Eastern Promise - The Podcast

Episode 143: The Cambridge Innovation Story

This Week: When Innovate Cambridge call and say "we'd like to talk about the HUGE week ahead for the city and both the tech and life science ecosystems", you drop EVERYTHING! 
And so, dear listener, we did...
So it was that your host, Mike Rigby, dropped in on The Glasshouse - home of Innovate Cambridge - to find out how the fun, inclusive and enigmatic branding unveiled last year is launching now, just as Cambridge Tech Week and the inaugural BioCentury Grand Rounds - Europe take the city by storm in ONE SINGLE WEEK (15th Sept. to 19th Sept. 2025)!
Dr Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director of Innovate Cambridge will be telling us about the huge importance of this moment and the vote of confidence it represents for the city.  
And then! Chair of Innovate Cambridge, Prof. Andy Neely and Michelle Lamprecht of Cambridge Innovation Capital join Mike to talk through the branding campaign for the Cambridge Innovation Study, just how widely it's being spread, and the power of a unified ecosystem to make a huge difference for everyone.  
To find out more about the Cambridge Innovation story, including the film introducing the story, click here.
To listen to the Eastern Promise podcast back catalogue, or to contatct us, click here.   
Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

Episode 142: Health Innovation East, with Piers Ricketts

This Week: We are at one of the most important locations in the East of England for furthering, supporting and unleashing our region's innovative and entrepreneurial spirits in all manners health-related.  Yes!  Mike Rigby is heading to Health Innovation East!  
The key reason Health Innovation East exists is to translate early-stage scientific discover and research into actual medicines, processes, practices and devices.  My guest, Health Innovation East's (HIE) CEO Piers Ricketts, tells your host Mike Rigby (and, therefore, you!) about the manifold ways in which HIE helps the NHS, plus academia and the private sector, to do precisely that. 
For more information on Health Innovation East, visit: https://healthinnovationeast.co.uk/
To listen to our back catalogue, or to find out more about Eastern Promise click here.
Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

Episode 141: King's Lynn Enterprise Park

This Week: Eastern Promise roars back from our Summer hiatus, with a trip to the new King's Lynn Enterprise Park!
Your host (with, if not the most, then at least a bit), Mike Rigby, headed over to the Enterprise Park to meet Cllr Simon Ring, Deputy Leader of the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Regenerations Programme Manager Jemma Curtis, also of BCKLWN; Norfolk County Council's Enterprise Zone guru Jen Wigzell and Graham Purkins, co-founder and CTO of med-tech anchor tenant Merxin!
We discuss the origins of the park, what the assembled want to see as the KLEP continues it's growth, why Graham chose King's Lynn in the first place, plus the sheer drive and verve behind the KLEP offer is laid out.  It's got exactly the right ethos and we look forward to revisiting it soon.
To find out more about King's Lynn Enterprise Park, click here.
King's Lynn Town Deal board is here and, for more about this perfectly positioned port, visit Vision King's Lynn!
You can learn more about the New Anglia Growth Hub here.
For Merxin, please visit this link!
If you want to hear our back catalog, including our previous visitas to King's Lynn, then visit https://easternpromise.org.uk.
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.
Eastern Promise is a Podding Shed Production.

Episode 140: Well:O - a new approach to dental wellness!

This Week:  We pay a visit to the Cambridge Independent Business Awards' Start-Up of the Year 2024 - oral wellbeing experts Well:O!  
We sent our own Mike Rigby to meet co-founder Felix von Nathusius and Clinical Director Shelley Belgrove to chat about the Well:O story, the beautiful and decidedly non-clinical feel of their studio and how their model could do great things for a service economy such as the UK's where retail is disappearing from the high street.  
PLUS! Before we press pause for our Summer break, we give you a quick tease of a small sliver of the goodness yet to come! 
For more information about Well:O, visit: https://wellohello.co.uk/
To listen to the Eastern Promise back catalogue, and to contact us here on the podcast, visit our website here.
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.

