The Design Council has developed a business support programme targeting young technology businesses in the South East of England, called Designing Demand Innovate.

As part of this, companies receive up to 12 months free support from a highly experienced design mentor called a Design Associate. The Design Associates work with companies to help them identify where design can help move the business forward strategically on a range of issues including:

• Market positioning – for young businesses or businesses about to enter the market place. The programme helps businesses to utilise user centric design principles to identify and pin point customer needs. This ensures companies develop product and services that meet real customer/consumer needs
• Increasing revenues and profitability – again using user centric design principles, young/start-up technology companies are helped to think through their business proposition and pricing models from an end user/market perspective in order to develop profitable products and services
• Increasing investment - the programme has been successful in helping young technology businesses improve their communication with investors which has helped a number of them to win investment

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As an introduction to the Designing Demand Innovate programme, two free workshops are being held in the South East. One is on 24 February in Guildford and the second is on the 25 March in Reading. In order to participate in the mentoring programme, companies need attend the workshop first. This is important as the workshops have been developed to:

• Provide them with some useful practical tips about how design can be used to improve their overall performance
• Explain more about the Innovate mentoring programme and provide companies with an opportunity to determine whether it is right for them at this stage