Events

Last night, Harvey Nash were delighted to attend the Digital Skills Feast as part of Manchester Digital’s Festival, which was sponsored and co-hosted by Slalom. The evening event hosted at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester city centre, invited tech leaders, key decision makers and education partners to celebrate and discuss the region’s tech landscape. Katie Gallagher OBE, Managing Director of Manchester Digital welcomed everyone and reflected on the Manchester Digital Festival as a whole. This was then followed by Councillor Nick Peel, leader of Bolton Council and portfolio holder for digital and tech for GMCA. He gave a speech celebrating the region’s success and focus on digital innovation and education highlighting AI growth and high graduate retention for those studying computer science. Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, the Parliamentary Undersecretary for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, shared a video message for the event. The speech emphasised Manchester's role as a tech hub and the government's commitment to fostering tech ecosystems across the UK. It highlighted the importance of digital skills, the creation of Skills England, and reforms to apprenticeship programs to support the tech sector. Tech leader panel David Savage, Technology Evangelist and host of our podcast Tech Talks then hosted a panel discussion. The panel included; Caroline Grant, Managing Director at Slalom Manchester; Rob Sugden, Managing Director, ECOM, our Sector Insights Partner and Alison Ross, Chief People and Operations Officer at Auto Trader. The panel discussed some of the key challenges facing digital leaders currently including: economic uncertainty; regulatory hurdles; funding constraints; infrastructure limitations and talent shortage. We recorded this brilliant discussion as a Tech Talks podcast episode which you can listen to here. David Savage, who hosted the panel commented ‘Manchester is a vibrant hub for business and technology, with strong, passionate local leadership. One message was clear from our panel; we are living through a period of instability that makes business challenging. With that in mind, it is clear that Manchester can be a model for regional growth across the UK to ensure fragile confidence does not evaporate.’ Overall, we were thrilled to be part of Manchester Digital Skills Feast which concluded an excellent week of events as part of the festival. We’d like to thank Manchester Digital for organising the festival week and Slalom for sponsoring this specific event. Panel L-R: David Savage, Caroline Grant, Alison Ross MBE and Rob Sugden. Manchester Digital Manchester Digital is the driving force behind Greater Manchester's thriving tech and digital sector.As a dynamic membership organisation, we unite a powerful community of over 400 members - including large corporations, innovative SMEs, cutting-edge startups, freelancers and leading agencies across all tech verticals. Find more about Manchester Digital here.

Last week Harvey Nash and Nash Tech had the pleasure of hosting 30 digital and technology leaders from across the Midlands at the Bank restaurant in central Birmingham. It was the first leadership dinner of 2025 and the evening didn’t disappoint. Upon arrival the attendees spent an hour networking, catching up with old friends and making new acquaintances. Our guests came from a variety of backgrounds and industries, some working for globally recognised corporate brands, others employed by mid-size organisations and start up enterprises. However, similar challenges effect all delegates including driving successful digital transformations, the ongoing need for strong cyber credentials as well as maximising a company’s data to deliver business and customer value return. Once seated we enjoyed a lovely meal with breaks for keynote speeches. The first was from Bridgette Bigmore, the CTO for the UK Telecoms Lab at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Bridgette delivered fascinating insight into the organisation with it being recognised as a world leading centre of excellence in telecoms security. We learnt that they provide best in class test and evaluation capabilities to safeguard the UKs critical national telecoms infrastructure from external threats. Later Jon Woodforth, CTO from Totalmobile talked about their AI focused Unified Data Platform which powers their business and supports the work and lives of over 500,000 field-based workers. Both talks were very well received and were the catalyst for further debate as we enjoyed our main courses and deserts. The evening was a great success, with all the digital and technology leaders sharing valuable ideas, challenging one another’s thinking and having peers who understood many of the challenges they’re facing in today’s market. If you’re interested in finding out more about our events, please reach out to our team here. And to find out more about our services at Harvey Nash, please contact our teamhere. About the author: Peter Birch Peter is a Director with over 20 years of experience specialising in hiring C-suite level individuals across the globe. Working across various companies, Peter’s experience extends from large corporations through to start-up enterprises. If you’re interested in speaking with Peter, please get in touch at peter.birch@harveynash.com.

