skignz: Overall WINNERS of 'pitch@ignite 2015'

skignz are delighted to announce that we were confirmed Overall WINNERS of 'pitch@ignite 2015', celebrating the latest UK most disruptive Tech start-ups.

skignz was one of a shortlisted five companies who were given the opportunity to pitch their 'disruptive tech' in front of a very salubrious audience and esteemed Judges from KTN, Rugby World Cup 2015 and UK Capital.

The event was 'live streamed' on to twitter through Meercat, with plenty of audience & judges questions, prior to the final deliberations and skignz being announced as the eventual WINNERS!.

If you are a brand or individual and want to engage skignz, please download the FREE skignz APP on either IOS or Android or visit www.skignz.com/discover

skignz Enters the Pitch to Rich Competitions - Please Vote for us

skignz: Trigger points and Your health

As part of a new feature in our Blog & Monthly Newsletter, We are speaking to other companies and asking some to provide us with an interesting feature each month.

This month we are looking at how our own health affects our working performance and WellBlocks offered to provide us with an interesting outline of the trigger points in your body. As most people who working in emerging technologies, we spend a lot of time, sat at a Desk, sat in a Car, Train or even a plane. or a combination of them all All day, Everyday.

This got us thinking here at skignz about those little niggles, aches and pains. recently our Co-Founder & CMO Si Brown was talking to Dr Caroline Keddie, the creator of Wellblocks and thought her invention was the ideal topic to kick off our monthly guest blog feature.

It’s not just skignz talking about Trigger Points in the air

Trigger points are tiny knots that build up in muscles overtime causing pain and all sorts of troubles. From migraine headaches to achy necks and sore knees. 

They are exacerbated by repetitive actions, overuse and bad posture. 

Slowly tightening and shortening muscles until imbalances occur and joints, tendons and nerves are pulled off kilter.

The smallest part of a muscle's contraction that can be seen under a microscope are Sarcomeres. 

The contraction of muscles occur when Actin & Myosin protein molecules are attracted to each other when stimulated neurologically. Trigger points occur when the Actin & Myosin fail to uncouple. The muscle fibres then accumulate into a tight knot. When this happens blood circulation through the fibres is suppressed and inhibits the fuel required for the Actin & Myosin to release exacerbating the problem further.

Trigger points can be active or latent. 

Active 'Trigger Points' cause spontaneous pain, with or without motion, and latent trigger points may only be obvious on touching. 

It is believed that our muscles slowly build up many latent 'Trigger Points' overtime and Travell and Simon, the main writers on 'Trigger Points', believe that it is this build up of latent knots in the muscles that leads to much of the stiffness and joint pain characterised by old age.

There is no operation or drug that can reduce or eliminate these 'Trigger Points'. The key is to use a treatment that increases the circulation of blood at that sarcomere bundle, or knot, therefore allowing the Actin and Myosin to separate and the fibres to run freely again. 

Massage therapists use thumbs, knuckles and elbows. Sometimes it simply takes a little on off pressure to release these points as the blood comes running back through the muscle fibres.

Not everyone can afford the time or money for massage and, actually, Trigger Points prefer a little massage and often e.g. 3-6 times a day for a minute. 

So thats why Wellblocks was created, for this very purpose. 

You would not believe the difference they can make if you simply use them on the go, or at your desk, a few times a day. By not giving the muscles the chance to build up knots you will stay pain free.

A Few Problems brought about by Trigger Points

Pictures courtesy of massagenerd.com

Headaches and stiff sore neck

Trigger points in the Trapezium, Levator Scapulae and Sternocleidomastoid can cause migraines and neck ache. 

Common for computer users and desk jobs.

The Secret Damagers

Sore thumbs from texting & using Apps:

Use Wellblocks at your desk to release muscles

Sore knees and Hips:

Trigger points in the Tensor Fascia latae (TFL), and the quadricep muscle, Vastas Lateralis,  and glutes can cause tightness that pulls the knee, or hip, off kilter. Wellblocks are much better than foam rollers for loosening Trigger points.

