Last week, Software Cornwall hosted its first Tech Connect event of 2022, all around the theme of ‘Demystifying Artificial Intelligence (AI)’. In this post, Niki Davies, Head of Marketing for Software Cornwall and the host of the event shares her highlights, introduces the speakers and picks out some key resources you may wish to follow up on.
Where to begin! Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of hosting our first Tech Connect event of 2022 with an incredible line-up of speakers all covering the theme of ‘Demystifying AI’. We covered A LOT in just an afternoon! You can watch the whole thing via the video below.
First, we welcomed Andrew Husband from Hertzian who brought us all up to speed on the basics of artificial intelligence and what it is (and isn’t!).
Next, the brilliant team from Hi9 led by founder Wo King launched Debbie; an intelligent bot helping Cornish locals access key services such as food banks, benefits and learning opportunities – so much to learn from their talk particularly around inclusivity.
Chloe Rickard from the Digital Skills Partnership then facilitated a panel discussion introducing Tania Duarte, Walter and Mark Tindal where they talked about the ethics of artificial intelligence and heard directly from panellists about their experiences, the good and bad, challenging the audience to consider extreme cases. A chilling and insightful discussion and well worth a watch.
Our very own Education Outreach Officer & Digital Skills Provider Robert Wiltshire shared details of our Gateway to Tech programme which has demonstrated early success in helping upskill Cornish residents with tech skills and finding them jobs in tech companies!
We then heard a series of short talks which covered everything where to seek funding and business support to AI training for Cornish tech companies. A big thank you to all of our speakers for their insights here including Toby Parkins (Headforwards), Councillor Richard Pears (Cornwall Council), Bethany Allen (Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth and Skills Hub), Vicky Hunter-Frigerio (Tech Nation) and Nathan Jeffery (Digital Transformation – Cornwall).
Here are some of the key links and information shared by our business support providers:
Skills, funding and business support:
- Career Switch into Tech with Software Cornwall and Business Clusters – skills development and placements with local tech companies
- CIOS Skills Hub & Growth Hub – skills development for your team, signposting to business support, and career development and support for job seekers through the People Hub.
- Tech Nation’s Applied AI Programme and Visa Support for tech company recruitment (also see Vicky’s video below where she talks more about the programme and support Tech Nation can offer)
- The Digital Transformation programme to support Cornish businesses with strategic change enabled by technology
- Innovate UK Edge who provide support for scaling tech businessess
- British Business Bank who can help with financial support for UK SME’s
- Falmouth Launchpad Venture Studio, a start-up incubator for budding entrepreneurs in Cornwall
Tania Duarte from We and AI stepped up next to help dispel some myths and common misconceptions about AI and also shared details of Better Images of AI; an exciting project that is helping to change the general populations’ image of what AI actually is. Do check it out.
We closed the event with a workshop led by Dr Lauren Hayhurst from Hi9 who took our audience through a practical session using creative writing to breathe life into AI.
This event was a great example of what happens when the tech, digital and business support communities in Cornwall collaborate and this is just the beginning!
With special thanks to the Software Cornwall team who brought it all together – Garry Hunt, Kayley Scanlan, Robert Wiltshire and Holly Patton with awesome support from our friends at Digital Transformation – Cornwall, Unlocking Potential, Hi9, Hertzian, Tech Nation, FibreHub, and the Digital Skills Partnership.
Event photos:
You can view all of the photos from the event on our Facebook page.
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Speak at our next event:
We’re already planning our next Tech Connect event. The theme is yet to be confirmed. If you have an interesting talk, idea or something you’d like to share with the tech community, submit a talk and we’ll contact you if we’d like to include it for an upcoming event. No sales pitches please.