Digital Northampton initiative goes from strength to strength
With a full programme of Early Bird presentations now lined up well into 2020, and valuable connections being made between individuals looking to enhance their business through digital transformation, the Digital Northampton initiative is starting to deliver a range of tangible results for the local digital economy.
Joining the digital dots
Interest in Digital Northampton is growing all of the time, and the team are committed to meeting as many interested individuals as possible.
Our recent tour around Barclays’ Fintech hub in Brackmills highlighted the quality of digital innovation already taking place at the highest level right on our doorstep. We’re looking forward to working with them in the future and to promoting the opportunities that they are bringing to Northampton.
Developing digital career pathways
The Digital Northampton team has also been talking to schools about setting up competitions to promote digital innovation. With the support and sponsorship of XPO Logistics who are committed to integrating emerging technology throughout their business, we are hoping to set out details for the forthcoming school year.
We have also secured funding to create a series of short films with individuals in Northampton working in the tech industry to talk about their role, skills and pathways into their current jobs. The aim is to share this content with career advisors who will distribute it to their students as a way of informing and inspiring them to start a career in the digital sector.
Building the Digital Northampton reputation
As well as actively networking within the county, the Digital Northampton team has also reached out to Tech Nation, a national network for digital innovators. They offer nationwide support to tech entrepreneurs to grow faster through sharing knowledge and building connections, and with Digital Northampton now firmly on their radar, we plan to make sure that the great work that our digital businesses are doing gets the national recognition it deserves. Alongside this, we are also in the early stages of developing an online directory of digital businesses to showcase the size and breadth of the digital economy in Northampton.
To help spread the Digital Northampton message far and wide, we are continuing to build our social media presence, particularly on Twitter and LinkedIn, so please do follow us to see what is happening in the tech sector across the county.
There are ongoing conversations with a number of partners around the creation of a digital hub in Northampton and we hope to be able to provide further details as soon as we are able to.
An active digital community
As already mentioned, we have a full programme of Early Bird events now lined up until March 2020 and they are a great opportunity to share knowledge and network with our growing digital community in Northampton.
As with all of our Early Birds, the latest event entitled ‘The Death of Social Media’ was well attended, with Ken Punter from Oppidium providing an incredibly insightful take on how brands will need to adapt to a rapidly changing social media landscape.
Please check our events page for booking details, and if you would like to present at an Early Bird then please get in contact.
Merged Futures 2020
And finally, after the amazing success of our inaugural Merged Futures event back in June, plans for Merged Futures 2020 are already underway. The event is pencilled in for June 2020 and will be held at the University of Northampton where we will aim to recreate all of the positives from this year’s event and build on the success to make it an even more impressive showcase of the Northamptonshire tech industry.
The feedback from across the industry about the Digital Northampton initiative has been overwhelmingly positive and, with your support, we hope to continue to unlock the immense digital potential of Northamptonshire.