Scotland’s leading executives gathered in St Andrews for a day of talks, discussion and networking on the many ways businesses and organisations are collaborating to deliver tangible change for citizens.
The need to harness the power of technology through innovation and entrepreneurship to improve our everyday lives is more vital than ever – especially as the current cost of living crisis continues to bite.
That was the underlying theme of CGI’s flagship annual event at St Andrews. The primary IT provider to Scottish local authorities and private businesses in Scotland played host at the Old Course Hotel to more than 100 senior executives and officials for a day of inspirational discussion and presentations as well as exchanging ideas.
The aim of the event was to showcase the many ways that businesses and organisations are ‘thinking outside the box’ to collaborate in order to deliver tangible change for citizens and customers.
Host Lindsay McGranaghan, CGI Senior Vice President Scotland and Northern Ireland, welcomed guests – including representatives from diverse businesses and organisations such as the Wood Group, Dell and Apple as well as the NHS, VisitScotland and a host of local authorities,
Event compere John Morrison, former BBC News Correspondent and now managing director of PR and communications company Morrison Media, introduced a packed agenda, with keynote speeches on new solutions to sustainability, digitally empowered patient healthcare solutions, space, and using emerging tech to empower people and organisations.
Here is a highlight on the best speakers and the topics they covered:
Sustainability
Mattie Yeta, CGI’s chief sustainability officer and former head of sustainability for Defra IT/UK Government, focused first on sustainability solutions. These not only revolved around the climate emergency we all face, but also the need to have sustainability at the heart of the continuing drive from analogue to digital.
She gave examples of the need to curb the ways that tech was adding to the climate crisis including data centres, electronic waste and ‘data landfill’ – where organisations are not using more than 60% of their data.
Mattie also provided examples of how CGI is leading the way. Its data centres meet the Green Grid Data Centre efficiency standard, and it is collaborating with other organisations both in Scotland and around the world.
One exciting research programme is SEEDS (Sustainability Exploration Environmental Data Sciences), supported by the United Nations. CGI has partnered with the world of academia to focus on how technology, research and innovation can create positive environmental and social change, and foster access to technological sustainability solutions.
CGI has also partnered with charity Project Seagrass to develop a seagrass identification algorithm to locate, quantify and boost seagrass meadows, a vital carbon sink capable of absorbing around 10% of the UK’s Co2 emissions.
Healthcare
Allister Short, Service Director Women’s and Children’s Services for NHS Lothian, spoke about how innovative technology is being used in the health service to improve outcomes for patients and provide better support for families.
He outlined the success of vCreate, a multi-award winning, completely secure video messaging service from staff to parents, so they can monitor the progress of their children in neonatal units. Used by more than 150 units worldwide, he told how around 500 Lothian families have now participated in an NHS Scotland trial for vCreate Neuro, using the technology to assess the risk of any adverse neurological outcomes.
This means a follow-up team can start early intervention to make sure babies have the best possible long term outcome, and was welcomed by paediatric clinicians themselves, with more 90% finding it useful in making an early diagnosis.
Space
Dr Hina Khan, Executive Director of Space Scotland, told the St Andrews audience how collaboration is key to sowing the seeds of a space industry which by 2030 could contribute more than £4bn to the nation’s economy each year, create quality jobs and become a leader in Europe for commercial space developments.
This would come through creating an industry that provides the capacity to design, develop and prototype small satellites, manufacture launch vehicles, provide the spaceport sites to launch the satellites, and build a space ecosystem to grow the space market in Scotland.
Part of this process would also involve collaboration to create a Space Sustainability Roadmap, the first of its kind in the world. Space Scotland’s Environmental Taskforce and partners aim to follow best international practice to use space for Earth, improving life on the planet and bringing new insights to businesses – from land management to crop yield forecasting, monitoring deforestation and measuring natural assets.
Council Innovation
Clelland Sneddon, chief executive of South Lanarkshire Council and chair of SOLACE Scotland, outlined how local authorities are dispelling the myths that their service delivery is stagnating in the face of extreme challenges on funding and the cost of living crisis.
Councils can achieve this by developing closer relationships with their communities and partner agencies, as well as targeting resources more effectively. They can also collaborate more to harness the full benefits of technologies, not just through the prism of efficiencies.
He highlighted around 50 collaborations with the private sector which are fantastic examples of service redesign and innovation, outlining what the future will look like for towns and cities and what is being done to preserve that.
One such example is of collaboration is the Carnwath Community and Business and Enterprise Hub project which aims to support economic and social regeneration through the development of business facilities, accessible training and learning facilities. A £275,000 award from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund is making that a reality.
He also pointed to town regeneration, by recognising towns as a national asset that need to adapt positively to long-term economic, environmental and societal changes. This can be done by collaborations on town centre living and repopulating them, while also providing a range of different transport modes and access to goods, services and recreational activities.
Lindsay McGranaghan, said: “The event was a hugely successful day and many thanks to all our speakers. We had breakout sessions running where a whole range of organisations, from across the private and public sectors, spoke about the innovative ways in which they are delivering for clients.
“Among them were Scottish Borders Council, who in partnership with us as their main IT provider, have transformed the delivery of social care through field service management technology created by Totalmobile.
“We hope that the day provides huge momentum for those seeking to collaborate to innovate throughout Scotland.”
