•  DNA Electronics - Winner of R&D Award 2009 at the Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards
• The Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London - Winner of “Outstanding Contribution to Innovation & Technology”, Times Higher Education Awards 2009
• Toumaz Technology - Winner of National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) Emerging Technology Company of the Year 2009
• Toumaz Technology - Winner of IET Innovation in Engineering Award

To find out how we can put you on the winner’s podium, just give us a call on 0844 870 8025 or drop us a line.

Now in their fifth year, the Times Higher Education Awards are the leading awards for the higher education sector, created to recognise, celebrate and reward the highest standards of excellence and talent in UK academia. This year the awards attracted over 600 entries from more than 130 higher education institutions.

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBE) was recognised by the panel of specially selected judges for its sheer breadth of innovation in the areas of medical diagnosis and treatment, personalised healthcare, regenerative medicine and biomedical imaging. The panel was impressed by the range of innovation achieved and its transferability into other fields.

The IBE, which opened its state-of-the-art, purpose-built facilities in 2006, combines the strengths of Imperial’s world class research schools in engineering and medicine to drive major advances in biomedical technology and accelerate the commercial realisation of technologies to improve the lives of people around the world.

Congratulations to all of the team at the IBE!

While we’re still in learning-and-evolution mode, one of the early lessons from Twitter is how the ascendancy of social networking culture seems to be bringing about a fundamental (because socially-enforced) shift in how certain groups communicate online.  The most significant trends that I see in my online activity are, firstly, the increasingly blurred line between the professional and the personal (this is particularly evident in Twitter due to its inherent transparency) and, secondly, ’hyperinteractivity’ - the ability to engage, critique, challenge, and support myriad individuals and communities in multiple ways and across a mind-boggling array of channels.   It’s an interesting development and, whatever services ultimately triumph, it’s clear that there is a healthy appetite out there for exploring and exploiting these platforms. 

I posted my first tweet almost two years ago but have been Twittering in earnest since the New Year.  You can follow me here: http://www.twitter.com/nickydavis.   

Look forward to seeing you in the Twitterverse but, in the meantime, here are some links to resources that I’ve found useful:

Twitterholic: http://twitterholic.com/
Twitter user rankings and statistics.  With over 100,000 followers, Stephen Fry is ranked 2nd globally but, beaten only by Barack Obama’s team-maintained account, he could accurately be called the top individual Twitterer in the world.

GigaTweet:  http://popacular.com/gigatweet/
A running tweet counter and trend analyser, for graph-lovers everywhere.

TweetDeck: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/
Currently in public beta, TweetDeck categorises your Twitter feeds, displays them in manageable columns, and provides a user-friendly dashboard to manage your Twitter activity.  It might sound like overkill for a new user, but it proves surprisingly valuable as your following/follower numbers start to climb.

Valebrity: http://www.valebrity.com
A portmanteau of ‘validated’ and ‘celebrity’, Valebrity is a reference site that separates the real celebrity Twitterers from the (surprisingly common) fakes.  As elsewhere on the web, trust is a real issue on Twitter and, according to WSJ, certifying identity could even be one of the business models that the founders of Twitter pursue in their quest to monetise the service.

Newbury, United Kingdom, December 11, 2008 – Marketingunity, a leader in collaborative web-based Marketing Resource Management (MRM) software, today announced that it has appointed B2B PR and web marketing agency EvokedSet to drive Marketingunity’s communications programme. EvokedSet won the brief to support Newbury-based Marketingunity following a competitive pitch process. EvokedSet has been retained to deliver an integrated programme of PR, web and email marketing to raise the profile of the Marketingunity brand in its key markets.

Marketingunity’s family of applications falls into MRM – a relatively new category of web-based management tool that enables customers to maximize return on marketing investment by boosting productivity, streamlining key processes and optimising the efficiency of marketing resources across the value chain. The MarketingunityTM MRM solution replaces the use of separate desktop spreadsheets by providing a single, unified online environment where marketing teams, field staff, agencies and suppliers can collaborate to proactively plan, execute monitor and report on campaigns; manage digital assets, workflows and approvals; procure goods and services cost-effectively, and ensure timely fulfillment. The result is reduced costs, administration overheads and delays, and faster time-to-market – and longer time-in-market – for campaigns. The Marketingunity MRM range includes editions for Enterprises and Agencies, and for on-premise or SaaS (Software as a Service) deployment. It is delivering measurable time and cost savings and ensuring the highest possible return for marketing spend for over 1200 blue-chip global enterprises today.

