DYNAMO 20 PROGRAMME

A talk about how to save money, make staff happier and provide a more accurate and stable service.

In this talk, we will provide our overview of the future of work and how a combination of emerging technology (including intelligent automation) will be harnessed to drive value and improve customer and staff experience.

We will articulate the different ways organisations can commence their automation journey including the automation of business processes with Robotic Process Automation and the use of Conversational AI to drive consistent messaging and how combining Intelligent Automation and Artificial Intelligence technology can automate your mission critical processes end-to-end.

The future workplace will be populated by both human and virtual workers, providing a hybrid workforce working together to deliver highly efficient services. Upskilling, reskilling and continuous learning will become more important for many individuals and organisations.
Commercial organisations will have to embrace virtual worker assistance to remain competitive. Public sector organisations experience a range of unrelenting service drivers that place constant pressure on their staff.
Intelligent Automation brings a suite of capabilities that can alleviate the operational strain, deliver improved and extended services, and provide staff with a more rewarding work experience. As such, Intelligent Automation can be regarded as a true enabler of (digital) transformation.
CGI combines established techniques for process improvement and digital transformation to deliver step changes in operational performance by designing and delivering new target operating models created through the three lens of Lean Sigma, Intelligent Automation and wider emerging technologies.

The construction sector is at a critical turning point. Decades of low investment in research and development has stagnated progress in the industry. Today it is one of the least efficient and most wasteful sectors, experiencing just 0.4% growth in productivity year on year (8x less than manufacturing), and accounting for almost 60% of waste generated and 40% of CO2 emissions globally. Failings across the industry don’t just have a financial and environmental cost – there is also a human cost. The Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 saw 72 people lose their lives, with subsequent reports highlighting this was an entirely preventable tragedy.

Facing intense scrutiny and impending legislation associated with the Hackitt Review and global climate emergency, transformation and innovation across the entire construction supply chain is ‘no longer optional’. Leaders across the sector disciplines, are already leveraging digital technologies such as data science, Building Information Modelling and blockchain to address these challenges. With consulting firms estimating the increased adoption of digital technologies could save up to $1.7trillion across design, engineering, construction and operations of global non-residential developments alone by 2025, there are far reaching benefits to this approach.

In this session, partners from the International Centre for Connected Construction (IC3) will explore how digital innovation can address three critical sector issues, the wider behavioural change that is required to ensure these technologies fulfil their potential and how IC3 in helping to address these global construction challenges.

Rob Charlton, CEO of Space Group, will begin the session by unpicking the events that led to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017. He will examine the fragmentation and lack of accountability across the industry that led to Grenfell Tower and 500 other high-rise buildings across the country, being clad in the same highly combustible materials, putting thousands of lives at risk. Crucially, Rob will set out what is needed to prevent further tragedies through changes to commissioning behaviours and the role of technology in underpinning a holistic way of working, delivering assurance to asset owners, the construction supply chain and the public.

Picking up from the context of Rob’s discussion, Tom Jarman, Chair of Constructing Excellence North East’s Procuring For Value working group, will explore fundamental changes needed in the way buildings are procured – an area specifically highlighted in the 2017 Farmer Review as a key driver for change. Tom will set out the need to move on from current procurement decisions based on lowest capital cost to an approach based on whole-life performance. Tom will define the factors that contribute to ‘value’ – financial, environmental, social etc. – and how technology can underpin more holistic procurement processes.

One point of value the industry urgently needs to address is sustainability, improving the performance of buildings, reducing energy and water consumption, minimising embodied carbon and maximising occupant wellbeing. In the final session, Dr Kay Rogage, computer scientist and senior lecturer in Digital Living at Northumbria University, will explore how data from building models, IoT, sensors and building occupants can be integrated and analysed to improve understanding of building performance and support improvements in building design and operational management.

A co-presentation between Sage, Amazon Web Services and Sunderland University to discuss a recent open-source collaboration project: Trust Fabric.

Increased business automation requires increased trust automation - so in partnership with AWS, Sage have evolved an innovative new concept for automating trust in B2B / B2C business interactions, which was introduced at AWS re:Invent at the end of 2019 and will feature in Forbes magazine later this year.

This talk will discuss the business problems which this solution will solve, the innovative new immutable database technology recently launched by AWS which underpins the solution, and the involvement of students from Sunderland University conducting technical PoC's/prototypes to initially help shape and test the solution.

This has been a great example of North East tech collaboration, and each party will explain their role to date and invite further contributions from other organisations in the region.

Join 50:50 Future Ltd and associate recruitment and HR specialists Edward Reed Recruitment & The People Place HR.

Many organisations in the tech sector point to recruitment as their biggest challenge and pain point within Diversity and Inclusion. In this virtual workshop we will explore a holistic approach in attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce and how that is complementary to an inclusive recruitment process.

Alongside our own 50:50 diversity specialists we will be joined by HR & recruitment experts who will provide real life examples and case studies from their extensive experience. By showcasing the good, the bad and the ugly, we will highlight the impact that bad habits and bias can have on hiring. With our esteemed guest speakers we will be looking at the whole 360 recruitment cycle from job ads through to interview panels and beyond - attendees will gain top tips, best practice approaches and will be equipped with useful and relevant strategies that they can implement immediately.

Session takeaways;

What are the key challenges in recruiting a diverse workforce?

Examples of how bias is ingrained in every stage of the recruitment process

Strategies of best practice and top tips to remove bias and take a more inclusive approach to recruitment

Exploring a wider context to attracting and retaining talent in your organisation to become truly inclusive in every part of the employee lifecycle

Implementing change & your measurable plan

You will also have the opportunity to ask any burning questions to our accomplished panel

How can we bridge the digital skills gap? In this Q&A panel discussion, we’ll dive into the digital skills shortage and share what works when it comes to building a talent pipeline.

The session will cover the issue of talent shortages in the Digital Marketing, IT and Software Development fields, and offer practical strategies to overcome this.

We’ll be hearing from local businesses, Mediaworks and Aspire Technology Solutions, who have successfully incorporated apprenticeship programmes into their training and hiring strategy: sharing the challenges, success stories and lessons they have learned along the way.

From solving recruitment challenges to tackling regional youth unemployment and growing your own talent, we’ll explore big ideas and share actionable knowledge that can be applied to your business.

The session will be chaired by Joanna Wake from RAW Digital Training and Scott Urwin from Baltic Apprenticeships. There will be an informal panel discussion followed by an open Q&A.