The Nottingham Creative Class of 2015

This summer has been an extremely busy one developing and fulfilling the MeArm Kickstarter pledges, but we’ve also had some other great successes that we’re just now getting time to reflect on and share via our blog. One of these is our involvement with Nottingham’s Creative Class of 2015.

The official blurb is that the ‘Creative Class’ is a group of companies chosen each year to represent the flair and entrepreneurial talent in Nottingham. Applicants do not apply. They need to be nominated by another business in the city who genuinely believe they fit the criteria to be part of The Creative Class and know enough about their business to write a thorough endorsement of their business. The Creative Class is sponsored by PwC and co-supported by Nottingham’s Creative Quarter, Nottingham Means Business (NMB) and Nottingham City Council.

We were very fortunate not only to be nominated but to be selected for the final ten! In a very hurried few days between being informed of our selection and having to give a presentation at the Creative Class event we were photographed at the near by Nottingham University Jubilee Campus.

In the photo is Christian Fraser-Williams on the left, who now expertly runs our laser cutters, and myself on the right with a small gaggle of MeArms. Christian had had not long joined the company through the Department of Work and Pensions Work Experience scheme but I thought he’d already shown enough of the right stuff to become an integral part of this growing firm.

A few days later we attended the launch event at the Nottingham Contemporary and met the rest of the Creative Class

This comprised

• All About Tourism – a marketing and events company.
• Azotic Technologies (@AzoticTech) -technology to allow every cell in a plant with the ability to fix its own nitrogen from the air.
• Impression (@impressiontalk) – a creative marketing agency.
• Games City (@gamecity) – clue in the name Tumour Trace – innovative technological solutions for screening, monitoring and early diagnostics of cancer
• Spinning Clock (@spinningclock) – a creative agency, specialising in marketing through live events, video production and digital media.
• Reach Separations (@REACHSEPARATION) – specialises in chromatography for the analysis and purification of small molecules.
• Hallam Internet (@HallamInternet) a digital marketing agency with a strong ethos for plain speaking and ethical activities.
• MeArm Robotics (@phenoptix) (us!) – MeArm is a pocket size robot arm. It was conceived to make robotics, electronics and programming accessible, and is open source.
• App Institute (@AppInstitute) – provide a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that allows SMEs and individuals with little to no prior technical knowledge to create their own app.

Many thanks toJohn_with_beard for the list and links.

It’s a pretty spectacular line up to be involved in! The evening was fantastic and I’m really looking forward to doing more with the rest of the creative class to help showcase Nottingham as the spectacular location that it is! I’ll also be thinking deeply about robots…