Cisco Invests In The Future Of London’s Tech City

Cisco has promised a long-term investment of technology, manpower and money for the government’s British Innovation Gateway (BIG) project to support its East London Tech City vision.

The Cisco investment will see the formation of two Innovation Centres. One will be in Shoreditch, developed in partnership with local small and medium-sized businesses, and the other will be located at the Olympic Park, providing a “state-of-the-art connected community”. It is hoped this will provide a new wave of technology-based blueprints for London and other British cities.

Annual awards for innovative SMBs

The networking specialist will also sponsor five annual competitions called the “BIG Awards: Powered by Cisco I-PRIZE”, which seek to discover UK small and medium-sized firms that demonstrate innovative implementations and business acumen. Local entrepreneurs will also be able to call on mentoring services from Cisco’s experts to help accelerate their success in the market.

The prime minister David Cameron, science and innovation minister David Willetts and communications minister Ed Vaizey met with Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers at Number 10 Downing Street today to discuss the plans.

Cameron commented, “I welcome this major statement of support from Cisco. This will help create many new jobs and opportunities, and support our drive to diversify our economy and generate sustainable economic growth.”

The East London Tech City is a major economic revival project, fronted by the Olympic Legacy Company, to expand the existing cluster of technology companies in East London into a world-leading technology centre. Aside from Cisco, Google, Facebook, Vodafone and Intel have all located offices in East London in support of the initiative.

BIG marks the beginning of a five-year effort to incubate economic growth through high-tech innovation. The encouragement of entrepreneurial activity is hoped to ensure an enduring legacy following the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“This project is a logical progression of the work we’ve done in the east of London for the 2012 Olympic Games, and we are delighted to work with the UK government as it serves as a reminder of how business and government, working together can turn vision into reality,” Cisco’s Chambers said.