Thames Valley Tech & Innovation Awards 2026 - Could an IT Award Be Coming Home Too?
Steve (Bear) Jewell
Football fever has taken over the country this week, with England fighting their way through to the World Cup quarter-finals. But we’ve got our own reason to have everything crossed right now.
Atmosphere IT has been named a finalist for Tech SME of the Year at the Thames Valley Tech & Innovation Awards 2026, hosted by The Business Magazine in partnership with Insider Media. The winners will be announced tonight, Thursday 9th July, at a gala evening at the Hilton Reading Hotel.
What the Award Recognises
Now in its eighth year, the Thames Valley Tech & Innovation Awards celebrate the businesses, teams and individuals driving technology forward across our region. Winners are chosen by a panel of independent judges across 14 categories, covering everything from AI innovation to managed service providers.
Being shortlisted for Tech SME of the Year means being recognised alongside some of the strongest small and medium-sized tech businesses in the Thames Valley. For a family-run IT support company based right here in Bracknell, that’s a genuinely proud moment.
What It Takes To Be a Finalist
The Tech SME of the Year category isn’t open to just anyone. Entries come from SMEs with under 50 employees or under £25m turnover, with at least two years of trading, who’ve shown genuine enterprise and innovation during the qualifying period.
From there, judges assess entries across five areas:
- Technological advancement — how we’re moving the business, and our clients, forward
- Leadership — the decisions and direction behind the company
- Customer success — real outcomes for the businesses we support
- Culture — how the team works, together and with clients
- Sustainability — building something that lasts, not just something that looks good this year
Every entry has to back all of that up with measurable achievements, case studies or testimonials. It’s not a popularity contest. It’s judges digging into whether a business actually does what it says it does.
Why This Matters for Our Clients
Awards are nice to have on the wall, but what actually matters is what sits behind them. Every day, our job is to protect the businesses we support from downtime and cyber threats, empower their teams with technology that just works, and sustain that support for the long haul, not just when something breaks.
Look back at what the judges are scoring and it lines up neatly with how we work. Customer success and culture sit at the heart of everything we do, technological advancement is what keeps our clients protected and empowered, and sustainability is exactly what “sustain” has always meant to us: support that’s still there next year, not just this one.
Being recognised as a finalist is a reflection of that approach. It tells us that the way we work, treating clients like people rather than tickets, is being noticed beyond our own client base too.
The Whole Team Is Heading to the Gala
This one isn’t just a nomination for the founders or the leadership team. Tonight, the whole Atmosphere IT team will be at the Hilton Reading for the gala dinner, cheering each other on. It felt right that way. If the judges are scoring us on culture as much as anything else, then it only made sense for everyone who builds that culture to be in the room when the results come in.
Wishing Everyone Luck
Like the Three Lions, getting this far has taken teamwork, resilience and a fair bit of grit. Whatever happens tonight, we’re proud to be flying the flag for small tech businesses in the Thames Valley.
Wishing England the best of luck against Norway, and fingers crossed for us at the awards too.
