海角视频

Attendees at the launch event for the 2023 Leicestershire Innovation Festival were encouraged to use innovation to help them through the economic downturn.

Guest speaker Amit Sinha, who works as a chief technology officer at Microsoft 海角视频, suggested that innovation in times of economic uncertainty was one of the ways to help businesses survive and even prosper.

Mr Sinha was among a number of speakers at the launch event which was help on the Loughborough University campus.

He said: 鈥淗istory suggests that companies that innovate during a crisis outperform their peers.鈥�

Other speakers included Dr Nik Kotecha, chair of the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) innovation board and founder of Loughborough medicines manufacturer Morningside Pharmaceuticals, and Loughborough University Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Nick Jennings.

As well as marking the start of the festival the event marked the launch of a new www.innovativeleicestershire.co.uk website set up to build collaboration and support growth and opportunities for local business.

Prof Jennings said the university was keen to help SMEs innovate in order to 鈥渋mprove, empower and achieve extraordinary things鈥�, and was now working with other universities across the Midlands to support spin-out companies.

Dr Kotecha, who has been a director on the LLEP board for six years and helped launch the original Leicestershire Innovation Festival, said the LLEP鈥檚 aim was to grow the local economy by 5 per cent ahead of the national average 鈥� through supporting a combination of innovation, sustainability, productivity and inclusivity.

Julian Bowery, from Innovate 海角视频, hosted a Q&A panel with experts including Jake Karia, founder and managing director of Leicester-based 鈥渟treet food on-the-go鈥� maker Jake and Nayns, Sonia Baigent of Assist Business Consulting, and FSB development manager Jennifer Thomas. James Whyley and Steven Sleath of manufacturing process improvement specialists Sirius Transformation also joined the panel.

The fortnight-long festival features more than 20 events with themes including the best ways to finance innovation, how prototyping works, and increasing sustainability while reducing energy costs.

It also includes the which return for their fifth year on the evening of Thursday, February 16 at the National Space Centre. There will be 32 finalists introduced across 10 categories and Innovate 海角视频 chief executive Indro Mukerjee will provide the keynote speech.

Leicestershire Live and Leicester Mercury editor Adam Moss said: 鈥淲e had a record number of nominations for 2023 and were up by about 15 per cent year-on-year.

鈥淲e are now looking forward to hearing from Indro, our sponsors and all of the finalists at the National Space Centre on February 16.鈥�

Pictures by Will Johnson Photography.