Business & IP Centre users have had an opportunity to showcase some of their products at a University College of London (UCL) pop-up shop at Boxpark in Shoreditch. Boxpark advertises itself as the world’s first pop-up mall. UCL Launch Box opened on 29 May and showcased products from students and businesses linked to UCL.

                    UCL pop-up shop at Boxpark in Shoreditch

They have opened the shop to some of the businesses that have used the Centre. At the time of
opening these were: Cole of London, LeftHandRightEye and Ohyo (pictured below) and more should be going in soon. These products share space with other products as diverse as a device for reducing vibration on bicycle handlebars; jewellery and wedding dress protectors.

The shop also has a ‘tree’ of iPads on which new apps can be tested. The location next to bars and catering outlets encourages plenty of drop-in traffic, especially at weekends.

UCL Launch Box is the first stage of an ‘innovation concept store’ initiative which is part of an EU (Interreg) funded project on Open Innovation of which UCL and the Centre are both partners and this is the reason why we are also involved. If this initiative develops as planned, the coming months will see a network of stores like in other countries including France and Belgium, as well as more permanent store in London and a temporary pop-up showcase at the British Library. This will provide opportunities for the businesses that we work with to showcase their products to an increasingly wider audience.

While planning of this network goes on, the Launch Box is a great opportunity to test out the concept and enables us, UCL and other project partners like Laval Mayenne Technopole a chance to showcase novel and innovative products.

It has been fascinating to see how quickly a pop-up shop can be set up and adapted and there has been plenty of lots of interest in the products on display.

Nigel Spencer on behalf of Business & IP Centre