Back when Roman gladiators took to the ring to do battle, the blood-thirsty crowds always got to voice their opinion. Caesar would listen the collective views of his people, before making the life or death decision with a thumbs-up or down. No wonder 'likes' are so evocative in social media today.

Get in the Ring - the pitching competition that definitely stands out from crowd with its half-size boxing ring and glitzy VIP area - brought this approach into the world of tech startups.

Their unique format, now exported from their native Amsterdam to 80 cities around the world, sees startups go head-to-head in five 1-minute rounds of pitching on different parts of their business.

Whilst judges from Forward Partners and WhiteSpaceVC acted as Caesars with the final decision on the wining startup in each battle, the audience got to whoop, cheer and ultimately vote through Glisser-letting our interactive presentation flag fly.

By simply creating a live poll after each battle, and pushing this out instantly to audience smartphones, votes were counted and displayed on the big screen. The live pie chart shifted around every second as more and more votes came in, drawing oohs and aahs from the audience as the leading startup switched sides.

In one battle, between our MassChallenge compatriots Filmdoo and Choosic, we counted the lead swap eight times over just a few minutes as additional audience members logged in to make their voice count and supported their favoured gladiator.

There were a few surprises too. Another MassChallenge alumni - the pitching juggernaut that is Zipcube - lost out to a relative newcomer in NearSt. This was 8 Mile stuff.

Not only did the audience get their vote, Glisser also offered them the chance to chat, barrack and taunt via a live comments feed. It too turned into an engaging sidetrack to the events on stage, and provided some useful insight into why audience votes went which way or another.

And so, with four winners emerging from this UK Final, our focus moves onto the European Final of Get in the Ring, which also takes place in London. For those of you that love a pitch, and want to get your chance to enter the debate, be sure to be there and be part of the action.