Nicki Campling

Ecosystem Manager, Barclays Eagle Labs, Oxford

Eagle Labs was founded 6 years ago and was developed to allow start ups and entrepreneurs access to technical equipment in order to build prototypes for innovative products. The concept rapidly grew from there based on feedback from business founders in addressing their needs for support. Today eagle labs are a 25 physical location strong network, building an entrepreneurial community for start-ups to thrive, innovate and grow. My role is to connect start-up businesses to the rich support resources that eagle labs have both internally and externally. We offer tailored programmes covering funding, accelerators and international trading, in addition to a national and local events programme; driven by the business founders themselves. We work with external partners to deliver content for our programmes and also valuable mentoring, all of which are available for our members.

My background is not only working with start-ups in the ecosystem, but experience from the business banking sector; working within various divisions including high growth & entrepreneurs, agriculture and generalist businesses. I am fortunate to work in an environment that allows me to meet and support the incredible innovation in Oxfordshire and the UK.

Prior to my career at present I have worked across a diverse range of sectors including travel, retail, sales and finance and am a qualified mortgage advisor.

Speaker sessions

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14:45 - 15:45

Creating an ecosystem for start-ups to thrive

Pickavance Lecture Theatre | Main Stage

Oxfordshire has a vibrant community of young and early stage companies, with many new ones created each year. Many of these are spin-outs from Oxford’s two Universities and benefit greatly from the support of their parent institutions. However, many companies start without the backing of Oxfordshire’s universities or decide to locate within the Oxfordshire region to grow and develop their innovation. This panel will look at the ecosystem for start-ups, considering how companies gain support and grow, and will examine the strengths and weaknesses of Oxfordshire as a place for start-ups to scale and succeed.

Panellists: Mark Evans – Adaptix, Jon Rees – MitoRx Therapeutics, Nicki Campling – Barclays Eagle Labs, Oxford, Jens Tholstrup – OION, Megan Morys-Carter – TheHill and Gillian McLaren – British Business Bank.

Chaired by Nicola McConville – Taylor Vinters.

Sponsored by British Business Bank, James Cowper Kreston and Taylor Vinters.

VIEW THE FULL PROGRAMME