Runners Knees: Dump the rollers

Sore shoulders    

The main culprits Trigger Points in the supraspinatus and infraspinatus. 

Again these can be released using Wellblocks against a wall or chair.

The good news is 'Trigger Points' can be your friend as with very little pressure the circulation can improve, the knots release and your muscle become long again.

Problems can be relieved within days or a couple of weeks for more long term chronic problems. 

Then maintenance is the key. Wellblocks allow you to maintain at your desk. 

They come with a free instructional App with simple, quick programs for all sports and lifestyles. From Golf to Cycling. Dentist to desk worker.

The first production run of Wellblocks has now started and they should be available in the next ten weeks. 

For pre orders please sign up at wellblocks.com

Follow Wellblocks on twitter and LinkedIn  for up to date information.

Also watch this mini film here

For further information on skignz please visit www.skignz.com or check us out on all the usual social media channels.

skignz: Aprils Fool... Gotcha again!

This year the skignz team stepped up there Aprils Fool joke from last Years Multi Million Pound deal with NASA....

This Years Aprils fool was titled: 

NEWSFLASH: Facebook Confirm $30B bid for skignz...

With a short description under the main image in the Email NewsFlash, we directed the reader to click here for more... and when they did, they were greeted by this little fellow...

Again our 'NewsFlash' seemed to create much interest with the more than 3 times as many opens and click throughs as our 'Monthly NewsLetter'.

this resulted in over 100 people being stung by our 'April Fools joke for 2015'.

Thanks for all of you who took part and for seeing the funny side. However we must say that quite lot of those who we did 'fool' were good sports, but a lot of you actually wished that it was true and it wasn't 1st April. You do! We can assure you that we did too lol.

rest assured that if/when that does become the headline, please check the date first, but we have done this once...

so next time who knows... it could be true ;-)

As always if you want to see what else we are up to at skignz, what we are involving ourselves in and sharing on Social Media then please find us on the usual channels or take a look at our website www.skignz.com 

NEWSFLASH: Facebook Confirm $30B bid for skignz

skignz: Investment Secured

skignz are delighted to confirm that they we confirmed investment into the company in order to expedite our growth.

We have been working with Northstar Ventures, over the last few months to agree a package of investment that will allow skignz to increase its team, relocate to new premises and increase our activity with a range of clients who we are looking at considerably larger projects with.

skignz is now embarking on a recruitment drive to secure a number of key members for their growing team, as well as investing significantly in its User Journey, UX Design, New Website, API and Agency Support Platform.

The investment was welcomed by Co-Founder & CMO Si Brown said: 

"With this influx of investment it allows us to establish a firm foundation for growth, secure the Patents and rights to the skignz technology platform. Working with Northstar Ventures has also allowed us to measure our progress to date and establish firm goals for the Short, Medium and Long Term futures..."

skignz have been supported and advised by the Particular team and would like to thank them for their continued help and support, Awesome guys who have been invaluable not only through this process but over the last few years.

Further announcements on skignz growth will be made in due course.

If you would like to follow skignz's progress then please see our website at www.skignz.com, read this blog, even sign up for our regular Newsletter. Also we are on most Social Media platforms.

if you are looking for investment at varying stages of your business growth then check out Northstar Ventures at www.northstarventures.co.uk

If you are a Start-up or small tech Company and are looking for proper support in both Business and legal advice then check our Particular at www.particularlegal.com they have offices in both Newcastle and London, UK.

skignz: Pitch@Palace 3.0

skignz won through to this years final of pitch@palace where we were given the opportunity to present to a very esteemed audience of 500+ dignitaries 

This marvellous opportunity came about when the fantastic Ken Valliday at Tech2brand and AdTech_London nominated skignz for Pitch@Palace 3.0 (P@P)

skignz was shortlisted from the original 150 applicants to attend a bootcamp of 42 tech companies presenting for the opportunity to Pitch@Palace.

