I have been following and using AI from a technical perspective for some time through my work at Beaconzone. I had also been using AI in photography, one of my hobbies, before the current boom in generative AI.

This project brings together those two interests: photography and AI. The emphasis is on local AI processing rather than cloud-based services, which I believe is going to become increasingly important and more widely used in the future.

You can read more on the AI Image Fix website.

I have played badminton since secondary school, when I played for the local junior county squad, several times a week. Just before university, I reached a crunch point where exams had to take priority, so I put badminton to one side for a while. I did not take it up again until my first job after university.

Since then, I have played club badminton every week. Over the years, I have been on the committees of two clubs in Guildford and have even captained a few teams.

Like many sports, badminton was badly affected by Covid, with a lot of players giving up or moving away. After Covid, I happened upon a strong club playing socially at the local school, just 100 metres from home. They do not play in leagues, but it is a great, friendly club and I now help to run it.

You can read more on the Goldsworth Badminton Club website.

I started Beaconzone in 2015 after working on several mobile beacon projects and seeing the real potential of beacon technology. In the early days, I began by importing hardware from China and creating matching solutions around it. Since then, Bluetooth gateways have come along, greatly expanding what is possible with server-based solutions.

Beaconzone is still going strong, although like many UK companies, it has faced its share of challenges over the years. Brexit, changes in company taxation, and the increasing red tape around exporting have all made it harder for companies to innovate and trade internationally. Exporting to Europe in particular has become more difficult, both because of the extra paperwork and the costs faced by European companies importing from the UK.

I am now approaching retirement, but I plan to continue running Beaconzone for a long time yet. It remains fun, interesting, and viable, and the quieter pace has also given me the opportunity to start exploring other activities that will help shape my retirement.

I started this in 2023 as a way to ease myself into retirement. I have always enjoyed wine and saw a real opportunity to provide useful, accessible information about affordable wine for everyday consumers.

The original aim was simply to build a strong website that would help me get into industry and retail tastings. Becoming an “influencer” was never the intention. I promoted the site in much the same way I had promoted business in the past, and within a year I had achieved that aim, along with quite a lot more.

By December 2025, the site had received 153,000 visitors. I now attend lots of wine tastings and am regularly sent wines to review, which has made it a very enjoyable and rewarding project.

You can read more at winedrinker.co.uk.

I studied at UMIST, where I completed a double BSc and MEng degree in Microelectronic Systems Engineering. In simple terms, it was electronic engineering and software engineering rolled into one.

After graduating, I joined a software consultancy, Logica, and spent a few years working in the space and defence sectors. I then moved into software contracting, working at Vodafone and Oracle, before getting into mobile development.

That led me to write some of the first mobile apps for Nokia and for the first UK app store, well before the iPhone came along. I later moved into iPhone development and especially Android development and wrote a popular blog about mobile development, which brought in freelance work.

Over time, I moved into Bluetooth solutions, which eventually led me to found and run a company built around that technology.

There is more detail about my background and experience on my LinkedIn profile.