Events

Heriot-Watt and Sainsbury’s present a live webinar on Data Science Graduate Apprenticeships, specifically highlighting the GA experience.

In this live webinar you’ll hear from Dr Heba Shoukry, programme lead for our Data Science GA programme, and from one of our key employer partners, Sainsbury’s. In particular, you’ll hear one of their own GA students, Fiona Jamieson, who will give a great insight into her own experiences as a graduate apprentice.

Heba will provide an introduction to graduate apprenticeships with an overview of our Data Science GA programme structure and contents. You’ll discover why the Graduate Apprenticeship model is an ideal way for industry to upskill existing employees or recruit new young talent.

Fiona will then share some of her own experiences as a GA Data Science student, including:

• why she chose a Data Science Graduate Apprenticeship and Heriot-Watt in particular
• what a student needs in terms of support and approach from the company
• what the benefits of the programme are for both her and the company

The webinar will last 30 – 40 minutes and you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions in our interactive Q&A.

Securing your applications and keeping customer data safe is vital to your reputation.

In this series of webinars, learn from the UK market leaders in Microsoft Azure AD CIAM (Customer Identity & Access Management). In this series, we’ll cover topics including:

• Identity standards and protocols
• Microsoft Azure AD B2C Basics
• Custom journeys with Identity Experience Framework (IEF)
• Applying your brand and style
• Relying party application on-boarding (OIDC & SAML)
• IdP (identity provider) on-boarding and migration
• BI, reporting and audit
• B2C vs B2B

Through this series you’ll have the opportunity to get under the hood of Microsoft CIAM capabilities and quiz the UK market leaders on common patterns and gotchas.

Each webinar will run for 40 minutes with 15 minutes for Q&A. We’ll make previous webinars available – so if you’ve missed one, don’t worry!

Our speakers:

• David Manning, Architect
• Richard Astley, Architect
• David Downs, Lead Software Engineer

We invite you to join us on November 6^th at the Morgan Stanley; Technically Speaking Conference. This one-day virtual event will give you an exclusive opportunity to hear from leading female technologists at Morgan Stanley. Our world-class team will delve into the key tech trends, opportunities and complexities that are impacting the industry.

With multiple topics and talks on offer throughout the day, you’ll be able to build your own agenda based on your interests and availability. Sessions include: AI, Software Engineering, Agile, the challenge of Covid-19, and more all discussed by experts across various panel sessions and career talks. Click here to see the full agenda.

Covid-19 is the first pandemic to be tackled by a truly data-driven approach, with real-time information at the heart of life-or-death decisions throughout the crisis.

How did Government, health services and other public bodies collaborate – often at great speed – to inform those decisions? What lessons have we learned to help us emerge from the pandemic and ensure we share and analyse data more effectively in future?

More broadly, how is data being harnessed in Edinburgh to tackle huge challenges like global financial inclusion and a creaking elderly care system? Why is collaboration across the public and private sectors so important – and why must a strong ethical framework support everything we do with data?

Join a range of experts to discuss the enormous challenges – and real opportunities – in our increasingly data-rich world.

Innovative businesses join experts to discover how to protect, mitigate risk and how your innovations can earn tax relief

Amplifi Solutions, Rooney Nimmo and Innovare IP discuss the value of innovation for high-growth SMEs, introducing tried and tested approaches to mitigating risks and achieving extra support for innovative efforts. Growing and adopting business through R&D can be critical to its continued success and development, especially now, and this webinar will show businesses how to knowledgeably take this step whilst managing risk, protecting intellectual property rights and benefiting from tax relief.

Professional Scrum Master (PSM) is a two-day scrum master course that covers the principles and (empirical) process theory underpinning the Scrum framework, and the role of the Scrum Master in it. This course is a combination of instruction and team-based exercises and teaches what is at the heart of the Scrum and Agile movement. The course also includes a free attempt at the globally recognised Professional Scrum Master I certification exam (PSM I), which if you successfully pass will accredit you with the title of Professional Scrum Master.

Over the two days, students will see why the Professional Scrum Master course is cutting-edge in scrum training, producing effective Scrum Masters, and suited for anyone coaching a team toward increased efficiency and effectiveness. The course includes advanced thinking for servant-leadership and behavioural shifts.

