Thames Valley: Tech Week drives the next generation of talent, says ConnectTVT

ConnectTVT has launched its second Thames Valley Tech Week, running November 9-13. The Reading-based platform, which connects the Thames Valley's fast-growing entrepreneurial ecosystem and digital economy, will be placing the importance of developing next generation digital skills at the centre of the week’s events. This follows recent research from O2 which showed that Britain will need 2.287 million digitally skilled workers by 2020 to fulfil the UK’s digital potential.

Thames Valley Tech Week builds on the success of last year’s programme and the Festival of Digital Disruption earlier this year, extending to new locations across the Thames Valley including Newbury and Slough. Its “When Green Meets Grey” sessions will bring together 200 students and 80 mentors for its Internet of Things Challenge days.

Students from across the region will work with mentors from regional businesses to collaborate and generate new ideas around the Internet of Things (IoT) and its potential to benefit citizens in our towns and cities. The challenge focuses on environmental improvements, economic opportunities, and enhanced delivery of services such as transport, healthcare and energy, with winning teams awarded prizes and attending a grand finale. With O2’s research predicting that almost half (47%) of the new digital jobs created in the next five years will be in London and the South East, the Thames Valley needs to act now to realise its digital potential.

The week will also see leaders from some of the most exciting and fast-growing global tech brands speaking at events set to inspire the Thames Valley’s technology and digital community:

• Technology Working for Wildlife – Teaming up with the League Against Cruel Sports, ConnectTVT is running a challenge to solve the issues holding back technology from preventing the massacre of big game.  Winning teams will go on to develop a working prototype via a crowd funding project, creating as many devices as possible to pilot in the wild.
• The energetic UK team from GitHub, the rapidly expanding collaborative software development company, will be leading a friendly Q&A session to discuss their journey to building a community of over 11million developers, contributing to more than 28 million projects.
• The launch of the first Thames Valley DevOps Group, will involve insights from the inspiring Scott Russell, DevOps Evangelist from Chef, the IT software automation brand known for its “speed and awesomeness.”

Louize Clarke, co-founder of ConnectTVT commented: “We really recognise the urgency around digital skills. We know that millennials have an almost instinctive nature when it comes to digital skills but how do they use these to their full benefit and potential? Through Thames Valley Tech Week we want to bring together education and business to collaboratively help next generation talent shape those skills and ensure they have the right pathways to harness them in the world of work, through innovation and entrepreneurial success.”

“In our second Thames Valley Tech Week, we’re bringing together those brands that have really shaken up the industry by being innovative and bold in how they use technology. It’s a real honour to have the GitHub and Chef teams join us and my hope is other tech businesses will learn and be inspired by these, encouraging growth in our local digital economy.”