We've had 15 guest blogs, which reached over 111,000 twitter users as well as two successful events as part of our #techUKlocalgov campaign week.

Bob Brown, CIO, Manchester City Council; Cllr Theo Blackwell, Camden Council; William Benson, CEO, Tunbridge Wells Council; Sarah Gonsalves, Head of Policy and Performance, Milton Keynes Council; and Eddie Copeland, Director, Nesta and more are just a few of the speakers we have confirmed for our autumn series of events!

Latest

Read What Bristol, Sheffield, Adur & Worthing, Wandsworth & Trafford Council Had to Say About Digital Transformation at Our Roundtable

Last week we held our first roundtable with Council digital leaders on how we can better work together to achieve the local Government digital revolution.

Missed out on Our Local Gov Analyst Event? Check out What We Learnt! (PublicTechnology.net)
We heard from top local gov analysts and Tower Hamlet’s Head of ICT on what the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the sector are. You can view presentations here.

Digital Devolution: Find out What the Future of Local Government Transformation Is at Our Event on 10 November in Manchester. Register NOW!
Bob Brown, Manchester Council, Cllr Theo Blackwell, Camden Council and other Council leaders will debate 'devolution' and how it can be a catalyst for change and the enabling role tech can play in delivering smarter cities.

How Can Councils Work Together to Deliver Better Services for Our Most Vulnerable in Society?
Register now and hear from experts – Jos Creese & Mark Golledge, Local Government Association - on how we can deliver better care through tech.

Action & Reaction

Have Your Say on the Future Local Government Association Data Standard (iStand UK)

Complete this quick survey to help define a data format to describe local services.

*Last few places* Sign-Up Now to Shape the Future of GOV.UK Verify Local
Get involved in our joint workshop with GDS and have your say on the extension of GOV.UK Verify to local public services.

Calling All SMEs - Have Your Say on Payment in Public Contracts
Crown Commercial Service would like to hear from you, please complete this short survey by 14 October.

techUK SME Survey Launched Asking UK Small Businesses the Challenges They Face in Working with the Public Sector
Complete our survey to help inform a set of clear recommendations which we will use to campaign Government to help dynamic British based SMEs to scale and grow.

Local Gov news

Local Digital Standard Will Need Work to Become a Reality, Conference Told (PublicTechnology.net)

Councils must not let the local government Digital Service Standard become another set of principles that "gets shoved in a drawer" and isn’t made a reality.

Bristol Plans Smart City Operations Centre (UKAuthority)
Bristol Council and university aim to extend Bristol is Open network into surrounding region.

Scottish Councils Name Joint Digital and Tech Chiefs to Kick-Start Digital Transformation (PublicTechnology.net)
Twenty-seven Scottish councils have appointed joint chief digital and technology officers to help implement their digital transformation strategy.

GDS Looks for Councils to Pilot GOV.UK Verify (Computer Weekly)
The Government Digital Service plans to launch two pilot projects and is looking for councils to trial the identity assurance service free of charge.

Upcoming Events

October 03 - Local Government GOV.UK Verify Discovery Workshop
October 25 - Big Data Roadshow: Manchester
October 27 - Commissioning Services to Deliver Better Care Through Smart Use of Tech
November 10 - Digital Devolution: Powering Growth

Run by the Knowledge Transfer Network, the Forensic Science Technology Showcase is the highlight of the Forensic Science SIG year. This event provides a chance to see the latest UK research based developments in forensic science. The day is an opportunity to meet new partners, speak to end users and forensic service providers.

This year the Showcase will be opened by Sir Mark Walport, Government Chief Scientific Advisor.

The morning will feature some short talks, and pitch presentations from the exhibitors. Following the conclusion of the pitch presentations the rest of the day will be dedicated to the exhibition, with plenty of time to network and make new connections. Lunch will also be provided.

The event is also an opportunity to find out more about the work of the SIG and wider Knowledge Transfer Network.

Provisional programme:

10:00-10:30 Opening of the Showcase - Sir Mark Walport
10:30-10:50 Working on a collaborative project, Horizon 2020
10:50-11:10 Working on a collaborative project, working with police forces
11:10-12:00 Exhibitor pitches
12:00-16:00 Exhibition and networking

For more information, and to register for this event, please see the website.

