Beacons of light in the darkest of years

When we opened this year’s Economic Innovator Awards for entries back in March, we were concerned we might not be able to recreate the positive impact achieved in 2018 and 2019 — let alone the memorable glitz of last year’s finale dinner at the Postal Museum. The nation was in lockdown, the economy was clearly beginning to suffer the damage that was eventually confirmed in the Chancellor’s Spending Review last week, and we had already adopted ‘Innovator’ in the name of the Awards in place of ‘Disruptor’, because the advancing coronavirus was the nastiest disruptor the world had seen for decades. How many struggling entrepreneurs would even find time to fill in our form?

But we need not have worried. Entries arrived in a growing stream, almost 150 of them (a record) from every corner of the UK and every business sector. As ever, the pattern reflected the times: in 2018, it was fintech to the fore; in 2019, green tech was in fashion; in 2020, for obvious reasons, healthcare and pandemic responses predominated.