Speakers

Andrew Elliot, Deputy Director for Cyber Security, Innovation and Skills, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 
Andrew Elliott is working on the Ecosystem and Technology pillars of the National Cyber Strategy, seeking to find policy and programme interventions to close the skills gap, develop the cyber profession, support the growth of the cyber sector across the UK, and to help innovators develop world leading cyber tech. He also leads the government's programme to develop international standards for consumer IoT as well as regulation to require manufacturers to apply minimum security standards as set out in the Product Security and Telecommunications Bill. Andrew leads the government’s work on ensuring the sustainable and secure deployment of connected places across the UK.

Anna Broberg, COO & co-founder, Maptionnaire
Anna Broberg is a Doctor of Science in Land-use Planning and Transportation Engineering and with her analytical strength and innovative thinking around urban development and participation, provides Maptionnaire customers with a world-class understanding and recommendations for the participation projects. Her track record covers over 10 years of close cooperation with cities in the design of community engagement processes, tools, and analyses.

Colin Birchenall, Chief Digital Officer at Glasgow City Council and Chief Technology Officer for the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government
Colin Birchenall has a particular interest in the role that digital technology can play to deliver better outcomes such as quality of life, the economy and the environment. He has first-hand experience of demonstrating how technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), data, cloud computing, and mobility can enable public services to be transformed by enabling greater transparency, better decision-making, place-based approaches, partnership working, and prevention/early-intervention. In 2016 the Local Government Digital Partnership appointed him and Martyn Wallace to establish the Digital Office and he brought years of experience of local government technology transformation having worked with Glasgow City Council, where he recently acted as the lead architect for the £24M Innovate UK Glasgow Future Cities Demonstrator.

Dan Clarke, Head of Innovation and Technology, Greater Cambridge Partnership 
Dan Clarke works on several mobility innovation projects and has delivered the UK’s first purpose built autonomous vehicle trial as part of the public transport system as well as deploying sensors and a data platform that help the local authorities to understand movement better. He has developed journey planning tools and is working on a MaaS deployment for Cambridge.

Eddie Copeland, Director, London Office of Technology & Innovation (LOTI)
Eddie Copeland oversees LOTI’s activities, member relations and strategic direction. Previously he was Director of Government Innovation at Nesta, the innovation foundation. He is a Board Member of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI), a government unit dedicated to enabling the trustworthy use of data. He is also a member of the Smart London Board, a group that advises the Mayor of London on using technology and data for the benefit of those who live and work in the capital. 

Georgina Maratheftis, Associate Director, techUK
Georgina Maretheftis works with suppliers that are active or looking to break into the market as well as with local public services to create the conditions for meaningful transformation. techUK regularly bring together local public services and supplier community to horizon scan and explore how the technologies of today and tomorrow can help solve some of the most pressing problems our communities face and improve outcomes for our people and places. Prior to techUK, Georgina worked for a public policy events company where she managed the policy briefing division and was responsible for generating new ideas for events that would add value to the public sector. Georgina worked across a number of portfolios from education, criminal justice, and health but had a particular interest in public sector transformation and technology. Georgina also led on developing relationships across central and local government.

James Perrineau, Sales Manager, Maptionnaire
James Perrineau works with customers from the UK and Ireland in diverse sectors, such as town planning, mobility, local administration, energy, and public health. His professional background is from a range of organisations — from start-ups to city councils. He provides Maptionnaire customers with an in-depth understanding of the best practices for promoting a stronger citizen engagement process as well as the impact of Maptionnaire on their upcoming projects.

Liz St Louis, Director for Smart Cities, Sunderland City Council
Liz St Louis is the Director for Smart Cities at Sunderland City Council. Liz St Louis is a dynamic, highly motivated and experienced leader with over 30 years’ experience. Liz has driven transformation programmes and digital and data initiatives throughout her career and has a passion for person centred user design and ensuring digital and data enables transformational change that makes a real and measurable difference. Leading the delivery of the Smart City Programme for Sunderland, Liz is responsible for driving forward city-wide investment in next generation digital infrastructure and use cases that will make a transformational difference across a city landscape.

Peter Takacs, Network Services Commercial Lead, Crown Commercial Service
Commercial Lead and Network Services Framework manager, with over 20 years experience in Procurement and Category management within IT Services, OEM and Trade Procurement environments. Experience in M&A transformation: developing business plans that support revenue enablement and growth.

Rebekah Brown, IoT Project Delivery Manager, Royal Borough of Kingston

Sarah King, Curriculum Achievement Officer, Cardiff Council
Sarah King has worked as a primary school teacher and senior leader for over 15 years in schools across Cardiff. She is currently working for Cardiff Council as a Curriculum Achievement Officer with a focus on computation and pupil engagement. As a team, they support Cardiff schools to realise the Cardiff 2030 vision through the implementation of Curriculum for Wales. She works with external partners across the city as well as departments within Cardiff Council to develop and engage children in projects set in real life authentic contexts. 

Sherelle Fairweather, Digital Strategy Lead, Manchester City Council
Sherelle Fairweather has worked within the equalities and social change space across local government and the community sector for over ten years. Now as Digital Strategy Lead at Manchester City Council, Sherelle is responsible for the implementation of the city-wide, five year digital strategy, which aims to drive Manchester's digital ambitions around digitally skilled residents and fair opportunities, future-proofed needs based infrastructure, a thriving digital economy and a digitally enabled sustainable transition to zero-carbon. Sherelle previously coordinated the council's response to reducing the digital divide whilst intensified by covid-19 lockdowns and is passionate about technological influence on society being for the better. Sherelle believes true cross-organisational collaboration mobilises action and long-lasting change and is enthused by projects that enable people to live their life’s independently and full.  

Stu Higgins, Head of Smart and IoT, Sustainability Ambassador, Cisco
Stu Higgins is a passionate advocate for harnessing digital technologies to improve the lives of people within different communities, both urban and rural, whether they are working, learning, studying or just out and about having fun. He believes that technology has a significant role to play in addressing the issues people face in their everyday lives by removing the friction from the things that matter to us all. Stu's work involves helping people explore how they can use digital solutions to address the challenges experienced by residents, visitors, organisations and their employees, in other words, everyone and how we can reduce the climatic impact we have on individuals, society, and the planet. He represents Cisco on several industry boards and advisory panels focussing on Connected Communities and Sustainability.

Theo Blackwell, Chief Digital Officer for London, Greater London Authority
Appointed in 2017 as London's first Chief Digital Officer, Theo Blackwell leads on London-wide digital transformation, data and smart city initiatives at City Hall. His role involves:

• Strategic leadership on the digital transformation agenda for London's public services, across the GLA group and the wider public sector.
• Convening on behalf of the Mayor, across London local government to support the take-up of innovative, technology, and data-led approaches to service delivery and public engagement.
• Developing and promoting partnership between the public, private and community sectors to enable and support the development of new public service-oriented technology and innovation.

The new Smarter London Together Roadmap launched by Mayor Sadiq Khan in June 2018, is supporting the collective capabilities of the city through citizen-centred design, data-sharing, smart infrastructure, digital skills and collaboration. Progress can be followed on the Smarter London Together Report Card.