Podcast Special: Scotland and Northern Ireland's Economic Disruptors

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martin Vander Weyer, our Business Editor, speaks to three leading businesspeople for Scotland and Northern Ireland about the Economic Disruptor finalists in this region. Tune in to find out more about underwater wifi, a digital 3D map of the entire world, and more.

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Human progress has depended on economic disruptors since long before the advent of the internet. Motor cars remained rare luxuries until a disruptor called Henry Ford perfected the Model T assembly line. Today’s online auction, home-stay, ride-share and crowdfunding sites have generated markets and money flows that barely existed before, to the great benefit of providers and consumers. Today’s manufacturing methods — from 3D printing to advanced bioscience — have dramatically reduced the time and capital required to produce vital products.

So, who are the companies that are rewriting the rules in 2019? Following the success of last year's inaugural Economic Disruptor of the Year Awards, The Spectator and Julius Baer has come together again to celebrate creative entrepreneurship across the UK.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Spectator Radio. If you'd like to subscribe to The Spectator, you can get 12 issues for £12
0:05.2	pounds as well as a £20 pound Amazon voucher. Just go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. Welcome to this the fifth in our series of podcasts for this year's Spectator Economic Disruptor Awards.
0:29.2	Today we're in Edinburgh, we're in the Register Club inside the Edinburgh Grand Hotel.
0:35.5	We've had the rather extraordinary experience of lunching in a room
0:39.6	that was once the office of the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. And who was that?
0:45.5	It was, of course, Fred Goodwin, one of the great villains of the financial crisis of a decade ago.
0:53.6	But here we are talking to entrepreneurs,
0:56.3	talking to the next generation of exciting disruptor businesses.
1:01.3	So if ever there was a vivid example of the cycle of capitalism turning,
1:06.9	as it were, it's our lunch here in Edinburgh today,
1:10.0	where we're meeting four finalists for the
1:12.7	Scotland and Northern Ireland region. And with me, I have two of our judges. I have Irene McAlees,
1:22.3	who is a founder of one of last year's winners. That's C-Sense, a business based in Newtonards in Northern Ireland,
1:30.3	based on technology of smart bicycle lights and of gathering data through bicycle lights
1:37.5	to inform cyclists and city authorities and so on of the state of the roads,
1:43.8	of state of traffic, state of potholes and so on.
1:47.9	So a kind of big data business based on bicycle lights, and it's a pleasure to welcome Irene back as a judge this year.
1:55.9	Also with us is Gordon Scott, who is a regional director of Julius Baer, who are, of course, our sponsors for the
2:03.8	Economic Disruptor Awards. So welcome back also Gordon, who was with us in Manchester a few days ago.
2:11.0	On the phone with us, we have our second outside guest judge, also coming back for a second year.
2:18.4	He's Ian Ritchie.
2:19.4	He's a veteran Scottish venture capitalist.
	...

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