Tom Broadway being interviewed
Innovation Parks and Centres
22/07/2024

Interview with Tom Broadway, Lead for Hub8 MX in Cheltenham

Tom Broadway is the Hub8 Lead for the Minster Exchange innovation space in Cheltenham. This is an £8.4m investment into regeneration scheme to rejuvenate the heart of Cheltenham, between Cheltenham Borough Council and Hub8, so the centre is managed by Plexal. Executive Summary What does innovation mean to you? Continued success, continued growth and having a platform to support that. Why the move to a […]

Hollie Wakefield
Innovation Parks and Centres
19/07/2024

Interview with Hollie Wakefield, General Manager of CyNam.

15 July 2024, I took our university placement student, Nathan Fowler (LinkedIn), with me to Cheltenham to visit the Hub8 MX Innovation Centre and to interview some key people. We ended up with four pieces of content, which was a fantastic return. Got there and back without needing to charge my car this time, but day time driving and not having the two horrendous detours […]

General
03/07/2024

UK Innovation Strategy, GOV UK doc

O Innovation, Innovation, wherefore art thou Innovation. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-innovation-strategy-leading-the-future-by-creating-it/uk-innovation-strategy-leading-the-future-by-creating-it-accessible-webpage The four pillars of this Government’s strategy, although it could change tomorrow. Pillar 1: Unleashing Business – We will fuel businesses who want to innovate. Pillar 2: People – We will make the UK the most exciting place for innovation talent. Pillar 3: Institutions & Places – We will ensure our research, development and innovation institutions serve […]

Mike Sewart
General
24/06/2024

Interview with Mike Sewart, CTO of QinetiQ.

14 June 2024, in Portsmouth. (3 September 2025 update: Mike is now the CTO of Thales.) I saw Mike Sewart, the CTO of QinetiQ, present at a South West Regional Defence and Security Cluster (SWRDSC) event at Porton Science Park. What he said about innovation and the way he said it really resonated with me. At the coffee break I grabbed a few minutes to […]

General
28/05/2024

UK Gov Innovation Clusters Map

Statement from the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Michelle Donelan, on the Innovation Clusters Map. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/introducing-the-innovation-clusters-map This is the interactive map https://www.innovationclusters.dsit.gov.uk

General
28/05/2024

Difference between innovation in Defence and private sector

Saw this interesting post on LinkedIn about the tensions between Defence (albeit he is talking from a US perspective and Silicon Valley) and the private sector when it comes to innovation culture, and trying to bring it from the hipster startup businesses to the more formal structured organisations within Defence.