There were DJs welcoming people at the door and musicians playing around the stands last week at the Business Rocks event in Manchester.
Our Online PR and Content Manager, Christopher Brown, popped over to take a look around and chat to the businesses there. The idea behind the show was to look at tech, music & start-up innovation. While the focus is on the technical side of business and mixing it with music to create a different atmosphere to the usual conference. The start-up side was also inspiring.
The event is the home of the Innov8 prize. It’s the chance for start-ups to pitch themselves and win £50,000, along with a host of other prizes. WeFarm picked up the prize. It is a free peer-to-peer service that means that farmers can get information via SMS, without the internet, and without having to leave their farm. Farmers can ask questions on farming and receive crowd-sourced answers from other farmers around the world in minutes.
It’s an incredible idea, one that shows that technological innovation can use the tools of the world around them and harness collective knowledge to improve people’s lives.
Among the talks was more practical advice, such as making the most of social video and using mapping tools to help your business. These are the type of tips that can really help a business to grow in the digital sphere, be easier to find and tell their story to new audiences.
It’s always great when start-ups, established tech firms and strategists can get together to discuss ideas and Business Rocks managed to offer it with a different feel – or a chance to have a spin on the decks at least.