BOOT CAMP:

                    

     

The bootcamp was held at WAYRA, Telefonica's Accelerator based in Fitzrovia London on Thursday 12th March 2015.

The environment that WAYRA is providing to help start up companies is an awesome eclectic space where people can come together, work privately but also have a central London address that showcases them in the best light.

Boot Camp Video: - https://youtu.be/8rRhPbybCuI

Each of the 45 teams were given 3 mins to pitch with only 1 slide on the screen behind them to support their presentation. With mentors on hand and various presentations from previous winners such as Squirrel and Industry leaders like Jess Butcher, CMO & Co-Founder of Blippar through to engaging exercises with Nottingham University's Business School.

skignz 1 min Video: - https://youtu.be/RckBPpK1it0

The day and we suppose the whole opportunity of P@P is not complete without HRH The Duke of York, who spoke very candidly on why he created P@P? 

What he wanted it to achieve and that the key was not in winning (which we all now is the aim of all competitions); but the key was getting the opportunity to present your brand and what you do to a very high level audience at St James Palace on Monday 23rd March 2015.

With the pitching companies split up into groups for Arts & Design, AdTech (skignz's category), EdTech, EntTech and Retail Tech. Each group was assigned a range of mentors who they could talk to prior to the actual pitching after lunch.

All of the participants, mentors and other guests were given the opportunity to vote and feedback on each of the pitches.

All this prior to the judges lead by HRH deliberating on who they felt was the top 14/15 companies to proceed to the final of P@P.

When the results were read out (in no particular order) skignz was No.13 of the 14 names read out that had been successful.

skignz was through to the Palace!

THE FINAL:

This was held at the very beautiful and regal St James Palace, London on Monday 23rd March 2015.

        

The format was the same with the 14 companies only allowed 3 mins and one slide for their pitch. There was a number of wonderful prizes on offer for the overall winner and two runners up.

In addition a 'Peoples Choice' award ran right up till 5pm on the day of the final and all 45 boot camp companies were included in this, with votes being requested through social media.

As you can imagine the surroundings were very impressive, the whole ceremonial and regal feel was everywhere, bit 


We are sure a lot of people who pitched and attended felt the value of the whole event came from the People 'in the room'. 

HRH has clearly has one of the most amazing 'roleadex of contacts' in the business world.

With these type of connections, even making a couple of introductions is incredible for any business but to put on an event, showcasing a range of companies is beyond comprehension to 'probably' all of the companies who entered.

With an audience that included, Princes's & Sheiks from Saudi Arabia & The Emirates, to some of the most senior people in Facebook and Vodafone; right through to a range of VC's and Tech Investors. 

The opportunities to network were second to none and provided all who attended the platform to be able to speak to people who you could spend a lifetime trying to get in front of and they are coming up to to you and asking more about what you do. 

A very humbling and rewarding experience certainly for us.

skignz was delighted to meet a lot of people and especially some of the other companies who were pitching alongside us. 

It was especially awesome to meet Jessica & Lara (Immerse Learning - www.immerselearning.com), Sean & Leona (PlotBox - www.plotbox.io) and Georgina (truRating - www.trurating.com).

As well as all the wonderful people we met, skignz also had our Deb McGargle (Particular - www.particularlegal.com) who leads our awesome legal team. 

Deb in her 'particular' style worked the room and provided skignz with a range of additional people we can speak to through her networking prowess! 
Thanks again Deb xx

The worthy winners of Pitch@Palace 3.0 were

 - Jukebox - Overall Winner
 - Grabble - Runner Up
 - OpenDesk - Runner Up
 - Team Turquoise - Peoples Choice Award

So although skignz did not win, the benefits of the exposure of skignz not to the audience in the room, the other contestants but also over social media and beyond is immeasurable.

skignz are delighted to say that we have already engaged with a range of the the companies who pitched alongside us to see if we can work with them as well as a range of VC's, Investors and Global Brands. 

