01 Oct 2024
by Ileana Lupsa

Event round-up: Regional Tech Spotlight on West Yorkshire: Trends and opportunities

On 26 September, part of the Leeds Digital Festival, we hosted a techUK event in partnership with DAC Beachcroft, which focused on highlighting opportunities for tech suppliers in the West Yorkshire region.

The event aimed to help techUK members better understand the technology and procurement landscape, particularly for those looking to engage with local public services and the wider public sector in West Yorkshire.

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Attendees gained insights into the region’s market trends, key buyers, and suppliers. Stephen Blackburn, Innovation Relationship Manager from Leeds City Council discussed the council's innovation strategy and collaboration with suppliers.

We also heard from Chris Air, Helen Jones and Ed Williams from DAC Beachcroft, about the new procurement act and what it means for potential contracts. They discussed how supplier can mitigate contract management risks by reviewing and updating schedules on contract award, providing a high level full plan, creating governance structures and using the contract as a living document aligning it to governance.

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Cameron Major from Oxygen Insights showed that the ICT market is heading to £3bn by 2027 and the ICT local government market for FY 23-24 was of £2.2bn. A few highlights from Cameron’s presentation were:

  • Pressure on council budgets has ironically fuelled ICT spend on Automation and Digitisation projects.
  • Many councils are replacing BPO contracts with multiple ICT contracts (West Sussex, Sheffield, Lancashire, Brent).
  • ICT spend continues to grow, but medium-term trend is ICT falling as % of Local Gov spend.
  • Health & Social Care dominates Local Gov spend growth, up £12.9bn between FY17-18 and FY23-24 (+61%).
  • Buildings (+£4.9bn) and Highways & Transport (+£2.1bn) have also seen more spend in this period.

We continued the conversations with a fireside chat with Simon Shaw from Codurance, and Steven Taylor from Ayup Digital, moderated by Ileana Lupsa from techUK. There was agreement that it’s generally positive to work in the West Yorkshire region and Simon mentioned how keen they are to make investments, contributing to the growth of the ecosystem and he found that people were very open to collaborating with them. Getting involved with activities part of Leeds Digital Festival was also very beneficial to become part of the community. Steven provided his experience of working with local public sector in the area to be challenging at times and would welcome the opportunity for local public sector to be less risk averse and more open to innovation, providing fairness and transparency in structures and taking a chance on suppliers.

We concluded the event with a networking session and we would like to thank everyone who joined us in Leeds!

If you would like to participate in a future similar event please get in touch with Ileana at [email protected]


Ileana Lupsa

Ileana Lupsa

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

Ileana Lupsa is the Programme Manager for Local Public Services and Nations and Regions, at techUK.

Ileana studied electronics, telecommunications and IT as an undergraduate, followed by an MSc in engineering and project management at Coventry University.

She refined her programme management expertise through her most recent roles working in the automotive industry.

Ileana is passionate about sustainability and creating a positive impact globally through innovation.

Email:
[email protected]
Twitter:
@IleanaLupsa
Website:
www.techUK.org
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/ileana-lupsa

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Alison Young

Alison Young

Associate Director Local Public Services, techUK

Alison Young is the Associate Director Local Public Services.

Alison has background in International Trade & Investment, with experience in the public, private and third sector, advising on international trade, new markets, inward investment and working closely with UK cities and regions around investment into innovation and partnerships and technology. Prior to joining techUK, she has her own consulting business and was Head of Global Investment with the Connected Places Catapult. This role had a focus on FDI around the built environment and mobility, working across NetZero mobility projects in the UK and globally. She worked closely with the Innovation Districts Group, to foster and network of knowledge sharing and helped set up the Freeport Innovation Network, to foster innovation in the context of freeports with a focus on investment. 

She spent six years living and working in the Middle East, with the Department for Business and Trade. Based first in Oman,  leading on a number of sectors, from Education to Infrastructure, then based in the UAE, setting up the Technology and Smart Cities sector, with a core focus on AI and Fintech.

She is passionate about economic growth for the UK, to create jobs and opportunities; the green agenda and the decarbonisation of transport. She has a degree in Russian Studies MA, from the University of Edinburgh and is currently learning Arabic. 

Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
+44 (0) 20 7331 2029
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonayoung/

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Matt Robinson

Matt Robinson

Head of Nations and Regions, techUK

Matt is techUK’s Head of Nations and Regions.

Matt is leading techUK’s work with members and stakeholders across the UK to increase the Local Digital Capital across the UK’s nation and regions, build communities and to ensure that digital technology plays a key part the post-COVID-19 levelling-up recovery.

Prior to joining techUK, Matt worked for several national education charities and membership bodies to develop their regional partnerships with schools, academy trusts, local authorities, and other stakeholders. He’s also worked with local authority leaders and other stakeholders to engage communities, work with elected members and improve public services.

He holds a BA in Politics from the University of York and an MA in International Relations from the University of Leeds. Away from work he’s a keen football fan and golfer.

If you’d like to find out more about our work in the nations and regions please get in touch with Matt:

Email:
[email protected]
Website:
techuk.org,,techuk.org,

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Meet the team 

Alison Young

Alison Young

Associate Director Local Public Services, techUK

Ileana Lupsa

Ileana Lupsa

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

Tracy Modha

Tracy Modha

Team Assistant - Markets, techUK

Georgina Maratheftis

Georgina Maratheftis

Associate Director, Local Public Services, techUK

 

 

Authors

Ileana Lupsa

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