Imagine Training Turn 25

Training experts Imagine Training are celebrating 25 years in business in 2019!

As part of their celebrations, Imagine threw a party at their offices in the e-Innovation Centre, inviting friends and business contacts from the past 25 years. As well as food for everyone to enjoy, there was also some magical fun during the event provided by Colin Dorning MBE who performed close-up magic for the guests.

Training Director, Karen Turner said: “We’ve worked hard over the past 25 years to help hundreds of businesses save time and work more effectively using Microsoft Office software like Excel. We’re now launching a range of soft skills training courses including Leadership, Change Management and Customer Service.

We’ve trained thousands of delegates over the years and have kept all the evaluation comments so we could prove – if ever necessary – how great our service is. We have received 98% Total Satisfaction from our customers over the years.

We loved to hear stories from past delegates of how training has helped improve their work and how it has enhanced their careers as well as improving their employer’s bottom line.”

Imagine Training was also supporting The Ben Corfield Football Fund with their event. Ben Corfield is a local 7 year old boy who has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Donations from the day will be given entirely to this worthy cause, helping young Ben and others like him, and also the hospitals and specialist wards they rely on so much.

To find out more about Ben, you can follow his story here: http://thebencorfieldfootballfund.co.uk/bens-story

June 20, 2019 Business, EIC, IT Comments Off on Imagine Training Turn 25

Richard from Bronze Labs Invited to Meet the Queen

This month Richard Howells, CEO of Bronze Software Labs, was invited to meet the Queen at a Buckingham Palace garden party in recognition of contribution to British Innovation.

Richard founded ‘The Tribe Project’, a digitally centred initiative to directly tackle national care inequality. Tribe uses geospatial datasets combined with machine learning to identify care ‘dark patches’ across the UK. These localities represent areas where it is no longer economically viable for care companies to operate and where thousands of vulnerable citizens are struggling to maintain a basic quality of life.

The Tribe Project up-skills people within care dark patches to become certified carers whilst simultaneously growing community social action. The technology provides an over-arching digital solution through which Local Government can commission help directly to vulnerable people seeking care. The Tribe Project has also won the ‘UK Social Impact Award’ from the Social Tech Trust.

Pictured is Richard at the garden party with his Mother Hazel Howells, who was the inspiration for starting the project.

Find out more about The Tribe Project at www.tribeproject.org

June 19, 2019 Business, EIC, General Comments Off on Richard from Bronze Labs Invited to Meet the Queen

Refund Agency Director Pens New Book

Keith Trubshaw, Director of The Refund Agency, has just written a book entitled “R&D: Myth or Magic?… nine myths that can seriously damage your wealth”. It’s a light hearted look at the very serious subject of how companies can access government cash in the form of Research and Development Tax Credits  through a little-understood piece of legislation designed to help businesses. The book cuts through the misunderstanding that surrounds what can or cannot be claimed. How, by simply having solved what to them were their every-day problems, a company can find itself on the receiving end of a financial windfall that they never expected.

The Refund Agency are new tenants at EIC and are specialists in securing companies these funds after first identifying their entitlement. They have helped many businesses claim tax credits, when often they were never even aware of their availability. In the book, Keith identifies various myths associated with R&D and the misunderstandings that people have when evaluating their own operations in this regard.

The opening pages feature a telling quote from a senior HMRC staff member who says: “We are sitting on a pile of money which we are tasked to give away, but no one comes for it because they either don’t know that it exists or if they do, they don’t know how to claim it properly.”

Keith himself says: ‘R&D tax credits are the government’s way of rewarding businesses for innovation; for making British business the best it can be . The trouble is that the words “tax credits” can be misleading; often being confused with payments made by government to members of the public who find themselves in need of support If we substitute the word “Credits” with “Rewards” then suddenly the whole thing looks totally different. “Research and Development Tax Rewards” is a much more accurate description. I secured my first grant when consulting for a local company in 2012. In doing so I used the services of a specialist, without whom the claim would not have succeeded.’

For anyone wanting to know more about the world of R&D tax credits, you can buy Keith’s book on Amazon now, or be sure to pop into The Refund Agency to get a copy for free.

May 3, 2019 Business Comments Off on Refund Agency Director Pens New Book

New Tenants Hoopy Host Tokyo Conference

Hoopy are a software development consultancy firm and new tenants of the e-Innovation Centre.

However, they were not in the building long before jetting off to Tokyo, where they were hosting one of their regular international developer conferences – DevRelCon Tokyo.

This was part of an international series of conferences, started by Hoopy in 2015, for people who build developer communities and developer experiences.

At each event, they bring together practitioners to share through talks, training and networking. Speakers at the events have included Anil Dash, Jono Bacon, Bear Douglas, James Governor, Dr Sue Black, and others. As well as Tokyo there are also editions in London, San Francisco, and China.

So welcome, Hoopy. A great addition to the EIC family!

March 29, 2019 Business, EIC, IT Comments Off on New Tenants Hoopy Host Tokyo Conference
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