The circular economy asks for us to consider sustainability and re-usability at every stage of the production chain.

As designers of commercial electronic products, we acknowledge our tiny - albeit meaningful - piece in this economic puzzle. The reality is that modern society’s innate production and consumption habits need to be dramatically shifted. 

Like the cities themselves, the concept of a smart city is constantly evolving. What’s been most prevalent is the shift in our understanding of what a Smart City should be. No longer are these only places that should be efficient, they need to be places that have a vibrancy and identity as well.

The growth in this realisation is what’s making this movement so exciting now more than ever.

Whether you have a burning product idea that you’re wanting to develop into a Proof of Concept or you’re ready to commercialise your product for market-entry, there are some key questions you’ll need to ask your tech provider before signing any dotted lines.

Although you mightn’t have the insight into where your costs are assigned like you would with your hourly accountant, in theory, a fixed price is the ideal way for you, your savings, and your product’s concept to be put to correct use, right?

At NewieVentures, not a week goes by without us being asked “How much is an IoT sensor?”. Given that a large part of our business is designing IoT sensors, we’d love to have an answer. Unfortunately, it’s a lot like answering “How long is a piece of string?” with the extra complication of the act of measuring string being a significant part of the cost.

We like to think the passion for problem-solving is something we share with history’s forefathers of the sciences, which is why our product codenames pay homage to a number of our earliest heroes from the world of engineering and invention.

No matter how strong your clickbait immunity, it’s likely that you’ve still come across a number of end-of-year trend predictions feeding through your newsfeed.

Sure, 2019 might not be the ‘year of IoT’ that a number of tech publications would have liked us to believe year after year, but hey, at least it’s still a long way from being dead.

There’s something in the air, maybe it’s an idea, or maybe it’s just coal dust. In Newcastle, the line of difference between the booming industries of coal and innovation aren’t always plain for the eye to see. 

We’re looking upon the aftermath of a city constantly under fire from idea bombs, pitch-fest projectiles, hackathon hand grenades, creative talk torpedos and any other military themed simile you can dream of for these networking nuclears.