{bio}henry.rex@techuk.org{/bio}

This week Europe’s startups presented a Scale Up Manifesto to Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger at the annual digital assembly. The Manifesto lays out 49 actions areas for the Commission to kickstart Europe’s high-growth scaleups. The key focus is how Europe’s scaleups can deliver economic growth and job creation. The actions are divided into six thematic chapters:

1. Complete the single market
2. Mobilise capital
3. Activate talent
4. Power innovation
5. Broaden education
6. Monitor, measure and evaluate

Drafters of the manifesto say the measurability of the actions areas is the manifesto unique offering that will help policymakers track their success. In addition, the Manifesto will be monitored with status reports and naming-and-shaming follow-up studies issued in a systematic and regular pattern.

Commenting on the Manifesto Commissioner Oettinger said “This is a powerful beginning. I look forward to working with European startups and scaleups to drive progress in the weeks, months and years ahead.”

The Manifesto hopes to influence the Commission’s forthcoming ‘startup initiative’ which is expected in December. This communication is being led by Internal Market Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska but is being drafted by a number of directorates across the Commission with additional inputs from Research and Innovation Commissioner Carlos Moedas, Vice-Presidents Andrus Ansip and Jyrki Katainen. A key challenge will be to ensure the Manifesto’s objectives remain consistent and do not become fragmented across different parts of the Commission.

The Manifesto was pulled together by the European Digital Forum and the Lisbon Council. techUK’s Charlotte Holloway sits on the Forum’s advisory council and techUK has played a major role in supporting the ‘Scale-Up Report’ drafted by Sherry Coutu CBE.

techUK regularly bring delegations of high-growth Scale-Ups to meet with policymakers in Brussels. To learn more about our forthcoming trip on 18-19 October please contact Shane Murphy.

{bio}shane.murphy@techuk.org{/bio}

Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Date: Thursday 27th October
Location: Portcullis House, London, SW1A 0AA

Register for the conference here

techUK is hosting a panel examining what Brexit means for the UK digital economy four months on. The Prime Minister has now set out a timeline so we will be joined by a panel of business leaders and policymakers to discuss what this means politically, for investors, for startups and for the UK tech sector more broadly.

The Parliament & Internet Conference brings together leading figures from Government, Parliament, academia and industry to discuss and debate the most pressing policy issues facing the Internet.

Confirmed speakers and panellists so far:

• Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Digital Economy Minister
•  Ian Levy, Technical Director, National Cyber Security Centre
• Rt Hon Maria Miller MP, Chair, Women and Equalities Committee
• Matt Warman MP, Co-Chair, Pictfor
• Chi Onwurah MP, Co-Chair, Pictfor
• Lord Whitty, Chair, EU Internal Market Sub-Committee
• Debbie Woskow OBE, SEUK Chair
• Representatives from Ofcom, industry, and wider sector organisations have also agreed to speak

Other Panel Sessions:

Connectivity
This session, run by Pictfor, will examine whether an effective communications market needs more or less competition, discussing issues such as the need for government intervention and Ofcom’s proposals surrounding Openreach.

SMEs and the digital economy
The panel will discuss the best means for SMEs to make the most of the digital economy, with discussion around the use of online platforms, the key principles to succeeding online, and other avenues to success.

Online Abuse
We will look at the distinction between free speech and hate speech, and discuss the role that the internet sector should play in stopping abuse.

Breakout sessions will be provided by UK-IGF and ISPA.

If you require additional information about the Parliament and Internet Conference, please contact Political Intelligence, the secretariat for the conference, on: 020 3397 3318 or via team@parliamentandinternet.org.uk

So much is happening in the payments world today – and in so many different fora – it can be hard to stand back and take a longer-term view. So join techUK and a panel of distinguished experts to take a wide-ranging look at how the future can look for payments in the UK.

