Award-Winning Entrepreneur to Launch Connection Heroes Platform

Di Gates, the founder and owner of virtual consultancy Stick Theory, has been awarded £50,000 by Innovate UK. The award is part of a total cash pot worth £6.2m provided by the government's innovation agency to support promising entrepreneurs across the country in launching new ventures. 
 
The funding will be used to launch Connection Heroes, a platform designed to enhance human connections within workplaces. It comes as many employees are feeling increasingly disconnected from their work and colleagues due to radical changes in working environments over recent years. 
 
Connection Heroes aims at catering for organizations wishing to improve human connections across hybrid workplaces with the objective of driving employee engagement, retention, and wellbeing. This innovative development program acknowledges that maintaining connections among hybrid teams can be complex but crucially necessary. 
 
Awards like these form an integral part of efforts made by the government's innovation agency towards fostering fresh talent and encouraging innovation throughout the UK economy. 
 
Innovate UK received more than 2,100 applications, out of which only 233 high-potential entrepreneurs from all corners of Britain were selected for funding. In addition to receiving a grant worth £50,000 each, they would also receive business support tailored specifically for them for one year. 
 
Ms. Gates was motivated to create Connection Heroes after research revealed alarming statistics about disengagement among workers in the United Kingdom: about nine-tenths (90%) do not feel engaged with their jobs, while almost three-quarters (71%) have plans on pursuing new job opportunities this year alone. 
 
She saw it fit, therefore, to design a platform that addresses this growing problem while simultaneously acknowledging how challenging improving connections within hybrid teams can be. 
 
Scheduled for launch in June, this is a pilot program lasting between six and twelve weeks, where participants are taken through customized workshops alongside scenario games backed by experienced experts using smart digital platforms as well as microlearning sessions. 
 
Participants play as groups during challenging online scenario games, representing real-life situations that could arise if connection within workplaces breaks down and engagement levels start to drop. The platform enables participants to keep track of their personal development, while a company dashboard displays the journey of the cohort as well as projections on engagement, retention, and wellbeing. 
 
Ms. Gates expressed her excitement about receiving funding, which she says has enabled her to formalize her framework into an intuitive digital platform designed for unique learning and development experiences. She anticipates beginning the pilot program in June, following significant interest already being shown in Connection Heroes.