Throughout the course, students are challenged to think in terms of the Scrum principles to better understand what to do when returning to the workplace.

The PSM course is much more than just a set of slides and an instructor. In this course, students work on real-life cases with other classmates together as a team. This course is made up of discussions and hands-on exercises based upon real-life cases. Individuals who complete our scrum training will be able to take the Professional Scrum Master I certification exam (PSM I), which if they then successfully pass will accredit them with the title of Professional Scrum Master.

In our regular six monthly GDPR and data protection update, we look at recent developments in data protection and ePrivacy law, including:

• Recent case law, including an overview of the Schrems II decision
• New guidance from the ICO and the European Data Protection Board
• A summary of relevant enforcement action from the UK and elsewhere in the EU

Super Connect for Good 2020 is a new national tech initiative powered by Empact Ventures and Hays seeking to discover, super connect and support the best emerging tech startups and scale-ups that bring positive social change and impact to enhance people’s lives through technology. These include AI for Good, HealthTech, MedTech, EdTech, Smart Cities and GovTech.

Our partners include Microsoft for Startups, OVH Cloud Startup Programme, the National Institute for Health Research, UnLtd, Young Enterprise, Angels Den, Top Business Tech, GEN UK, PUBLIC, eOffice and Linkilaw Solicitors.

The Competition

The Competition is open to Tech Startups (Seed) and Scale-ups (Series A & B) based in 8 Regions of the UK and Ireland in the areas of AI, MedTech, HealthTech, EdTech, Smart Cities and GovTech.

We have over £90,000 worth of prizes provided by our incredible partners including:

• 12-Month Subscription to Hays Rise for the National Winner
• Super Connect FLEX Membership for the National Winner
• Guaranteed Press Coverage with Top Business Tech for all 8 Regional Winners
• Free Legal Documents or Advice with Linkilaw Solicitors for 8 Regional Winners
• Guaranteed Places in the OVH Cloud Startup Programme
• Free Hot Desking with eOffice for our 6 Industry Winners
• Up to £10,000 with National Institute for Health Research (MedTech Winner)
• Guaranteed Place on UnLtd’s Thrive Solutions for an Ageing Population Programme (HealthTech Winner)
• Mentoring Session with a Senior Director at Microsoft (AI for Good Winner)
• Pitch to a Senior Decision-maker at PUBLIC GovTech Programme (GovTech Winner)
• Pitch for a Partnership with Young Enterprise (EdTech Winner)
• And more…

If you would like to apply, please visit www.superconnectforgood.com and submit an application by 30th September 2020 at 6pm

The Virtual Final

The Virtual Final will take place on 17th November 2020 during Global Entrepreneurship Week UK and it will feature:

• 8 Regional Winners pitching to be crowned the National Winner
• Announcement of our 6 Industry Winners
• Fireside Chat
• Interactive Panel Session
• Digital Exhibition of Tech for Good Startups & Scale-ups

All registered attendees that check into the Virtual Final will receive 5 free super connections via email facilitated by the Super Connectors at Empact Ventures to potential partners, clients or funders that can address your registered challenges.

If you would like to follow the competition from its start and hear about the Regional Winners follow us on Twitter at @SuperConnectUK

Important to Note for Attendees

• Registration is Essential: To ensure that you are able to attend you MUST register on this Eventbrite page to be allowed to attend the Virtual Final

• Registration Information Required: We will match you with other attendees based solely on your registration and therefore the quality of the super connections proposed and made will depend entirely on the quality of your answers to our questions

For further information please visit: www.superconnectforgood.com

It is an exciting time for Scotland’s space sector which is seeing exponential growth and some of the highest space-related activity in the Europe. From satellite manufacturing and data capability, to new launch operations at Shetland and Sutherland, and a whole host of other innovative developments, there are multitudes of opportunities that companies can take advantage of. We are delighted to invite you to attend a webinar with Dr David Alexander OBE, where he will talk about diversifying your technology to suit the space sector. Sign up to find out more.

