Tag Archives: Challenge

And The NextGen Digital Challenge 2017 Winners Are . . .

23 Oct

 

And the Winners are . . .

[Westminster, 23rd October 2017]

Announcing the results of the UK’s 7th annual NextGen Digital Challenge Awards, Iain Stewart MP (Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smart Cities) congratulated the finalists for this 7th year of the NextGen Digital Challenge.  In his address at the Awards dinner in Westminster, Ian Stewart summarised the progress being made in Parliament on the policy framework for a range of ‘smart’ initiatives including the advent of driverless vehicles.

Following Iain Stewart’s address, Richard Hooper (Chair, Broadband Stakeholders Group) and Derek Wyatt (Chair, Foundation for Information Society Policy) presented trophies to the winners across seven categories of digital endeavour.

The NextGen Digital Challenge Awards programme celebrates great projects. Every year the awards are adapted to reflect current trends and priorities in digital application.

Whether in Public Service Transformation, development of Digital Skills or new initiatives in Place-Making, these projects illustrate the wealth of creativity and innovation evident throughout the UK economy.

More than a focus on individual leaders, most inspiring developments are the work of collaborative teams who strive to ‘do things differently and do different things’ — innovating to overcome the inertia of established custom and practice.

The Awards Dinner in Westminster also heard former MP Derek Wyatt describe the plans for the 2018 ICF Global Summit in London next June. This 3-day event will bring civic and industry leaders from around the world to celebrate the development of Intelligent Communities.

Digital Challenge Awards Co-Founder, David Brunnen, also thanked the 2017 Judging Panel for their great work in assessing more than 30 shortlisted finalists each with their diverse Challenges, Solutions and Achievements.

2017 WINNERS

Public Service Transformation Award

Winner: NHS Education for Scotland @NHS_Education

2nd Place: Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment @CCEA_info

Digital Skills Award

Winner: Armagh Banbridge Craigavon Borough Council @abcb_council

Joint 2nd Place: Arch Commercial Enterprises Ltd and Young Enterprise East Belfast @YE_NI

Innovative Projects Award

Winner: People Plus with Mendix @peopleplusuk @Mendix

2nd Place: CAST Fuse Digital Accelerator @TechforgoodCAST

Place-Making Award

Winner: Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) @dig2agig #yorkshiredales

2nd Place: Good Things Foundation @goodthingsfdn

Digital Health Award

Winner: Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) @DVLAgovuk

Joint 2nd Place: AHP Suffolk @AHPSuffolk and NHS Education for Scotland @NHS_Education

Networking Innovations Award

Winner: HATDeX — The Hub of all Things @TheHATDex

2nd Place: JT (Jersey Telecom) @JTsocial

Connected Britain Award

Winner: Diva Telecom @DivaTelecom

2nd Place: Tiree Community Development Trust @HIEScotland

[THIS RELEASE WAS UPDATED 25/10/2017]

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Notes for editors:

Further information and photographs available via davidb@nextgenevents.co.uk — +44 (0)7714 325 657

About NextGen

NextGen (NG Events Ltd) has supported digital innovation and sustainability projects for over a decade with a series of conferences, workshops and exhibitions to give voice to innovators, new network designers, applications developers and community builders. http://www.nextgenevents.co.uk/awards

About ICF

The Intelligent Community Forum is a US-based Research Think Tank with an international network of 159 cities and communities. Their research has tracked the evolution of inspired local leadership and the economic and societal impacts that flow from investments in digital infrastructures and their application to community needs. http://www.intelligentcommunity.org 

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Challenges, Solutions, Achievements – and Trophies for projects that must be celebrated

15 Oct

 

Seven years ago the NextGen Digital Challenge Awards programme was designed to highlight the need for much stronger investment in digital access infrastructures.

The awards were very different from the usual run of industry accolades for people and products.

It took a while but eventually contenders understood that the winners produced brilliant and succinct project case-studies explaining their challenges, solutions and achievements.

Seven years on the rules remain but the field has evolved.  Every year the awards categories have changed to include new frontiers.

From the early, narrow, focus on Urban and Rural broadband deployments, the glittering trophies now also recognise innovative endeavours in the use of these utiities. That doesn’t mean any let-up in the push for better digital infrastructures but it does provide great inspiration for project teams grappling with the challenges of making all this connectivity stuff really useful.

