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Something is brewing...

The UK's quirky innovation culture - at once dynamic and loveable, while at the same time maddeningly inadequate - has been taxing the minds of a lot of people recently....

Like in this post, from Tom Coates on Plasticbag.org, which elicited an avalanche of comments and was echoed around the blogosphere:

"...our industry seems dominated by a few moribund and clumsy giants leading a culture that's inarticulate, unadventurous and profoundly constrained. There's something very wrong here.

My main question is this: Where are all the bloody start-ups? Where are the small passionate groups of creative technologists (people with clue) getting together to build web applications and public-facing products that push things forward? Where is the Blogger or Flickr or Odeo or Six Apart of the UK? What aspect of this country is it that confounds these aspirations? And I know that Audioscrobbler is wonderful. I really love it. But eventually you have to ask - is that really all we can do?

So is it a lack of money or a poverty of ambition?"

Beers & Innovation was founded on the premise that an open debate on these issues is needed, and with the hope that together we can start untangling some of them...

Smart Textiles & Wearable Technologies...

Discussion of tech start-ups and innovation has focused on web technologies, but technology innovation goes far beyond that. What's more, the UK is home to many world-leading companies in the sphere of intelligent textiles and wearable technolgy, and a global hub of R&D and teaching in this field.

In September the DesignPlus newtwork hosts the London conference 'How Smart Are We?' the programme of which explores the evolution of textiles, technology and the consumer.

Now the DesignPlus network have joined forces with NMK to bring us some of the UK's foremost practitioners and innovators from this sector, to share their experiences about design and technology innovation in the Beers & Innovation setting.

The opportunities for businesses in this sector are substantial. From the development of smart fabrics for manufacturing and science, through to intelligent textiles for home furnishings, fashion and work accessories, there are few areas that innovation in this sector doesn't touch.

But what's happening on the ground in the UK, among start-ups, large companies and academia? And how does UK talent in this sphere plug in to and influence global business and trends?

Come along, hear from practicioners and experts in the field and have your say.

SPEAKERS:

Carol Collett - MA Textile Futures Course Director, Central Saint Martins College
In addition to her Textile Futures MA course directorship and research roles at Central Saint Martins College, Carole is a member of the Textile Futures Research Group (more information here). She is trained as a textile Designer and is a consultant in the area of textile print, R&D, trend forecasting, sustainable design, and intelligent textiles. Consultancy clients include DMC, Boussac, Koji Tatsuno, Hoechst, Global consultants, Ian Ritchie Architects. Carole�s current academic research �Poetic Textiles For Smart Homes� is a design quest which aims at developing innovative textiles for the domestic market. By investigating issues of aesthetics and functions, the project aims at mapping out new possibilities for textile to take a leading role in redefining our intimate and emotional relationship with �smart homes�. The design process explores a combination of new technologies (intelligent textiles, new materials) together with more traditional and low tech methods of production to generate new �hybrid� designs. Sustainable values underpin both the design process and the design outcomes.

Miles Jordan - Design Manager, Eleksen
Miles trained as a product and industrial designer and has worked extensively within leading London design consultancies for major brands. He joined Eleksen from Therefore Design Consultancy to enable Eleksen to adopt a design led approach to applying their technology within a complete range of consumer and industrial products. Eleksen Group plc is the world leader in touch sensitive interactive textiles for electronics interface design. The company�s core technology, ElekTex, is a unique electro-conductive fabric touch pad optimized for the creation of flexible, durable and rugged fabric touch screen interfaces. ElekTex is used in applications ranging from wearable electronic controls for consumer electronics and industrial wear to lightweight, low-power touch interfaces for CE accessories, telematics, military, transportation and space suits. Eleksen licenses ElekTex and reference design to manufacturers for use in custom electronics design and also markets a range of ready-to-integrate solutions for garment, bags and accessories manufacturers.

Who should attend:
Designers, technolgists, researchers, journalists... anyone who's ever had a good idea and never did anything with it. Anyone who did. Anyone else who cares about these things.

To be kept posted on all future B&I nights, sign up for the fortnightly NMK Newsletter (just drop your email address into the third box down on the right hand side of this page).

See the Beers & Innovation 1: UK Start-up Culture outline.
See the Beers & Innovation 2: User-Generated Content outline.
See the Beers & Innovation 3: Web Services & Mash-ups outline.
See the Beers & Innovation 4: RSS Frontiers outline.

Check out the Beers & Innovation blog

About Beers & Innovation:
This is the fifth in an ongoing series NMK are producing, with each Beers & Innovation focusing on a particular key issue for / sector of the UK's innovation and technology scene. The next one will be announced soon. Regular updates and relevant discussions can be found on the blog. For enquries about this or future B&I nights, email deirdre.molloy@nmk.co.uk - we welcome all your comments, ideas and feedback!

NB: Payment for this event is by Switch/Maestro or Credit Card ONLY. Please select this payment method on the booking form. Thank you.