3 events at Leeds Digital Festival that will help you tackle the rest of 2021

Leeds Digital Festival is coming up at the end of September. After a summer of vacations and R&R (if you were lucky) we’re excited at the chance to regroup with a community of ambitious and creative people to discuss some of the tough challenges and exciting ideas that we’ll be engaging with for the rest of this year and into 2022.

While there are lots of great events throughout the festival, we want to draw your attention to the three that AND Digital are running. Each one tackles an important aspect of the tech industry today, and will not only offer some unique insights from members of the AND Digital team, but also provide some practical ideas that can be taken forward, wherever you work.

Creating an exceptional culture in the age of remote working

Remote working has been a massive shift for everyone used to working in an office. And while there are benefits and downsides for individuals, for organisations, it can be particularly difficult to sustain and develop a positive and empowering culture.

That’s something that we’ve had to handle at AND. Indeed, not only have we had to move to a model of working remotely with our colleagues, we’ve also had to find a way to make remote working with our diverse range of clients.

At this event - on the 22nd September between 12:00-13:00 - we’ll be discussing how we managed the move to remote work, and how we’ve found a way to make it work from both a client and recruitment point of view.

Featuring James Locker, Club Exec for our Leeds Club (Murray), Onboarding Manager Emily Darby, Camilla Reece, People Lead for Murray, and Product Owner Gareth Bell, the session will take in all things remote work.

Join us for unique perspectives, practical insights, and a chance to get to know what it’s like to work with and at AND.

Register for free via Eventbrite.

Closing the gender gap in tech: what we can do

The reality of the gender gap in the tech industry is frequently discussed but the solutions and ways forward are harder to come by.

On 22nd September, between 16:00 and 17:30, we’ll be taking a closer look at what specifically can be done to help women in the field. We’ll also spotlight what we do at AND to develop and empower women within the company, and how we’re trying to make it easy for young women and girls to take the first step on the tech career ladder.

Featuring Julie Goodison-Kinder, Chief for Technology in Murray and leader of the Women in Tech group within the Club, and Senior Product Analyst Mihir Badiani, a tech for good advocate. They’ll be joined by Product Developers Sabira Damji and Ruta Baltiejute, who’ll share stories on the initiatives happening within AND to support and enable women in tech.

This is again a great chance to learn more about AND’s culture and approach and to discover some of the practical ways we can collectively tackle the industry’s gender gap.

Register for free via Eventbrite.

Technology and the public sector: delivering compassion and social impact

Innovation is critical to the way the public sector provides services to citizens. But in such a context, it also needs to be done responsibly and safely. With the increasing emphasis on social value, organisations working in and around the public sector need to be reflective and thoughtful about the work they do and how they do it.

In this session - on the 29th September between 16:30 and 17:30 - we’ll explore the achievements and challenges of bringing digital into the public sector. From adapting and moving to support communities through covid-19 to the internal resilience needed for organisations to be able to respond to the demands of uncertain times, this promises to be a thought-provoking and insightful event.

Featuring Chris Gray, Head of Public Sector at AND Digital, Sally and Yasmin Akhter who have both worked closely with NHS Digital while at AND, as well as Paul Downer from GDS, you’ll gain inside perspectives from AND as well as the chance to hear from someone inside the public sector today.

Register for free via Eventbrite.

Each one of our events at LDF responds to urgent issues and conversations that we’ve been having on the ground - both internally and with others. Whatever your area of interest, we’re sure that you can take a lot from all three of these events.