Pasimo Announced as Winner of the All Access Pass Programme

Sunderland Software City is delighted to announce Pasimo as the winner of the All Access Pass programme’s pitch event, supported by the North East Combined Authority and Destination North East England.

This highly anticipated pitch event, held on Friday the 14th of March, marked the end of the All Access Pass programme and saw eleven North East organisations pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of judges, all competing for a £10,000 prize pot provided by England’s first Destination Development Partnership, Destination North East England.

This initiative was designed to support regional organisations harness the power of 5G and immersive technologies, designed to make the North East’s visitor economy more inclusive and accessible.

Over the last 10-weeks, the cohort have rapidly evolved their solutions from idea to build stage. The bespoke programme included specialist design support from Seated Consulting and Digital Poverty Alliance, with technical expertise provided by Vodafone and Accelleran.

In addition, participants had access to Digital Catapult’s 5G Immersive Lab in Eldon Square with a standalone 5G testbed, immersive headsets and 360 cameras to help them bring their product to life.

Following a compelling pitch, Andrew Blance was selected as the winning organisation and will now receive a £10,000 to further develop his immersive sign language learning app.

‍Andrew Blance, Founder of Pasimo said:

‍“Being part of the 5g Immersive Lab All Access Pass programme has enabled me to learn so much about tourism and make connections in the ecosystem that I never would have had the chance to make otherwise. It’s given me a great co-working space to work from and the events that the team have run have shown me new ways of developing my products and new ways of thinking about accessibility. Winning the pitch competition will have a huge impact, it’s a huge amount of money for a small startup and it will enable us to begin development.”

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Jenna Ingoe, Innovation Manager at the 5G Immersive Lab and Programme Lead, said: ‍

“Tourism is a fundamental part of the North East’s cultural and economic landscape, and it is essential that we ensure that our visitor attractions are as accessible as possible. The All Access Pass programme has allowed the participating organisations to explore how immersive and 5G technologies can help to do this. It has been a real joy to watch the ideas develop over the course of the programme and we were all very impressed by the calibre of the final pitches. It was certainly a hard decision for our panel of judges to make.”

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Councillor Hopgood, North East Combined Authority Portfolio lead for Culture, Tourism, Sport and the Arts, said:

“Tourism is a fundamental part of the North East’s cultural and economic landscape. It’s worth £6.1bn to the region and supports 63,000 jobs, and the numbers of visitors coming to the region are rising, but we have the potential to drive significant further growth. Technologies like 5G help businesses to be creative, innovative and solve real problems that help grow our economy. This programme will mean that current and prospective visitors to the region will get a real sense of what we have to offer, the stories we want to tell, and help them experience our places, spaces, our venues and our events in increasingly richer and more meaningful ways. That will help drive the growth and opportunity we want to see.”

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Rob Hamilton, Head of Strategy and Innovation for the Nort East Combined Authority, said:

“5G infrastructure is underpinning the region’s ambitions for economic resilience, digital inclusion and future skills development and the 5G Immersive Lab is supporting businesses helping us to unlock this. Technology must serve a purpose, driving real benefits for businesses and communities across the North East. It's fantastic to see this project supporting innovative new ideas and organisations collaboratively designing solutions for better, more inclusive access to our region’s visitor attractions.”

‍Ian Thomas, Chief Operating Officer, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative on behalf of Destination North East England, said:

"Driving innovation is key to our work to double the value of the visitor economy over the next 10 years in a way that cares for and regenerates our people, places and planet. The solutions that have been dreamt up by these businesses have been mind-blowing and align perfectly with our Everybody Welcome programme which aims to make the region one of the most accessible and include destinations in Europe.”

“From the region that's brought the world so many significant innovations, from the railways to the incandescent lightbulb, it's fantastic to see that ingenuity being applied to our visitor economy - creating the tourism of tomorrow and place where everybody is welcome."

If you would like to learn more about the All Access Pass programme or the 5G Immersive Lab, come to Eldon Square and speak to one of our Innovation Specialists.