We will update you on our progress as and when it happens...

Finally we would just like to the thank HRH The Duke of York and his wonderful team for everything they have done surrounding this event, at the event and boot camp. 

Also HRH, for missing his daughter Princess Eugene's birthday although the audience did surprise her with a cool video link up over Face Time.

We really hope going forward we can provide them with success stories born out of this event. if not then we can at least acknowledge the part they have played in skignz progress and we do hope will continue to stay engaged with us as we seek global domination with skignz.


If you would like to know more about Pitch@Palace then please visit their website: www.picthatpalace.com

As always if you wish to find out more about skignz, then please either visit our website www.skignz.com or check us out on our various social media channels.

skignz presents at ValleyWood

Earlier this month skignz was given the opportunity to present to a range of brands from across the world at ValleyWood in London, UK

ValleyWood is a 3 day event bringing together the various clients and partners of SMG (Starcom MediaVest Group). Staged in London at The Trampery, Old Street, Shoreditch.


Valleywood 2015 was held between 18th-20th March 2015. 

Speakers from brands such as SKY, Acxiom, Starcom Mediavest, Cineworld, Facebook, LinkedIn, Freemantle Media, Universal Pictures, YouTube, Novartis, Yahoo, Bauer Media and a range of other brands... including skignz! Yea!

Many other global brands were present in the audience picking up tips, ideas and knowledge from the awesome array of speakers.

skignz provided a presentation based around our technology platform and how it can help brands, regardless of their chosen audiences. 

We demonstrated that regardless of their sector, skignz can enhance who they communicate with customers in a way that's fresh new and innovative.

              


The fully customisable skignz Technology Platform allows brands from any level of Car Maker, through to Cosmetics Companies, across to Airlines and Soft Drink companies.

There was a lively discussion afterwards in the Q&A session with many brands asking for more specific examples of the flexibility skignz provides, the Eco-Credentials, Multi Lingual options and the global & brand scalability benefits.

A few brands asked how skignz could be used in marketing and communication campaigns either as a marketing channel or as a whole campaign centred around the skignz tech. Yet one or two brands were looking into how skignz could help them deliver services in a whole new way.

Further conversations after our presentations suggested that one or two of the global brands present saw the skignz technology itself becoming a fundamental offering in their current repertoire of options for their customers. 

One key thing for them was being able to access digital content in an innovative way that is both mobile and scalable yet can be integrated at many different levels of their brand, product and/or service.

All in all and exciting day with no less than 5 follow u meetings with brands about specific projects.

We would like to thank SMG for the opportunity and look forward to working with more of their brands on some really interesting briefs.

For more information on Valleywood 2015 take a look at the event website http://valleywood2015.com/web/

As always for more information on skignz please check out our website www.skignz.com , register for our newsletter, keep visting this blog and like, tweet etc... on our varying Social Media channels.

Festival Goers - It's That Time of Year Again

Yes that’s right, the time of year is now coming around again where all festival dates and tickets are released. Oh the excitement!

Just imagining which one you will be going to this year, or how many rather than just the one is a great thought, so let’s hold that for a minute and give yourself a moment to admire the madness you will be attending.


skignz done a bit of research to see what the top 10 festivals are this year that people will be attending. This is what we got:

Download Festival 2015

Wireless Festival 2015

Reading Festival 2015

Leeds Festival 2015

Calling Festival 2015

EDC Festival 2015

Creamfields Festival 2015

Glastonbury Festival 2015

V Festival 2015

Ultra Music Festival 2015

Now are you attending any of these? If you are you know how crazy, packed and fun they will be. 

However through all that fun you will want to make sure that whilst camping out, drinking and partying you will need to make sure that you can find your friends, tent, and stages and drink bars very easily, as losing any of these will defiantly be a drag to the festival experience. 