What do digital leaders think of the current technology landscape? On the 28th of November we hosted our 25th annual Digital Leadership Report dinner at the Scotsman Hotel, which gathered digital leaders from across Edinburgh to discuss the key topics shaping the technology sector. The evening was enlightening, with insights from a cross section of Technology organisations across financial services, public and private sectors, all from corporate scale to SME and start-ups. Our diverse guests provided a truly varied range of opinions and experiences on the current state of the technology industry, allowing us to consider many different perspectives on some of the biggest questions currently in the industry. AI adoption One of the most fascinating discussions of the evening was regarding the adoption of AI within the workplace and the vast differences in utilisation between the smaller technology companies and the larger corporate environments. Interestingly enough, many of the leaders in the room perceived a need for a ‘Chief AI Officer’ type role, as organisation's grapple with the governance of the pace of change within this realm. We are beginning to see a trend towards appointment of, at the very least, AI “SME’s” with one client already committing to an AI board, overseeing best practice, areas of application and hypothetical integration in future. Turning our focus to NetZero One area that stood out as needing attention, is sustainability. According to our Digital Leadership Report, a staggering 58% of tech companies currently have no plans for achieving Net Zero. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the sector to innovate and lead in environmental responsibility. Thinking towards the future As we head into the new year, leaders are beginning to plan towards 2025, and discussions around the dinner table revealed that a quarter oforganisations in Scotland are engaged in large-scale projects involving AI, data, and the Metaverse. This revelation is a clear indication of the forward-thinking approach many digital leaders and organisations are adopting, to position themselves in the most efficient way to manage emerging, cutting-edge technological advancements.It should come as no surprise that a notable discussion point throughout the evening was the role of AI in the workforce. Tech leaders in Edinburgh support the sentiment that AI is not replacing jobs but rather supporting and enhancing organisational operations. This positive perspective is further evidenced by the emergence of AI boards and the role of the Chief AI Officer within companies. Summary The evening provided all those who attended with the opportunity to connect with like-minded digital leaders across Edinburgh and explore the largest topics affecting the tech industry. Thank you to everyone that joined us and to our Harvey Nash team who supported in bringing this group together. It was truly fabulous to connect, network, and have insightful discussions with such a dynamic group of individuals. If you’re interested in finding out more about the evening, please reach out to our Director in Scotland, Cameron MacGrain. And to find out more about our services at Harvey Nash, please contact our team here. If you would like to connect with the rest of our Harvey Nash team, you can find more information here: Andy Heyes, Kirsteen Bell, Kevin Robson, Bethany McKenzie and Craig Ross.

What questions are leaders thinking about now where AI and robotics are concerned? Last week Amazon Web Services (AWS) teamed up with Harvey Nash to host over 100 digital leaders to engage in a discussion focused on the frontier of autonomy. As we start to grapple with the impact of AI and robotics it feels more important than ever to dive into the topic with our community. The afternoon was built around a second public screening of Nash Squared’s film ‘A Near Future You're Not Prepared For’ which explores how organisations are preparing for the disruption caused by emerging technology like AI. It highlights the lack of cohesive AI policies and regulation across organisations and governments, which threatens to stifle innovation and put talent at risk. In the film academics and leaders discuss how best to ethically implement AI while supporting their workforce through current technological disruption akin to the industrial revolution, especially given the concerns of job losses to automation. The film provides a nuanced perspective: AI can alleviate humans from dangerous or monotonous work, creating new opportunities in an AI-driven economy. With the scene set we heard from a number of expert voices including Slalom’s Richard Fayers, Niall Robinson from the Met Office, Eddie Seymour of Nvidia, BladeBug’s Chris Cieslak, this year’s most influential woman in tech (Computer Weekly) Suki Fuller and Mike Curtis-Rouse of Catapult. The discussions were hosted by Cheryl Razzell and Jon Hammant, both from AWS. So where does such a broad and knowledgeable group feel we need to spend time really thinking about this technology? The panel explored the potential of AI-powered "smart cities" to improve urban planning, transportation, utilities and more, but also