Inventors' Club

Registration is from 5:40pm – prompt start at 6:00pm

Whilst many of us spot the potential for a new product or a new piece of technology, the harsh realities of research and development, prototyping, manufacturing and distribution often mean that few of those ideas make it to market.

At this event, we will be talking to innovators who have already brought their products to market or who just have a “new idea” to discuss. Join us to learn about the journey, the problems to overcome and useful tips about bringing a new product to market.

The Inventors' Club is brought to you by the Business & IP Centre in collaboration with:

Bob Lindsey

A Chartered Engineer with a wide experience of marketing and business management, who has spent over twenty years advising entrepreneurs and small businesses on getting their new products to market. He regularly runs Innovation Clinics at the British Library.

Innovators who would like to present their idea should contact Bob Lindsey on [email protected]

Mark Sheahan

Mark is a valued collaborator of the Business & IP Centre and for over 16 years. Mark volunteers his time with the Business & IP Centre on two Thursdays every month as the British Library's Inventor in Residence, helping over 1,000 aspiring innovators with their inventions. The Founder and Owner of Compgen Ltd and Culgen Ltd and the Chairman at Morgan Goodwin Ltd.

Richard Hicks

Richard, an experienced Product Designer and Entrepreneur, completes our expert panel providing insightful feedback.

Speaker for Monday 29th September 2025

Brian Back, an innovative engineer, has been developing products and successfully selling them for decades and growing businesses too (alongside his wife), including one that was sold in 2005 to a FTSE 250 company.

His inventions are all around, touching our everyday lives, and no doubt you all have passed many without even knowing as you travel by car or train across the UK and Europe. From monitoring street lighting, sewers, refrigeration, pollution, smart metering, railways for flooding, through to combatting spills of sewage into our waterways and oceans he has engineered solutions and would be happy share some of his experiences, methodology and the philosophy of “technology of good”, that motivates his creativity to this day”

One of his latest ventures is in https://www.radio-data-networks.com/.

Brian is an example of an inventor who has gone on to build a long-term, successful profitable business. Many inventors have the single product idea with few (profitable) follow-ups. We will discuss why some ideas, and inventors, can sustain their existence long past that first “eureka moment”.

Host or Publisher British Library, Business & IP Centre