Commenting on EvokedSet’s appointment, Chris Hopwood, Managing Director and Founder of Marketingunity said: “After an extensive search for the right PR company, including a final round of five shortlisted companies, we are delighted to have appointed EvokedSet. What stood out for us was their strategic approach to PR planning, combined with their ability to proactively deliver results across all the channels that will be key to supporting our continued growth.”

Nicky Davis, Co-Founder and Director of EvokedSet adds: “We’re absolutely right-sized to support Marketingunity’s communications needs, from PR and analyst programmes, through to email campaigns and online PR. For every client, our goal is to create a results-based programme that generates brand-building momentum and offers the best return on investment, and we are looking forward to delivering a measurable difference for Marketingunity.”

EvokedSet clients Toumaz Technology and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College, are both profiled in a healthcare feature on this week’s edition of Click - the BBC’s flagship technology programme.

The current edition of the programme (which airs on BBC News, BBC One, BBC News 24 and BBC World) highlights the very latest innovations in home health monitoring technology and features an interview with Toumaz CEO and Co-Founder Keith Errey and IBE clinician Dr Nick Oliver.  The film includes footage of Toumaz’s ground-breaking Sensium system for intelligent wireless body monitoring, plus an overview of IBE’s pioneering silicon pancreatic beta cell, which provides the foundation for an artificial pancreas modelled in silicon.

If you are accessing the internet from the UK, you can view the programme online here.

Liz said: “Until the wind and rain started it was a fantastic day – the support and general atmosphere really are amazing and the sense of achievement when you cross the finish line is quite overwhelming. Normally after these things I say “never again”, but worryingly, at the moment I’m thinking I’d like to have another crack as I think I could go faster….”.

Amazing — well done, Liz, from all the team.

You can read the profile and the watch the accompanying video interview with Professor Toumazou here.

Here’s the press release from CIPR HQ:
The CIPR’s Education & Skills sectoral group and Thames & Chiltern regional group each received a Group of the Year Award at the Institute’s AGM on 19 June for work carried out in 2006.

These annual awards recognise the outstanding contribution over the past 12 months of the CIPR groups to the Institute’s work in raising industry standards.

2006 CIPR President Tony Bradley, who presented the awards, said: “Every year the CIPR recognises the hard work, dedication and achievements of its groups and the committees that run them. The CIPR Education & Skills and Thames & Chiltern groups provide a range of high quality services to members and are champions of best practice. They are working in new and innovative ways and are promoting key industry messages to different audiences, adding to the ‘voice’ of the CIPR. It gives me great pleasure to present each with a Group of the Year Award for their outstanding work and contribution to the Institute.”

Emma Leech, Chair of the Education and Skills Sector Group, said: “This is a major achievement for us as a relatively new group and we’re delighted that the hard work and enthusiasm of our members has been recognised by the CIPR with this prestigious award. The group has been keen to respond to its growing membership and we’ve sought to deliver cutting-edge events and opportunities supported by useful guides and networking opportunities. This is really starting to pay off and we hope to be able to continue to raise the bar in developing best practice in our sector and beyond. “

Nicky Davis, Chair of CIPR Thames & Chiltern from 2006-7, said: “We are really thrilled with this recognition from the CIPR, which reflects this group’s ongoing commitment to provide real value to members in the region. The committee has worked hard to deliver a full programme of networking and professional events and we’ve been delighted with the support and fantastic response from our members.”

Current CIPR Thames & Chiltern Chair Caroline Kinsey added: “On behalf of all CIPR members within our region, I would like to thank Nicky for her leadership which resulted in this award. We will continue to develop our support for members, and hopefully see if we can be the first region to win this award two years running.”

If you’re a subscriber to PRWeek you can read the article, “PR push for plaster-sized vital signs monitor”, here.

PRWeek subscribers can view the full reports here.