#ParkLife on Tour

24/06/2024

Interview with Mike Sewart, CTO of QinetiQ.

14 June 2024, in Portsmouth. 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 so, at the coffee break I grabbed a few minutes to tell him about my Park Life on Tour project. He […]

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.

Innovation Parks

19/05/2024

Fareham Innovation Centre. Talking to Anna Bravington, innovation director.

My little side project of taking my Park Life video series on the road has finally begun. The aim is to leave my base at the Dorset Innovation Park and drive around the UK to visit other innovation centres, science parks, technology hubs and business clusters to find out their approach to innovation and building the community. My first visit was to the Fareham Innovation […]

General

06/05/2024

Bournemouth to Cheltenham and long (wrong) way home

I headed off from our office at the Dorset Innovation Park to the NCP Brewery Quarter, with a good amount of charge as it would have been 100% at home with the Guessometer reading of just under 300 miles. That section was 133 miles. If I did the same return path, through Salisbury, getting home would have been 96 miles. Even with the lights on […]

General

05/05/2024

CyNam – Cyber Security Cluster in Cheltenham

Whilst this might not have been my first trip as part of my Park Life on Tour series, as I only popped in for a couple of hours and didn’t record any interviews, it’s probably more like the Prologue stage of the Tour de France, as in the bit before the real start. I will be now know as the guy from X-Net that drove […]