Shortlist for the SPARKies is announced

News
09/06/2017

After two weeks of deliberations, the shortlist of the best in tech in the South West has been revealed.

Now in its fifth year, the SPARKies awards received no less than 240 nominations from across the region.

The arduous task of deciding who should make the shortlist fell to 21 expert judges, all prominent figures in the South West tech community, who spent two weeks carefully considering each entry before submitting their votes.

Abby Frear, Director of the SPARKies, said: “It’s been wonderful seeing so many entries, even if it did make the judges’ task a challenging one!

“The quality of the nominations we have received was also incredibly high. In some categories, we have had to make an exception to our usual rule of shortlisting up to four entries and allow a fifth one as they were just too good not to make the cut.

“I think the 55 individuals and companies on the shortlist truly show the South West tech cluster at its very best.”

No category this year was more hotly contested than the People’s Choice award, which received over 700 votes, more than twice the amount of votes for the same category in 2016.

All the winners will be announced and celebrated at a ceremony, headlined by Gradwell Communications, on Thursday 29th June 2017 at the Komedia in Bath with comedian Laura Lexx as the host. The winner of the People’s Choice award, as the name implies, will be chosen on the night by the guests in attendance.

To book tickets for the award ceremony on 29th June or for more information about the SPARKies, please go to: http://thesparkies.com

Shortlist:

The full shortlist can be found at: https://techspark.co/sparkies-tech-awards-2017-shortlist-announced/

 Judges:

  • Monika Radclyffe, Centre Director, SETsquared Bristol
  • Rosie Bennett, Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Bath Innovation Centre
  • Andre Mulvenna, Investor
  • Chris Dyson, Partner, Ashfords
  • Constance Fleuriot, Co-Founder, Women’s Tech Hub Bristol
  • Lily Smith, VP Product
  • Tatjana Humphries, Senior Inward Investment Executive, Invest Bristol and Bath
  • Emma Jones, Founder, Enterprise Nation
  • Rekha Mehr, Corporate Innovation Expert, Just Eat Ventures
  • Julien St. John-Dennis, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Gradwell Communications
  • Tom Beasley, Head, Bristol & Bath Science Park
  • Dominic Mills, Chief Technology Officer, Zone
  • Elaine McKechnie, Director, Future Space
  • Louis Spencer, Technology, Media & Telecoms Lead, NatWest
  • Zahra Ash-Harper, Studio Producer, Pervasive Media Studio
  • Dan Page, Creative Director, VR World Congress
  • Mark Turpin, CEO, Yogscast
  • Nic Hemley, Head of Development, Scott Logic
  • Matt Clarke, Engineering Manager, Dyson
  • Marina Traversari, Programme Manager, Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator
  • Nick Torday, Managing Director, Edo