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The second techUK Big Data in Action Roadshow took place on Wednesday 1st June in Bristol, highlighting that big data offers value not only to organisations of all size and sector, but also to all parts of the UK!

This series of events, which started in London, continues to be popular with another packed crowd enjoying exhibitions, networking and panel discussions on the benefits of implementing big data strategies. We were also glad to be joined in Bristol by the head of techUK's Defence Programme.

Delegates enjoyed a fantastic line up of speeches from Leigh Dodds, Chairman of Bath:Hacked, Martin Howitt and Kevin O'Malley from Bristol City Council, Robin Pinning from the Hartree Centre and Andrew Fryer from Microsoft UK.

Once again sponsored by the Hartree Centre and assisted by the Federation of Small Businesses, to ensure the Bristol community was involved this second roadshow was also assisted by High Tech Bristol and Bath CIC and Tech Spark, all of whom attended on the day.

Following breakfast and exhibitions from the Hartree Centre, Pythian, the FSB and HBB CIC, delegates moved onto the main session of the roadshow which began with an excellent big data case study from Leigh Dodds, Chairman of Bath:Hacked which has worked with Strava and Cycle Bath to use cycling data to gain insights into travel patterns and improve the cycling infrastructure within Bath.

The audience also heard from Martin Howitt and Kevin O'Malley about how Bristol City Council are using open data to improve public services through the City Open Data Platform, which collects data from various sources in order to find solutions to existing problems as identified by the local community. This provided a great reminder that big data tools and technologies can unlock value in both the public and private sector.

Robin Pinning, Chief Technology Officer at the Hartree Centre reminded us about some of the excellent work that they are doing with various partners and organisations to promote the use of cognitive technologies, high performance computing and big data in order to unlock value from data.

Finally Andrew Fryer, Technical Evangelist at Microsoft UK, talked delegates through some of the key aspects of implementing a big data strategy, highlighting the increasing amount of unstructured data being created and how organisations can gain value from it.

Following these engaging presentations there was a Q&A session which explored issues including the Big Data Skills Gap, which techUK continue to look at, and the importance of big data to the UK economy. Delegates and speakers were then able to network over lunch and once again enjoy the exhibition area before the second Big Data in Action Roadshow drew to a close.

techUK are now planning the third and final Big Data in Action Roadshow of 2016 which will take place in Manchester on 25 October. Members wishing to get involved are encouraged to contact:

Jeremy Lilley, Programme Manager Big Data, Cloud & Mobile
T 020 7331 2023
E jeremy.lilley@techuk.org