Home to academics, entrepreneurs, growing businesses and established ventures, Oxford has long been an industry hotbed for startups, founders and global brands, generating innovation across industries such as automotive, design, manufacturing, chemistry, technology, pharma and life sciences.
When the breakfast baps had finally been cleared away, and the coffee pots drained, our guests left with many commenting on what a brilliant networking event our launch had been. Whilst an opportunity to introduce ourselves and our firm, as well as offering early morning sustenance to our new neighbours, it actually became a hive of business activity between newly introduced individuals from different types of businesses and organisations.
It is especially apt that our launch party is covered in this edition of the Business & Innovation Magazine, with a key feature on SMEs. One of the reasons we are so excited about opening our Oxfordshire office is the vast amount of research and development that is going on in this region and the huge emphasis here on startups and SMEs.
It can be especially important for smaller businesses to have the right intellectual property strategy in place from the earliest possible stages, and the collaborative approach we favour is key to formulating an IP strategy that grows and develops with the business. In addition, Alex Tame, who heads up Coller IP, is based in our Oxfordshire office, which means we can offer that much needed complementary strategic IP management advisory and IP valuation services at the right time.
The Oxfordshire team is led by myself, Vicki Strachan, along with Grace Mason-Jarrett, Rhianna Faye, Peter Mansfield and Sally Ball, as well as Alex Tame from our sister firm Coller IP. The team worked tirelessly leading up to the launch, to ensure that all of our clients and contacts were invited. On the day, we were also joined by clients, partners, guests and colleagues from our other offices around the country and together we ensured that those who attended were made welcome and maximised their time at the event. As a result of our combined efforts, a large number of business cards were exchanged and several people were still deep in conversation at the end of the event. This just demonstrates that as a firm, we really mean it when we say we 'take a collaborative approach' to our work, and I was never more proud to be a part of the Mathys & Squire team. Widely known for its innovation, we are thrilled to be based at Milton Park, and look forward to meeting many of you in the coming months.
Vicki's article first appeared in Business & Innovation Magazine in March 2019.
For more information, contact Vicki Strachan.