Trailblazing Tech Award - Showcase your cutting-edge tech!
Manchester is the UK's biggest tech city outside of London, employing nearly 72,000 talented people in the region.
We want to celebrate our region's disruptors by giving you the opportunity to do a live tech demonstration in front of an audience of over 250 business leaders.
Whether you've invented a world-class product, or you've made some impressive changes to already existing tech, we want to hear from you.
Meet our Finalists!
On Thursday 10th June our shortlist presented in front of our expert judges and were then put through their paces during our quick fire Q&A. Judges included
Danny Simpson – MID Communications, Ed Prior – GP Bullhound, Caroline Monk – Beever & Struthers
Julie Nauwelaers - TLT and Howard Read & Ean Davies Appleyard Lees
The top three short listers will showcase their tech product live on stage at Trailblazing Tech 21 where the audience will decide who will win the pro-manchester Trailblazing Tech Award for 2021
TRAILBLAZING TECH 21 FINALISTS
Inovus Medical
Inovus Medical is a multi award winning designer and manufacturer of surgical training technologies based in St Helens, UK. The company was founded in 2012 with a clear purpose, to improve surgical care through connected training. At the heart of everything Inovus does are its core values of Affordable, Accessible and Functional technologies. A relentless drive to deliver on these values is positioning the company as a global leader in surgical training, ensuring equitable training and care for all.
Product
LapAR the world’s first high fidelity laparoscopic box trainer, brings together the realism of expensive VR and the affordability of box trainer simulation, truly democratising access to a distance learning platform offering educational and training institutions the opportunity to deliver fully tracked laparoscopic simulation at a scale never before possible. The LapAR platform consists of two versions, an institutional system and a take home simulator. Both systems enable full procedure training with tracking of performance metrics, making LapAR the only platform capable of delivering high fidelity, distance learning at scale.
LapAR is underpinned by ground breaking, Internet of Medical Things based technology that combines real feel soft tissue models, Augmented Reality overlays, computer vision based object tracking and machine learning feedback loops. LapAR represents a paradigm shift in the
democratisation of surgical education.
PollenPay
PollenPay is a financial technology-driven payments company that enables customers to purchase products and services on a buy now, pay later basis, as an alternative to traditional credit.
Product
PollenPay provides a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service that gives an individual shopper the power to personalise instalment repayments on purchases they make instore and online. We believe our customers should have the power to manage their own cash flow with our slide bar feature. This allows our customers’ repayments to fit around their individual circumstances.
PixelMax
PixelMax is a 3D technology software business that helps businesses solve any problems and wows their audience. Founded in 2019, the Company has changed how organisations network, promote, inform and educate its users by providing virtual events, digital twinning and product or process simulation. PixelMax wants to create a world where they amplify every voice, transform every experience and give every idea a chance. Businesses want to take ownership of their workplace communications and remove platforms that are not fit for purpose. Remote and hybrid working is here to say, and PixelMax has the potential to be the long-term solution.
Product:
As all businesses moved online due to the pandemic, employee engagement scores dropped and communication issues increased, especially with out of office working. PixelMax reacted upon this and created an immersive communications platform to pivot from the industrial digitisation space and usual video conferencing. The platform has the ability to render an environment or asset which can be accessed by any device and delivered to an unlimited amount of users. PixelMax has delivered a range of virtual events for blue-chip organisations including the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). The platform has excellent UX, increased engagement, real time chat, presentations, workshops and networking opportunities. PixelMax now offer bespoke features including mini games, wellness rooms, live social media feeds, breakout rooms and developing stand purchases.
Inovus Medical is a multi award winning designer and manufacturer of surgical training technologies based in St Helens, UK. The company was founded in 2012 with a clear purpose, to improve surgical care through connected training. At the heart of everything Inovus does are its core values of Affordable, Accessible and Functional technologies. A relentless drive to deliver on these values is positioning the company as a global leader in surgical training, ensuring equitable training and care for all.
Product
LapAR the world’s first high fidelity laparoscopic box trainer, brings together the realism of expensive VR and the affordability of box trainer simulation, truly democratising access to a distance learning platform offering educational and training institutions the opportunity to deliver fully tracked laparoscopic simulation at a scale never before possible. The LapAR platform consists of two versions, an institutional system and a take home simulator. Both systems enable full procedure training with tracking of performance metrics, making LapAR the only platform capable of delivering high fidelity, distance learning at scale.
LapAR is underpinned by ground breaking, Internet of Medical Things based technology that combines real feel soft tissue models, Augmented Reality overlays, computer vision based object tracking and machine learning feedback loops. LapAR represents a paradigm shift in the
democratisation of surgical education.
PollenPay
PollenPay is a financial technology-driven payments company that enables customers to purchase products and services on a buy now, pay later basis, as an alternative to traditional credit.
Product
PollenPay provides a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service that gives an individual shopper the power to personalise instalment repayments on purchases they make instore and online. We believe our customers should have the power to manage their own cash flow with our slide bar feature. This allows our customers’ repayments to fit around their individual circumstances.
PixelMax
PixelMax is a 3D technology software business that helps businesses solve any problems and wows their audience. Founded in 2019, the Company has changed how organisations network, promote, inform and educate its users by providing virtual events, digital twinning and product or process simulation. PixelMax wants to create a world where they amplify every voice, transform every experience and give every idea a chance. Businesses want to take ownership of their workplace communications and remove platforms that are not fit for purpose. Remote and hybrid working is here to say, and PixelMax has the potential to be the long-term solution.
Product:
As all businesses moved online due to the pandemic, employee engagement scores dropped and communication issues increased, especially with out of office working. PixelMax reacted upon this and created an immersive communications platform to pivot from the industrial digitisation space and usual video conferencing. The platform has the ability to render an environment or asset which can be accessed by any device and delivered to an unlimited amount of users. PixelMax has delivered a range of virtual events for blue-chip organisations including the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). The platform has excellent UX, increased engagement, real time chat, presentations, workshops and networking opportunities. PixelMax now offer bespoke features including mini games, wellness rooms, live social media feeds, breakout rooms and developing stand purchases.
TRAILBLAZING TECH SHORLISTED COMPANIES