Cyber Cluster event which provides an opportunity for the cyber cluster to get together as a community to network and to share while providing input to the focus and direction of the cluster moving forward. There will also be a number of speakers providing insights and info to support your business growth and development.

Join us on 17th November to hear from:

• Nick Morris , CEO of CyLON will provide information on what CyLON does and how they support cyber companies.
• Andrea Mcleish, International Senior Manager, from Scotland Development International will discuss how SDI can support businesses to grow beyond Scotland and the UK
• Tracey Ward, European Knowledge Transfer Executive from Scottish Enterprise Funding Information & Support Service will cover the range of support from SE FISS to help companies to find sources of funding for their business.

Join us for the fourth webinar in the New Verve presents Atlassian in Scotland 2020 Webinar Series for a panel discussion with IT Service Management (ITSM) experts and have the opportunity to ask our panellists your ITSM questions! The panel will be hosted by Kris Siwiec (New Verve Consulting) and our panellists are Alastair Rennie (Metix Medical), Lorraine Brown (Capita Consulting), Claire Agutter (ITSM Zone) and Jonathan Boyd (Prophecy International).

SSI is next-gen identity. In this webinar series, our SSI subject matter experts introduce self-sovereign patterns and protocols, and how you can get SSI going in your business. Each webinar will run for 40 minutes with 15 minutes for Q&A. We’ll make previous webinars available – so if you’ve missed one, don’t worry!

Our speakers :

• David Manning, Architect

• Richard Astley, Architect

• David Downs, Lead Software Engineer

Join us on 18th November for a discussion on Data Adequacy, Cross Border Data Flows and IP, and what you can and should be doing now to prepare for the changes coming on January 1st.

ScotlandIS has been working at both a Scottish and UK Government level to ensure that the voice of the industry is heard as these negotiations take place and that appropriate guidance is available to the sector.

We will be joined by:

• Martin Sloan, Tech and Data Partner at Brodies LLP. Martin will give an overview of who will be impacted, the legal implications and the changes companies may need to make, prior to opening the floor for discussion.
• Steve Johnson from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport , UK Government. Steve will provide an update on data adequacy, cross border data flows, an update on the current negotiations and what companies can do now to prepare.

If you have any questions regarding how you could be impacted, we encourage you to participate and we will help to get them answered, to ensure you and your business are in the best position possible to meet these changes.

What and for whom?

In this webinar, we will focus on Tier-1 service provider case study from the Americas. This service provider is operating through self-built and leased networks and supplies services for consumer and business customers.

In the customer case, we will dive into their network performance monitoring requirements and showcase how we solved their challenges with active and passive network assurance solutions.In the first discussions with the customer, it is evident that they go further than competitors on their network monitoring solution. They needed to collect all of the available information to create and deliver a perfect customer experience for their end customers. Their customer experience strategy and execution required a lot of information to be a step ahead of their customers.

Based on the recent surge in the variety  applications, services, diverse  set of devices and protocols, Service Providers have to contend with several challenging objectives. Key requirement is to  include Network Performance Monitoring  and Assurance to delivery and maintain the committed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) while keeping track of the network utilisation, operational efficiency and quality of experience towards the end user customers.   Solution providers in this landscape tend to follow less effective and siloed approaches rather than enriched visibility solutions encompassing coupled active and passive monitoring. The unified approach  paves the way and  meet the above critical requirements to contribute to the overall network  operations and management life cycle (network/system operations and business operations).

Together with our partner Illuminate we delivered an integrated solution where the customer can have the best qualities from both active and passive network assurance in one view. The requirement was to consolidate all of the available data from both solutions
into one unified platform.

This webinar, co-sponsored between SDI and AVIA Health Innovations, will provide insight into the US market and share opportunities for Scottish companies to position their products and services accordingly. Major changes are taking place in the US as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. Digital is at the forefront and government, regulatory bodies, payors, health systems, clinicians, and patients are all adapting to the new way to access and receive healthcare.

This is a session following on from the Scottish Procurement Roundtable (29th September). Open to ScotlandIS Members and Data and Cyber Clusters companies who are new to public sector procurement with someone from SG and member companies experienced in public sector procurement who can share their hints and tips.

How do you win work with the public sector? As an SME, how do you balance the day to day work with the tender process and governance?

