Thursday 15th September saw the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce’s Talking Tech event return with over 50 business professionals in attendance. Once again hosted at The Space, Norwich, we were happy to welcome 13 speakers, each with unique insights and experience, across three panels covering Everyday Tech, Green Tech and Innovation Tech. Co-hosted by Tim Robinson (COO at Tech East) and Nova Fairbank (CEO at the Chambers), the event began with the Green Tech Panel, addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the business community at the moment. One key topic was the journey to net zero; Julie Furnell (Mobilityways) highlighted that many companies would like to begin their journey but ‘are just unclear on where to start’, a point echoed by many others. Simon Girdlestone (Solinatra) focused on costs and how these could be ‘passed through to the consumer and small business’ by investing in products which ‘[use] less energy to produce’, a key factor in making businesses greener and also easing hardship during the current cost of living crisis. Chris Spinks (Westcotec) spoke about the mission to make green and sustainable products safer and therefore more accepted – they ‘encourage people to cycle to work…because we can provide warning systems to make it safer so use their cycles’. Following this, we heard from our Everyday Tech panel about how advances in tech have allowed advances in business practices, from the needs of those working from home such as access to faster internet connections, as well as the continuing drive to introduce more diversity to the tech world. Clifford Norton (BT Local Business) said it was ‘all about speed nowadays’ and made the point that access to fast internet can help ‘make companies perform better’. James Fowler (Uptech) agreed, adding that ‘There’s a need to build in the infrastructure into a business’ otherwise ‘You lose productivity, which ultimately means you lose money, by people having to wait for things’. Andy Skinner (Norfolk County Council) touched on another key point, saying ‘Education is critical’ for businesses and that they need to ask their customers ‘What do they want?’ in order to avoid a disconnect between their business practices and customer demand. As our work becomes more and more technologically focused, it is also important, said Darren Chapman (CyberScale), as ‘the risks and threats evolve constantly’ and although ‘there’s an awareness of the risk and that something needs to be done’ many businesses ‘don’t always know exactly what that is’. By increasing knowledge about cyber security, businesses can ensure that they keep pace with technology in a way that remains safe and reassures their customers. After a break for lunch, we returned to the main auditorium for our third and final panel on Innovation Tech. As a sector that is constantly pushing for the next advancement, innovation is key to success. We were pleased to welcome Imogen Shipperlee (Hethel Innovation) who questioned whether the focus is too often on ‘coming up with a fancy looking product’ when asked to innovate. James Adams (Tech Educators) added that we need to ask ‘how are we making something that’s solving the needs of tomorrow’ in order to take advantage of the market available. Dominic Mitchell (UEA) expanded on a question raised earlier, that of recruitment; ‘we want to deliver graduates that you want to employ… Big challenges we have are attracting people into the engineering sector’. Hayley Johnson (Artlist) offered one possible explanation by adding ‘the demands of the next generation has jumped hugely’ particularly in the creative industry. Mark Stringer (Lotus) summed the mood of the panel by saying ‘By collaborating we can take innovation in different directions’ A big thank you to our event partner Tech East and our sponsor BT Local Business; without their support events like Talking Tech would not be possible. Thank you also to those businesses who exhibited at the event; Orange Heating Supplies, BT Local Business Norfolk & Suffolk, Upp, Beacon IT, Uptech, Eastern Voice & Data and 101 Websites, Apps & Email Marketing. We would also like to thank everyone who attended; we look forward to seeing you again at Talking Tech in 2023!
