Taking place on the 3rd and 4th of November at the EICC in Edinburgh, The Data Lab Innovation Centre’s Data Summit 2022 is going to be bigger, more inspiring, and more cutting-edge than ever before.

We’re welcoming quantum computing professors, nanotechnologists, entrepreneurs, data ethicists, philosophers, musicians and artists, and so many more, to talk on the overarching theme of ‘hope’ – focusing on how data and AI can be used to create a better world and society.

In addition to great speakers such as Professor Hannah Fry and technology ethicist Stephanie Hare, the space data sector will be a focus of a number of speaker sessions and a panel during the two-day Summit, with keynotes from Maggie Aderin-Pocock, NASA’s Chief Science Data Officer Kevin Murphy and Giovanna Giardino from the James Webb Space Telescope team. A panel session will also be held on the ‘Future of Space’.

In our skills and tech streams we also have speakers and panels on building effective data teams, automation and practical AI, as well as using data to help vulnerable people. A parallel B2B exhibition space will also highlight some of Scotland’s innovative companies in the data and AI space.

The Data Lab would like to offer ScotlandIS Data cluster companies 20% off the current ticket price of £450. To secure this discounted price, visit https://datafest.global/tickets/ and enter the following discount code on the second page of the registration process: DS22IS100. 

For ticket bundle deals, please contact darran.gardner@thedatalab.com

Thinking about exporting?  Not sure how to get started or where to get answers?  Join us at the Exporting Roadshow – coming to a location near you. 

At the roadshow, you will: 

• Find out from local businesses why they are exporting 
• Hear what global opportunities there across many sectors 
• Understand what free tools, resources and support is available to you to export 
• Discuss 1 to 1 with trade advisors 

 The roadshow is being delivered by the Department for International Trade, in partnership with Scottish Development International, Highlands & Islands Enterprise (for Inverness only) your local Chamber of Commerce, and UK Export Finance.  It is visiting five cities over two weeks.

Register for the event in Glasgow on 3rd November via the ‘Learn More’ link below. 

ScotlandIS have launched a project to improve Scotland’s cyber resilience by working with IT Managed Service providers.

We’d like to invite you to a session themed around Cyber Security, and how ITMS companies can ensure yourself and your clients are protected.

This marks the first in a series of events across Scotland to build a network of ITMS providers to share best practice and address key challenges faced by the community.

Join us on Thursday 3rd of November at the Apex Waterloo in Edinburgh for an afternoon of insights, networking, pizza and beer!

We’ll have guest speakers including:

• Detective Inspector Russell Kerr, Police Scotland, who will discuss current cyber trends and threats to organisations
• Stephen Franklyn and George Aitkenhead, Lithium Systems, who will talk about how Managed Services can align with Cyber Security
• Neil Furminger, IASME, who give insight into obtaining Cyber Essentials accreditation
• Jordan Schroeder, National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board, who will highlight Cyber Security within the Supply Chain

Save the date in your diaries and register now below – we look forward to seeing you there.

In this one-day management bootcamp, Anderson Strathern will cover the knowledge and skills needed to handle key issues within your team, including conduct, coaching and improving performance, managing absence, avoiding discrimination, and a great deal more. 

The purpose of this session is to enable you as a manager to encourage exceptional performance across your team, through effective management and coaching, in line with your own company’s values. We’ll combine theoretical and practical training, so there will be interaction and exercises for you to participate in and practice applying your new skills in an inclusive environment.

Let us build your confidence in dealing with these issues at their root. This will help you to manage business risks before they become more onerous. Further, knowing that any arising issues will be handled fairly and reasonably by management will result in happier team members. There’ll also be some great opportunities for peer to peer learning and networking.

After this session, you’ll be able to provide more value to your organisation. If a difficult situation arises, your new skills will enable you to resolve it in a smoother manner. You’ll be more able to mitigate the types of business risk which are produced due to a lack of managerial skill.

All of our delegates will receive a training certificate after completing the course and will have access to resources which will be provided on the day.

Thinking about exporting?  Not sure how to get started or where to get answers?  Join us at the Exporting Roadshow – coming to a location near you. 

At the roadshow, you will: 

• Find out from local businesses why they are exporting 
• Hear what global opportunities there across many sectors 
• Understand what free tools, resources and support is available to you to export 
• Discuss 1 to 1 with trade advisors 

 The roadshow is being delivered by the Department for International Trade, in partnership with Scottish Development International, Highlands & Islands Enterprise (for Inverness only) your local Chamber of Commerce, and UK Export Finance.  It is visiting five cities over two weeks, starting on 31st October. 

