Last night Hartham Park played host to the very first tech awards for Swindon & Wiltshire, The Techies 2018.
The evening celebrated the innovation and entrepreneurship of the local IT community, bringing together the area’s finest talent.
The Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) was the event’s headline sponsor and both George Gill, board member and Paddy Bradley, director of the SWLEP took to the stage to talk about the opportunity we have locally and how the SWLEP is working on a core digital strategy for the region.
Guests enjoyed an ‘Around the World’ market menu designed by the Hartham Park team and Calne-based artisan ice cream and sorbet maker Fluffy Puffin wowed the crowd with their delicious and innovative flavours.
12 Awards were presented including the Future Tech Superstar award which involved a live interactive vote from the audience.
The winners in each category are:
Best Tech Security
Best Tech Support Service
Best User Experience, presented by Gavin Calthrop from Switch On To Swindon
Cloud Innovation of the Year, presented by James Eades, managing director of Systemagic
Cutting IT Award, sponsored by Britannia Quickmove and presented by Ian Powell, operations director at Britannia Quickmove
Future Tech Superstar, presented by Anita Jaynes, The Business Exchange
Leon Johnson, Render
Driven By Data, presented by Katerina Pippi, sales manager at Hartham Park
Most Innovative Tech Solution, presented by Jeff Thomas, Hartham Park
Using Tech to Transform Business, sponsored by Elm Workspace and presented by director Richard Hofen
Social Impact Award, presented by Catherine Knivett, head of partnerships at Corsham Institute
Tech Team of the Year, sponsored by the Swindon & Wiltshire SME Growth project and presented by Mirabelle Mack
Flying the Flag for Swindon & Wiltshire, sponsored by the Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership and presented by George Gill.
Each winner received a certificate, award and a box of goodies from Taste of Bath.
The Techies supported local charity Designability who are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Designability transforms the lives of disabled people and those living with long-term health conditions, through the use of life-changing assistive technologies. The total amount raised from the evening is yet to be counted, but thanks to Hartham Park and Fussells Fine Foods for arranging some fantastic raffle prizes.
The AV for the evening was managed by Malcolm Hill from Glowing Red Events, Corsham Institute arranged the videography and Lis McDermott Photography took pictures of the winners. Video footage of the event will follow, but in the interim see our winners gallery below.
We are already in discussions about The Techies 2019 and can’t wait to make the event bigger and better. Congratulations to all of our winners and finalists and thank you to all of the team who made the night a success.
Pictured above: Leon Johnson, Future Tech Superstar winner