Internet design wins innovation prize
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Jon Barrett of Lenham-based Purelabs, winner of the
2009 Kent Innovation Challenge, with Kriss Akabusi, left, and Tim
Bentley, chairman, at the Kent 2020 Vision gala dinner
presentation
by Business Editor Trevor Sturgess
The winner of a £20,000 innovation prize for revolutionising
magazine publishing has admitted to being stunned with the
decision.
Jon Barrett, founder of Purelabs, based in Lenham, said after
clinching the 2009 Kent Innovation Challenge: "I’m chuffed, stunned
and my heart is racing."
The verdict was announced at the Kent 2020 Vision business show
at Detling County Showground. Mr Barrett told hundreds of guests at
a gala dinner that the money would help him cut development time
from a year to three months.
The business, which was helped by the University of Kent and
Canterbury Enterprise Hub, beat 70 hopefuls to the top prize and
had to survive a Dragons Den-style grilling by a panel of Kent
business experts.
They were impressed by Mr Barrett’s big idea Intelligent
Flatplan, said to be the world’s first internet-based magazine
management solution.
After receiving his prize, Mr Barrett said: "We’re going to get
a Kent-developed product out to market faster than we could
possibly have ever hoped. It’s designed in Kent, manufactured in
Kent, supplied from Kent but now supplied worldwide."
He added: "It’s helping micro, small, medium and some large
publishing companies lower their costs, reduce their hours, speed
their time to market and boost their profits. Our system is helping
this vital industry to survive and thrive in these troubled times
and beyond."
It offers magazine and newspaper publishers the opportunity to
replace paper, spreadsheet or DTP-based flatplans with a web-based
planning system that enables every user of the publication team to
see the same view, wherever they are in the world and irrespective
of whether they are using PCs or Apple Macs.
Paul Walsh, chairman of the Kent Innovation Challenge judging
panel said: "Jon and the Purelabs team have identified a real gap
in the market and devised an excellent solution that will help
publishers around the world. "
Monday, April 27 2009
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