From Idea to Evidence: The fastest route to product‑market pull

Strategic designer Darren Evans is founder of Mirfield-based The Engine Room – a multi-award-winning brand agency which drives momentum for complex B2B organisations.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, The Engine Room bridges the gap between design and business, constantly exploring new opportunities and ideas that change clients’ existing situations into preferred ones. As a result, the team has an established reputation for solving intricate brand challenges that achieve tangible commercial, behavioural and/or societal change – however complicated the brief.
Away from The Engine Room, Darren is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, alumni of the Design Thinkers Academy in Amsterdam, and one of over 200 Design Experts for the Design Council (the Government’s national strategic advisor for design). Through this work, he has facilitated several UK-wide design programmes, ranging from coastal erosion to suicide prevention.
He is also co-founder of Wilsons Republic, a CIC established to raise the profile, fuel the success, and support the resilience of West Yorkshire’s creative industries. Passionate about the creative heritage, talent and potential of Huddersfield, Wilsons has hosted two design conferences, overseen a decade of wider events and meet-ups, and delivered WYCA-funded support programmes to help creative businesses thrive.

Nicky specialises in the commercial challenges that most often stall deeptech and high-tech businesses: identifying the right markets, crafting messages that resonate with customers and investors, and building a business model that scales. If you're uncertain about your product strategy or routes to market, struggling to tell the story of your technology in a way that lands, or finding it hard to develop a compelling value proposition, Nicky brings the strategic clarity to move you forward. With more than 25 years' experience working with spinouts, startups and established technology companies, she works across the full commercialisation journey, from early market exploration through to go-to-market execution.

Peter Lowes is Managing Director of brand and content studio Present Works. Peter and his team have vast experience working across sectors, helping B2B organisations at a point of change to revitalise their brand to deliver business growth. Peter has supported clients including HSBC, Cisco, TechUK, and believes strongly in the power of increased care within brand and content to drive business uplift.

Professor Goswami is the Director of Research and Innovation at the University of Huddersfield. Previously, Professor Goswami was the Associate Dean for Research, Innovation, and Knowledge Exchange and Head of the Department at the University of Huddersfield. He is also the Director of the Technical Textiles Research Centre. Before joining the University of Huddersfield, Professor Goswami was the Director of Research and Innovation at the School of Design at the University of Leeds and led the Fibre and Fabric Functionalisation Research group at Leeds. He is committed to multidisciplinary research and is working towards building constructive collaborations with the University of Huddersfield and industries. Professor Goswami's domains of research are product development using flexible materials and the application of chemistry for functionalising textiles. Professor Goswami manages a large profile of research concerned with fibre/polymer science, nonwovens, medical textiles (implantable materials and non-implantable materials), sustainable materials (fundamentally understanding the properties of new material), application and development of nano/submicron fibres for novel applications, and plasma treatment for functionalising textiles and textile chemistry. Professor Goswami is also the first academic to be appointed to the board of the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT). Professor Goswami is a Freeman of the City of London and the Worshipful Company of Woolmen.