We started again this year with the Open Call – to see what sorts of projects would be nominated. Only then were the contenders sorted, shortlisted and invited to submit their project stories for the 2017 selection of awards.

This process keeps the programme relevant – and, whilst some themes continue, others come into focus. Projects that might once have fitted a general ‘Digital Inclusion’ category may now find they are contenders for the Digital Skills Award.

Right now the Finalists for each of seven trophies are just one week away from hearing if their projects have convinced our independent judging panel. The 2017 awards will be presented at a dinner in Westminster on October 23rd.

  • Why, you may ask, is the Driver & Vehicle Licence Authority (DVLA) competing against an NHS contender for the Digital Health Award?
  • What sort of project, nominated by the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is competing against a Liverpool local currency for (new this year) the Place-Making honours?
  • How come a small village not far from Leeds is battling with the big beasts of broadband for the Connected Britain Award?

What is certain is the Digital Challenge Awards programme has once again served up a rich selection of project examples that will inspire and inform – not least because many of these stories will be used in schools, colleges and universities to stretch young imaginations.

The presentation dinner will not only bring these UK project champions together but will also raise the curtain on an even bigger gathering next year when mayors, CIOs and community leaders from around the world assemble in London for a three-day focus on the making (and sustaining) of Intelligent Communities – the purposeful outcomes enabled by ‘smart’ technologies.

Judging by this year’s crop of project endeavours, we will have many great examples to share with high-powered visiting delegations to the Intelligent Community Forum’s 18th Global Summit. And it’ll be the Finalists in the 2017 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards who will be able to say ‘We heard it here, first, on this channel’!

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Notes:

The 2017 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards dinner will be held at 1 Great George Street, Westminster, starting at 19:00. Former MP Derek Wyatt will introduce plans for the June 2018 events. The after-dinner speaker is Iain Stewart MP – Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smart Cities.

The seven 2017 Awards Categories are for exemplars in: Public Service Transformation, Digital Health, Digital Skills, Place-Making, Innovative Projects, Connected Britain and Networking Innovations. The brilliant hand-crafted glass trophies are the work of artist Helen Thomson (Fantasia Glass).

Dinner capacity is limited but requests for any late availability places should be routed to mailto:awards@nextgenevents.co.uk before 20th October.

For earlier commentary on the 2017 Awards Categories see: https://groupeintellex.com/2017/05/30/the-real-digital-trends-revealed-in-the-2017-digital-challenge-awards-programme/

 

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The real digital trends revealed in the 2017 Digital Challenge awards programme.

30 May

Media headlines continually claim great innovative progress – new systems, new Apps and better services.   But, what are the real changes in the UK’s digital landscape?

Hardly a day passes without a flurry of press releases, product announcements, reports and white papers. The spinning rarely ceases even if some digital ideas fly off at a tangent never to return. The realities – the changes that really do impact on the way we work and live – dawn much later.

Long after headline writers have gone hunting elsewhere, some of this stuff is given purpose and made tangible by folks with real challenges to resolve. We all depend on small armies of project teams to work out how to usefully apply new systems and capabilities.  They may not attract headlines but they represent the bedrock of reality. These project teams are true heroes and their work deserves to be honoured.

That is why the annual NextGen Digital Challenge Awards programme is designed to celebrate their digital endeavours. It is also why these awards change shape every year to reflect the real digital trends.  Now in it’s 7th year, the Digital Challenge has once again adapted the awards to reflect the results of this year’s Open Call for nominations.

Seven Key Transformational Trends

These are the seven awards categories selected for the 2017 NextGen Digital Challenge.

 

 

Connectivity no longer distance-dependent

Some of our Award Categories have been consistent over many years. Digital connectivity projects are fundamental and the trophy this year will be called the Connected Britain Award.   This year, however, no distinctions need be made between rural and urban connectivity projects.  Older distant-dependent designs are no match for ‘Full Fibre’ and fast wireless technologies – often deployed in combination. Cities that once thought they were in the forefront will now need to catch up.

