Embracing Digital Transformation to Boost Growth Opportunities

Philippe Hougardy, EMEA Sr. Business Development Manager for IoT, Amazon Web Services

Formerly working for Telcos for 10 years, Philippe participated in the elaboration of the deployment of Luxembourg smart city. He also spent a few years working in SF Bay Area on innovation IoT, and blockchain. Now at AWS EMEA, Philippe supports customers and partners to achieve innovative and successful projects taking advantage of IoT solutions.

Jonathan Custance, Director, Green Custard

Jonathan is a University of Cambridge Computer Science alumnus and established entrepreneur based in the city. He is an IoT advocate and subject specialist, as well as an AWS Consulting Partner. His company, Green Custard, just celebrated their 10th Anniversary, winning the Small Business of the Year and Overall Winner at the SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards 2019 and is now a finalist for the national awards (winner announced December 2019).

Richard Hagan, Managing Director, Crystal Doors

Richard Hagan, MD of Crystal Doors embraced Industry 4.0 as an early adopter, inspired by the benefits our data age brings. 25 years at the helm, he has seen furniture manufacturing in the UK evolving to automation, robotics and now Industry 4.0. As a Fellow of IN4.0 Group and a Rochdale manufacturing Ambassador, the inspiring journey he took explains why the holy grail of manufacturing is here today. Richard has showcased to many small and large companies the true concept of Industry 4.0, and how simple steps can make great savings.

Steven Holland, Commercial Director, Thermatic

As a Commercial Director, Steve constantly works on re-shaping the business to better suit the customer’s needs and he will be speaking about the company's IoT journey. Thermatic provide a national service for Commercial Heating, Cooling, Refrigeration or Drainage and look after over 7000 sites all throughout the UK that ranges from manufacturing, retail, construction and healthcare. In 2018, the company launched an Engineering Academy, which was officially opened by GM Mayor Andy Burnham, to train their engineers and help tackle the region's skills gap. 

Mike Ryan, Futurist, morse. ai
Mike is a successful entrepreneur and futurist. A born disruptor, he eats lives and breathes future thinking and helping large organisations on their future strategy. An expert in Horizon Mapping and foresight studies and understands how to navigate current and future disruptions delivering successful business objectives. Mike has 20+ years experience in emerging technology foreseeing changes to our world. Working with large organisations including MBNA, EY, PWC, BBC, Sage, IBM, Pepsico and Cisco.

Dr Somayeh Taheri, CEO & Chairman, UrbanChain

Somayeh is the CEO of UrbanChain, where she leads the company based on its mission to bring renewable energy to the mainstream market, provide energy as a service, maximise transparency and trust, and significantly reduce energy bills for end users. UrbanChain was founded in 2017 based on her research discovery about how to integrate and automate various business processes in different urban service sectors, and to eliminate the middlemen with blockchain and AI technologies. Making innovation work for people is what it matters for Somayeh. She is the alumni of the University of Manchester and UCL.

Chris Whelan, PwC

VR/AR & Innovation Marketing Manager & #NWInnovationForum co-founder

Chris is currently PwC's UK marketing leader for VR/AR & broader innovation products and services. He's helping organisations and the wider society with the adoption of Emerging Technologies. VR & AR is a big passion and interest area for Chris and he'll share insights from PwC's 'Seeing is Believing' VR/AR report - How virtual and augmented reality is transforming business and the economy.