In this episode we catch up with Engineering and Manufacturing Network post pandemic who support the continued growth of the area’s engineering and manufacturing industries by building a strong collaborative community of businesses.

The North East is home to thousands of companies in these key sectors, from large multi-national brands and home grown firms to SMEs and micro businesses, who collectively contribute billions of pounds to the local economy employing hundreds of thousands of people.

EMN has positioned itself at the heart of engineering and manufacturing industry, offering companies expert support and access to the assistance they need to realise their full potential.

The Engineering and Manufacturing Network is supporting the continued growth of the area’s engineering and manufacturing industries by building a strong collaborative community of businesses.

The North East is home to thousands of companies in these key sectors, from large multi-national brands and home grown firms to SMEs and micro businesses, who collectively contribute billions of pounds to the local economy employing hundreds of thousands of people.

EMN has positioned itself at the heart of engineering and manufacturing industry, offering companies expert support and access to the assistance they need to realise their full potential.

Telex UK specialises in working with companies to develop and implement a water strategy which delivers lower ongoing costs, through the utilisation of:

• Industry expertise
• A clear understanding of our customers’ requirements

To create simple, innovative and customer-focused cost saving solutions.

Telex UK is a uniquely customer centric consultancy and their much loved quality of service is unrivalled within the industry.

IOT North make change. IOT North enable technology people to collaborate, connect and support each other making productisation quicker and communication more human.

IOT North are at spearhead of accelerating the adoption of Internet of Things.

IOT North help you connect and understand the value of the Internet of Things.

Following on from the first very popular podcast back in August 2020, we agreed that we'd catch up with Paul Wealls, founder of IOT North as some of his exciting projects took shape.

If you've not listened to episode 1 visit https://www.lumo.tax/news/podcasts/talking-iot-with-paul-wealls/ 

In this episode we are joined by Lavinia Malo, Innovation consultant at DRIAD

DRIAD was founded in 2014 in Leeds by Dr Vivien Badaut. A former academic researcher, Vivien started working in 2013 as a freelance technical expert for grant funding consultancies in Paris (France). Following a move to the UK, DRIAD was launched in June 2014 as a bid-writing service targetting mostly French start-ups. The DRIAD team would create impactful applications for different French grants and loans. DRIAD’s services quickly expanded to encompass applications for European grants. This initial work supporting over a hundred of the most prominent French start-ups allowed them to build a comprehensive understanding of how VC-backed start-ups work, and gain strong technology expertise across the board.

In 2018, conversations with fellow founders brought Driad to identify an unmet need for support from British technology start-ups and SMEs. DRIAD then integrated the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator program to structure this new offer of service, which was recognised when the company was shortlisted in 2019’s Digital Enterprise Top 100.

DRIAD now delivers long-term, strategic innovation support to technology start-ups and scale-ups. They are innovation enablers: their grant-writing services are embedded in their comprehensive strategic and operational support to accompany you, your team and your business towards shaping your ideas into actionable projects and optimising your resources

In 1995 Design Xpress was created by Juliette Brown in County Durham. At this time, Juliette focused on developing a design and point of sale printing business, offering price ticketing, POS and posters largely to the food retail industry.

Carl Gerry, a procurement specialist, joined the business in 2010 and later became Operations Director and helped develop the business further in terms of procurement, planning and process.

As technology advanced and the business expanded and relocated, the company evolved to be a reliable Large Format Print specialist, serving Print Management, Design Agencies and Government alongside smaller direct businesses and members of the general public.

OGI Groundwater Specialists Ltd is an independent, privately owned specialist engineering design, groundwater control and consultancy company predominately servicing the UK construction industry.

Founded in Oxford in 1989 by Dr Stephen Thomas, OGI s expertise is focussed on the design and supervision of groundwater control systems required to lower the water table and reduce artesian pore pressures for large complex underground structures when constructed below the water table.

With more than 25 years of experience of solving groundwater problems, combined with our groundwater modelling skills, OGI provides geotechnical and groundwater engineering designs to overcome challenging and difficult ground conditions encountered during the construction of deep structures, such as basements, bridge footings, tunnels, shafts, swimming pools, underground car parks, and road and rail cuttings.

Dr Stephen Thomas, Managing Director,  A chartered engineer with over 30 years’ of Groundwater Control & Engineering experience, Stephen is responsible for our major Construction Dewatering and Groundwater Control Projects.  He manages all stages of the Groundwater Control design, from the development of the ground and groundwater models, to the mathematical modelling and the development of the detailed design for construction.

Stephen’s project experience includes the Groundwater Control system installed for London Millennium Bridge, Deephams WwTW in North London, G1 Building in Glasgow, Rolls Royce structures in Derby and numerous other major infrastructure project.

The North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA) is an industry-led cluster group, established to support the economic sustainable growth and competitiveness of the sector in the North East of England.

Launched in March 2015, now with over 300 cluster participants, the NEAA is the largest automotive cluster in the UK and one of the fastest growing clusters across Europe.

Their aim is simple – to build upon the region’s significant automotive capability and to firmly establish the North East as a true global automotive powerhouse - ensuring North East is at the forefront of the Governments strategy to ensure the technologies of tomorrow are designed, developed and manufactured in the UK.

As a proactive industry-led cluster group, the NEAA is here to represent and work on behalf of the whole North East automotive sector, whether a company is making cars or components, working in commercial, off-highway or engine manufacture.

 The NEAA focuses on:

• Networking & Connectivity
• Business Resilience
• Skills & Training
• Innovation & Technology
• Collaboration
• Promotion
• Industry Voice

In this epsiode we are joined by Andy Biggs, Management Information Systems Guru and Visual Strategist at Vismap

VISMAP (visual strategy mapping) is a strategy framework that allows businesses to involve a wide team in the strategy creation process and then allows the business to react and update plans as circumstances change. This wider team engagement provides a richer and more robust strategy and greater ownership of the implementation plans.

VISMAP® delivers a route map that uniquely combines strategy, product, market and finance. In addition, there is an interactive software solution that sits at the heart of your business and ensures all roads lead to one destination. Your Sat Nav to success.

In this episode we are joined by Alex Sergent, CEO & Founder of BARE.

Alex began his career in politics and journalism and has set up companies in events management and film, and even has his own charity. Most recently he has run a successful offline dating company – pivotal in his decision to set up BARE

BARE aim to create a flirtatious environment where you’re in control of how much you want to share, and how much of your match, you want to be revealed.