Join us on 17th November 2020 when we will be joined by speakers with experience of bidding and winning public sector procurement. 

We will be joined by:

• Kirstin McKellar, Founder & Managing Director at KBM
• Stephen McAinsh, Founder of Calba

Our speakers will give an overview of their experiences and their key hints and tips for navigating public sector procurement. This will be followed by breakout sessions on:

• Knowing your customer and maintaining your runway
• What happens when you win – expectations, reporting and ongoing management
• Policies, procedures and insurance

There are fewer than two months to go until the UK leaves the EU.

New rules for businesses and citizens will be in force from 1 January 2021.

With the current uncertainty, what can you do right now to prepare?

Get practical advice by joining our experts as they make Brexit bitesize and get you up–to-speed quickly.

From 09:30 – 10:00 each day on the week beginning 23 November you’ll get top tips on how to tackle five key areas:

1. Data Privacy and Intellectual Property: how to ensure your data continues to flow and you continue to protect your IP

2. Commercial Contracts: managing the transition risks to save you time and money

3. Immigration: prepare for the end of free movement of people

4. Imports, Exports and Tax: how to keep trading

5. Regulations & Standards: changes in public procurement, environmental and consumer standards

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our events team.

The expo is the largest annual enterprise technology event run in Scotland, and a must-attend for senior technologists, digital innovators and IT leaders.

DIGITExpo hosts Scotland’s largest exhibition of technology and solution providers, spanning: Cyber Security, Networking, Infrastructure, Cloud, Data & Analytics, Managed IT Services, Telecoms, Connectivity and much more.

DIGIT has rapidly grown into the largest business technology community in Scotland. Working alongside partners from industry, academia and government, DIGIT hosts an extensive conference series focused on core emerging technologies and a range of key industry verticals.

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

Join us on 24th November for an update on post-Brexit trade deals covering where are the negotiations and what the outcomes will mean for Scotland’s digital tech sector.

At this session we will hear from experts on the possibilities for the digital and tech

sector for trade moving forward. We will explore some of the emerging markets for the

sector and how you can get involved with DIT to tap into some of these opportunities.

We will be joined by:

• Jennifer Low, International Senior Executive – Technology & Advanced Engineering at Scottish Development International and Michelle Sim, Senior Manager, Trade, Science and Technology at Scottish Development International who will highlight routes to access alternative markets and the GlobalScot Network which helps Scottish firms conduct business overseas.
• Richard Todd, Senior Manager – Investor Consulting at Germany Trade & Invest  – discussing some of the existing opportunities for the digital and tech sector currently in Germany, and what the future for German-UK trade looks like moving forward.

If you have any questions regarding how you could be impacted, we encourage you to participate and we will help to get them answered, to ensure you and your business are in the best position possible to meet these changes.

ScotlandIS has been working at both a Scottish and UK Government level to ensure that the voice of the industry is heard as these negotiations take place and that appropriate guidance is available to the sector.

The 2nd ‘Opportunities Forum Scotland’ event – exploring opportunities for collaboration between Scotland and Germany.

Scotland & Germany Virtual Roundtable

Ready For Take Off?

Scottish Development International (SDI), Scottish Government and Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) would like to invite Scottish and German companies to register for our virtual roundtable to share opportunities and discover possibilities of cooperation in the space sector.

This will be an interactive event where companies can find common synergies and ways of working together in the future.

Agenda

The agenda of the event will be as follows:

• 2 presentations, to give an overview of the Scottish and German space sectors and key capabilities – provided by Scottish Space Leadership Council and Fraunhofer-Allianz Space

• 3 virtual roundtable sessions, running in parallel, for like-minded companies to discuss key themes in the following areas:

1. Spaceports and Launchers – moderated by AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V.

2. Micro Satellites and Equipment for Micro Satellites – moderated by the Scottish Space Leadership Council

3. Downstream Applications (Earth Observation) – moderated by bavAIRia e.V.

In order to ensure that this is a success, all participants should select 1 of the 3 aforementioned themes.

Please do not register unless you are committed to attending, as the breakout sessions will be organised based on the companies that have registered.