raised challenges around data privacy and equitable access. There was reference to AI guilt and the idea that younger members of teams will use AI tools available to them, but they may also hide the fact that they do because it could be frowned upon. If the right guardrails are in place then there is zero reason to feel any guilt, but addressing that emotion is something leaders need to do to stop adoption happening out of sight and with unintended consequences. It will also compound any efforts made to get the workforce GenAI ready. Data privacy and a particular focus on bias was a recurring theme. How do we address bias present in the data used to train AI models? The need was placed on emphasising diverse data sets and rigorous testing to mitigate discrimination and unintended consequences. One panelist warned that lax data governance might lead to some form of ‘mad cow’ for AI. The panel took time to consider the current state and future advancements of robotics and automation technology, and the potential for societal change. Are we giving enough thought to the ethical questions posed by building technology? Technology used in the development of a wind farm can be used to propel a rocket. Whilst tech is rarely ever developed with bad intentions we are culpable as an industry if we simply fail to engage in the debate. That may be the most pertinent take away. Much of the technology innovation to emerge in the past decade has been narrow in it's application, even if it's unlocked huge benefits (Cloud for example). AI is a tool set that's being applied to so many situations that it's hard to assess its impact. Almost as quickly as we have an understanding of one aspect of the change we face, the picture evolves, and at this point in time debate and community is more important than ever. About the Panel Jon Hammant,Head of Compute for EMEA at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Niall Robinson,Head of Product Futures at Met Office Mike Curtis-Rouse,Head of In-Orbit Servicing & Manufacturing - Satellite Applications at Catapult Eddie Seymour,European Director at NVIDIA Chris Cieslak, Founder and Director at BladeBUG Limited Suki Fuller, Founder | Analytical Storyteller,WINNER 2023 Most Influential Women in UK Technology About the author David Savage is the Group Technology Evangelist for our parent company, Nash Squared. He has a deep understanding of the technology and talent markets and spends his time crafting podcasts, hosting video debates, speaking, moderating conferences, and chairing keynote stages. Since 2017, he has been the editor and host of Tech Talks, a show about leadership and technology currently ranked as one of the most popular podcasts in the world.

We were delighted to host our first ever Harvey Nash Newcastle Data event, ‘Demystifying Data’, led by Consultant, Rachael Whitburn. The event was a huge success and was attended by Data Leaders from all over the North-East. We invited two guest speakers, who presented around several discussion topics for the evening, such as AI, data governance and data literacy. Our first speaker of the evening was Andrew Blance, an Innovation Consultant at a leading North-East based IT consultancy company. He is also a member of the Institute of Data Science at Durham University and holds a PHD in Data Intensive Science. Andrew explored the challenges and opportunities around AI, while highlighting the importance of responsibility and practicality in a data-driven world. He expressed how fully understanding AI today is pivotal, and emphasised the impact AI has on human resources. After Andrew’s speech, we had an interval for guests before our second speaker of the evening. The break allowed time for our guests to enjoy the complimentary food and drinks, and also discuss their thoughts on Andrew’s presentation. Following our break, Kevin Marsden, our second and final guest speaker for the evening, began his presentation. Kevin is an Information Architect at a national housing association based in Newcastle. He is at the forefront of devising their data strategy and provided practical takeaways during his presentation. During his speech, Kevin highlighted the importance of data literacy and data governance. He presented vital skills for navigating the data landscape responsibly and showcased how to properly utilise data and how it can be used effectively within an organisation. Two key takeaways for the evening: The importance of on-going learning across an organisation regarding data literacy and introducing new ways of making this happen. For example creating an academy or game to assist with this. Taking responsibility for how AI impacts sustainability. Overall, our evening at the Supernatural Café was incredible. The gorgeous venue provided an amazing ambience and great food, while our speakers drove many interesting discussions with Data Leaders from across the North-East. We would like to extend our thanks to all who attended the event and we look forward to hosting future discussions. If you are interested in getting involved in any future events, please reach out to the team based in Newcastle or directly with Rachael Whitburn.