In recent months, we have seen many initiatives in payments: the Payments Strategy Forum published their interim report; open APIs are beginning to play a big part in enhancing payment services; the European Banking Authority has published its technical standards for strong authentication of online payments and the Bank of England has announced a major revision of the real-time gross settlement system as well as a research programme into the possibility of a centrally issued digital currency. On top of this, distributed ledger, the revolutionary bitcoin technology, is leading to large-scale investments by some of the major payments players. And, from 2018 the PSD II will allow non-bank providers to initiate online payments.

All these developments will have major impacts on:

• more coherent, connected, real-time infrastructures;
• what ‘money’ looks like: cash v. electronic payments v. digital currency;
• using data to provide more innovative, customer-focussed services;
• the role of incumbent banks v innovators;
• government’s role: payment collection and benefit distribution.

To thrash out the implications and the possibilities of all this, techUK has invited a panel of experts from different industry fields to present their views on what all these developments will mean for the consumer, the small business and the incumbent players.

• Carlos Sanchez, CEO of Ipagoo and Chair of the Horizon Scanning Group of the Payments Strategy Forum
• Nick Davies, Richer Data Strategy Lead, Department of Work and Pensions
• Simon Taylor, Co-Founder / Director of Blockchain at 11:FS (tbc)
• Tim Jones, CEO Tibado

This event is open to techUK members and all interested stakeholders. The workshop discussion will be followed by networking drinks.

If you would like to attend this event, please get in touch with james.lee@techuk.org

On 23 September techUK attended one of the Centre for Defence Enterprise’s (CDE) Innovation Networking Event. Held at the distinctive The Kia Oval, CDE discussed two of their current Themed Competitions for Industry to get involved in; many drones make light work and autonomy in hazardous scene assessment.

1. 1)Many drones make light work

Programme Leader: John Keirl, UAS Programme Manager, Dstl

Technical Queries: swarming@dstl.gov.uk

CDE’s themed competition many drones make light work calls for industry to propose technological innovation that will develop swarming technology to improve the military’s operational effectiveness in littoral and urban environments.

Many drones make light work umbrella’s three challenges:

• Open modular UAS platforms that are low purchase cost and future life cost.
• Mission management of UAS swarms where the operator will be managing over 20 platforms simultaneously
• Developing technology enablers for swarms where payloads can be added or preventing disruptive technologies across the EM spectrum environment.

The vision for Phase 2 is to combine these three areas into an integrated systems solution by August and into the demonstration phase in September. CDE

Deadline for submissions: 1700, 3 November.

Further key dates and deadlines for phase 1 & 2 of the competition can be found on CDE’s webpage. 

{bio}stephanie.searle@techuk.org{/bio}

Following the Home Secretary’s announcement that she will consult on making it harder for businesses to recruit from abroad, techUK’s Deputy CEO, Antony Walker, stresses that access to the world’s best and brightest is part of the reason UK tech is flourishing.

“The UK is one of the leading digital economies in the world. Part of the reason is because the UK is able to attract the world’s most talented individuals to fill jobs where the UK simply does not have the domestic skills base. Making it harder for tech companies to bring in the best and brightest is not the solution and will be a lose-lose situation for everyone – growth will slow as companies find it harder to recruit, meaning lower revenue for the Treasury and fewer opportunities for workers in the UK.

Research by British Future following the referendum showed that only 12% of people want to cut the number of highly skilled workers coming to Britain, with 46% saying they would be happy to see more. The public knows the huge value of skilled immigration to the UK and the Government must not choke off the UK’s access to international talent. We will be raising this point in the Home Secretary’s consultation as it risks chilling one of the UK’s most dynamic growth sectors.”

 {bio}antony.walker@techuk.org{/bio}

 {bio}doniya.soni@techuk.org{/bio}

Autonomy Innovation Challenge

This second themed competition, Autonomy in hazardous scene assessment, is being run by CDE on behalf of the MOD and Home Office, as a pilot for the Defence Innovation Initiative, Defence and Security Accelerator.

Background: BIS’ RAS Strategy 2020 announced that there was a requirement to invest in five key themes: coordination, assets, grand challenges, clusters and skills to develop the UK’s Robotics and Autonomous Systems capability. For the sphere of defence and security increasing this capability will increase operational effectiveness and decrease the workload of the workforce.

