PSP-IT recently participated in #GoDigital conference hosted by Business Lincolnshire at the University of Lincoln. The aim of the conference was to bring together local businesses who are active in digital strategy and implementation or are looking to develop a digital strategy in the near future. The conference was hosted by Kate Russell, journalist and broadcaster at BBC Click (BBC consumer technology programme). Attendees were a broad spectrum from Web Developers, Accountants, Solicitors and University graduates to local business owners involving in manufacturing and recruitment.

The keynote address by Jeremy White, Editor at Wired Magazine, focussed on predicting the future for digital technology in business use by 2028. There was a wealth of interesting ideas and forecasts about the use of Artificial Intelligence in automated customer services and E-Commerce applications. We learnt about the potential of Voice Activated applications for search technologies and how large organisations are investing in business incubators to develop digital strategies in a fluid and risk-free environment.

Throughout the conference, the audience were polled to discover their attitudes towards digital strategy planning. At the start of the conference the question was posed – ‘How far in advance have you planned your business digital strategy?’ and answers ranged widely between ‘not at all’ and ‘for the next 10 years’. The median seemed to be that most in the room planned for between 1-3 years in advance – incidentally a benchmark for our own Outsource IT Strategy and management services team who recommend strategy planning reviews of between 2-3 years to our clients.

The takeaways from the conference included the need to have a clear and update digital strategy to include VR (voice recognition technologies) in order to keep ahead of the competition.

#GoDigital 2018 was a great opportunity to get together with peers in the Lincolnshire digital world – to compare notes on working in Lincolnshire and where local businesses might be heading in terms on digital development. We look forward to the next networking opportunity.