Digital Skills for everyone

For a few years now we’ve honoured Digital Inclusion projects but that, often-traumatic, struggle to get folk online (classically featured in Mike Leigh’s ‘I Daniel Blake’) is now a subset of a far greater challenge – the need for a much wider range of digital skills education to reach across all age groups and all economic sectors. The 2017 Digital Skills Award will celebrate imaginative projects from across the UK.

Networked Innovations – creativity below the radar

Improving the utility of fixed and mobile access to the Internet are background projects. They not only make services more useful and safe but can also cut the cost of network deployment. The shortlisted finalists for the 2017 Networking Innovations Award will severely challenge our judging panel as they reflect on the challenges and achievements.

Digital Health comes home from hospital

This Award Category first came to prominence last year and the current project nominations are further evidence of massive activity in the health sector – and, this year, not entirely dominated by the NHS. The 2017 Digital Health Award will reflect significant shifts in the way the nation’s health issues are being tackled.

Public Services transformed

In contrast to popular myth (and tabloid headlines) it is in the public sector that great transformational projects are powering progress – not just boosting value for money but enhancing service quality. There can be only one winner of the 2017 Public Service Transformation Award but all of the Finalists’ case studies will be an inspiration to others.

Place-Making with lateral thinking

2017 marks the first appearance of an award that recognises the real benefit of digital investments. When project teams pitch for funding they make judgments about investor attitudes and that can lead to over-emphasis on secondary and tertiary benefits. But no longer. The 2017 Place-Making Award is unashamedly focused on the wellbeing of communities – their economic and social development.

Innovative Applications – whatever next

The imagination of creative digital developers opens up new opportunities and a new wealth of insights into how to put digital expertise to good purpose. The Innovative Projects Award will celebrate those endeavors and honour their achievements.

The Shortlisted Finalists for each of these awards will be announced on June 14th at the Connected Britain conference in London.

Each team will be asked to submit their full project descriptions to an independent judging panel in August.

The NextGen Digital Challenge Awards Dinner and Presentation will be held in October.

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2017 Digital Challenge Awards – Open Call announced

24 Jan

NextGen logo smallThe Open Call for Nominations for the 7th annual NextGen Digital Challenge Awards has now been launched.  The Awards celebrate great endeavour across many fields of digital transformation.

Over the past six years the programme has tracked many of the brightest and best digital projects – from rural broadband designs to innovations in Data Privacy, from fresh approaches to health services delivery to remarkable Open Data applications to boost transport networks efficiency.

Last year’s crop included drones for assessing flood risks, new SDN services for corporate networks and a cooperative approach to creating Digital Exchanges.  Winners included The British Red Cross (a mobile app for emergency responses) and Digital Forensic Archeology – bringing Virtual Reality to inform complex court cases.

The entry form suggests some obvious categories for your project nominations but the programme is very open to fresh fields of digital endeavour. Nominate or recommend a project now and maybe your team could be celebrating your success at our prestigious awards event next October.

Full Details

 

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Digital Challenge Awards – 2016 results

14 Oct

westminsterThe highpoint of the UK’s Digital Challenge Awards programme was a dinner and presentation at the House of Lords yesterday evening hosted by Lord Erroll. ( digital-challenge-awards-2016-results-announced-13-oct-final )

The 6th (2016) edition of this competition was launched last January with an Open Call for Nominations.   The Digital Challenge Awards programme has no predetermined Awards Categories – it is only when the Open Call closes that organisers can see the latest digital application trends and then sift through the nominations.  This process keeps the competition fresh and resulted in awards this year for projects in emergent categories such as Digital Healthcare and Local Economic Development.

Unlike many other Awards programmes the Digital Challenge has a strong project focus – and the teams who delivered the work were well represented at the presentation event.   Despite being from very different fields and at varying stages in their digital transformation journeys, what they all have in common are the great challenges of identifying real needs, seeking out innovative solutions and then evaluating their impacts.  And by summarising their endeavours in submissions to the judging panel they all make huge contributions to a wealth of case study material to inspire others.

The 2016 Digital Challenge was supported by O2 Telefonica UK.  Further details will be posted shortly at http://www.nextgenevents.co.uk/awards

 

 

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Online Success – on dodgy lines

7 Aug

UNPACS LogoCommenting on the UNDESA report showing the UK as the world leader in government online services, Julia Glidden, an international specialist in Open Data, makes an interesting observation about long-term policy investment.