So how can you make sure that you will not happen to be in any state where you cannot find your friends, tent, and stages and drink bars? The answer is skignz. 

skignz is a free app that you can download to your mobile device. It uses augmented reality and GPS to allow you to place skignz wherever you are going and then easily direct yourself when you arrive at the location.

Now that probably sounds a bit confusing to you, well here is a little example of what skignz can do. 



‘Once you have downloaded the skignz app, you and your friend’s can all add each other and join together on skignz. Then you can place a ‘virtual’ skignz above your own head. Once you have done this say you are at the festival and you are all dancing away and your friend leaves to go and get a drink, now finding them again in that massive crowd is going to be a struggle. 

Well what you do is open up the skignz app on your phone, scan the crowd and there you should see a little floating skignz above your friends head telling you where they are and how far away so you are easily directed to them. How simple is that?’

With skignz, you can also pre place skignz on your online account through a Google maps interface with the free 3 skignz you get at the beginning of signing up. So say you pre placed a skignz before the festival and you placed one above the stage you want to see your favourite act playing, one above where your tent is going to be and one above where the bars are, you will easily be able to find your way to and back from the bar, to the stage where you want to be and back to the tent at the end of the night when after a few drinks finding your tent will seem to prove a little difficult! 

skignz can help make sure your festival experience is fun and you get the most out of seeing the acts you went to go see and not spent a lot of the time looking for others or getting lost. 

So why not download the app through iTunes or Google Play before you go and have a little play about. You can get used to it and then be ready to use it for the festivals you will be attending this year. The line-up for each festival looks awesome at the moment so you really don’t want to missing the acts and spending time wandering about hopelessly. 

If you would like to download the app through iTunes then please click here.

If you would like to download the app through Google Play then please click here. 

We hope you have a great time at your chosen festival this year and please if you manage to get any pictures of skignz then don’t hesitate to share them on our social media pages and tag us in them! 

Have fun festival goers 2015! 

If you would like to know more about skignz then please visit our website at http://www.skignz.com and don't forget to check us out on a range of the popular Social Media Channels.

skignz Developer Site

Recently skignz decided to have a think about how we could allow other app developers and integrators to understand and get the chance to work with skignz to get used to our technology. 

Well after thinking what we could do, we decided to create an interface so that other app developers could launch the skignz app through their own app themselves. 

The site has been launched and you will be able to find it here 

The site provides information for those wishing to integrate the skignz geo-located augmented reality viewer app into their own app.

If you are regarding more information on more advanced integration then please see below. 

http://www.skignz.com/developers.htm. 

For example: skignz to display a 'Done' button which, when pressed, causes skignz to relaunch your app.

By 'more advanced integration' they mean that, if your app is considered suitable (no adult content) they'll give you a user code, which you embed in the URL scheme. Pass that and your own app URL scheme and the skignz app will provide a 'Done' button, which, when pressed, will launch your app again.
It works well.

More integration options are in the pipeline and they're busy 'running catch-up' with the Android version to get it in line with the iPhone version.

However you can find more information and all of this on the developer site. http://www.skignz.com/developers.htm.

If you have any comments, questions or special considerations please contact gary.baker@skignz.com.

If you would like to know more about skignz then please visit our website at http://www.skignz.com and don't forget to check us out on a range of the popular Social Media Channels.

Best New Business Awards 2014 - skignz is the Winner!

It’s the day after the Best New Business Awards Tees Valley 2014. Last night was a great night, not only as we got to meet a load of great start-up companies but that skignz was the WINNER of the Marketing Award. 

This was a fantastic achievement for the skignz team and we are still very proud today for having been selected to win this award by Cool Brand Blue Communications. 

We would also like to say well done to all runners up in the Marketing category and best luck for the future!

The whole awards event was great from start to finish.

Starting the night off we got to network with a wide variety of companies on arrival. This was a chance for everyone to meet one another and require a small insight as to what each business entails. 

