The Tech South West Awards 2023 took place on 9th November at Sandy Park Exeter, with a record-breaking 400 attendees, showcasing innovation from across the South West.
There were 26 awards up for grabs, and Cornwall-based businesses walked away with 9. It was great to see Digital Skills Partnership representation among Cornwall’s winners.
Dan Pritchard, co-founder of Tech South West and CEO of Program, said: “The South West is a bustling hub of innovation across a range of tech specialisms, and it’s great to celebrate the people and teams behind the meteoric rise of the sector.”
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Digital Skills Partnership with Heart of the South West Digital Skills Partnership sponsored the Best Education Initiative Award. We were happy to award this to Cornwall-based Cognition Creative Learning with their team also scooping the TeachTech Award.
The judges commented that Cognition Creative Learning “were the standout winner, the factors that made them stand out were the right people at the right time and in the right area.”
Briony Cooper from Cognition Creative Learning commented “Being shortlisted among such exceptional peers in education was an honour in itself. Winning both the Best Education Initiative and TeachTech, alongside the esteemed recognition of the Cornwall Cluster, fills us with absolute delight. The evening was nothing short of fantastic, and we’re truly thrilled to have contributed to such an inspiring gathering.”
The Best Application of AI Award went to Cornwall-based Arwen AI, for their work using machine learning to tackle online hate speech. The judges commented “Best value proposition of AI to deliver a positive impact and to represent huge opportunities for commercial gain long term.”
Cornwall’s iconic Goonhilly Earth Station was awarded the trophy for Space and Aviation with judges commenting “Goonhilly have been pioneers of space aviation since 1962 doing a fantastic job of putting Cornwall on the map on the global stage working with NASA and expanding to the US and Australia.”
While FibreHub, based in Cornwall, receiving a commendation from the judges in the Supporting the Sector’ Award.
Cornwall-based TECwomen CIC won the Commitment to Talent Award for their training programmes for women and girls with Software Cornwall Highly Commended.
The CreaTech Award went to Cornwall Museums Partnership. The judges commented “Their responsive E paper adaptive displays are aiming to revolutionise museum labels by making them accessible to the visitors needs and we think this is a really great innovative technology that has potential for global reach.”
The Women in Tech award category was won by Katie Goode, creative director and co-founder of award-winning games studio Triangular Pixels. The judges commented “Congratulation Katie, it is so fantastic that you are in the games industry in Cornwall we love the fact that you have been hands on through your whole career, you have won a BAFTA and you can show that women in tech can work in a worldwide business within games.”
The People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Cornwall based Hertzian, was voted on during the ceremony by the audience, from a shortlist of nominations submitted by the tech community. The trophy went to Suzanne Manson, Director and Head of Delivery at Cornwall-based TECgirls.
Tech South West is a membership organisation that supports the South West tech sector to grow, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange across the ecosystem.
It was a great evening for Cornwall, and we are glad to see that Cornwall continues to make its mark on the region’s growing tech sector.