Platform

The event will be hosted on GoToMeeting and we will send a meeting invitation to all registered companies nearer the time of the event.

With multiple members of your team working from home, can you be certain that none of them have a malicious threat on their device, ready and waiting to be unleashed on your corporate network?

Learn how to keep up with the constant evolution of threats by joining Capito and Barracuda’s exclusive Total Email Protection webinar on Wednesday, November 25th.

From 11am until noon, you will learn how you can outsmart even the newest tricks cybercriminals use in a post-COVID world and defend your organisation from a wide variety of virus and malware threats delivered within email.

Registration is quick, easy and free so sign up now to secure your spot.

Please feel free to share with anyone in your network who you think would benefit from this session.

Agenda:
• Introduction – Mark Gibson, Managing Director, Capito
• The Ever-Evolving Landscape of Email Threats – Steven Peake, Email Security Specialist, Barracuda Networks
• Traditional Defences vs Advanced Attacks – Steven Peake, Email Security Specialist, Barracuda Networks
• Best Practice for Protecting your Business, People and Data – Steven Peake, Email Security Specialist, Barracuda Networks
• Q&A

Join us on 25th November for an update on student work visas post-Brexit and what these outcomes mean for Scotland’s digital tech sector. 

At this session we will hear from experts on the possibilities for the digital and tech sector for trade moving forward when it comes to migration policy. Graduates are a key part of the digital and tech sector, and ScotlandIS supports a system that continues to have flexibility for EU graduates who want to work in Scotland’s tech sector. 

We will be joined by: 

• A representative from the UK Home Office – providing an update on negotiations and what you can do now to prepare.
• Jacqueline Moore from Shepherd and Wedderburn – providing an employers perspective on the availability of EU graduate talent.
• Fraser Grier, Ambassador, Scottish Business Network and Immigration Specialist – discussing attracting US talent to Scotland, in addition to the proposed UK-US trade deal and the possibility of free movement. 

ScotlandIS has been working at both a Scottish and UK Government level to ensure that the voice of the industry is heard as Brexit negotiations take place and that appropriate guidance is available to the sector.

Join Democratic Society and our panel speakers as we discuss the development of Scotland’s AI Strategy.

Chat bots, driverless cars, Alexa – what do they all have in common? They all use artificial intelligence (AI)!

AI will have an impact on the way we live, work, and play. This is precisely why the Scottish Government is committed to developing an AI Strategy that helps realise Scotland’s potential as a tech hub whilst meeting the goals of the National Performance Framework, whereby Scotland continues to be a successful country where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive.

Join Democratic Society and our panel speakers on Wednesday, 25th November, 4pm-5.20pm GMT on Zoom to learn more about Scotland’s AI Strategy. There will also be space in this event for you to take part, ask questions and share your thoughts about the future of AI in Scotland.

This event will bring together each of the different leads in government, public engagement and working groups who are part of developing Scotland’s AI Strategy to share their experience, reflect on opportunities and challenges that arose, and answer questions from the public.

Here’s what you can expect:

1. Introduction to Scotland’s AI Strategy (what are we talking about?)

2. Engagement activities using Mentimeter

3. Four panel speakers who will share with you their work on Scotland’s AI Strategy and where we are at in Scotland:

• Albert King, Scottish Government from ‘Join the Dots’ Working Group.
• John Fotheringham, Scottish Government on the Consultation work.
• Jennifer Russell, Anderson Solutions on the Working Groups.
• Namita Kambli, Democratic Society on the Public Engagement work.

4. Discussions between panel speakers using questions captured from you!

The event will explore some key questions such as:

• A sneak peek of interesting themes that have come out of Scotland’s AI Strategy so far
• Exploration of people’s visions for the future of AI in Scotland. What does this mean?
• What could AI for public good look like? What are some of the key challenges and opportunities?
• How do we avoid a tokenistic Strategy? What are the next steps that need to happen?
• What is your vision for ethical AI in Scotland?

We encourage you bring a hot drink of your choice to the event (optional) – this is a technique we learnt from DeepR to help build trust, human connection and warmth online.

What do you want to know about AI in Scotland? Please ask us some questions when you register and we will use your response to build the session!

