Get involved with techUK’s Digital Place Week 2022

Join techUK from 18 – 22 July as we explore how new technologies and approaches, from robot delivery vehicles to Integrated Care Systems, are driving place-led innovations across the UK.

The week will focus on ‘place’, an emerging concept involving the interaction between geography, groups of people and a problem that is meaningful to them.

Building on last year’s Digital Place Week 2021, we will showcase the work of our members driving the future of place by sharing guest blogs, case studies and relevant reports or featuring members in our new ‘innovation in place-based care’ podcast.

A different theme has been assigned to each day of the week, meaning that there are many opportunities for start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs, large companies, organisations and academics to get involved in #DigitalPlace.

Monday: The Future of Place
 
We will begin the week by looking ahead, exploring the likely impact of emerging technologies, the COVID-19 pandemic, the government's Levelling Up agenda and the Climate Crisis on ‘place’. Topics may include the future of commerce and the high street, the shift to remote working, the relevance of cyberspace and virtual places on perceptions of climate change, the metaverse, augmented and virtual reality, and regional development.
 
Tuesday: Digital and Data
 
How are digital and data enabling place-based approaches? Contributions may focus on the role of local and multi-agency working to prevent or respond to crime, the expansion of data sharing for targeted service intervention, and tackling place-based challenges through digitisation, the use of cloud-based servers and the use of big, real-time, sensor or geospatial data.
 
Wednesday: Connected Places
 
What is the role of consumer, transport and urban technologies in connecting places? Articles may address the importance of embedding place-based principles when deploying smart cities, intelligent service delivery and local partnerships, joining up places through sensors, Internet of Things technologies and on-demand or last-mile transport services, the importance of place-based behavioural insights and learning for advanced mobility, autonomous driving, or EV infrastructure roll-out and the growing importance of cross-place collaboration.
 
Thursday: Health and Wellbeing
 
How can recent sector reforms and new digital technologies improve patient outcomes? Likely themes to be explored concern the impact of Integrated Care Systems and Electronic Patient Records on health and care approaches and outcomes across places, remote care enabled by virtual wards and sensor technologies, joining up health data, and addressing health inequalities at the level of the place.
 
Friday: Digital Democracy and Decision-Making
 
How are technology and data enabling the virtualisation of politics and governance? Topics may include place and virtual politics, collaborative data in government and public sector data sharing, and place enabled by smart governance.

 

How to contribute

Members were invited to submit blogs or case studies on one of the above themes to [email protected]. These had to be between 400 and 600 words and follow the standard techUK contributor guidelines.

Submissions featured on the techUK website and were promoted via Twitter and LinkedIn throughout the week.

The deadline for submissions was close of play on 13 July.

 

Insights will be announced on the day and linked here. Share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #DigitalPlace and keep up to date with latest views on our twitter @techUK.


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You can also read a summary of our recent Exploring the role of the technology industry in 'place' panel discussion by clicking here. This contains links to the event recording and speaker presentations.

Georgina Maratheftis

Georgina Maratheftis

Associate Director, Local Public Services, techUK

Ileana Lupsa

Ileana Lupsa

Programme Manager, Local Public Services and Nations and Regions, techUK

Tracy Modha

Team Assistant - Markets, techUK