Courage, cash and the crux of Cardiff’s Digital Festival

Following on from TechDay NYC, Cardiff Digital Festival had a hard act to follow.

Hosted in Cardiff’s Millennium Centre, it was a great alternative to the usual vast hall set-up. The ability to watch main speakers and presentations in an auditorium worked great allowing attendees to pop in and out at will, whilst seamlessly experiencing the stands, workshops and networking.

With the sunny weather(a blessing for the UK) my three top highlights were:

Courage

Standing out amongst the flashy stands and roll-up banners were Mark and Fred from Bright Cube, with their humble white board and concept video.

Bright Cube is bravely confronting the marketing industry norms, helping large corporations to see off the challenges facing them; these corporations’ market share is constantly being chipped away by start-ups, all competing within content saturated platforms. In reality, many corporations are managing a slow decline- Bright Cube want to face that, front on.

Bright Cube had some refreshing new ideas. It made me consider how their vision, partnered with great digital design and development skills, like those offered by Destructive Digital, could dramatically add value and ROI for a large corporation. These potential clients have so many untapped opportunities in their existing customer base/community, who are crying out for innovation.

Cash

I was invited to lunch and an event with the London Stock Exchange Group, whose representative, Emma Titmas, skilfully took me through the benefits of their ELITE program, which supports clients towards and through an IPO.

Working with many early-stage disruptive tech start-ups, ringing that IPO stock market bell is the end goal. When raising funds, however, it was food for thought to consider alternatives from VCs and ponder the benefits of raising funds through an IPO. Operational investment is often vital for quick and vast scaling; although more governance is required, you potentially retain more control.

I would strongly recommend that any companies planning an IPO (or considering raising funds from one) contact Emma.

The Crux

On the main stage, entrepreneur Keith Teale followed on from Wired Magazine’s presentation on the latest tech trends.

Keith took the audience through his successful career of innovation, which took him from Scarborough to San Francisco, starting a number of successful enterprises on his way; two of these (EasyNet and RealName) have been valued as unicorns.

It was great to see him reflect on his successes and failures, linking the lessons from each into an overall strategy and leaving a simple but hard-hitting message of:

“Think big, act small”

We at Destructive Digital 100% agree with him; with our own (resource, not capital) investment Catalyst program, we look for ideas that achieve our criteria: Why, Impact, Organic, Values and Vision.

If you are looking for VC investment, you might consider contacting Keith, who is the Chairman of Accelerated Digital Ventures; investment decisions and feedback are given within one week.

What’s next?

Next up is London’s Start-Up Grind, and LA’s Tech Day, which promise to be equally inspiring events. If you would like to meet up for one of these, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

With any luck, it will even match Cardiff’s sunny weather.