What we learnt at #iNetworkDigital

With 15 sessions across a packed but fluid day, the first #iNetworkDigital was one of the most interactive events we’ve ever held.

It was designed to balance the networking opportunities of an unconference with the surety of great speakers from a more traditional format. A big thanks to everyone who gave up their time to speak and attend and to PWC, NDL, IEG4 and CommonTime for their financial support and expertise.

But what did we learn?

First that digital has matured and is a cornerstone of transformation as opposed to being solely about taking cost out of transactions.

Both Ken Clemens, Age UK, and Jonathan House, PWC, expressed this in their openings with Ken highlighting the fire services example – very much the poster child for radical change. As a result of adopting an intelligence and prevention strategy they now only spend 7% of their time fighting fires. A clear lesson there for our time and cash strapped health and care economies which is very much in line with the aspirations of DevoManc.

The engaging communities and generating social value thread ran through the whole day with examples covered including Speakset, RallyRound, Casserole Club, and the Bristol Pound. I’ll add in Chorley Spice as I loved their Innovation Hub mini-talk at the LGA conference.

Those able to harness digital capabilities and enable consumers of services to become producers will reap the fiscal and social rewards as long as this is a core strand in their health and care strategy.

With this being such a hot topic is isn’t surprising that it is the focus of July’s Shaping Demand Unconference (link) which builds on heap of other things we’ve been doing, including a similar day “Shaping Demand” in May. There are a number of excellent talks on the iNetwork Knowledge Hub which relate to this. Engaging in our activities here should be a must for policy makers and transformation / change leads.

The other themes of the day were welfare and inclusion. In additional to Rahna Riley giving a masterclass in how to use design principles to digitise Rochdale’s excellent online benefits service, David Wright talked through the Local Authority Data Sharing Programme at the DWP. The big lesson here is that DWP has a comprehensive and very forward looking strategy in place that will benefit local government if it engages and shapes it.

The glimpse we were given into their 2020 Vision was compelling and for the first time in our experience they’re working cohesively towards a remarkable set of delivery capabilities. There are opportunities to engage and to do this please contact phil@i-network.org.uk.

You can find the talks and contact through the links below.