HP opens showcase tech park

NEWS HP today opened the doors to a £7m technology theme park aimed at showcasing its latest technology. Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, opened HP's first European Cooltown - the company already has centres in the US and Canada. HP's Cooltown, based in Wokingham, is divided into five areas: home, car, shopping, work and leisure. Each area is designed to show practical examples of how technology can be a daily part of life from smartcard identity readers to digital encryption. Borel Setten, marketing director at HP, said he had been surprised by the response from customers. "We're fully booked for several months and to be honest I'm a bit surprised. This seems to be the answer to a lot of our customers' questions. They've had ideas but not known how to crystalise them or they want to test mobile applications without spending huge amounts of money. In this current economic climate customers still want to invest." The UK was chosen as the home to Europe's Cooltown to be close to HP's £30m lab in Bristol, added Setten.