Swindon and Wiltshire’s hi-tech innovators are being urged to enter an awards scheme that aims to find the best tech firms in the West.
The SPARKies will showcase the leading people, products and companies that make up the tech industry across a region spreading from Swindon to Bath, Bristol and Gloucestershire. 
Due to rising interest in the awards, now in their third year, the number of categories has been expanded to a record 14, including ‘Best App’, ‘Best Start-up’, ‘Biggest Success Story’, ‘Start-up To Watch’ and the heralded ‘Founder / Entrepreneur Of The Year’.
Nominations are now open and close on October 3.
SPARKies founder David Maher Roberts said: “Shadowing the growth of the digital economy in the region, the SPARKies is going from strength to strength.
“When we first launched the awards in 2012, we had 100 nominations and 250 people attended the awards night – two years on and we’re expecting hundreds of nominations and we have had to increase the venue capacity to over 400 for the event.”
Swindon and North Wiltshire boast some of the UK’s most innovative tech firms operating in areas such as chip design and telecoms.
Sponsors of the SPARKies include international management consultants Deloitte Digital, crowd-funding startup CrowdBnk and Peter Gabriel’s music label Real World.
The winners will be announced and celebrated at an awards ceremony on October 30 in Bath.
