Its 2019, and tech’s wild west days are drawing to an end. As the impact of the industry on people, communities, society and the environment becomes increasingly apparent, thinking beyond profit is essential.

Greater Manchester’s tech ecosystem have made clear their ambition. As a region with a progressive digital and social history, rapidly growing tech industry and strengths in security, health innovation and IOT, the private and public sector are keenly aware of the risks surrounding tech and responsibility.

Brand perception and earning people’s trust are front of mind, and though our big players have intimated that putting people central when it comes to design, development and data management is key, the potential impact on profit and ability to influence ethical decision-making more widely within their organisation.

Sponsored by Luminate and the Co-op Foundation The Federation’s Responsible Tech Collective is already working collaboratively with Hyper Island to understand how to diagnose and plan for more responsible tech practises in their organisations, but this first in our series of education events is platforming those organisations who already engage in responsible tech and align purpose with profit.

With talks from industry leaders in the tech for good space, panel discussions on the tensions and tools needed in influencing responsible tech practise and a showcase of emerging ethical tech solution in Greater Manchester, we’ll explore the realities and potential of responsible tech from our region’s industry leaders at our first #responsibletechreview.

Our Speakers

Ben White - Reason Digital

Ben is the Managing Director of Reason Digital, a digital agency that uses technology to solve problems that actually matter. Ben is in charge of setting strategy and overseeing the execution of Reason's work; and has been working on various guises of web, application and transformation projects for public, private and third sector over the last 20 years.

Amul Batra - Northcoders

Amul Batra is the Chief Partnerships Officer at Northcoders. He works closely with tech businesses in the North, helping them with their tech skills strategy and connecting them with the Northcoders Junior Developer community. He also regularly speaks at events on the subjects of diversity, inclusion and the talent pipeline.

Reina Yaidoo - BassaJamba

Reina Yaidoo runs Bassajamba CIC, a social enterprise exploring new ways the science, tech and health sector could work better with underserved communities ie BAME, women, lower socioeconomic groups. We are collaborating with a range of organisations to reimagine innovation in disadvantaged communities with new solutions around smart city platforms, social prescription as well as researching effective methods for greater integrity and inclusion throughout the industry.

Danny McCarthy - Co-op

Danny McCarthy is a Data Design & Governance Manager at the Co-op, and has over 16 years working with data – analysis, reporting, migration, projects, warehousing, quality and governance in the private and public sectors for organisations like GE, Royal London & Manchester City Council. At the Co-op he has been applying Data Ethics principles into the design of products and services, initially focused in Digital but more recently across other broader use cases in HR, Retail and Data Science – securing the 2019 Data IQ award for ‘Best Data Ethics & Privacy Initiative’. This approach means that Data Ethics are considered at the heart of product & service development, empowering teams to take a balanced view (based on the opportunity compared to the risk), and contributes towards the Co-op vision of being ‘Trusted with Data’ .

Tom Glover - Thoughtworks

Tom holds the position of Head of Things for ThoughtWorks in the UK. He possesses over 25 years IT experience, 15 years of which have been spent in the Internet of Things space. Previously working for IBM, he has extensive experience in the sales, design and more importantly, delivery of global scale complex IoT platforms and solutions for major brands. As a ThoughtWorker, he is actively involved the in the evangelism of IoT from a business perspective and the value it can provide in areas such as Smarter Cities, Healthcare and Retail.

Omar Latif - We Are Assif

Omar, an ex Research Engineer for DeepMind and has worked in New York, London, Silican Valley and he now calls Manchester home. The founder of WeAreASSIF, a mental health technology startup that uses AI to spot changes in behaviour of a user, he has set up the project as a ltd and a social enterprise entity that work in tandem with one another.

Food and drink to be served.