Our organisation Nash Squared were delighted to host a pre-launch event of the Digital Leadership Report 2023 at the House of Commons. Attended by over 120 members of parliament, government officials, business and technology leaders the event provided a brilliant opportunity to explore and discuss this years report’s key findings and insights. The event featured speeches from the following; Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, who kindly hosted the event and introduced the report. Bev White, CEO of our organisation Nash Squared, who highlighted the longevity of the report, now it’s in 25th year and the key findings and insights. Bev also commented: “Technology is increasingly affecting everything around us, and as the digital leadership report celebrates its 25th year I am delighted this event drew such a wide and diverse range of influential business leaders and parliamentarians” Paul Scully MP, Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, who referred to the report as ‘very important’ emphasising how every minister should read it. Charlotte Baldwin, CDIO, Costa part of Coca Cola Group, who gave a passionate and inspiring speech on diversity in technology to help inspire the next generation of talent. And who also highlighted the worrying gender diversity figures that this years report has found. Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, shared her extensive experience within the technology sector and the need for us to listen to the report findings. The Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report In its 25th year of publication, the 2023 Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report is the world’s largest and longest running survey of senior technology decision makers. Launched in 1998 and previously called the CIO Survey, it has been an influential and respected indicator of major trends in technology and digital for over two decades. This year a survey of 2,104 technology/digital leaders globally took place between 22nd June 2023 and 18th September 2023, across 86 countries. The event was very well received and we were delighted so many influential individuals could attend and spread the Digital Leadership Report findings. We would like to extend our thanks to all who attended as well as Dame Caroline Dinenage MP for hosting. To view photographs from the event please visit our photo album.

We were delighted to recently host our 2nd Data Alliance Meet-up in Dublin, led by our Data Specialist Consultant, Marina Saric. It was great to bring together a range of Data experts from across Dublin to discuss the dynamic world of data, the event mainly focused on how to improve and enable a more effective data journey using new innovative tools and methods. The attendees discussed interesting topics presented by speakers Hrvoje (Harvey) Smolic, Vaibhav Oberoi, and Unal Erbayraktar. The discussions revolved around Data Maturity and the application of predictive data using AI tools, modern-day Data Migration tools, and Microsoft Fabrics' effectiveness compared to other tools. Hrvoje (Harvey) Smolic opened the event by explaining how AI can contribute to Data Maturity. He emphasised the need to move from the traditional historical data analysis method to a more dynamic method involving predictive data. By applying AI to predict future leads and customer behaviour, businesses can work more efficiently and cost-effectively. This method was well-received by attendees, who asked questions and saw the benefits of working more efficiently for their clients. Vaibhav Oberoi presented on Data Migration using modern-day data tools. He explained that the process can be more effective by applying a clear data journey, starting from raw data and transforming it using ETL methods from Data Lakes to Data Warehouses using Snowflake and how the tool is evolving and providing greater productivity than competitors. Vaibhav gave valuable insights from his career journey and advised participants to "create expectations on the data" to allow more effectiveness in the data journey. Attendees shared their experiences on where an ELT method could be more beneficial than an ETL method and the effective tools for data transformation. Unal Erbayraktar discussed how the new Microsoft Fabrics can be a game-changer compared to older versions of Microsoft products and competitors' tools such as Databricks and Snowflake. Attendees who haven't used the technology were curious about how it compares with traditional and more widely-used tools. The Data experts at the event emphasised the importance of using new technologies to work more efficiently and cost-effectively. They encouraged everyone to explore different methods and tools and experiment to find what works best for them. The discussions made it clear that data professionals are interested in using new technologies to drive efficiencies not only for themselves but also for their clients. We would like to extend our thanks to all who attended the event despite a gloomy Autumn evening allowing us to grow and expand the Data community in Dublin. Also, a massive thanks to our speakers who were informative and engaging. If you are interested in getting involved in