Ahead of the return of the Swindon & Wiltshire Techies in the autumn, we’ve been chatting to some of the region’s best and brightest firms to find out more about them.
From which superhero would your business be, to which tech could you live without, we’ve posed some questions to help us get to know our friendly neighbourhood tech businesses, including those which support them.
Kate Westbrook is a leading technology and contracts lawyer in the South West. Her team at Thrings works with a range of technology businesses, from UK SMEs to multinational listed PLCs.
A member of Thrings’ Technology and Digital sector group and based in Swindon herself, Kate is passionate about Wiltshire’s tech community and providing training and support to early-stage and scale-up innovation businesses. She has been a valued member of the Techies judging panel for the last four years.
Kate shares her answers below…
NAME: Kate Westbrook
COMPANY: Thrings
SECTOR: Legal
CAN YOU SUM UP WHAT YOUR COMPANY DOES IN NO MORE THAN 10 WORDS? Commercially aware legal advice to growing businesses and their owners.
WHO IS YOUR TECH IDOL? I look up to most of the people I meet who have a successful business in tech but right now, it’s Alex Su. Check him out on LinkedIn or TikTok. He’s a lawyer turned legal techie but I mainly look up to him as an awesome creator of social media content taking the proverbial out of lawyers…
CAN YOU SHARE A QUOTE WHICH MEANS SOMETHING TO YOU? “This above all: to thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man” Polonius, Hamlet. My English teacher, Mrs Pearson, wrote that in my card when I left school and I’ve never forgotten it or the message. Essays are written on what this could be interpreted to mean but take from it the importance of honesty, authenticity and commitment.
LOOKING AHEAD OVER THE NEXT DECADE, WHAT TECH DEVELOPMENTS EXCITE YOU? WHY? The metaverse both excites and terrifies me. The ability to connect people around the world in a sustainable way and the business opportunities are huge but the potential negative impact on societies and a lost connection with the ‘real world’ concerns me.
WHAT TECH COULD YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT? WHY? I’m going to be really boring and say my beloved iPhone. It wakes me in the morning, it provides me with my news, it reminds me what I’m doing each day, it tells (regularly) me when I’ve gone over my overdraft, it allows me to communicate effectively with my teenage daughter (she responds much more quickly to SnapChat than me shouting up the stairs), it records my life through photos and video, connects me to my family and friends. I do wish it could make me a cup of tea though…
WHAT TECH COULD YOU LIVE WITHOUT? WHY? ALEXA/SIRI/GOOGLE – any cloud based voice service. Alexa and Siri in particular keep butting into conversations they were not invited to and honestly, I can just google any questions I have or stream music from my beloved iPhone. (But I understand they are more accessible for some).
IF YOUR COMPANY WAS A SUPERHERO, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE AND WHY? As we’re not a company but a limited liability partnership, can I say that we’re like the Avengers? An interesting mix of personalities and skills which just, somehow, works (although we’ve never experienced Civil War) with a load of humour thrown in for good measure.
HOW CAN PEOPLE KEEP UP TO DATE WITH YOUR COMPANY’S LATEST NEWS AND DEVELOPMENTS? Follow us (and me!) on twitter @thringslaw, insta @thringslaw and on LinkedIn.
To find out more about The Techies Awards Swindon and Wiltshire and to enter visit:
