Member Article

Neutron VR Shortlisted in Nectar Small Business Awards

Newcastle upon Tyne organisation shortlisted for Nectar Business Small Business Awards

Richard Bowes Coates and Dinesh Kumar, co-founders of Newcastle upon Tyne business Neutron VR Ltd, have beaten off hundreds of UK small businesses to be shortlisted in the eighth national Nectar Business Small Business Awards. Neutron VR is just weeks away from finding out if it will win the Best use of Technology category, which is judged by a panel of business experts and led by one of the UK’s leading business women, consumer champion and BBC ‘Dragon’, Sarah Willingham.

The Awards celebrate the achievements of hard working small businesses and business people across the UK. If successful, Richard will win £2,000 cash, 50,000 Nectar points as well as the prestigious title for their company. What’s more Richard will be invited to the Nectar Business Round Table and awards ceremony, taking place in November, where he will meet and receive tailored expert advice from Sarah Willingham and other business professionals who also judged the awards.

Neutron VR make it their mission to improve companies’ uninspiring enterprise and training methods by utilising gaming technology. Past projects include creating virtual reality simulation modules as a means of training restaurant staff in customer service and working with construction companies to build virtual reality visualisations of properties which enable potential new home buyers to tour them before the bricks and mortar versions are available.

Richard commented: “Being shortlisted in the Nectar Business Small Business Awards is an outstanding achievement for us and great honour. We are very proud of what we have achieved to date and the team are holding their heads a little higher in light of this announcement. We are a small growing company with ambitious goals and we feel these awards are a great stepping stone to growing our business further

“Receiving an invite to the Nectar Business round table event and the opportunity to get first hand advice from the likes of Sarah Willingham for my business would be really valuable in taking us to the next level. If we were to win the award we would use some of the money to take the team out for a meal which we find helps develop their relationships and increases moral and motivation. The remainder of the prize money would then be shared amongst the team as a bonus for all their hard work.”

Neutron VR will now be judged by a panel of business experts, including Sarah Willingham; Adam Collett, Marketing Director, Independent, at Brakes; Melissa Snover Burton, previous Nectar Business Small Business Awards winner and Managing Director of Katjes Fassin; Richard Carvell, Director Digital & Direct Marketing at Viking; Shannon Diett and VP Marketing at DHL and Awards host.

Sarah Willingham, entrepreneur and lead judge of the awards comments: “When I joined the Nectar Business Small Business Awards last year I was blown away; not just by the number of entries, but by the sheer quality of the businesses that entered.

“This year has not disappointed; we received even more entrants than last year and the standard of entrants has once again been exceptional. It’s really inspiring reading all of the entries, I really am blown away!

“We have selected Neutron VR as one of the stand out entries that deserves to be shortlisted in the Best use of Technology category. Neutron VR has the potential to join the line-up of previous winners such as NotontheHighStreet.co.uk and Hungryhouse.co.uk but having seen the other entries I know the competition will be fierce!”

The other categories include Small Business of the Year, Home Grown Business of the Year, Innovation of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Tradesperson of the Year and Contribution to Community and new for 2016; Apprentice of the Year.

For further details on the Nectar Business Small Business Awards 2016 and a full list of shortlisted companies, please visit www.nectar.com/smallbusiness

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harriet Watts .