Now more than ever we are truly seeing the huge potential that the Internet of Everything (IoE) innovations can bring to all industries and not just businesses involved. To celebrate Britain’s brightest innovators, Cisco is once again hosting the Britain Innovation Getaway (BIG) Awards and is opening the invitation to submissions from small businesses, and early stage start-ups that that innovatively contribute to the tech industry, more specifically; the Internet of Everything.
The BIG Awards is an open innovation competition that uncovers and develops high tech talent and emerging tech-based start-ups across the UK. We’re delighted to be running the challenge once again and are excited about the prospect of seeing a variety of innovations across the country and what this could mean for the future of the IoE.
What’s in it for the innovators?
Successful entrants can expect access to a full array of Cisco capabilities, from technology to business development in addition to exciting partnering opportunities in the future. The winners can also expect generous cash prizes ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, as well as specialist support aimed at supercharging ideas, products and initiatives.
Why are we focussing on the IoE with this year’s awards?
By 2020, there will be an estimated 50bn devices connected to the Internet. These connections will enrich our experiences by bringing cyberspace to the physical world, in ways that we couldn’t have envisioned 20 years ago.
Industries as diverse as retail, healthcare and transport have already seen exciting advances and smart innovations that demonstrate how connecting things that were previously unconnected can bring significant benefits to all parties involved.
For example, if we look at the energy market – it’s estimated that Lighting-as-a-Service (LaaS) will bring to market lighting that’s powered, connected and controlled by digital networks. Which could reduce energy consumption by approximately 70 percent.
In early 2014, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced a £45m fund available to British firms working on Internet of Everything related projects. Whilst in early 2015 Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, announced wide-ranging support for IoE services and applications, identifying several areas for investment such as network security and data privacy. Ofcom has already released a spectrum for machine-to-machine communications, putting the UK among the first countries in Europe to enable new IoE-based innovation opportunities in this way.
If you think your idea or start-up is what we’re searching for; apply here and get involved!
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