Last night, the Octopus team proudly joined client Cisco to launch the British Innovation Gateway (BIG) Awards 2012, an open innovation competition to discover and reward the finest examples of the UK's most innovative start-up digital businesses and SMEs.

We were joined by the great and good of the UK's tech, creative and digital industries, as well as Cisco's global CTO, Padmasree Warrior (@Padmasree), who has over 1.4m followers on Twitter. Puts my 204 to shame :(.

The awards, which run from 1 February - September 2012, form the latest stage in Cisco's BIG initiative (www.CiscoBIG.co.uk), a significant five year investment of cash, technology and human resources, which aims to develop Britain's innovation eco-system and create an environment in which start-up digital businesses and their ideas can flourish.

Open to individuals, groups of individuals and legal entities in the UK, applicants can enter their technology concept or prototype into one of five categories, including 'Future Cities' and 'Internet of Things'. The overall winner will receive a total prize package of $200k, made up of cash, mentoring, digital marketing, public relations and legal services.

As a business, we are thrilled to be an official partner of the Awards - alongside JP Morgan, Bird & Bird and DNX - as innovation and technology are at the heart of so much of what we do at Octopus.  Members of our team will sit on the judging panel, and we can't wait to see some of the amazing and creative concepts that the entrants come up with. We're also excited at the opportunity to work with the winners, who will receive extensive PR support and a dedicated PR Programme as part of their prize.

For more information on the BIG Awards, please go to www.theBIGAwards.co.uk.  Entries close on 31 March 2012.

Laura