A CELEBRATION OF SWINDON & WILTSHIRE TECH
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THE WINNERS ARE REVEALED!
Inspirational techie entrepreneurs and their teams came together to celebrate the best tech-based companies in the Swindon and Wiltshire area at the fourth Swindon & Wiltshire annual IT and Technology Awards – the Techies, on Thursday 4th November.
The Techies, which is an initiative of The Business Exchange were broadcast from the internationally renowned, state-of-the-art Sandstorm Films studios in Swindon and live-streamed. The audience included local businesses, business people, colleagues, friends and family that entered the awards, sponsors, supporters and judges. The night was hosted by Tom Ward, Founder of Sandstorm Films and compèred by Chris Dawes, local sports commentator and media trainer. Judges and sponsors graced both the real and virtual stage to announce the worthy winners.
Organised by Anita Jaynes, Founder of The Business Exchange, the annual event shines the spotlight on some amazing tech talent that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. It shows that innovation, enterprise and future tech is emerging continuously from SMEs working in the community.
Anita Jaynes, said,“ It is important once again to recognise the area’ s assets and celebrate the most exciting and innovative tech firms right on our doorstep. When analysing this year’ s Techies entries, I worked out the businesses entering the 2021 awards employ nearly 700 people across Swindon and Wiltshire and deliver over £ 65 million in turnover for the local economy.
“ Despite the challenges the pandemic has thrown at us, the future is looking bright for our local tech sector. Of the repeat entries, those who entered both last year and this year, turnovers are up, and 58 new job roles have been created in the last year. We’ ve seen teams double in size and Techies finalists turn from one-man-bands into teams. The Techies is here to recognise and celebrate those successes.“ The Techies Awards wouldn’ t be possible without the support of our headline sponsor, the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership and category sponsors,
All Boxed, Computer Network Defence, Elm Workspace, SETSquared, Ntegra, Thrings, MHA Monahans and Sandstorm Films.
“ I would like to thank everyone involved with the Techies 2021, including our judging panel. The judges give hours of their time reviewing the entries and deliberating before making their final decisions.
“ I would like to personally thank, Kate Westbrook, Paddy Bradley, Kathryn Wellum-Kent, James Eades, Ali Hadavizadeh and Mirabelle Stobbs. They work as a cracking team and had a particularly difficult task this year making their decisions, the competition was fierce with lots of debate before the final cut could be announced.
“ A huge congratulations to all our finalists and winners. We hope to see you entering the Techies again in 2022 and look forward to hearing your continued growth and success stories.”
BEST USER EXPERIENCE
Winner: Digital Wonderlab Location: Bradford on Avon Number of employees: 18 Project submitted: Samten, the mindfulness and meditation app
Digital Wonderlab helps clients develop technology strategies, guiding them through a range of solutions and delivering immersive technology that enables them to transform their organisation. The firm ' s award-winning Techies entry focused on its work for client Samten, the mindfulness and meditation app. Samten helps individuals find inner peace in a frantic world by teaching meditation and mindfulness skills for everyday life.
With over 70 million working days lost each year due to mental health problems in the UK alone, costing employers more than £ 2.4 billion per year, the app aims to provide self-help enabling people to develop their own mental
26 www. tbeswindonandwilts. co. uk health and wellbeing plans to cope with the world around them.
Samten needed to find the right digital partner to relaunch the app, delivering an enhanced version, building on key learnings from a disappointing first iteration to provide a better user experience.
Success criteria built in from the outset included enhancing the user experience on both iOS and Android operating systems, so it was bug free, elegantly designed and intuitive for people to engage with. Importantly, existing users needed to seamlessly transition into the new app with ease.
Throughout the discovery, wireframe and solution design process, Digital Wonderlab’ s focus was on the meditation journey that users would embark upon, making it as seamless and supportive as possible, with beautifully crafted technology that flows naturally for practitioners. Digital Wonderlab took time to explore and understand user needs and their meditation motivations to deliver a digital solution that supports individual journeys towards deep mindfulness practice.
Jamie Watkins, CEO, Samten, said,“ It makes all the difference in the world to work with a partner company who really understands your needs, and that of the audience. Nathan and the Digital Wonderlab team have done a terrific job of grabbing hold of this project and bringing a creative vision to life. What we have now is‘ night and day’ compared to the first iteration of the Samten app. It’ s completely revitalised our core meditation content and made it accessible and engaging to a far wider audience.”
Nathan Baranowski, Chief Wondermaker, Digital Wonderlab, said,“ Winning the Best User Experience award is an incredible accolade for us and our partner Samten, as we both firmly place people at the centre of everything we do.” To find out more about Samten visit: www. mysamten. com and try the app for yourself in the app store.
For more info: www. digitalwonderlab. com