Register for the event in Dundee on 8th November via the ‘Learn More’ link below. 

Based on the excellent feedback and further demand, IFB in partnership with H & R Insurance would like to invite fellow ScotlandIS members to our next in-person lunchtime event focused on Cyber Security & Cyber Insurance.

Graeme Gordon, CEO at IFB and Shona Robertson from H&R Insurance will be talking about problems businesses are facing in relation to cybersecurity, how they need to treat Cyber Security with the same degree of importance as any and every other business risk and how staying cyber secure will help your relationship with your insurer.

The event is a great opportunity for local businesses to come and learn more about cyber security and risks and ask relevant questions around cyber insurance. There will be a chance for networking with other organizations after the main session too.

The event is designed with a non-technical view and focused on business decision makers and compliance teams. IT team members welcome too.

Please register by 6th November via the ‘Learn More’ link below.

Just 24% of tech roles in Scotland are held by women and the proportion of women in cyber roles is felt to be considerably less.

Tackling this gender imbalance is crucial if we are to support the skills needs of our industry and reap the many benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

With such a shortage of skills it is vital that we support diversity and a wide range of routes into our sector, as well as opportunities for upskilling and progression.

GCU, SWiT and Cisco invite you join us for an interactive discussion to learn how we can support diversity in the cyber and tech workforce to ensure we can both attract and retain skilled talent.

This event is an opportunity to:

• Hear from employers who are proactively supporting gender diversity
• Learn how employers are supporting entry level recruits and upskilling
• Meet women who are looking to enter cyber security professions

This event is of importance to all employers with a requirement for cyber security skills.

Thinking about exporting?  Not sure how to get started or where to get answers?  Join us at the Exporting Roadshow – coming to a location near you.  

At the roadshow, you will: 

• Find out from local businesses why they are exporting 
• Hear what global opportunities there across many sectors 
• Understand what free tools, resources and support is available to you to export 
• Discuss 1 to 1 with trade advisors 

 The roadshow is being delivered by the Department for International Trade, in partnership with Scottish Development International, Highlands & Islands Enterprise (for Inverness only) your local Chamber of Commerce, and UK Export Finance.  It is visiting five cities over two weeks, starting on 31st October. 

Register for the event in Aberdeen on 9th November via the ‘Learn More’ link below. 

Scotland’s biggest IT and Digital showcase.

Registration is free and includes access to the keynote theatre, all seminars and the exhibition area.

Thinking about exporting?  Not sure how to get started or where to get answers?  Join us at the Exporting Roadshow – coming to a location near you.  

At the roadshow, you will: 

• Find out from local businesses why they are exporting 
• Hear what global opportunities there across many sectors 
• Understand what free tools, resources and support is available to you to export 
• Discuss 1 to 1 with trade advisors 

 The roadshow is being delivered by the Department for International Trade, in partnership with Scottish Development International, Highlands & Islands Enterprise (for Inverness only) your local Chamber of Commerce, and UK Export Finance.  It is visiting five cities over two weeks, starting on 31st October. 

Register for the event in Inverness on 10th November via the ‘Learn More’ link below. 

In this one-day management bootcamp, Anderson Strathern will cover the knowledge and skills needed to handle key issues within your team, including conduct, coaching and improving performance, managing absence, avoiding discrimination, and a great deal more.

The purpose of this session is to enable you as a manager to encourage exceptional performance across your team, through effective management and coaching, in line with your own company’s values. We’ll combine theoretical and practical training, so there will be interaction and exercises for you to participate in and practice applying your new skills in an inclusive environment.

Let us build your confidence in dealing with these issues at their root. This will help you to manage business risks before they become more onerous. Further, knowing that any arising issues will be handled fairly and reasonably by management will result in happier team members. There’ll also be some great opportunities for peer to peer learning and networking.

After this session, you’ll be able to provide more value to your organisation. If a difficult situation arises, your new skills will enable you to resolve it in a smoother manner. You’ll be more able to mitigate the types of business risk which are produced due to a lack of managerial skill.

All of our delegates will receive a training certificate after completing the course and will have access to resources which will be provided on the day.

Our next session will be focused around the Scottish Government and COSLA’s refreshed Digital Strategy for Scotland “A Changing Nation: How Scotland Will Thrive in a Digital World”. Published in March 2021, the strategy sets out an over-arching, shared vision of a modern, digital and collaborative government designed around its people and businesses. It also recognises the challenges facing our sector and the need for enhanced (and commonly developed) approaches to driving increased digital adoption, capability and leadership.

The government cannot tackle these challenges alone. The Digital Strategy is for all of Scotland, so effective collaboration across industry, the third sector and wider public sector bodies will be crucial to delivering on our joint ambitions. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown just what can be achieved when working together towards a common goal.

