show and come along on the day.    http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/microsites/technologyshow.aspx

Technology Connections Timeslots:
10:30 – 11:00
11:30 – 12:00
12:30 – 13:00
2:00 – 2:30
Got a question?  Contact marketing@innovationcentre.org or phone us on 01506 592100.

ICS are specialist providers of technology innovation and economic development service across the UK.   ICS delivers the Alba Incubation Service and operate Alba Innovation Centre on behalf of Scottish Enterprise by providing specialist advice and support to innovative technology businesses across Scotland.  Find out more at www.albainnovationcentre.co.uk  Scotland’s Technology Show is organised by Scottish Enterprise.

*in some instances you may be introduced to an existing contact of ICS within a business rather than the person you are looking to make contact with.  Hands-up, we don’t know everybody but we do have a rather large database of contacts!!

Electronics

Design LED

Design LED Products are a young lighting technology company who have developed and patented a thin, flexible Light guide structure with embedded Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

The unique physical properties are:

• Thin (typically 2mm)
• Mechanically flexible
• Scalable size – Larger area part are created by “tiling” individual parts
• Very light weight.

The key functional advantages are:

• Control of the directionality of emitted light – focused or diffuse
• Low operating temperature & self cooling – no heat sink required

These can be used to create innovative new products in consumer & commercial lighting, backlit signage, automotive interior, illuminated capacitive switches & other emerging applications.

Demonstrations will include thin under shelf lighting units & a consumer luminaire product

Sense Marine

Sense MARINE Ltd’s business is focused on the research, development and manufacture of sub-sea measuring equipment.

At the exhibition they will have their pipe and cable tracking machine on dispaly. This machine trawls through the seabed and using  unique approach to sensors, signals and processing helps organisations track underwater pipelines and cables to ensure that any issues are identified and corrected before disasters occur.

A2E

A2E delivers electronics hardware and software design services across a range of industry sectors.

Our team of engineers have extensive expertise in areas such as ATEX, safety integrity levels(SIL), wireless networking, sensor technologies, smart metering and electronics for operation in high temperature/ pressure environments. A2E will be showcasing some of their innovative designs during the Open Doors event.

Oran Audio

Oran was founded in 2012 by Roger Duerden, an engineer with over 20 years’ experience in the electronics and semiconductor industries. With a passion for the music industry Oran is bringing a completely new approach to the audio electronics and industrial design.

Oran Audio will be demonstrating their prototype VM1 mono power amplifier.  This product blends thermionic valve technology with sophisticated solid-state electronics to deliver superior output in musical devices.  The design embodies new research into output transformer design, and the management of valve manufacturing tolerances and variations in characteristics with aging.  Industrial design has been a key element in the development of the product, which is packaged in a compact and ergonomically designed chassis.

Cobra Simulation

Cobra Simulation brings together a unique industry leading management team to deliver high quality cost effective immersive displays & simulation solutions. Founded in 2012 the company’s core objective is to utilise, improve and bring together existing technologies to create unique products that continue to deliver the high quality demanded in today’s markets more efficiently.

Cobra will be demonstrating their curved screen technology which has important applications ranging from telecommunication to training. They will have 2 pods on display which will give attendees the opportunity to try automotive and radio controlled helicopter training packages.

Optoscribe

Optoscribe is a high tech start-up specialising in novel 3D laser micro-manufacturing technologies. They will be demonstrating their Optofan-3D which has great implications for accurately determining shapes in three dimensions. This technology has implications across a huge range of fields including the aerospace, medical, wind turbine and even automotive industry.

Funky Moves

First seen on Dragon’s Den Funky Moves is an young energetic start-up company with a passion for physical activity and sport.

They will be demonstrating their innovative contributions to the sport sector with their Funky Moves cones, which utilise lights to create a fun and engaging challenge. On the 30th of May, Funky Moves will be running a competition utilizing the cones with some great prizes for the winners!

Jordan Shaw

Jordan Shaw are working to enable people from all walks of life, who have memory issues, continue to live independently by reducing the risks sometimes posed by their forgetfulness.

They will be promoting their product “the Hob Angel” which provides an important aid to help reduce fires caused by leaving the hob on – whether or not the pan is still in place. This technology will help a large cross section of vulnerable people and help enable them to live fuller freer lives.

