Get set to use everything in your membership in 2025

Newsletter: Happy Summer Solstice

Get everything you can from your membership

Your events, training and resources

The JustGiving page remains open for another week. Thank you so much for your support

The JustGiving page remains open for President Carol Williams’s chosen charity Capstone Care Leavers Trust. As does the Public Sector Challenge one raising money for Cancer Research UK.

Thank you so much for your support

Top 4 interesting and useful things for you this week:

  1. Read more about smart places, connected places and AI
  2. More free training with Microsoft
    Change Agent (Manager) training is concluding on Friday while you read this. As soon as the next dates are confirmed I’ll share them with you.
    But if you’re a woman in local public services register your interest for training coming in the autumn: TechHer for Government
  3. Weekly webinars return next week, before taking a break for summer.
    In this mini season you can learn how to:
  4. There are 3 more Empowering Women courses this year and in July it will be in Exeter for the first time.
    Watch Institute Director Sam Smith talk about its personal and professional impact on her

Take care. I hope you’re able to have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Alex.

Illustration of a woman reading an oversized book, entitled, 'Local gov's big book of ideas'.

In Your Resource Hub

NEW Connected Places: Health and wellbeing

Supporting your organisation to work with people, communities and each other to maximise their health and wellbeing.

Start to design places and communities that prioritise health and connectivity, create environments that support healthier lifestyles and improve the quality of life for all of your residents.

NEW impact case in AI@Socitm

Report occurrences of waste, fly tipping, graffiti and animal fouling in one minute
A new waste reporting tool, utilising advances in AI technology, has been launched by Westminster City Council.

You might have missed…

Responsible and secure use of technologies, artificial intelligence and data
This policy blog showcases some of our top resources, practical frameworks and tools, and examples of What Works – highlighting impact cases from your peers, our executive partners, webinars, and events.

Socitm Says

You will need a user account on socitm.net to access member-only resources. Let us know if need any support.

VMware pricing: Understanding the impact

Join the LGA and CCS from 14:00 to 15:00 on Tuesday 16 July to understand the impact of Broadcom’s takeover of VMware.

Across the public sector, there are reports of increases of 500%, and this session will focus on council experiences, as well as sharing more information on VMware changes, routes to market and commercial guidance that’s available.

Further reading/watching:
Computer Weekly: Education sector facing huge VMware cost increases after Broadcom ends discounts
CCS webinar recording: VMware product and commercial update

For more information, please email cyberanddigital@local.gov.uk

Leadership Academy Alumni 2023

Training

There are 3 more Empowering Women courses this year. Find the one nearest to you and register.

Watch Institute Director Sam Smith talk about the personal and professional impact of Empowering Women training.

How was your course? Tell us about it 🙂

Virtual workshops

In-person programmes

Training places are included in your organisational membership – subject to availability and membership level. If you have any questions or would like further information, please email the training team.

The title 'TechHer for Government Autumn 2024' is superimposed over a photo of the Houses of Parliament lit up at night. Underneath this photo is the sentence: Creating opportunities for women to learn and develop skills in technology.

TechHer is an initiative designed to inspire curiosity and excitement about technologies such as cloud, AI, data, low code/no code app creation and security.

The Teams sessions (1 hour per week over 5 weeks) are aimed at women without a technical background and are keen to gain confidence to learn more.

Public Sector Innovation Day.  Join us as we understand how digital transformation and innovative technologies can be fully leveraged for better citizen experiences, all while protecting data privacy and security. Date: Wednesday 26 June 2024. Time: 10:30 to 15:30. Register now by visiting canon.co.uk/innvovation-day

Join Canon UK in their London offices on Wednesday 26 June to learn more about the latest digital trends, cyber-security tactics and strategies for public services success. 

One of the guest speakers is our Research and Policy Director, Martin Ferguson. He’ll be sharing an overview of the digital trends and technologies shaping delivery of better public service outcomes.

National conference Sheffield 2024

Events

Member-only meetings

Meet people for catching-up, problem sharing (and solving) and great networking.

Free webinars and meetings hosted by Socitm

Free webinars and events hosted by partners and others

June

July

September

Missed a webinar? Past recordings are available to watch in the resource hub.

Webinars are open to anyone in the public sector, membership is not necessary, so please do share them with your network.

Come and say hello

  • Wednesday 26 June: Canon’s Public Sector Innovation Day [London]
    Meet Martin Ferguson and talk to him about digital trends and technologies shaping better public service outcomes.
  • Tuesday 24 September: DigiGov Expo [London]
    Join Nadira Hussain, President Mark Lumley and Sam Smith
    • Nadira is chairing the Citizen Experience stream. In which, at 15:25, Mark (Director of ICT and Digital at London Borough of Hounslow) is a panellist on Data-Driven Collaboration: Transforming governance through strategic partnerships and enhanced data sharing
    • Sam is a panellist in the GovICT stream at 15:10 for Driving Transformation through an Effective Strategy: The pillars needed to achieve success

Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far! Just one more thing…

For all you Content Design fans you might already have the second and updated edition. If not….get that to the top of your To Do list 🙂 Well, to be fair I bought the updated book but haven’t started to read it yet. That is probably the key part.