Chris Dymond

(This edition’s write up is split into two separate posts in order to get around Tumblr’s 5 embedded videos per post limit - we had a lot of talks at this one :)

The December 2017 edition of the SmartSheffield meetup was probably our biggest to date, with tickets selling out over a week before the event, people on the waitlist and 8 speakers. We nearly finished all the pizza this time!! (Thanks Arup as ever for laying on such a generous spread :)

The talks were definitely shorter and more succinct this time, but with so much to get through it was still a squeeze to be finished by 9pm. We’ll continue to tweak and improve, but it’s also a measure of how much activity there now is going on across the city, and the popularity of our event, that there is more and more content to get through. And some of the topics cannot be covered in just a few minutes, so it’s all good.

I’ve had to split up this edition’s write up as the number of talk videos this month break Tumblr’s “5 embedded videos per post” limit. Please see part one for background info about the event, an update from the Things Network Sheffield meeting and talks from Ben Atha, Stephen Elliott, Jonny Douglas and Fabio Ciravegana.

Here are the remaining four talks, followed by some thoughts about the year and looking ahead to 2018.

The September SmartSheffield meetup was held on Monday the 11th September, and was the sixth(!) meetup of the ‘modern era’, i.e. since Arup came on board as hosts and sponsors last October. 

It’s probably time to take stock of what we’ve done so far and where we’d like to go next, but frankly we’ve little time for such naval gazing! Suffice to say that Matt and I always review each event afterwards, and our feeling is that the event is growing and becoming more significant to Sheffield’s emerging digital strategy (more about which later in this recap), that it’s attracting people from more diverse organisations, and has a good balance of technologists, business people and policy makers. One thing we would like is to convert all this interest and activity into more bids for project funding, so we’re thinking of hosting bid workshops in between the main by-monthly meetups. Please let us know if you think this would be a good idea!

On Monday the 3rd July, we once again gathered at Arup’s cafe and presentation area at the top of 3 St Paul’s Place, to meet, chat and hear about developments in the local smart city ‘scene’. Thanks everyone for coming, once again it was a sell out and the event keeps getting bigger and better thanks to you. The next event will likely be on Monday the 11th September - sign up to the mailing list and/or watch social media to find out when it’s confirmed.

Below are are the highlights and videos from our excellent speakers. And as always, the videos, presentations and other supporting documents are available in Trello, where you can also comment in detail on the topics.

A bit belatedly as Easter intervened, here is the summary of the April SmartSheffield event, that was held on the Monday the 3rd at Sheffield Hallam University’s Cantor Building, in conjunction with Barclays Eagle Lab Live.

Thanks everyone for coming, and we’ll hopefully see you at the next event which will most likely be on Monday the 5th June.

The February edition of the SmartSheffield meetup was held on Monday the 6th Feb, and despite the freezing cold and rain we were graced with a record turnout. So thanks everyone who came along!

Here are my notes from the talks and conversations:

The December edition of SmartSheffield was held on Monday the 5th December, and featured talks, news updates and interesting discussions, along with excellent pizza and beers, of course, courtesy of Arup.

We held the first of our revamped SmartSheffield meetups, very kindly supported by Arup in their gorgeous cafe, breakout, kitchen and presentation space at the top of the 3 St Paul’s building - it’s a perfect space for a meetup, and the pizza from Piccolino’s and drinks were top notch as well. Thanks so much to Matt Proctor, and everyone at Arup!

Below are my notes on the main topics that were discussed in the ‘open space’ sessions, but before I launch into that, I’ve got a couple of housekeeping things to talk about first.

We originally decided on the ‘last Friday of the month’ slot because we envisaged the event mainly as an after-work social, and that slot didn’t clash with any of the other major tech meetups in the city. However, as we found out on Friday, it’s not ideal for the kind of event SmartSheffield now is - a lot of people couldn’t make it because it was a Friday evening, especially during half-term. So we’re going to review this in the next week or so, and work out a new regular time of the month.

Also, we’re going to keep tweaking the format as we go forward, especially around how we introduce everyone to each other and how we run the open space session before the food arrives. I’ll post some ideas around this in due course.

Meanwhile, never mind the Minestrone, let’s get to the main course of this post…

The term ‘General Purpose Technology’ (or GPT for short) is used to describe a technology, or related set of technologies, that “affect an entire economy (usually at a national or global level)”, and have the potential to “drastically alter societies through their impact on pre-existing economic and social structures”.

As a technology strategist and as a director of Sheffield Digital, I often get asked about the role ‘digital’ will play in the future - what it will mean for our lives and prosperity, how it will affect our children, will there be enough jobs for everyone or will everything be automated, what should we be doing to help, etc. Especially since the EU referendum it seems people are more concerned - understandably worried about their economic and social futures. Perhaps this increased sense of insecurity is leading them to think about the future more and getting them engaged. If so, this is a good thing. These are important topics to think about and discuss. As Rahm Emanuel once suggested, it would be remiss of us to let a good crisis go to waste.