any future events in the Data space, please reach out to the team at Harvey Nash Ireland. Find out more about our speakers Hrvoje Smolic is the founder and CEO of Graphite Note a Predictive Analytics, Auto ML, and Data Storytelling Platform. Graphite runs Predictive Analytics algorithms on raw data to provide objective data patterns that humans cannot detect, to increase lead conversion, help optimise marketing spend and reduce customer churn by highlighting characteristics of churn ahead of time. They deliver this in the platform by combining visuals and narrative to share insights so everyone can understand it. Hrvoje gave a talk titled- Navigating the data analytics maturity curve: real-world insights’. Vaibhav Oberoi is a Senior data Engineer at Optum which is a health services and innovation company on a mission to help people live healthier lives and to help make the health system work better for everyone. Optum, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses, is powering modern health care by connecting and serving the whole health system across 150 countries. They combine cutting-edge technology, the world’s largest health care database and vast expertise to improve health care delivery, quality and efficiency. Vaibhav, kindly presented a talk around ‘Data migration- using modern day tools.’ Unal Erbayraktar is a data solution architect at Transact Campus after spending being a SQL / DW / BI Developer at Sun Life Financial and spending over 5 years at the Kerry Group. Unal provided a talk during this event around ‘Microsoft Fabric, is it a game-changer?’. Marina Saric is a Recruitment Consultant within the Data/AI/ML space of Technology Recruitment at Harvey Nash Ireland. Since starting her recruiting career, she has facilitated the job search for many professionals, successfully delivering for diverse roles within the Technology space, from Junior to Director level positions. Her primary focus lies in the Data area, encompassing Data Engineering, Data Science, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.

An invitation from the Department for Education & Nash Squared 14:30-16:30, Monday 16th October 3 Noble Street, London, EC2V 7EE Register here for the event. Nash Squared is excited to announce a new partnership with the Department for Education to support our mission to build the UK’s tech talent pipeline Last year’s annualDigital Leadership Report found 70% of tech leaders feel that a skills shortage prevents them from keeping up with the pace of change; the highest we have seen since we started reporting 24 years ago. The three most desired skillsets within tech are cybersecurity experts, big data analysts, and technical architects, meaning the competition for talent is higher than ever. That is why we are proud to be working with the Department for Education on T Levels – the next level qualification designed to catapult young people into the careers of tomorrow. T Levels are a rigorous further education route that allows young people between the ages of 16 and 19 to specialise in skills such as cyber security and software design through both academic study and on-the-job experience through an industry placement of at least 315 hours – approximately 45 days. The placement is at the heart of each T Level course. For students, it allows them to experience the world of work and put into practice the skills they have developed at school or college. For employers, it gives them early access to the very brightest young talent, helping to fill skills gaps and allowing them to inspire and shape the future of their industry. Nash Squared has been part of an influential group of employers involved in the development of the curriculum for the cyber security T Level pathway, and we are now excited to be taking our relationships with the Department for Education further as we help to build the number of employers offering T Level placements in England. We are therefore delighted to invite you to our official launch event on Monday 16th October from 14:30-16:30 at 3 Noble Street, EC2V 7EE, our City of London headquarters. This event will be an opportunity to hear more about the government’s plans for digital skills, including T Levels, the role you can play as an employer in supporting this, and how engagement in early talent development will help you get ahead of the game when it comes to filling your skills gaps and make you a more attractive and competitive employer. It will also be a chance to network with senior government figures, and high-profile members of London and the South East’s tech economy. The Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, The Rt Hon. Robert Halfon MP, has confirmed his attendance. At a time when our industry is in desperate need of a sustainable solution to the talent shortage, Nash Squared is proud to be partnering with the Department for Education to bring together policy makers and tech employers from across the country to create a solution to this. We hope to see you on 16th October to find out more. Agenda 14:30 Arrival and networking 15:00 Minister of State address 15:15 Panel discussion on T Levels 15:35 Q&A 15:50 Coffee & cakes, networking 16:30 End Register here for the event.