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North East businesses have free chance to take centre stage

Innovative businesses in the region have a chance to take centre stage at VentureFest North East this autumn.

Organisers of the region’s innovation conference have launched their annual search with the North East BIC to uncover the latest products, services and other big ideas of the region’s cutting-edge businesses.

They are now looking for 15 businesses that dare to do things differently. Those selected will get the opportunity to demonstrate their ideas for free to an audience of 700 businesspeople and investors during the conference’s Innovation Showcase exhibition.

Estelle Blanks, Deputy Director at Innovation SuperNetwork which delivers VentureFest North East, said: “We hear all too often complaints that the innovative talent of this region remains behind closed doors.

“Innovation Showcase is designed to address this – shining a light on the latest exciting developments that are taking place every day on industrial estates, in labs and in offices every day across the region. I’d urge anyone who is working on something innovative to put themselves forward for the chance to be involved in this valuable opportunity to promote themselves and showcase what this region is capable of.”

Entry is open to all businesses in the North East of England – regardless of size or stage of development. Last year the event showcased everything from a seaweed farm to fingerprint biometric readers and from wheelchair adaptations to 3D scanning booths.

Paul Miller, whose company VEO Ltd took part Innovation Showcase last year, said: “We’ve attended VentureFest two years running and found it provided a great opportunity to start discussions with investors and established businesses from the North East.

“Most importantly, we were delighted to secure a significant amount of funding at the event, which enabled us to launch our product successfully. The event also helped us to open conversations with fellow entrepreneurs on ideas and the direction of where to take our product. We now have a number of exciting opportunities in the pipeline involving some large corporates.”

To apply for Innovation Showcase visit http://venturefestnortheast.com/what-is-innovation-showcase/ before October 7.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by North East LEP .