Three challenges for defence and security innovation for have been identified where robotics and autonomous systems can assist with operational effectiveness:

1. Assured automatic resupply
2. Autonomous hazard scene assessment
3. Counter UAS

The first two areas have been allocated funding to improve research and technology. It is expected that a themed competition will be launched in the future once the accelerator has been fully established.

A themed competition for Assured automatic resupply will be launched in early 2017. This will be in partnership with the US DOD, the vision is that it will have £4.5million attached over a 3-5 year period. It is expected to explore increase machine decision making, C2 of delivery of assets, information management and intelligent resupply.

Autonomy in Hazardous Scene Assessment

The completion will aim to investigate the art of the possible of how robotics and autonomy can assist with improving hazardous scene assessment to reduce the risk to personnel. The MOD and Home Office are particular interest in technology to improve the ability to survey hazardous scenes, refine, map and sample materials before to reduce the risk to personnel. The competition has £1million of funding for phase 1 and £2million for phase 2.

Phase 1 will be centre around subsystems and component level to explore these four tasks. Phase 2 will explored combining these four core areas and creating systems. They are interested in real time audio feedback, sense and sample, machines that are environmental aware for example that can operate in confined spaces and adapt to varying wind speeds they may operate in.

Deadline for submission: 1700, 10 November 2016

Technical Queries: dstlautonomyinnovationchallenge@dstl.gov.uk  

Both competitions are now open for suppliers to submit

More information is available on the Centre of Defence Enterprise website page.

{bio}stephanie.searle@techuk.org{/bio}

So much is happening in the payments world today – and in so many different fora – it can be hard to stand back and take a longer-term view. So join techUK and a panel of distinguished experts to take a wide-ranging look at how the future can look for payments in the UK.

In recent months, we have seen many initiatives in payments: the Payments Strategy Forum published their interim report; open APIs are beginning to play a big part in enhancing payment services; the European Banking Authority has published its technical standards for strong authentication of online payments and the Bank of England has announced a major revision of the real-time gross settlement system as well as a research programme into the possibility of a centrally issued digital currency. On top of this, distributed ledger, the revolutionary bitcoin technology, is leading to large-scale investments by some of the major payments players. And, from 2018 the PSD II will allow non-bank providers to initiate online payments.

All these developments will have major impacts on:

• more coherent, connected, real-time infrastructures;
• what ‘money’ looks like: cash v. electronic payments v. digital currency;
• using data to provide more innovative, customer-focussed services;
• the role of incumbent banks v innovators;
• government’s role: payment collection and benefit distribution.

To thrash out the implications and the possibilities of all this, techUK has invited a panel of experts from different industry fields to present their views on what all these developments will mean for the consumer, the small business and the incumbent players.

• Carlos Sanchez, CEO of Ipagoo and Chair of the Horizon Scanning Group of the Payments Strategy Forum
• Nick Davies, Richer Data Strategy Lead, Department of Work and Pensions
• Simon Taylor, Co-Founder / Director of Blockchain at 11:FS (tbc)
• Tim Jones, CEO Tibado

This event is open to techUK members and all interested stakeholders. The workshop discussion will be followed by networking drinks.

If you would like to attend this event, please get in touch with james.lee@techuk.org

The Business France IoT Crunch will be the first of its kind in London to bring together the most innovative French IoT companies and key British players on the same day in one single place.

The event will take place at the Rembrandt Hotel, South Kensington on Thursday 13th October 2016.

Key themes of the day include smart cities, security, connectivity and large accounts segments.

The programme includes panel debates with representatives from Telefonica, Vodafone, TfL, the GSMA, Arqiva and Oberthur, among others. As well an afternoon of B2B meetings between the participating French companies and potential UK partners and clients.

Further details of the event can be found online.

The Ministry of Justice has announced the appointment of Susan Acland-Hood as the new Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. She is currently Director of Enterprise and Growth at HM Treasury, where she is responsible for policies on productivity, growth, business, infrastructure, exports, competition and markets, and for energy and transport spending.

Previously she spent 2 years as Director of Education Funding at the Department for Education, overseeing the comprehensive reform of the capital programme. Susan has also worked extensively on home affairs and justice policy, both at No10 and in the Home Office. Susan takes up her new post on 21 November. Kevin Sadler will remain as interim chief executive until then.

