SOME of the West Midlands most high profile and powerful individuals have visited QinetiQ in Malvern and Malvern Hills Science Park as part of a campaign to boost the image of the West Midlands.

The West Midlands Ambassadors - including Sir Adrian Cadbury, Professor Michael Sterling and Baroness Christine Crawley - have agreed to represent the region through Advantage West Midlands' regional marketing campaign.

The theme of the visit was innovation - past, present and future. The West Midlands is home to inventions such as the dictionary, the spark plug and the jet engine.

QinetiQ Malvern, which employs 2,500 people, has a history of developing technology, including radar, thermal imaging, the internet, and liquid crystal displays.

As part of the tour the ambassadors viewed a number of life-changing technologies currently being developed at the QinetiQ Malvern site.

These included a prototype radar for detecting concealed devices on people for use in locations such as airport security areas and remote surveillance, technology that measures wind speeds at a distance to better plan wind farms.

They were also given an update on the Advanced Sensors Programme, a new initiative in partnership with Advantage West Midlands aimed at engaging businesses to exploit QinetiQ's technology to realise commercial opportunities.

The Ambassadors then travelled in West Midlands Region branded taxis to the nearby Malvern Hills Science Park. The taxis are being used to promote the West Midlands as the best-connected European business location to travellers arriving at Birmingham International Airport.

Malvern Hills Science Park has been purpose built to offer laboratory and office space, attractive tenancy agreements and strong links with QinetiQ.

The ambassadors also met with QinetiQ spin-off companies Aurix and ZBD, which operate from Malvern Hills Science Park.

Aurix - the world's leading company in phonetic speech technology - provides users with the ability to search large audio and video archives and real time audio streams for keywords and phrases. The technology is being used in settings including call centres and for security purposes.

ZBD is leading the way with epop electronic, zero-powered point of purchase display solutions. Working with the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's, the company is focused on reducing costs and improving sales and customer service in the retail sector.

Nick Paul, president of the West Midlands Ambassadors Programme and Advantage West Midlands chairman, said: "Not only have we seen the facilities of one of the finest research organisations in the world on our tour, we have also learnt how important the roles of universities, small and large businesses, regional and local universities are in developing and nurturing innovative technologies and businesses in our region."