In a 2018 report by Technation, Bristol was named as the UK’s most productive tech cluster, with neighbour, Bath hot on it’s heels!
Within Europe, we’re one of the top 10 regions for tech with Bristol and Bath being named superclusters where between 50,000 and 70,000 people are employed in high-tech jobs.
So what’s going on here? What gives this region the edge when it comes to developing successful tech businesses and how can the tech sector ensure it continues to compete on the world stage?
Find out in the latest episode of our podcast Reflect Rethink Reboot, as we shine a light on the region’s tech startup scene.
Industry 4.0
The fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, is well underway. Whereas the industrial revolutions of the past gave rise to steam power, electricity and computerisation, the developments we now see in technology, as well as moving at incredible rates, have the potential to profoundly impact every aspect of our lives.
As Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains in his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, "The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril.”
Bristol and the southwest of England is at the coalface of this new industrial revolution. Some two hundred years on from the murky dealings of it’s old industrial past, the region is on the world stage once more, this time with an industry that has the potential to develop and support human progress, rather than exploiting it.
Meet the founders
In episode 2 of our podcast, Sarah Keates from Bristol-based TechSpark goes on a journey of discovery to meet some of our most inspiring founders and startups and find out what makes Bristol such a special place for tech.
Sarah meets Stephanie Campbell, founder of heath-tech startup OKKO Health, a company still in its first few months, Zara Nanu, founder of Gapsqure which is using tech to create a world with fair pay, and Rob Blenkinsopp of Ultrahaptics, one of the UK’s most exciting tech companies, which started life as a University of Bristol final year project.
We go along to the Techfusion Expo in Bristol and meet Jason Hart, a tech entrepreneur who started out fixing and selling old TVs out of the Bristol estate he grew up on and is now one of the world's leading experts in cyber security.
And we also meet Monika Radclyffe of tech startup incubator, SetSquared. They help startups grow and understand what it is that sets apart startups from this part of the world.
There’s a lot more startups here, particularly in the tech scene that are more ethically focused and more focused on helping to build the world into a better place...that can actually better society and us as humankind. (Zara Nanu, Gapsquare)
You can listen to the podcast on the link above, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find us on Apple Podcasts (if you’re an iPhone/iPad user), Google Podcasts (if you use an Android phone), or on Spotify. We’d love for you to subscribe, it’s free of course and you’ll get new episodes when they’re released.
A huge thanks also to our sponsor, Blackstar Solutions who made this episode possible.