TECH BLACKBURN presented by The Making Rooms and BwD council, is a technology startup accelerator, designed to help entrepreneurs rapidly turn an idea into a business.
Providing expertise from market analysis and product prototyping to crowd funding and marketing, this 8 week fully funded programme will take attendees from an initial spark of an idea, to having your first prototype, learning how to find your customers and pitching to investors.
Following the success of the first cohort at the beginning of the year, TECH BLACKBURN has secured funding to take another 8 delegates through the process and is currently running this second cohort through the programme.
Over the 8 week programme we will help each cohort of 8 entrepreneurs through the processes of assessing and validating ideas, product development and prototyping, and then planning routes to market. You need to have an idea or a field of interest and be prepared to work intensively on developing it into a successful business startup over the duration of the accelerator.
Benefits:
Help to turn your passion/idea into a successful business
Support and guidance from experts and business owners
Work alongside a cohort of other business startups
Access to investors
Learn about major emerging technologies
Specifics:
8 full-days training led by industry experts
Peer-to-peer support from like-minded entrepreneurs
Direct access to industry-leading experts
No cost to you – 100% funded
Access to advanced prototyping technology
Free 24/7 hotdesking space
5 hours free commercial machine time
Blackburn and the North-West has a rich history of technological innovation, which has seen a resurgence in recent years, with Manchester playing host to the UK’s first rapid prototyping Fab Lab, to Blackburn now being home to the best quipped Fab Lab nationwide.
“I would definitely recommend this to new makers…or just someone with an idea they have. Tech Blackburn is a great way to try out new ideas, gain confidence in product ideas, learn design skills and make connections with other makers, plus have the opportunity to practice using equipment to make quality prototypes or even finished products.”
-Norma Foulds, TECH BLACKBURN alumni
We are seeing a societal shift towards inventive startups and entrepreneurship and away from the standard 9-5 desk jobs. Startups are perfectly positioned to react quickly to market opportunities as the rate of technological advancement increases and customers demand a more transparent, ethical, and personal connection to the brands they purchase from.
Starting a business and creating a product has never been easier. With the advent of free social media marketing and crowd funding platforms to sell new product lines, coupled with cheap rapid prototyping that 3D printers and other new technologies offer, anyone with a good idea and a lot of determination can start a successful innovative company.
To make it easier for people in Blackburn and the North-West to develop new technologies, The Making Rooms has paired up with local organisations to deliver Blackburn’s first technology startup accelerator.
On the programme, you will meet Katherine, our marketing expert who has years of experience helping big or small businesses find a suitable strategy that would work for them. She does this with a step by step guide that she has developed called “themarketingknot“. She knows that for a business to be successful with its marketing it’s all about creating a structure and system that will serve you year after year (no matter how big your business becomes) and helps you build the business you’ve always wanted to build. Because ultimately that’s what it’s all about. You.