Episode 139: University of Suffolk research into hybrid working (PLUS! online meeting app, YakBit)

This Week: Dr Laura Reeves of the University of Suffolk takes us through her research on hybrid (AKA agile) working and its emphasis on belonging.  Laura takes us through her findings and conclusions of the research, before asking 'what next'?  
But that's not all by ANY means!  
Still on the hybrid working trail, Mary-Jo Hill tells us all about YakBit app, which helps managers analyse online meetings to see where they can get more from their team.
You can find out more about Laura's research here: https://www.bam.ac.uk/grants/project-repository/funded-transitions-1-projects/2023-laura-reeves.html and here: https://www.uos.ac.uk/about/news/opinion-will-hybrid-remain-the-future-of-work/. 
You can find out more about YakBit here: https://yakbit.ai/
And, of course, you can find the Eastern Promise podcast back catalogue and a contact form at: https://easternpromise.org.uk.
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.

Episode 138: Cambridge Wireless CEO Michaela Eschbach

This Week: We chat to Cambridge Wireless CEO Michaela Eschbach about her career path to the top of this global connections community. 
We ask her what exactly IS Cambridge Wireless - aka CW - and how does it leverage the world-famous name in its title?  
We'll also look at what's to come during Cambridge Tech Week 2025, which kicks off on 15th September.  
For more information on all of the above, visit Cambridge Wireless here or...
Click here to find out more about Cambridge Tech Week 2025.
To contact the Eastern Promise podcast or to listen to our entire back catalogue, visit us here.
Eastern promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve. 

Episode 137: The Royal Norfolk Show 2025

This week: It's the Royal Norfolk Show 2025!  What more needs be said?  
Only that regular host Mike Rigby is again joined by show co-host Dr Penny Hundleby of the John Innes Centre to tour the avenues and boulevards and winkle out the best bits for our Eastern Promise podcast audience!  Thank you Penny and everyone who gave a clip for this show.
We'll talk education, tech, business, food, renewable energy, agri-tech, science, TOOTH FARIES and at least one bishop, (who of course left the podcast diagonally...) 
Check out the chapter markers and be guided to your content of choice!    
For the entire back catalogue of the Eastern Promise podcast, and to contact us directly, visit our website here. 
Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

Episode 136: King's Lynn Festival & On Set with 'Chicken Town'

This Week: It's arts and culture a-go-go, as first we travel to King's Lynn to chat with Anna Pool, Festival Manager for the King's Lynn Festival, about the exciting programme of classical music concerts, talks and tours!
Then, we go behind the camera and 'on set' of the new Norfolk-set comedy crime caper 'Chicken Town' with Producer Tom Wood and Director Richard Bracewell!
The East of England is a cultural juggernaut and this proves it!  
To find out more about the King's Lynn Festival and to book tickets, click here.
For more details about chicken Town, click here (NUA)
To listen to the FULL Eastern Promise back catalog, or to contact the show, click here.
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.  

Episode 135: 'Choose Your Own [Cambridge] Adventure' - CWOW 2025

This Week: You can now hear Mike Rigby's unabridged, unedited and unplugged talk at Cambridge Wide Open Week, delivered beside the beautiful River Cam at Cambridge Wide Open Week! 
For more on Cambridge Wide Open Week click here.
To listen to the FULL Eastern Promise back catalog, or to contact the show, click here.
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.  

Episode 134: Cambridge Innovation Capital

This Week: Does the investor make the ecosystem, or does the ecosystem shape the investor?  That's the question our expert guests will be answering, amongst others, as we dive headlong into the swirling waters of venture capital,with two of our region's foremost experts as our guides!
Cambridge Innovation Capital is a trusted brand; the University of Cambridge's preferred partner when it comes to investment and your host, Mike Rigby, sat down with CIC Managing Partner, Andrew Williamson and fellow partner - and returning guest - Michael Anstey to find out more.
For more information on Cambridge Innovation Capital, click here.
For the FULL Eastern Promise back catalog, and to send us a message through our contact form, visit the Eastern Promise website here.
Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.