Dragons Lair Christmas Special with a Twist has two parts; first, number of tech companies pitching for investment; second, investment readiness to ensure tech companies are ready to tap into the £185 million North West Funds expected to be signed this week.

FIRST HALF

Dragons Lair provides a compelling environment for technology companies to pitch to a panel of active investors. Each company is given 5 minutes to deliver a razor-sharp pitch and the investors have 10 mins to quiz the entrepreneur. We have chosen the panel of investors, who are in control of their own personal funds, which means they are capable of making decisions swiftly, without having to seek approval from their own Boards.

DRAGONS

		Graham Currey - Business Angel - £30,000 to £100,000 Graham has worked in and around IT for nearly 25 years. He started out as a programmer in the heady days of mainframe business systems and gained promotion to Director status in 2 software houses before eventually leaving to take up a position on the main board of a leading North West travel company. He set up new systems and developed the infrastructure to empower web sales before eventually selling the business. Since then he has continued to work with a succession of travel companies on a freelance basis whilst also seeking a suitable business to invest time, energy and cash into. He wants to be actively involved in helping a business to take the next step forward.
		Tony Bray - Business Angel - £30,000 to £100,000 Tony has held senior management positions in the software industry for over 30 years. His most recent company was award-winning document management and imaging software author, Version One Ltd – one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe. The business was sold in 2007 for a multi-million pound figure. Tony has since worked as a business strategy and business intelligence consultant, and recently invested in Intuitive Business Intelligence, founded by a Techcelerate Tech Entrepreneur. Tony is hungry for more businesses to invest in where he can make a real difference.

PRESENTING COMPANIES

		Viztone - Mobile Advertising Viztone Ltd has developed application that will allow the delivery of advertisements during the pre-connection phase of any telephone call. Viztone’s “video ring back tones” replace the traditional (brrr, brrr sound) a caller hears whilst he is waiting for the recipient of his call to pick up. The innovation is backed by patents granted in the UK and Australia and filed in the USA (2001).
		The Wedding Vine - The Wedding Vine is an indispensible wedding resource devoted to discerning, style conscious Brides to help plan and inspire the wedding of their dreams. In the world of gorgeous weddings, we feature the beautiful, luxurious, chic and unique - from exquisite designer fashion and gorgeous 'must haves', to fabulous floral designs and couture cakes - straight from the U.K.'s leading designers.
		Malinko - Scheduling The new Malinko scheduling and rostering system is completely configurable, meaning you can keep all your important customer records in one place, in a system tailored and designed to fit your kind of business. Malinko is highly configurable to fit in with your business, keeping records of your resources, records and key contact information keeping everybody in your organisation up-to-date.
		Canddi - Campaign Monitoring Canddi improves Sales conversions by providing much richer data for the initial contact: Click-stream, Social Media profiles, Interests and search data. See exactly which channels are driving conversions. See how different channels are influencing this. Knowing the identity of website visitors means you can recontact them. CANDDi's automated tools mean you can send different messages based on a visitor's online behaviour

SECOND HALF

Given that £185 million North West Funds are expected to be signed off this week, we have changed the original event format to give our tech companies the best chance to prepare their businesses for venture capital funding in the new year. There will be an open discussion supported by two tech entrepreneurs who have raised funding in the past, in addition to advice on legal and financial aspect of preparing your company.

Speakers

		Steve Livingston - Partner, Crowe Clark Whitehill Manchester based tax partner responsible for the delivery of tax planning and compliance services to a range of clients from start-ups through to larger entrepreneurial corporates, international groups and AIM listed companies
		Stuart Scott-Goldstone - Partner, Aaron & Partners Stuart Scott-Goldstone is Head of the Corporate/Commercial Team at Aaron & Partners LLP, a commercial law firm with offices in Manchester and Chester. Stuart specialises in corporate finance transactions and has advised both investors and companies on a large number of early stage and start up investments in the North West, particular those involving regional venture capital funds.
		Andy Jones - Co-Founder & CEO, Ibexis Andy is a senior IT executive with over 20 years blue-chip experience in IT, sales and customer service gained in diverse organisations including BT, Royal London Insurance and the Tote. Prior to founding Ibexis, he was divisional Head of IT at the Tote (£2bn betting & gaming company) with IT responsibility for retail, race courses, the pools and group management information. His was responsible for a large team that encompassed IT development, project managers and analysts. His background includes project management roles at Royal London Insurance and 13 years at BT as a technology consultant in sales and in customer services.
		Robert Wakeling - Founder & CEO, Wadaro Robert is the founder of Wadaro and has been principle in early business development, in securing support from partners, advisors and financiers. Prior to Wadaro, Robert held senior management positions at Openwave Inc. (NASDAQ:OPWV) and Magic4 Limited (acquired by OPWV) and has in excess of 20 years experience in technology product companies.

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