How do we harness digital innovation in Northamptonshire?

We know there are amazing things happening in Northamptonshire. We know there are individuals and businesses achieving digital innovation throughout our county.

Northamptonshire has not yet gained a national or global reputation for the work taking place here.

We want to change that.

Digital Northampton is an independent collaboration between the University of Northampton, the digital team at Northamptonshire County Council and local digital businesses. We are aiming to support digital innovation in and around Northampton.

A quest for identity

Northamptonshire has always struggled for identity. Our county is known as the rose of the shires, the county of squires and spires and the traditional home of the boot and shoe industry.

Yet Northamptonshire has never fitted into a wider geographical category. Northampton has a direct rail link to the West Midlands, its rugby team competes in the East Midlands derby and the BBC covers news from the town on its East Anglian regional programme, yet it’s not a central part of any of these regions. Northampton’s main selling point has often been how easily you can get to other places. We can change this.

Our opportunity

Emerging technologies have presented Northamptonshire with an opportunity and it’s up to us to grasp it. As a county, we have experts in these technologies - Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics.

It’s up to us to share this knowledge so businesses and communities can harness these technologies to benefit the whole county.

We have an opportunity to establish Northamptonshire as a centre for digital innovation, and help to give it a new identity.

So how are we aiming to do this?

Connect. Collaborate. Grow.

We are organising a series of events to share our experts’ insight into emerging technologies. These events will be free - we don’t want to put barriers in the way of knowledge.

Our first event on Friday 8 March will look at how the Internet of Things can benefit wellbeing in the workplace.

In the future, we will look at how technologies such as AI, AR and VR can and will be used in different ways to improve quality of life.

We are building up to our main event on Friday 14 June. We will be releasing further details about that very soon.

Don’t forget you can also follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn. The more we share and grow our network of Northamptonshire’s digital talent, the better for everyone.