Once seated that was another chance to meet and network with the company/companies on your table. Luckily for skignz we had two great companies seated with us, who we thoroughly enjoyed the whole night with and got to learn a lot about them. 

One of the companies was 12^th Man Solutions Ltd, who were also up for the Marketing award alongside skignz. They were a great bunch of people and their business was a great idea. 

We all had a good time in everyone’s company last night involving a lot of business talk and laughter.

The other company placed at the table with skignz was Earls of Ashwood Ltd. They are a cheesemonger and delicatessen company based in Stockton. 

We have got to say this was one of our favourite companies there last night. We all love cheese and by the sounds of what Earls of Ashwood provide, we are defiantly heading to their shop this weekend to taste some of their great delicacies.

Moving on in the night we had a lovely 3 course meal provided by BNBA Tees Valley. 

We all thoroughly enjoyed each part of the meal and have got to say were very full by the end of it, not to mention the free wine flowing sponsored by Big Bite Communications – a big thank you, you kept us all very hydrated throughout the night!

Then it was time for the awards. Each category had three nominees. All of the business ideas were truly great and everyone deserved their place last night.

Coming to the Marketing award there were some great other companies up for the award so we thought we had a low chance of winning it. However it is fair to say we were truly surprised when skignz got announced as the winner for the Marketing category. 

This was a proud moment for us! We only wish someone could have got a photo of us in that moment in time to see the shocked look on our faces! 

We would like to say well done to all the other winners of the night also and to the overall winner C&A Pumps and Engineering Ltd.

We would also like to say a big well done to Prince’s Trust for providing opportunities for young people to help support them and change their life for the better. 

The story we heard from their young promotional speaker was truly inspiring and it showed not just us but everyone just how exceptionally inspiring the company is. They raised an amazing £930 last night and we hope it hit the £1K as the night ended.  

Ending on a high, we had a great night and hope to be entering again next year in a different category! Well done to everyone again and a big thanks to Colin Brown for organising the whole event and proving all companies with great opportunities available last night!

If you would like to know more about The Best New Business Awards 2015 then please visit http://www.bestnewbusinessawards.com/

If you would like to know more about The Prince's Trust then please visit http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/

If you would like to know more about skignz then please visit our website at http://www.skignz.com and don't forget to check us out on a range of the popular Social Media Channels.

It's all about #RetroMonday

Throwback Thursday #TBT has been such a big hit across all social media with people looking back to their past and throwing back to old memories they have and showing them through posting an old photo to their social media sites. 

So skignz decided to see if a new trend can start #RetroMonday. This gives everyone the chance from older generation to younger generation to have a think way back to their past when everything now would seem to be ‘retro’ and share it with everyone on their social media sites. 

Throwback Thursday is lots of fun to be a part of so why not start a new trend. Last Monday saw #RetroMonday take part in everyone showing pictures of their old computers what they had back in the day. It is lots of fun to look back and retrieve a blast from the past and bring back some of those good memories that make you laugh that you ever owned one of those, or even so who still owns one to this day. 

Here are some of the tweets people posted last week regarding their old computers on #RetroMonday. 

- Cartor Designs stated: “Our 1st computer was an Acorn Electron! #retromonday #discoverskignz #skignz”

- Wells Solutions stated: “#retromonday my 1st PCwas a big heavy IBM Laptop #discoverskignz #skignz”

- Team Services Ltd stated: “@skignz @faris_int our 1st PC was similar to this tower! It wasn't branded but it was massive #retromonday #skignz”.

#RetroMonday would be a great trend to get going, so have a think ready for next Monday and wait for the new retro topic for that day to be released and get yourselves and others involved! 

Make sure you get yourselves on Twitter next Monday and start hash tagging your #RetroMonday old memories! 

If you would like to know more about skignz then please visit our website at http://www.skignz.com and don't forget to check us out on a range of the popular Social Media Channels.