I’m sharing a release that may be relevant to your coverage of NHS digital and enterprise technology adoption.
As a health tech growth partner Highland has launched a new showcase format called Elevate that brings technology suppliers directly into NHS organisations for curated, on-site engagement with cross-discipline teams. The first event attracted 500 staff and is now being replicated by multiple providers.
The key angle is a shift in how NHS organisations evaluate and engage with technology – moving from conference-led discovery to strategy-aligned, in-organisation exposure involving clinical, operational and executive stakeholders together.
The release attached includes NHS executive and digital leader quotes, supplier impact feedback, and expansion plans across trusts and integrated care systems. I've also attached pictures from the first showcase held at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, and Elevate logo in two variations. Happy to support with interviews or additional detail if helpful.
Highland launches Elevate - bringing health tech direct to the NHS
A new showcase series is reshaping NHS-supplier engagement. Pioneers at the first NHS host brought together hundreds of staff organisation-wide, along with major tech companies and niche innovators in a single day, already inspiring 10 further NHS providers to follow in 2026.
Highland has launched Elevate, a new health tech event series that is bringing technology suppliers directly into NHS organisations for focussed, whole-organisation engagement in a single day.
Elevate is giving suppliers a wide breadth of access across almost every role – already reaching senior executives, board members, clinicians, procurement, estates, pharmacy, finance, and frontline staff for in-depth conversations.
NHS chief executives and digital leaders are actively embracing the ability the initiative provides to engage staff and bring in curated, relevant technology aligned to local priorities and strategy, with staff at every level exposed to innovations that can transform how they work and deliver care.
At least 10 NHS providers are planning Elevate events in the year ahead and more are showing interest, after the first showcase attracted hundreds of NHS staff and delivered unprecedented digital engagement across the organisation, shaping strategy and changing technology perceptions.
Hospital groups and integrated care systems are coming on board too, extending reach beyond acute settings and informing direction for newly formed integrated organisations.
Mark Venables, CEO of health tech growth company Highland, said: "We set out to completely change how suppliers engage the NHS. Elevate proves there's a better way. When 500 staff turn up in a single day – from the chief executive through to all levels of the organisation – and suppliers tell us this is the best engagement they've ever had, you know the model works. This is levelling the playing field for the NHS and health tech: elevating innovative technology into the NHS, elevating the voices of staff and engagement in digital strategy, and elevating the art of the possible. We're now taking this across the country."
The first showcase event held at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust in October 2025 has proven the model works. It saw 500 staff attend, from the chief executive and interim trust chair to ward nurses, surgeons, digital leads, registrars, HCAs and admin and clerical - from departments as far and wide as pharmacy, radiology, pathology, endoscopy, estates, procurement, finance, infection control, tissue viability and cleaning teams.
The event attracted innovators from major multinational technology companies to niche tech suppliers. It became the starting point for the trust’s 2026–2030 digital strategy, with strategic conversations and new ideas already emerging after the event.
George Farmer, head of digital strategy, governance and risk at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Digital people go to digital events. Clinical people go to clinical events. This is clinical people coming to a digital event. And I think it's the first I've known of it in my 20 years in the NHS. This event has been the jumping-off point for our digital strategy. We're bringing vendors to the people. The breadth of excitement, the buzz that’s been created: we wouldn't get that anywhere else."
Debbie Loke, executive chief digital information officer, said: "By working with Highland to bring this event to our hospital, it has brought the opportunities to our staff - many of whom work clinically - this has meant they have been able to see this technology in action in a way that they wouldn't have done otherwise.
We have been able to get real-time feedback from our teams on how the advancements in technology can improve their working lives and patient care, which has been key in developing our future digital strategy." The response from health tech suppliers has been equally positive, with many redirecting marketing spend after the impact of the initial showcase in Derby.
Jasraj Singh Nagra, account manager at Nanosonics, said: "We’ve had so many people come to us with questions whom we wouldn’t normally be able to reach. The interim chair of the trust even stopped by to speak with us for half an hour and really listened to what we had to say."
Olivia Sykes, event manager at Radar Healthcare, said: "The event gave us a valuable opportunity to engage directly with decision makers from across the trust. Those conversations helped build momentum and a shared understanding of how our work can support their priorities."
To carry impact from beyond an exhibition space, Highland is also working with partners and leveraging senior members of its advisory board
