Capital Cardiff : Events : Insider Media Ltd

Date: Tue 27th October, 2009
Venue:
Number of Guests Attended: 170

Attendees gathering in at the Capital Cardiff 2009 event

One of multiple panels that lend the discussions during the Capital Cardiff 2009 event

Attendees networking at the Capital Cardiff 2009 event

View of the attendees seated and listening to the discussions of the Capital Cardiff 2009 event

Twelve ambitious entrepreneurs got up on stage and pitched for funds at the first Capital Cardiff event, organised by Insider and Cardiff Council.

The varied range of presenters included Nobel Prize winner Professor Sir Martin Evans, looking to raise £2m for Cell Therapy, which wants to treat cardiac and arthritic diseases using patients’ own cells. Also in the healthcare sector, David Williams pitched on behalf of Neem Biotech, which has developed a garlic-based additive that can reduce flatulence in cows and sheep. And clothing designer Elliot J Frieze sought investment to launch his brand at London Fashion Week.

The all-day event brought together over 170 enterpreneurs, funders and advisers to see keynote speakers, debates on hot business issues, as well as the investment pitches. It was opened by Neil McEvoy, the council’s deputy leader, who revealed that the authority’s Capital Cardiff Fund had levered in £3m of private-sector investment since it was launched in the spring. He said: “Cardiff is at its best when it is ambitious and when it takes a chance.”

A debate on universities and wealth creation followed, with a pretty positive message about how academic institutions work. Commercialisation company Fusion IP has worked with Cardiff University on nine businesses to date, reported commercial director Stuart Gall. “We haven’t found them scary at all; it’s been great,” he said. “Getting everyone’s buy-in right at the start is important.”

Steve Lloyd, head of mechanical engineering at Glamorgan University and technical director of spin-out RUMM, said companies should understand cultural differences between the private sector and academia. He said: “Thirty per cent of what everyone does at work is voluntary. But 80 per cent of academic work is voluntary. It’s about autonomy and managing ideas.”

Richie Turner, projects officer at the University of Wales, gave an update on the Prince of Wales Innovation Scholarship programme which provides high-calibre students to companies. He said 26 of the international high-flyers had been placed with Welsh companies so far.

Panelists at a debate on business growth admitted Wales has its share of challenges, but concluded that its greatest strength is its people. The discussion included Brian Norman, managing director of Vista Retail; Phil Cooper, the chief executive of business support agency Venture Wales; David Russ, managing director of the South Wales Chamber of Commerce and Simon Goldsworthy, managing partner of Midas People Management.

Keynote speaker Paul Ragan, who founded and then sold insurance broker Protectagroup, called for business support to be focused towards more ambitious companies. “We have to focus on that 10 per cent – guys like me who are hungry to be the biggest thing.”

Ragan recently set up a business advice firm, Collateral Thinking, with Matt Burge of mobile services company Communications Direct and Bill Mayne, chief executive of outsourced services company MSS Group. Mayne appeared next in a debate on partnership working, alongside Paul Orders, Cardiff Council’s chief economy, enterprise and infrastructure officer; Richard Matthews, managing director of Freshbaked Group; and Ian Courtney, the new head of the Charity Bank in Wales.

Orders said the council would look to work with more private sector partners in future: “We are at a change point in the future of economic development. The whole issue of the balance between public and private-sector working is going to become a very real question.” Mayne said he was sceptical about some aspects of the public sector procurement system, but Matthews said his young company had done well out of public sector contracts.

The final discussion, on raising finance, heard first from Jo Daniels, chief scientific officer at Q-Chip Life Sciences, who said her company was in talks over an investment from the Capital Cardiff Fund after raising money from Finance Wales. She was joined by Steve Clee, chief executive of presentation software company Datpresenter, and Ifor Williams, business development director at Lloyds TSB.

The event was sponsored by Cardiff & Co, Venture Wales, KTS Owens Thomas, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cardiff University, UWIC, Cardiff Business Technology Centre, Cardiff Medicentre, the University of Glamorgan and Fusion Cardiff.

The other pitching companies were Peepo GPS, which is developing satellite navigation systems for blind people; Evelyn Products, which makes hair care products for the Afro Caribbean community; internet software developer Woosabi; Time for Medicine, which is developing an online system for clinical advice; battery charger developer GTC (UK); DVS Computers, for its online back-up software; renewable energy company Solar Source; Nocci, the Network of Cultural and Creative Industries; and Lindstrand Aeroplatforms (Cardiff), which plans to fly a passenger balloon over the capital.