Julia attributed the UK’s ranking in part to “a concerted national strategy, dating back to the establishment of an Office of the e-Envoy [in 1999, and the E-Government Unit in 2004] to integrate back office functions whilst simultaneously driving cross-government institutional coordination.” That’s a dedicated decade and a half of puzzling out the better delivery of public services.

Meanwhile those who campaign for vastly better broadband connectivity – seeing that as an essential enabler of greater online usage – would say that much of the last decade and a half has been wasted on short-term fixes that will inevitably need replacement in the push for future-proofing, operational efficiency, energy conservation and greater reliability.

The technologists have a strong case – and one that is gaining both media and political traction. The government may also be cheered by the UK appearing at the head of a global league table – particularly as, post-referendum, national advocacy is much in demand.

If the long-term stance had been taken for connectivity as well as services, would the outcomes have been even better? What explains the success of the latter, in a less-than-optimal infrastructural environment, is massive and often voluntary societal investment.

This is shown very clearly in the shortlist for the 2016 Digital Challenge Awards programme. Derived from an Open Call back in January the shortlisted finalists reflect what is really going on in corners of the country that media headlines very rarely capture.

The shortlisted projects for work in Digital Inclusion, Digital Skills, Digital Health and Open Data dominate the field. Sure, there are great projects in Network Innovations (from providers), Advanced Digital Applications (from university researchers) and in Rural Connectivity (by desperate country-folk), but these often more-technical pursuits are outshone by the devoted efforts of Charities, Local Authorities, Housing Associations and myriad public services agencies including the NHS, Schools and Libraries.

With their dedication to making sure that neighbours, communities and employees are not left trailing behind in our increasingly digitalized world, we should appreciate that the underlying reason behind the UK’s reported leadership is not entirely down to central policy wisdom.

In the next decade and a half we might even be blessed with fit-for-future connectivity – if the people get their way.

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The State of our Digital Nation

31 Jul

2016 O2 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards

This is not scientific.

Its academic rigour may be some distance south of a tabloid’s opinion poll – but the final contenders in this year’s Digital Challenge Awards are instructive.

This is the 6th year of the Digital Challenge – an awards programme unlike any other. The categories and trophies are not set before nominations commence.

Every year the ‘Open Call’ simply asks for projects that exemplify great digital endeavour.   When the Call ends we review and define the Awards Categories and then create a shortlist for each. Every year that project shortlist reflects what is going on – real insights that might otherwise be overlooked.

Back in 2011 the focus was primarily on delivering better urban and rural broadband networks. That Rural Connectivity category remains, but elsewhere the attention has shifted beyond deployment to Network Innovations; their resilience, flexibility, performance and capacity.

Digital Inclusion projects have also been a constant category but they have evolved in so many different and imaginative ways – and some are now better aligned with an Economic Development agenda.

Projects devoted to boosting Digital Skills are far more evident (and delivering great achievements) but perhaps the brightest new category is for Digital Healthcare.   Some healthcare projects are contenders for the Digital Innovation Award and the willingness of NHS project leaders to transform their practice is evident in a flurry of very welcome initiatives in the mental health arena.

Meanwhile the Open Data category has lost its 2014 and 2015 prominence – now more business as normal rather than surprising breakthroughs.

  • Who in Westminster would have understood that Scotland is so digitally progressive?
  • Who would appreciate the educational/healthcare brilliance of body worn sensors embedded in fabrics?
  • How many Local Authorities understand the value of drones in combatting floods and other environmental risks?
  • How many judges (and jurors) know the value of Virtual Reality for visits to crime scenes?
  • How else would we be made aware of new care technologies for the elderly or the brilliantly imaginative Librarians whose services are so often under siege?

Many would decry the digital state of the nation – and sure there’s much more to be done – but the Digital Champions that step up to collect trophies in the House of Lords next October are leading indicators of massive transformations in the way we all work, live and serve.

 

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The O2 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards 2016

6 Apr

The O2 NextGenAwards2016hires

 

Yes – you read the headline correctly.   NextGen is delighted to announce that the 2016 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards now features O2 as headline sponsor.

