Oxfordshire: County’s finest tech entrepreneurs pitch their ideas at Emerging Tech Weekender

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week and Thames Valley Tech week (ConnectTVT), entrepreneurs and innovators will come together for Oxford’s first Emerging Tech Weekender.

The business, design and developer event takes place from Friday November 14 to Sunday November 16 in Oxford at The John Henry Brookes Building, Oxford Brookes University.

Over three days, innovators will pitch their ideas in competition to a panel of business experts. Designed to explore new frontiers and business opportunities in technology, Emerging Tech Weekender will grow new relationships between technologists and entrepreneurs, and the organisers anticipate new digital enterprises will be kick-started as a result.

The innovators will develop and pitch their ideas in teams, each producing a business model, an investor pitch and a working demonstration. There will be 60 to 80 participants, all leading developers, designers and entrepreneurs.

The programme is:

• Friday 14 - The weekend will start at 6pm with an introduction and emerging tech talks. Participants will then get to work on generating their outline ideas and pitching them to the panel of experts
• Saturday 15 - The ideas will be refined into formal business pitches with competitors putting ideas and their commercial viability to the panel.
• Sunday 16 - A shortlist from Saturday’s pitches will be generated and those participants will enter a final pitching round.  The winner will be announced at the end of the day.

The event is organised by Dave Fletcher and Tony Hart, leading lights in the regional technology and innovation sector.

Fletcher is founder and managing director of digital agency White October. He has grown the organisation to 27 full-time employees over the past 11 years, at the same time launching a suite of tech conferences such as All Your Base and jQuery UK. He is currently the chair for Digital Oxford, a community-owned and run organisation promoting and supporting the vibrant tech scene in Oxford.

Tony Hart has over 30 years of experience in the IT, telecoms and media technology industry. He is network navigator for digital, media & publishing for Oxfordshire LEP and has a strong focus on building and taking to market commercially viable services and technology solutions, through partnerships and alligences. Hart also mentors MBA students at Said Business School, Oxford University, and works closely with technology innovators in Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Emerging Tech Weekender is supported by Oxford Brookes University, White October and Digital Oxford, and attendance is free.

See the website for full details and registration: www.emergingtechweekender.co.uk