Energy

Tantallon Systems

Tantallon Systems have developed a new approach to the control and management of energy within buildings which allows energy to be managed as an asset. The EnergyFusion™ system is an intelligent building energy control system, (IBECS),   which is designed to control and optimize the use of energy within one or a group of buildings. It may also have an important role to play in the management of Micro-grids where the management of energy resources and their relationship to the National Grid become important.

EnergyFusion™ has three central goals:

1. The management and optimisation of the energy consumed in buildings reducing the energy used for lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation etc…

2. The management of the energy generated and stored within buildings, (for instance from, Standby Generators, Photovoltaic panels and energy storage systems)

3. Co-operative control with the Electrical Power Grid using demand response controls to both curtail the load and to supplement the supply to the Grid at times of need

EnergyFusion™ has demonstrated in trials that it is able to save large amounts of energy and reduce the CO₂ footprint of buildings

Codbod

Codbod combines services and cloud technology to help companies reduce environmental impacts and associated costs. It enables companies without in-house expertise to measure environmental performance, maintain and analyse relevant data, map impacts and assets as well as providing point in time reports for customers and regulators.

Software

Internet Light Industries

Internet Light Industries is powering the intention economy with its new TRUSTLii Customer and Citizen Engagement Platform. TRUSTLii establishes individuals as the true owners of their personal data and puts them firmly in control of their online privacy. It helps organisations of all shapes and sizes connect directly with their audience and use the power of big data to deliver tailored products and services to those that really want them. Led by entrepreneur James Thomas, the company’s management team has over 100 years’ combined experience in business, information technology, data security, project management and blue-chip finance.

forWhereiAM

forWhereiAm Ltd is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of an enabling technology that connects local businesses to their local markets. It has developed a patented multichannel technology which enables the delivery of very targeted real-time messages online and on mobile devices. Coupled with a patent-pending pricing model, forWhereiAm has created a unique platform which provides a cost-effective and efficient marketing solution to businesses of all sizes.

Base Brand Management

Base is an online brand management application that was developed in order to give large corporations and SMEs a straightforward, cost effective way to create branded, agency-quality marketing material for their organisations. Base enables companies to create marketing materials in-house without having to employ a professional designer or rely on outside design agencies and without sacrificing the creative or aesthetic quality of company marketing literature.

Digital Media

Plantedd

Plantedd are the online marketplace for the things that you want to grow.

Plantedd are bringing rare plants right to your doorstep. Through developing relations with greenhouses across the country and acting as a single online marketplace, they are able to supply plants you won’t be able to find in your local garden centre.

XBL Gamer Hub

XBLG is an Xbox Social Network in which every member can update their status, post videos, images and write gaming blogs. Bringing people with a love of gaming together this great gaming network even lets members organise and host their own gaming events, making LAN parties and WAN parties easier for all hardcore and casual gamers.

Distrify

Distrify is a powerful suite of digital tools that turn the entire internet into a movie marketplace. With Distrify’s unique trailer-based shop, consumers do not need to find another platform once they see your trailer – they can simply click “Rent” or “Buy” or “Cinemas” and watch or engage instantly. People enjoy discovering and sharing things they like, and Distrify makes sharing and discovering films fun, simple and profitable. Distrify works best for the new generation of producers and distributors who are actively engaging with their audience online (and offline) and using social media.

Global Identity

Global Identity have structured their business consultancy centre, around supporting individuals and business, to deliver an integrated approach that enables sustainability in the day-to-day activities, with the appropriate safeguards and with financial efficiencies. By effectively embedding into our culture that the Internet can provide an enhanced level of wellbeing, we work in partnership with reputable organisations, in order to deliver the ideal pathway for you to remain in control, wherever you are.

The GiD System provides a means for one party to verify the identity of another via the web, it provides a ‘trust seal’, thereby it establishes a digital certification for authenticity of identity, with the proof of origin. It comprises a suite of software tools that a client can install on their own infrastructure or subscribe to under a SAAS model.

It will enable the authentication and certification checking mechanism to guarantee that the ‘visual representation’ of the logo/brand/TM online is authenticated on third party websites and apps.  It is used by authoritative brands/ TM registered organisations to facilitate web transactions, by providing a visual assurance of legitimate ‘right of use’ of their logo/brand/TM.

Medical Technology

Epipole

Epipole is a company which is developing intellectual property in the domain of image and signal processing.

The adoption of a cloud computing model is used for achieving economies of scale, enhancing information sharing speed and developing new services.

IBIS have published some interesting facts and trends in the following report