One of the new Chief Executive's most pressing priorities will be delivering the Courts Reform Programme, which the Lord Chancellor restated the Government's commitment to in their new vision for a digitally transformed justice system.

techUK's Programme Manager for Justice & Emergency Services, Henry Rex, welcomed the appointment, saying

"Industry will welcome the announcement that a Chief Executive of HMCTS will shortly be in place, and will be pleased that the post has gone to someone of Susan's experience. Her track record of successfully delivering projects will instil confidence in those with a stake in the ambitious Courts Reform Programme. Early and meaningful industry engagement must be a cornerstone of this programme if it is to be successful. techUK looks forward to working with Susan and her team in the coming months to ensure that industry suppliers have clear view of the Reform Programme and can provide input into the procurement process."

{bio}henry.rex@techuk.org{/bio}

This event was held on 26 Sept 2016 at techUK's offices. It introduced several biometric technologies to an audience of industry and law enforcement officials, and explored their differences and various uses. The event covered the concept of security through identity and explained current concerns and developments. With security the single most important topic in computing, senior managers, whether IT or General management should understand how identity is at the core of any secure digital environment, on or offline. The talks showed how weak identity compromises even the most securely encrypted system.

Attendees were shown through some of the current options for Biometric identity how the systems work, how they are used, what’s behind the systems and where they can be applied: Paul Stanborough (Aditech) described iris recognition technology, and then Ian Gledhill (Physical Tracking Systems Ltd) covered fingerprint recognition, before Stephen Savage (Nuance Communications) talked us through voice recognition. After a short break Mark Hoole (Wacom Inc.) explained BioSignature technology, and then Paco Garcia (Yoti Ltd) covered facial recognition and authentication.

The talks were followed by a stimulating panel discussion and questions from the audience. techUK members can download the slidedeck from the event below. 

{bio}henry.rex@techuk.org{/bio}

Putting tech companies at the forefront in terms of product innovation, marketing and valuation

Two authors of this year’s hottest new business book, Play Bigger, come to techUK on the 16 of November. They will meet with a select group of the UK’s top technology executives for the European launch of the book. 

Please register your interest for the event here. 

We think you should be there. Here’s why:

• The core principle, a new way of conceiving, building and marketing world-class tech companies, is ‘Category Design’. Silicon Valley’s culture of thinking and playing bigger has put its tech companies at the forefront in terms of innovation, marketing and valuation. Category Design is extremely relevant for the post-Brexit UK tech community as UK-based tech players look to become relevant as a world players in tech

• The book features sleeve notes from leading industry figures such as salesforce.com’s CEO, Marc Benniof

• Play Bigger is the essential 'How To’ guide for senior tech marketing executives, written by highly experienced and successful Silicon Valley insiders.

This is the first and only time you’ll be able to meet the Play Bigger team in the UK this year since its book publication by HarperCollins. The event, which will feature a brief author’s overview, an opportunity for Q&A, an expert panel session and the chance to network with peers takes place at techUK on the 16 November 2016.

Not heard of these guys before? Here’s what others have been saying about Play Bigger:

“If you are an entrepreneur who wants success as well as a legacy to be remembered, it’s time to start adopting category design as a key part of your strategy.” - Forbes

“Forget being a unicorn or a platform monopoly - what start-ups need right now is to be a category king.” - Yahoo Finance

“The CMOs of the future will be category designers.” - CMO Council 

The Authors:

Dave Peterson - Play Bigger

Dave Peterson is a co-founding partner with Al Ramadan and Christopher Lochhead at Play Bigger Advisors. He’s a category designer who loves to spend time helping companies define, develop and dominate their market categories. Dave believes that category design and violent execution accelerates the market cap for companies big and small. Dave has spent 20 years helping billion dollar public software companies, tech start-ups, turn-arounds, and fast growth pre-IPO companies produce a mountain of results, growth and market cap.