Product Ownership goes beyond writing user stories or managing a product backlog. Product Owners need to have a solid understanding of how to drive the delivery of value.

Over 2 days, from early stakeholder engagement through to release planning and delivery, you will learn techniques to measure, maximise and deliver value to the marketplace. You will also work online with other participants on real-life cases with hands-on exercises.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This cutting-edge course is targeted for Product Owners, Product Managers and anyone responsible for the success of a product or service in the market.

COURSE TOPICS

• Agile Product Management
• Value-Driven Development
• The Scrum Framework
• Managing Requirements, Products and Releases
• The Scrum Product Owner

THE TRAINER

Chris Bexon has over 20 years’ experience as a Product Owner, Scrum Master, Agile Transformation Coach, and Scum.org Professional Scrum Trainer (PST). He is passionate about building high performing organisations and teams, growing Agile cultures, and enabling teams to deliver value.

This is a pivotal time for innovation. Whilst the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic persists, this event demonstrates innovation as an integral part of remobilising health and social care and building a strong life science sector, with the dual aim of delivering better outcomes for citizens alongside company growth and new jobs in Scotland.

Themed around Artificial Intelligence (AI), it will provide important national updates across the life science landscape.

Hear about:

• NHS Scotland and Social Care – forward direction, innovation and strategic alignment
• UK perspective and opportunities
• Artificial Intelligence
• Scotland’s priorities and access to partnerships, collaboration, NHS procurement and industrial support
• Partnership opportunities for companies and NHS Boards/Integrated Joint Boards and stakeholder groups-to raise funds and innovate in Test beds

The event will be chaired by Professor David Crossman Chief Scientist (Health), Scottish Government with a range of high profile speakers.

Speakers will discuss the adoption of digital services to help businesses get back on track & provide details of ScotGov’s 0% interest loan

The Scottish Government’s Digital Development Loan has over 100 Scottish SMEs to improve their business.

COVID-19 is first a health and humanitarian crisis, and businesses are having to rapidly adjust. While the crisis unfolds, businesses should also prepare for what is coming next. Normal isn’t available to us anymore, and ‘business as usual’ will look different.

The Harness Digital Webinar brings industry experts together to discuss how unlocking your mind-set and adopting digital can lead to sustained business growth. Brought to you by the Scottish Government’s Digital Development Loan, an 0% interest free loan available to help Scottish SMEs adopt digital services to grow their business.

Join us and hear how organisations address the changes needed in this new environment, from a people, operations, and technology perspective, at speed and at scale.

The Digital Development Loan is a 0% interest loan provided to Scottish Businesses to help invest and improve in their digital capabilities. The loan is available to all sectors.

Harness Digital Webinar is outlined below:

• Hosted by Alisdair Gunn of Framewire who is recognised by the digital, data and tech community as one of Scotland’s leading tech experts.
• Les Bayne, Accenture: The industry impact of COVID-19 and turning massive challenges into meaningful change
• Fiona Chambers, SV24/7 Vending: Digitising Vending Machines and adopting digital in reaction to COVID-19
• Chris Hughes, Estendio Ltd : Continuing to thrive during the pandemic
• Digital Development Loan details, how to apply and what is eligible

We’re confident that your business can benefit from a digital project. This event will help you scope ideas on what that project might be as well as providing you with Scottish Government backed funding to deliver the project.

Spaces are limited and available on a first come, first serve basis. Please contact us if you need more information.

More information on the Digital Development Loan can be found at www.digitaldevelopmentloan.org

The DSbD programme is producing technologies that have the potential to create a step-change in addressing security from the central hardware up across the software stack of digital systems.

The ISCF Digital Security by Design (DSbD) Software Ecosystem competition – detailed investigation (single SME projects) – aims to provide the seeds for enabling the software ecosystem that will be crucial for the adoption of DSbD technologies. It will be an opportunity for SME stakeholders from across the software development spectrum to explore and investigate requirements, dependencies, and a range of potential complexities associated with the adoption of the DSbD technologies.

This briefing webinar, commencing at 11:00 on Friday 27th November, aims to provide information on the scope and requirements of the competition and to help guide potentially interested applicants.