The regional finalists in the West & South West Region of The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards 2020, sponsored by Julius Baer, were all, in very different ways, concerned with the human touch — though in two of the four entries, the business concept took us deep into virtual worlds. All four also offered ingenious solutions for marketplaces that are being rapidly changed by the pandemic.
I’ll explain all that in a moment, but first, the setting and judges. We were talking to three companies from Bristol and one from Manchester — where we have met finalists in person in previous years — but once again we gathered via Zoom and once again we found the format, with a short pitch from each entrant followed by a Q&A with our judging panel, at least as vivid as a live encounter across a restaurant lunch table.
Joining me as guest judges were Angela Luger, a newcomer to these Awards who has had a long career in consumer-facing businesses, latterly as chief executive of the online retailer N Brown until 2018 and currently as a non-exec at New Look and chair of Edinburgh-based The Paint Shed.
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