Dave grew up on an Iowa farm and started his career in a marketing agency. He then sold all of his shit and drove to California's Silicon Valley to try to succeed in business while carrying few expectations that he would. He landed at software company Vantive before he knew much of anything about technology, then learned fast. He founded and killed his own start up, he co-founded strategy consulting firm LOCHHEAD with Christopher Lochhead, served tours of duty as Vice President of Marketing at Mercury Interactive (acquired by HP), was CMO at Aggregate Knowledge (acquired by Neustar), and later was CMO at Coverity (acquired by Synopsys).

Kevin Maney

Kevin Maney is a best-selling author and award-winning columnist. He writes a weekly column about technology and society for Newsweek. Kevin co-authored, with TIBCO CEO Vivek Ranadive, The Two-Second Advantage: How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future…Just Enough. It was a 2011 New York Times bestseller. He co-authored Making the World Work Better, published in 2011 in conjunction with IBM’s centennial. More than 600,000 copies are in print. 

Kevin’s other books include Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t and The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and the Making of IBM, a biography that won critical praise from The New York Times, The Economist and numerous other publications. 

His first book was 1995’s Megamedia Shakeout, one of the earliest books about all media going digital. Kevin has been a contributor to Fortune, The Atlantic, Fast Company and ABC News. He was a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio during its brief run from 2007 to 2009. For 22 years, he was a columnist, editor and reporter at USA Today. Kevin has appeared frequently on television and radio, including CBS Sunday Morning and NPR, and lectures at conferences and universities, including New York University, UNC in Chapel Hill, and his alma mater, Rutgers. 

Expert Panel: 

Dave Peterson, Play Bigger

Kevin Maney, Play Bigger

John Taysom, CEO and Founder, Greenhouse Fund and RVC (originally Reuters Venture Capital)

Elie Kanaan, Executive Vice President, Criteo

Hope you can make it. Please register your interest for the event here.

Additionally, by invitation only, The Play Bigger team is offering the chance to take part in ‘hands on’ workshops with the authors. These workshops will be short, but productive and are designed to get UK tech companies kick-started on their own journey to Category Design and domination. To find out more about the workshops, please click here.

For more information please contact:

techUK is offering members the opportunity to help shape the future relationship with Government IT and tech projects

On 07 September 2016 the new Minister for the Cabinet Office Ben Gummer spoke at techUK in London to announce a two-way commitment, called the Supplier Standard, to build and support collaborative and constructive relationships between Government and the tech industry.

The principles have been published on GOV.UK and have been developed to help level the playing field for tech and IT companies wanting to do business with Government.

These 6 shared principles outline government standards for working together to create good value for everyone in future contracts and, where possible, under renegotiated legacy arrangements.

This workshop is an opportunity for techUK members to provide feedback to the Government Digital Service and Crown Commercial Service on the new Supplier Standard, and help open up Government procurement to companies large and small.

To register your interest please contact Simona Paliulyte.

Today techUK launched ‘Understanding, Demystifying and Addressing the UK’s Big Data Skills Gap’ which identified the eight key job roles and skills needed to implement a big data project, where the current skills gap exists and potential threats to combating the gap. It also makes a number of recommendations relating both to the domestic skills pipeline and the UK’s continued ability to attract some of the best talent from around the world.

Big data and data analytics will be a key pillar to the future of the UK’s Digital Economy. The big data revolution is expected to add £241 billion to UK GDP by 2020 as well as creating 157,000 additional jobs.

However, could all that be at risk? For the UK to turn potential into reality we need individuals with the skills and talent to design and implement big data and data analytics strategies. With the UK losing £2 billion from unfilled digital roles, this problem is not unique to big data and data analytics, but that market is expected to count for the largest proportion of vacancies.

The lack of big data and data analytics skills is putting at risk not just the potential contribution to UK GDP but the wider benefits of these tools and technologies to UK citizens.

It is therefore crucial that serious attempts are made to address the big data skills gap in the UK. To do so, there are some crucial questions we need to ask, and the answers may not be as clear as we thought.

First, what skills are actually required when implementing a big data strategy? The big data supply chain is vast and there are different skills required at different stages of delivering a project. We will never plug the skills gap simply by increasing one specific set of skills.

