On Wednesday 5th July SVGC Managing Director Andrew Dixon, along with team members Paige Bunker and Anthony Wynne were joined by guests Rachel Neaman, Ali Grey, Russell Vodden, Craig Smith, Adrian Miller and Tony Klein at the annual techUK dinner.
The event is an annual celebration of technology, science, collaboration and innovation, which brings together key figures in the tech industry, government representatives, and influential stakeholders. The perfect opportunity to share industry ideas, get inspired and hear about innovation within the field.
A key discussion of the night was the future developments of the UK tech industry with The Secretary of State for Science Innovation and Technology, Chloe Smith, delivering a speech about the UK Governments investment in the technology sector. Chloe explained the initial £100 million spend to kickstart the delivery of the government’s major ambitions for the UK’s capability in safe and reliable foundation models and the development of an expert taskforce to help build and adopt next generation of safe AI.
The Taskforce, modelled on the success of the COVID-19 Vaccines Taskforce, will develop the safe and reliable use of pivotal artificial intelligence (AI) across the economy and ensure the UK is globally competitive in this strategic technology.
With AI set to contribute billions of pounds to UK GDP, the work of the Taskforce will help deliver on the Prime Minister’s priorities to grow our economy, whilst generating better outcomes for people across the country through better public services. Research suggests that the broad adoption of such systems could triple national productivity growth rates. (www.gov.uk)
Other focal discussions of the evening included the need to diversify the Tech workforce with people from different backgrounds, something that SVGC is keen to support and champion. Senior Data Scientist, Anthony Wynne, supports and works closely with TechSkills training programme board to support technology education.
TechSkills is a techUK company and are responsible for Tech Industry Gold, the only industry accreditation for education and training relevant to digital and tech careers, bringing together people, companies and organisations to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve.
Overall, the event was once again a fascinating evening with many interesting conversations and opportunity for collaboration and innovation.
