August Milk Bar Meet Up (Horizon Watching)

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Horizon Watching

Knowing and being prepared for what the future might bring is essential for business success. At our second Milk Bar meet up, that we are co-hosting with Snook, we are excited to bring you a talk and two workshops from some of these forward-thinking people on the theme of Horizon Watching.

First Up: Paul Fletcher, Enabling Innovation, talks to us about the major future trends impacting business in the future

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Paul is an award-winning marketeer and senior management consultant whose previous positions include Director of Marketing (Europe) for the CIGNA Corporation of Philadelphia and Head of Strategy for Scottish Widows.

With a parallel career in economic development he has worked in Downing Street, advising on aspects of Entrepreneurship planning where his work in this area has been highlighted by the UK Government and European Commission as ‘best practise’. Formerly concerned with Corporate Engagement at the University of Edinburgh Business School designing Management Learning for the likes of RBS, the World Health Organisation and the British Council, he is now managing partner of Enabling Innovation Partners (http://www.enablinginnovation.co.uk/index.php): an alignment of senior practitioners, leading academics and global service providers at the leading edge of innovation culture development.

Currently, he sits on the Scottish Government Committee on Innovation in the Water Industry and is the author of the White Paper for Banking & Utilities: ‘Innovation in a Regulatory Environment’.

Followed by: Matthew Higgs, Chief Data Officer at Dynamically Loaded, talks to us about the future of professions and Artificial Intelligence

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After a career in academia working in areas of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, Matthew joined Dynamically Loaded as Chief Data Officer with the purpose of building data-driven products and services. Matthew runs the Glasgow AI meetup group which focuses on the latest AI technologies impacting society.

Matthew will present an argument and a method for guiding the professions through the coming years, as intelligent machines play an increasing role in the production and distribution of practical expertise. Focusing on a task-based approach, Matthew will discuss a possible solution to the moral dilemma of technological unemployment, and will introduce a method for identifying opportunities for technological innovation.

Next Up: Angela Prentner-Smith, This is Milk, and Sarah Drummond, Snook, host a design session on what a workday in the future might look like

Angela Prentner-Smith, Founder and Chief Executive of This is Milk

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Angela is a highly experienced business and change professional. She is the driving force behind This is Milk (http://www.thisismilk.co.uk/), and brings passion, enthusiasm and ingenuity to everything she does.

Angela has forged a career as a strategic business analyst with a specific expertise in digital transformation, customer experience and branding. Angela has proven leadership ability, strong problem solving and analytical skills, in addition to her communication and mentorship abilities. She has a particular skill for running innovative workshops and getting to the heart of business problems, and customer needs.

Angela is committed to making change better for businesses. She has brought This is Milk to market to make businesses better, simply and is building a strong team of associates and employees.

Sarah Drummond, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Snook

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Sarah is the Co-founder and managing Director of Snook (http://wearesnook.com/), an award winning design consultancy working at the forefront of civic, public sector and democratic innovation. Sarah focuses on making social change happen by re-thinking public services from a human perspective and regularly lectures and speaks around the globe on service design, innovation and civic engagement.

Sarah is a serial idea generator. She has co-founded MyPolice, CycleHack (http://www.cyclehack.com/), Dearest Scotland (http://dearestscotland.com/) and The Matter (https://www.facebook.com/thisisthematter/?fref=ts). For this work she was awarded a Google Fellowship for her work in technology and democracy.

Last Up: Marjie Gracie, Founder of i, not robot , talks to us about the 'human' dimension of change readiness.

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Having worked for organisations such as British Airways and Dell Inc. Marjie's career has spanned over 20 years in dynamic fast-paced environments. Starting at grass roots in a customer services role, her career trajectory has included a number of roles from Team Leader to Coach.

In August of 2012, Marjie founded 'i, not robot' (http://inotrobot.com/). Her intentionally named consultancy discovers and develops talented teams through a creative, thought provoking and energetic approach to coaching and inter-team relations.

Marjie will discuss the importance of building individual motivation to change. Touching on what drives human resistance to change, Marjie will highlight that whilst it is easy to identify the tangible and practical things that are needed to embrace new horizons, such as new IT systems, it is equipping yourself and your organisation's people with the motivations,