The origin of the Digital Challenge 6 years ago may have been rooted in concerns for fixed-line broadband innovation but the awards programme has over the years increasingly featured the mobile sector. The worlds of fixed and mobile are in reality, highly interdependent and will become more-so as infrastructure planning for the next generation of 5G gets underway.

However, there’s another dimension in the emergence of public sector interest in services delivery. Speaking with Billy D’Arcy, Managing Director, Public Sector Business at O2, it’s clear that their interest in backing the Digital Challenge derives from a strategic understanding of the value of community champions. “The public sector works on behalf of all of us to provide a number of essential services. At O2, we are committed to helping the public sector deliver the best experiences for citizens. We also want to make sure their employees, both customer facing and in offices, can work effectively. We do this by helping to simplify processes using ICT solutions while adhering to increasingly restrictive budgets. As a result, we wanted to work with NextGen to celebrate the organisations that go the extra mile. That’s why the O2 NextGen Digital Challenge Awards 2016 will celebrate innovation, success and leadership in the UK’s digitally focused economy.”

The Digital Challenge has an excellent track record of identifying and celebrating achievements in the public sector that, in the general flood of marketing messages, might be overlooked – and inadvertently overlooked particularly by policy makers in and around Westminster. With this year’s awards presentation scheduled for October 13th in The House of Lords these important public sector and community messages will raise awareness amongst key policy influencers.

Full details of the awards programme and how anyone can nominate projects that have impressed can be found here. This is an Open Call and entry is free. The Digital Challenge honours projects and digital endeavours from across all sectors of the economy. The independent judging panel is keen to acknowledge projects and team effort rather than specific products or individuals.

The Open Call ends on May 27th

Shortlisted Finalists for each Awards Category will be announced on June 15th at the Connected Britain/NextGen conference in London.

 

 

 

 

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NextGen Digital Challenge 2016 – Open Call

22 Jan
NextGen Awards 2016
OPEN CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

Now in its 6th year, the NextGen Awards, celebrate digital endeavour and honour the achievements of great projects and their teams from across the UK and Ireland.

Nominations are now invited from across all economic sectors and from within all communities.

Nomination is free of charge and requires only the completion of a simple online registration form.

Entries will be assessed by a judging panel that is independent of any supplier interests. To allow scope for new initiatives, the 2016 Awards Categories will be finalised after the Open Call closes on 27 May.

Previous winners and shortlisted entries can be found here

The Open Call for Nominations closes on Friday 27 May.

Short-listed Finalists and Award Categories will be announced in June.

Finalists will be invited to prepare their submissions (A4 template provided) to the judging panel by the end of July.
NextGen Digital Challenge Awards
Awards will be presented at the prestigious NextGen Digital Challenge Awards Dinner and Ceremony on 13 October – hosted by the Earl of Erroll in the House of Lords, Palace of Westminster.

For more information visit here
NOMINATE NOW

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The Collaborative Economy – and digital themes for 2016

30 Dec

Computer Weekly has reprinted an article that I penned when considering NextGen and Digital Challenge themes for 2016.   It’s impossible to rank their significance but in top place I have the Collaborative Economy – collaborative skills being now recognised as a fundamental for all manner of ventures, community projects and public sector initiatives.

New metrics for capturing Quality of Experience will gain supremacy over the poverty of legacy QoS measures (see previous post 8/12).   That trend will inform regulatory efforts – not least in considering digital futures.  Much will depend on regulatory expectations of (and insistence on) corporate capacity to collaborate.  In many ways Collaborative Advantage will outplay old notions of  Competitive Advantage.

Open Data will also contribute to a richer 2016 – particularly in Health and in Municipal Enterprise.  Here again collaborative skills will fuel progress – and once again leave non-participants wondering why their grand schemes fail to deliver.  Under the spotlight of new evidence, Municipal Enterprise will, in 2016, become openly and honestly discussed.   The ‘art of the possible’ will no longer be assessed by an elite but liberated by data journalists and the shift towards more Open Corporate Data as enterprises begin to catch up with the public sector.

Fiber optics

And finally 2016 will be the year when the UK wakes up to the realisation that digital access infrastructure investment is much more than searching for quick fixes by trying to adapt legacy networks designed for analogue telephony.  Digital access design is significantly different – and the entire UK economy demands fresh (collaborative) future-proofed approaches.

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