A new Welsh event that pulls together innovation from across the sectors is attracting the big guns and some interesting sporting insights to the National Cricket Centre, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on March 11 to turn Innovation into Action.

Over 60 new products, new ideas and new technologies from Wales will gather to show off their big ideas, develop new contacts and promote their business to an audience of potential partners including technology scouts and investors hungry for the next big thing.

The event has been set up by the Welsh Assembly Government, and to help ensure it is relevant to the innovation needs of the market, it is receiving support from an Advisory Board of senior professionals, including the Microsoft Corporation, Kodak, Procter & Gamble, the UK Intellectual Property Office and Boots Centre for Innovation. 
 
Helen Taylor from Boots Centre for Innovation explains why they have become involved in this unique event:  "Boots Centre for Innovation is seeking inventors and SMEs with ideas from the healthcare and beauty sectors.  We see this event as a great opportunity for us to source new ideas and for inventors to proactively obtain advice on how to develop their ideas and prepare them for market."

Amongst the ideas on show will be screening equipment that picks up heart conditions leading to strokes, a virtual travel companion, freehand decorating tools, and a high-tech 3D printer. The event offers a showcase for cutting edge Bluetooth Mobile Marketing, or proximity marketing, being put into action by Cardiff media specialists greenfield, to show the latest generation of customer interaction and engagement, where an illuminated display sends out a free message to the mobile phones of passers-by. Supported by WAG, greenfield have used this direct marketing technology at a number of large scale events, including last summer's National Eisteddfod, and Wales Rally GB.

Innovation into Action also gives visitors the chance to see innovation being used on our doorstep in the latest major sporting venues currently under construction in the city, with presentations by both Glamorgan CCC on creating a stadium fit for the Ashes Test of 2009, and by Cardiff City on the stadium that will be shared with Cardiff Blues.

Chris Moore, Director of Kodak External Alliances - Europe, sees the event as very time- and cost-effective, saying: "I spend a great deal of my time looking for organisations who are working on technologies that are relevant to Kodak.  We want to interact with them to explore future opportunities of benefit to both parties.  Innovation Into Action short-circuits my search.  I can see 50 or more opportunities in one day."                                   

Phil Allen, Senior Programmes Manager with the Welsh Assembly Government said: "With Innovation into Action, we are gathering together the professionals who are able to turn new products, ideas and technologies into viable business propositions and we are confident that effective collaborations will emerge from it".

The event will include an exhibition, and a technology brokerage feature will enable pre-arranged one-to-one meetings.

It forms part of Wales Innovation Week, a significant week for technology and innovation in Wales, complementing the national Female Inventors and Innovators Awards at City Hall, and BioWales, one of the largest Bioscience events outside London on 12 and 13 March at the Vale Hotel Resort, near Cardiff.