Hosted by ScotlandIS, the session will be facilitated by Scottish Government officials and is an opportunity to:

• Learn more about the priority programmes of work within the Digital Strategy – including ways in which digital and data technologies are enabling us to go further and faster than more traditional methods of delivery.

• Explore opportunities to collaborate across the broader strategic themes of (1) People and place, (2) A Strong Digital Economy and (3) Digital Government Services.

• Share best practise and positive examples of how your organisation is helping to bring the ‘Principles for a Digital Nation’ to life.

• Raise awareness of the digital challenges facing your organisation.

• Explore ways in which Officials can keep you up to date with developments.

• Contribute to a discussion on the ways in which Scotland’s tech-sector can help deliver on the ambitions set out in the Digital Strategy.

Speakers include:

• Philip Whitley – Policy Team Leader in the Digital Directorate
• Deborah Amzil – Communications and Engagement Manager

If you are interested in participating in this exciting session, the please do sign up to the event, which will take place on 15th November.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The main aim of the Digital Identity Programme is to improve people’s access to public services by providing them with a safe, reusable and easy way to prove who they are or that they are eligible for a public service.

To support this aim, a key commitment within Scotland’s digital strategy is to develop a digital identity service for Scotland.

We are delivering:

• ‘Secure sign on’ to make accessing online public services easier and simpler, using one account to securely log in to a variety of services.
• ‘Identity verification’ for when a public service needs to confirm identity or other personal information.
• A personal and secure ‘attribute locker’, where people can choose to save verified personal information, to use again when applying for other public services.

We are hosting an online event on the 16 November from 14:00 to 16:00. We’d like to invite you to join us for an update on progress, as we prepare to go live with the new service and to hear what’s planned for 2023 and beyond.

Join us to hear from the digital identity programme team about:

• The names and features of the service
• How we are developing an ethical and inclusive service, and designing this with user insight
• How we are ensuring security and privacy by default
• A demonstration of the secure sign on and identity verification features
• A look towards the features we are working on to support users
• Plans for the attribute locker, a private and secure place where people can choose to save verified personal information, so that they can use it again when applying for other public services.

There will be an opportunity to pose questions to the programme team during the event. You are also welcome to ask questions in advance when registering for the event.

Cyber Runway is the UK’s largest cybersecurity accelerator that’s being delivered by Plexal, Deloitte and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies and is backed by DCMS.

From budding entrepreneurs with an idea to growing startups and scaleups that dream big, Cyber Runway fast tracks the growth of innovators.

The Scotland regional event complements their newly-launched Grow and Scale programmes and also allows additional start-ups to get involved in a two-day event focussed on growth and innovation.

We’re hosting the Scotland regional two-day event to bring the community closer together and to complement their newly-launched Grow and Scale programmes.

Speakers will include:

• Steve McNally, McNally Recruitment; Ciara McGovern, HR Dept; and Andrew Wolf, Genoa Black, discussing Business Health.
• Adrian Taylor will discuss why Business and Stakeholder Empathy Matters.

There will also be contributions from the Space Sector.

We will end the day with a keynote from Bob Hayes, Vice Chair of the National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board, and Non-Executive Director & Advisor, on the ‘Road to Success’.

Register for Day 1 at the cyberQuarter in Dundee via the ‘Learn More’ link below, to join us for networking, insights and a chance to hear from and connect with leading innovators from the ecosystem.

ScotlandIS is delighted to be delivering an innovation-focused programme which culminates in an investor showcase event called the Cyber Showcase.

This programme will showcase the frontrunners of Cyber Security start-ups that are founded or headquartered in Scotland. The scope includes all companies identifying as cyber security, digital security (including compliance and governance) and online safety technology.

The number of cyber companies operating in Scotland increased by more than 25 per cent this past year. Of these, nearly half are Scottish, and more than a fifth of those are start-ups. We are seeing some of crime protections most innovative solutions emerge.

CTOs and CISOs are urgently seeking new and innovative solutions, and yet navigating the sales market can become detrimental to their time. ScotlandIS is set to change that and provide a safe space for industry buyers to find what they need, quickly and noise free, directly from the founders of the high growth frontrunners identified.

The one-day showcase event will take place on November 24^th in Edinburgh, as part of the Cyber Runway Scotland event. Each company will be given 3 minutes to pitch followed by 7 minutes Q&A led by a panel of investors.

If you’re a CISO, CTO, industry buyer, investor or supporter of Scottish cyber innovation, book your free ticket to come and hear from these pioneering companies.