Innovator of the Year Awards: Bristol and Birmingham

For this year's Midlands and Southwest Innovator of the Year Awards, the judges met four finalists at each region respectively. These eight finalists were shortlisted down from a record 176 applications.

In Birmingham, the finalists in this podcast were MoM incubators, Hybrid Air Vehicles and Bambino Mio. The judges, Martin Vander Weyer, business editor of The Spectator met Steve Hewitt, non-executive director of Gymshark; Clive Bawden, COO of Warwick Music and former finalist of the Innovator of the Year Awards and Michelle White representing Investec.The judges faced the tough task of comparing businesses in very different sectors and stages of development. But all four made compelling pitches – and the variety of entries is part of the fun of these awards.We hope all the companies we meet gain from the networking opportunities, benefit from the accolade of being selected as finalists and enjoy the buzz, the conversation and the lunch. We hope Spectator readers and podcast listeners also enjoy following the search for this year’s ultimate winners – and will take a few minutes to explore the finalists' websites and products. More Economic innovator of the Year Awards podcasts coming shortly!