Spring Brentford Dragons at the Holiday Inn

Our Spring Brentford Dragons at the Holiday Inn was a glorious success, building on previous events and increased awareness and excitement by local businesses.

The Holiday Inn at Brentford Lock generously sponsored the evening’s three course dinner which was enjoyed by 70 guests.

The Dragons were, as ever, an interesting and varied group. Penny Jenkins took time off from managing the re-development of the Kew Bridge Steam Museum (to be relaunched on March 22nd). Richard Lee came from signing a new one year contract at Brentford FC. Well loved by supporters he also runs his own successful goalkeeping training company GK Icons. Garth Buckle OBE has worked bringing students and businesses together for several decades in Hounslow and is of course one of our executive members. Ian Rae had his first visit to a Brentford Chamber event and walked away with a new and improved understanding of Brentford. As Head of Regeneration and Spatial Planning, Brentford’s future is largely in his hands.

Gergana Nikolova presented her antenatal website as the first of the pitches. It would not just have ante-natal information but also direct video interface for one to one support with professionals as well as online classes, allowing the mother to be to access them from home at a time of her choice.

Elias Kokkinos is developing a real time remote car mechanic that can diagnose problems with your car and give you advice. The idea would be to work with larger car manufacturers to include these as standard, to help minimise car breakdowns.

Arshad Hussain and Nisarg Shah presented flavoured popcorn, “Shake and Pop”. The UK market is worth £42 million and they propose alternatives to salted or buttered flavours with peri-peri, tikka and chaat to start them off. They wisely bought samples for the dragons and audience to test.

Last, Alleli Loraine Liday and Rhianna Stevenson pitched Handy Bra, a bra with pockets to keep your money, keys and cards safe without altering your breast shape. They had built a prototype which they demonstrated (over their clothing) and had looked at existing alternatives.

The dragons couldn’t bring themselves to be harsh enough and selected Shake and Pop, as well as Handy Bra, as joint winners.

Peter Hughes has excelled himself taking photos. Please look through them.