There's a world of weird and wonderful tech start ups operating across the UK, and many of these companies can be found in places such as TechHub, an organisation which hosted its May demo night this week.
The night is a regular event designed to help participating companies get advice and feedback from their peers and other entrepreneurs. Here are three of the most interesting start ups of the night.
EventNinja
EventNinja is a data-driven event management platform that allows organisers to curate information and online knowledge about their guests, helping them to determine exactly who their attendees are including details such as demographics, background, social-media handles, skills and experience.
One big use for this is uncovering who exactly the key influencers attending a particular event are, which has obvious benefits in a business context.
CEO and co-founder Anthony Francis said: "There are many other platforms out there that are great at ticketing and creating a beautiful event, but there's a gap in the market for a data-driven event management tool, and that's what EventNinja is."
Information gained on attendees is a combination of details stripped from the internet and custom forms asking whichever questions the organiser wishes to pose to guests. It also uses advanced analytics and machine learning to enhance the service.
Summarise
A relatively simple app that gained the biggest reaction on the night was Project Dent's Summarise, a personalised alarm clock based, apparently, on Iron Man's Jarvis.
The idea is that, instead of simply acting as an alarm, it reads personalised information such as weather, news, calendar events or emails in order to rouse you. This can all be customised - though so far the robotic sounding voice can't be changed to anything more soothing (though it can be muted).
Andrew Hart, creator of Summarise, said: "Project Dent is my new solo venture, as an indie developer, I've done client work, and worked for startups before, and now I want to have a go at working on my own projects."
"I got a membership desk at TechHub a few months ago, and started working full time on my first app Summarise, which I call a personal, talking wake-up alarm for iOS," he added. "After this, I plan to add more features, following demand, and then I'll be moving on to some new ideas. I think my next app will likely be a new messaging app."
Summarise is currently only available on iOS, and is free to purchase. Additional panels such as Calendar, Twitter and Birthdays are available for 79p.
Maadly
Maadly was one of the more left-field presentations of the night, combining the idea of a gamified social media platform with content shared via services such as Snapchat and community-building characteristics such as LinkedIn or Twitter.
The idea is that a user sends "beats" (text, photos or video) to a random selection of other users as many as hundreds of them at the same time. It's not dependent on who you're friends with or connected to, but rather an assortment of people who then get to vote on whether your content is good or not. This results in "Karma" points.
A description on the website reads: "We're all a little crazy - a little mad. As such, people should be able to share pieces of their lives and who they are with everyone, without being restricted to existing networks.
"There is a whole world out there of curious individuals in interesting places who are eager to express what they're all about and see what others are up to. From this curiosity to express, share, and connect with people locally and around the world, Maadly was born."
This isn't unlike the way many people engage with Twitter, with certain tweets designed to get as many favourites, retweets and follows as possible. With Maadly, however, it's just being more honest about the gaming aspect.
