Our InnovateUK Takeaways and What It Has Meant For Us and The Future of Our Business

We’ve done it, and we’re out the other side!

Now, a few weeks on, we’ve had a chance to look back to review the main takeaways, evaluate our innovations, and consider the next moves.

Main Takeaways

The nature of working on an innovation project, at least for us, is to imagine a great position to be in (in relation to the work at hand), and then pose a series of ‘what if’ questions to try to find a way towards that dream outcome being accomplished.

This consists of working through a succession of feedback loops that build on the last and inform the next; be that to continue along the same route or to change tack altogether. It’s not for the faint-hearted! After all, enjoying the quest of the unknown and squarely facing the possibility of failure is a central theme.

This approach is a great example of using inventive thinking to navigate a way forward. Keeping a creative mind when up against restrictions and recognising the opportunities that they could present is a valuable trait to cultivate.

Innovations

We had several wish list items to tackle at the beginning of the project, and most, if not all, have been accomplished one way or the other. We have certain details we wish to keep under wraps, of course, but here are a couple of major advances for us:

In the pursuit of creating a magical experience, we have found a way to achieve automatic and recurring personalisation in the web-book without collecting or storing personal information. This was a high priority for us considering our target users are children. We wanted to both engage and involve the reader, and encourage people to share the experience as a personalised gift for others to enjoy.

We have also found a way for the experience to change over time (in recognised time periods). This presents us with exciting possibilities that impact much of our in-house project work, as the core of what we do is to bring the printed page alive!

Next Moves

Through completing this innovation work, we have realised that what we are creating is actually very innovative. This is a good thing, of course; we are at the forefront of using the web storybook format to create enchanting and in-depth experiences in an increasingly quick and cursory online world. But with innovation, there is also risk, and understanding how we present and communicate our product and message will be crucial in how it’s received.

The world of tech and media is moving at an incredible pace, with AI capabilities (and the access to this) fast changing the face of production in screen-based creative products. In our view, AI should only ever be used as a powerful data tool, not as a creativity replacement. We are dedicated to human-made endeavours, with human creativity and human interaction at the core. This is where the real stories are; in the making behind the work, as well as in the product or experience itself.

This innovative work has led us to realise the huge potential and value of what our proposition can bring to both makers and recipients. And we have exciting plans that tackle both of these aspects head on. We certainly have our work cut out. But never shy of a challenge, our plans and company aims have become more ambitious as a result of our findings.

We’ll keep you posted…

Thank you for reading!

Eleanor :-)

You can keep up to date with our progress on Galdo’s Gift, and our motion storybooks by adding yourself to our mailing list.

Admin hoops and hurdles, and how valuable it is to hone those writing skills

Galdo’s Gift awarded Innovation Funding

As many of you already know, back in November we won an Innovate UK grant for innovation with our Galdo’s Gift: The Boovie® project. Which was fantastic news, of course!

We’ll update you on what we’ve been doing within this another time - but I want to talk to you now about the admin… I know; it’s the least sexiest part of it, and yet… almost the most important in terms of receiving the actual money. It’s crazy.

Learning Curves

These past few months have been a really steep learning curve for me. I have been in deep; deciphering the government forms and formats, timings and charts required. Not least, was understanding the array of acronyms used, to work what was being asked of me. Luckily as PM (project manager) I have been allocated a very helpful MO (monitoring officer) for my QRM (project quarterly meetings), and that’s just the start of it!

Having written the application forms over last summer (and yes I did make sure that I wrote 300 words for every category, well, 298 for most) the real difficulty then was, relaying all of the information requested, in the correct place, in a succinct manner. The difficulty now is trying to make sure I don’t labour over the costings and profiles, tables and registers to the detriment of the project itself. It’s a hard, but, valuable experience. By the end of the project I will have ‘Project Management’ under my belt for sure; in an intricate and precise government kind of a way, and that is actually a fantastic take-away, as well as the money, the opportunity and the kudos!

Writing A Future

Having been in the creative visual industry for my whole career, it is striking how hugely important writing skills are, in being able to persuade others to jump on board with a project or, to allocate money to develop it further.

Right now, we are half way through the Innovate UK grant period and I’m feeling pretty pleased (hopefully I won’t regret saying that!). I have completed a successful PCR (project change request), and the first QRM is done. Let’s see what happens over the next few months and we’re out the other side with our innovations ready to be shared…

The Next Step

Ultimately, we want to do our best work that inspires others to do theirs, and this grant is a great step towards doing that.

P.S. I also have my eye on another fund to apply for, which would be great for Galdo’s Gift and those who will benefit from that, and also hopefully not as arduous a journey for me. Fingers crossed.

You can keep up to date with our progress on Galdo’s Gift: The Boovie® by adding yourself to our mailing list.

And please do add comments below if you have any questions or experiences regarding funding and grants that you would like to share.