The UK needs skilled individuals able to build reliable big data platforms, as well as those who are able to identify and import relevant external data sets. Skills are required to bridge the gap between the business problem and the big data solution with an understanding of both, alongside technical analytical skills to use programmes to implement big data solutions. Algorithms need to be designed, trends identified and correlations investigated. Talent in relaying insights provided by data in an intelligible way to non-data experts is required, and someone needs to be in control of the overall strategy.

These are just a few of the skills required across the big data supply chain, highlighting the complex nature of the UK’s big data skills gap.

This leads us to the second key question. Where is gap in the UK’s Big Data skills? Which skills are missing and which do we actually have enough of? Is there a particular area where the UK lacks skilled individuals more than others? It seems to be frequently cited that the UK lacks data scientists, but is that the whole picture? Data scientists alone do not deliver entire Big Data strategies, there are others involved.

Before Government, industry and academia can take specific action to protect our current big data talent and develop a future talent pipeline, we must fully understand what skills are needed and where gaps exist.

To ensure this happens the techUK paper makes key recommendations to ensure the UK has the skills required to benefit from the big data revolution today and well into the future:

• Data Analysts, Data Infrastructure Engineers and Solution Architects should feature prominently on any future Government preferred shortage occupation list, joining Data Scientists.
• The UK’s existing tech workforce should be upskilled
• The Department for Education must work to ensure there is more uptake of higher-level apprenticeships from a younger age with the forthcoming Apprenticeship Levy.
• Programming and Analytics should be introduced earlier in the school curriculum.
• Promote the value & importance of Big Data and Data Analytics to the UK’s economy and society in order to inspire future industry leaders.

The UK’s big data future is bright. To ensure it remains so, it is important that we have the talent required to support the delivery of the big data revolution.

For more information on our Big Data Skills work please contact:
{bio}jeremy.lilley@techuk.org{/bio} 

On 17 October techUK will be hosting the sixth MOD Information System and Services (ISS) Industry Engagement Day.

0930: Registration

1000- 1245: Industry Engagement Day (information below subject to change)

1245: Networking Lunch

Location: techUK, 10 St Bride Street, London

Outline Agenda

The morning will commence with a welcome from Martin Elliot, ISS Director Service Design, MOD. Martin Elliot has only recently joined the ISS team from BT where he was the Director of Transformation for their IT function. He will be opening the Industry Engagement Day by discussing his Vision for Design. 

Following Elliot, we will receive an update on the Defence Innovation Initiative from Will Jessett, Director for Strategic Planning, MOD Head Office. He will be looking at Target Research for IRIS and how the Accelerator has progressed. Will Jessett led MOD's work on the 2015 SDSR and revision of the the National Security Strategy. He was part of the team who launched the Innovation Initiative On Friday 16 September with the Secretary of State, Michael Fallon. 

Attendees will then receive three briefings New Style of IT (Defence), Morpheus and DHFCS (Defence HF Communications Service) from the respective Programme Manager for each. 

The morning will come to a close at 1245 for Networking over a light lunch. 

Registration is now open.

{bio}stephanie.searle@techuk.org{/bio}

techUK is proud to partner with Innovation Point, Wales’ new innovation agency, on their event at 4.30pm on 13 October, to show case seven of Wales' finest tech startups at the Digital Catapult Centre on Euston Road. They will be meeting with potential investors and partners and pitching for private funding.

Wales, home of gocompare.com and moneysupermarket.com has a fast-growing community of exciting innovators who are putting Wales on the digital map. The Digital Dozen are a group of 12 Welsh SMEs who have been chosen by a panel of industry insiders as companies with the most promising digital products in Wales in 2016.

To find out more about the 'Digital Dozen' check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W2sSDBg_yE

or click here to read the Tech City blog giving the low-down on them: http://www.techcityuk.com/blog/2016/08/welsh-startups/

These companies are being backed by Innovation Point. Innovation Point works in much the same way as Tech City and Tech North to drive technology investment into Wales.

To register please go to the eventbrite link or contact katrina.manuel@innovationpoint.uk.

“We spend considerable time, effort and energy gathering and logging data and information, filling boxes in a spreadsheet which tell us the answer is 42. But we don’t know what this means or what to do about it.”

