MONDAY 11th JULY 2011

Digital developments

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Nokia announces winners of £25k app development funding at Pitch ‘n’ Win Birmingham

Midlands-based Alison Smith of Pesky People and Birmingham’s Clusta Labs have emerged from an exceptionally strong field of creative businesses and developers as winners of Nokia’s Pitch ‘n’ Win mobile app development competition.

Following an initial written application process that attracted entries from across the UK, teams behind the eight strongest ideas were invited to an exclusive one day event at Birmingham’s Zellig building at the Custard Factory, featuring top level speakers from Nokia and international creative agency, Wieden + Kennedy.

After keynote speeches from international guests including Nokia’s Head of Content and Partnerships, Keith Varty, and Wieden + Kennedy’s Interactive Creative Director, Andy Cameron, the eight teams each pitched their ideas to an expert panel, who were then faced with the difficult decision of picking just one winner. In fact, the quality of ideas presented was so strong that the judges ended up picking two.

Talking after the event, Nokia’s Keith Varty said:

The panel was blown away by the breadth and quality of ideas presented at the Pitch ‘n’ Win event in Birmingham, we look forward to working with Pesky People and Clusta to deliver truly innovative apps for Nokia smartphones.

Pesky People took the top prize of £25,000 to develop Go Genie – a mobile app that aims to help make inaccessible public spaces accessible, with tools to help plan visits and give feedback on accessibility of venues.

Collecting her award, Pesky People’s Alison Smith (pictured right) said:

This is the first time I’ve ever pitched for investment in this way and as a new start up it is a massive boost to be recognised by Nokia - especially for a company led by Deaf and Disabled people. We can now take the Go Genie platform forward to build an app to compliment the website and widget - an impossible dream is now a reality.

Birmingham’s Clusta Labs presented a groundbreaking app idea capitalising on Nokia’s exciting developments with NFC technology (Near Field Communication). This proved an irresistible proposal for Nokia, who decided to present a second award with an offer to take the app into further development.

Clusta Labs’ Innovations Manager, Chris Harkins, said:

Clusta was delighted to attend The Nokia Pitch ‘n’ Win event in Birmingham. We were proud to be announced as the winners and are now eager to continue our relationship with Nokia. As a leader in digital advertising, we understand the potential of designing NFC Apps for Nokia and hope that our concept will become a unique feature within Nokia’s Store. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and are very much looking forward to seeing how this project continues to evolve over time.

Presenting the awards, Nokia’s Head of Developer Relations, Greg Merten, said:

Alison’s Go Genie app will be a great example of ‘connecting people’ through innovation. We are also excited about developing Clusta’s innovative NFC app, and look forward to seeing both apps available to Nokia smartphones owners.