Digital City Festival, from March 7th – 11th, takes place across Manchester for a celebration of the whole of digital, including not just the expo but also the Digital City Awards, a dedicated Leaders’ Reception sponsored by MIDAS, widespread partner events, and more.
Back for its third year, it is set to be the biggest celebration of the digital sector, recognising Manchester’s place as a hotbed of digital innovation and uniting the industry for the first time in at least two years.
Let’s take a look at what you can expect from the Tech Masterclass Theatre at 2022’s Digital City Expo.
Connecting a City. Delivering an IoT blueprint across South London
As revealed on Prolific North yesterday, figures from Microsoft, Lead Sponsor Hitachi Solutions and the South London Partnership will appear on a panel at this year’s expo, to provide insights into one of the UK’s largest IoT pilots which is set to connect five London boroughs.
Tim Kidd of Hitachi Solutions, Linda Chandler of Microsoft, plus David Grasty and Andrew Parsons of the South London Partnership, will take to the stage at 10am on March 9th to share more.
How to get additional cash flow through UK tax incentives
Two senior figures at Leyton – the international consulting firm – will speak in the Tech Masterclass Theatre at 11:40am the same day to discuss their work with British tech innovators to access grants, government tax incentives and private investment, and how they support innovation through funding opportunities.
Made in Manchester but changing the world
This session is hosted by TechBlast, part of BusinessCloud Publishing. It’ll welcome Richard Barlow, Founder and CEO of wejo; Jennie Johnson MBE, Co-Founder and CEO of My First Five Years; and Kevin Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Shopblocks, to a panel chaired by Chris Maguire, Executive Editor of TechBlast, to look at their impactful innovations and global ambitions.
The discussion kicks off at 12:30pm on Wednesday, March 9th.
Smarter technology for a sustainable future
At 1:20pm in the Tech Masterclass Theatre on Wednesday, digital transformation specialist GFT will host Ian Pattison, EMEA Head of Sustainability Practice, to speak alongside Pete Coulter on sustainable technology.
The chat will turn its attention to data centres, Green Coding, and smart application technology, along with how tech companies can play their part in ensuring environmental responsibility.
Bringing order to chaos with a cloud-native data platform
Dave Beech, Staff Solutions Architect at Aiven, is set to share his experience from the field of data management in this talk, which takes place on Wednesday at 2:10pm. He’ll look at engineers’ individual workflows and organisational culture, plus providing tips and tricks on boosting productivity for developers, tech leads, and anyone who makes internal tech decisions.
Launch & discussion of UKBlackTech’s white paper report – ‘Smart Cities: Connected Communities’
Phil Benson, the Co-founder of UKBlackTech, will take to the Tech Masterclass stage at 3pm on Wednesday to launch the company’s whitepaper on Smart Cities along with Ralph Varcoe of IoT specialist Connexin. The report looks at the evolution of Smart Cities and reimagines the model based on current and probable disruptive issues, and will be discussed in-depth by Benson and Varcoe.
Enterprise Scale DevOps practices and tips
The following day, Sogeti – part of the Capgemini Group – will look at how enterprise organisations going through digital transformation are adopting the DevOps model.
Clemens Reijnen, the company’s CTO, will explore patterns and practices organisations can use as a blueprint, expanding on the best practices and offering solutions implemented by top performers.
Scaling up your tech team with junior developers the right way
Amul Batra, COO of Northcoders, will be speaking in the Tech Masterclass Theatre on Thursday to look at just how much the hiring landscape in the technology sector has changed.
He’ll discuss putting a plan in place to ensure companies have the tech talent they need, where talent can be found, ensuring the fit is right, and how to retain them, while also addressing their development into mid-level and senior positions.
All this and so much more will be occurring as part of Digital City Expo at Manchester Central, including talks across marketing, ecommerce, media and more throughout both days. Register now for your chance to hear it all.