At our HR group meeting on 29 September, our speakers, Kathryn Dooks, Partner at Kemp Little LLP and Kate Harper of Capita, explained SWP in the most practical and jargon-free terms. Starting with the origins of workforce planning, they have explained how a number of the challenges you may be facing can be overcome by targeted, practical action.

To download a copy of the slides please click on the link below.

Just in case you lost track of what we have been doing or have struggled to keep pace with emails and events, a summary of quarter three activity is available.

Contacts
Further information and relevant documents available from emma.fryer@techuk.org

Or visit the website: http://www.techuk.org/focus/programmes/data-centres

The Prime Minister will invoke Article 50 by March 2017 meaning Britain will exit the EU by mid-2019, if all goes to plan. The Information Commissioner warns about the impact of a "data Brexit" and the Chancellor announces support for commercialising disruptive tech. In Brussels, the Parliament’s chief negotiator restates there will be no preparatory Brexit talks. It's been a bumper week in tech policy so get your update below.

You can sign up here for future editions of the Policy Pulse direct to your inbox.

Top Tech Policy News

Article 50 to be triggered by end of March 2017 (FT £)
Prime Minister signals hard Brexit, greater government intervention and flags tech as strategic sector as she sets out vision for Britain.

Information Commissioner: UK must avoid data protection Brexit (BBC)
Elizabeth Denham says failure to meet European data protection standards would be devastating for UK businesses.

Business reacts strongly to restrictions on hiring overseas talent (Politics Home)
techUK says tougher restrictions would have chilling effect on tech growth as business groups raise alarm over Home Secretary’s proposals.

techUK says rise in broadband rates "a speeding fine for the internet economy" (FT £)
Quadrupling of broadband rates will prevent investment and drive up consumer costs says techUK CEO.

Chancellor announces £220m for cutting edge technologies (GOV.UK)
Strategic investment in bringing disruptive innovation to market shows Treasury backs tech for future growth.

techUK Action & Reaction

techUK backs Information Commissioner’s defence of data flows (techUK)
Policy Director Charlotte Holloway says data and trade go hand in hand, stressing the importance of Elizabeth Denham’s intervention.

Government must not choke off access to international talent (techUK)
Home Secretary’s proposals will hamper UK’s most dynamic growth sector says techUK.

Chancellor’s support for disruptive tech shows strategic thinking (techUK)
Innovation is lifeblood of modern economies but UK needs to up its game in commercialisation says techUK.

Increased broadband charges will chill investment in infrastructure (techUK)
Disproportionate rates increase not the answer to increased investment in broadband infrastructure, says techUK CEO.

Free digital skills training welcome but doesn't tackle the skills gap (techUK)
Boosting digital inclusion is vital but UK needs advanced digital skills says Deputy CEO Antony Walker.

Brexit & Brussels Bulletin

EU Parliament’s chief negotiator rules out advance talks (Guardian)
Guy Verhofstadt adds his voice to other EU institutions rejecting Theresa May’s call for 'preparatory work' before triggering article 50.

New manifesto to kickstart Europe's scaleups (techUK)
Mobilising capital, accessing talent and driving innovation among six key themes to drive digital growth in Europe.

EU Competition Commissioner says EU may review data rich M&A deals (Reuters)
Vestager concerned that EU is not properly considering value of data in acquisitions.

Lord Hague's goldilocks Brexit solution (Telegraph)
Speed up negotiations, bring in work permits for EU nationals and quit fixation on hard or soft Brexit says former Foreign Secretary.

More News and Comments

Government to make basic digital skills training free for adults (GOV.UK)

Two thirds support some free movement after Brexit (The Times)

CMA launches study into digital comparison tools (GOV.UK)

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Upcoming Events - View full events calendar

Oct 27 - 11th Annual Parliament & Internet Conference

Nov 09 - Supercharging the Digital Economy Conference

Nov 10 - Digital Devolution: Powering Growth (Manchester)

Nov 17 - 2016 UK Internet Governance Forum - Brexit: What next for UK internet Policy

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{bio}tom.morrison-bell@techuk.org{/bio}