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Just published: AI@Socitm
Unlock AI excellence
AI@Socitm is a dynamic hub of resources to help you get to grips with implementing AI responsibly and securely.
In each theme you’ll find research, webinars, impact cases, relevant upcoming Socitm events and training, external training, and external links:
- Opportunities and threats
- Leadership and governance
- Responsible and secure use of AI
- Skills and competencies
Want to add your own content? Let us know on hello@socitm.net or use the contact us [choose Research as your area of interest] form.
Let’s help each other connect the dots.
ICYMI We are accepting nominations for Socitm Awards 2024
This year’s awards are a little different. The categories have been expanded and we have new judging panels for each one.
Nominate your own team and projects and then nominate someone else’s work that’s impressed you in the past 12 months. It’s a short submission form (with a max of ~500 words) so share the great work you’ve done and seen.
Plug for the events schedule 🙂
It’s not always easy to travel so keep an eye on the webinar schedule (which are mostly weekly – they are taking a break for the school holidays in England) as there’s a variety of topics covered there. And in the list below you’ll see online events from partners and things that I spot that I’m sure you’ll find relevant and useful. If you’re running something that you want to share with members tell me and I’ll add it in.
Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend. And an even better Bank Holiday weekend next week!
Best wishes,
Alex.
Your Resource Hub
From Digital Trends 2024: Community resilience
Stronger IT intrusion detection, and a better educated workforce have all helped organisations to prevent, detect and deal with cyber risks.
2024 will see a significant change in this agenda for public services, with a focus on the contribution of digital and IT to the mitigation of a community-wide risks, as public services operate in a connected system of inter-dependent services, communities, geographies, and infrastructures.
Protecting this wider system is key to the resilience and functioning of public services.
You might have missed…
Green and sustainable IT: Give your device a second life
In net zero we considered how local authorities can help to decarbonise their areas. This briefing focuses on IT lifecycle emissions and the responsible disposal of electronic waste to reduce environmental impact, thereby contributing to achieving net zero targets.
The world produces around 50 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste a year, worth over $62.5 billion, making it the fastest growing waste stream worldwide – the UN calls it a tsunami of e-waste.
Website accessibility
Log in to check your Silktide Score and to complete your Digital Accessibility Maturity Assessment.
Accessibility Week returns in May. Details of the daily sessions will be shared as soon as they’re confirmed.
You will need a user account on socitm.net to access member-only resources. Let us know if need any support.
Local Digital evaluation study update
Understanding the needs of local government
We are asking all councils in England to complete the Local Digital evaluation survey (even if you’ve taken it already) to ensure that we have a comprehensive set of responses from across local government.
The survey, covering digital and cyber posture takes up to 30 minutes to complete and can be submitted by anyone from your council. We particularly encourage participation from digital and cyber staff.
Completing it will provide a useful opportunity to benchmark your digital and cyber readiness. Like last time, we will publish findings from key survey questions, allowing your council to compare its responses with those across the sector.
Training
Leadership Advocate Irene Docherty has recently completed the Empowering Women course:
“I was able to take time to reflect on my values and biases and to challenge my own thinking. The realisation that we all shared many views, issues and aspirations was eye-opening.”
Read all about it her new Q&A. How was your course? Tell us about it 🙂
March’s virtual courses
- Thursday 28 March: Change Agent Reflector: Time to change (part 6 of 6)
April’s CPD-certified virtual workshops
- Tuesday 9 April: Workshop on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion | Teams | 1 point | CPD-certified
- Tuesday 16 April: Part 1 of 2 Managing and Motivating Remote Teams | Teams | 1 point
- Tuesday 30 April: Introduction to Emotional Intelligence | Teams | 1 point
May and June’s in-person and virtual courses
- Tuesday 21 May: Part 1/2 How to be an effective coach | Teams | 1 point
- Thursday 20 and Friday 21 June: Change Agent Manager | Teams | 0 points
- Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 June: Top Talent | East | 4 points
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.
Events
Member-only meetings
Meet people for catching-up, problem sharing (and solving) and great networking.
- Friday 19 April: in-person meeting for members in the Midlands
- Friday 19 April: virtual meeting for members in the London and South East
- Friday 26 April: in-person meeting for members in the North East
- Thursday 23 May: in-person meeting for members in Yorkshire and Humber
- Wednesday 29 May: in-person meeting for members in Northern Ireland
- Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 June: President’s Conference 2024 in Birmingham
Free webinars and events from Socitm and our partners
- Tuesday 26 March
22:00 GMT/11:00 NZDT ALGIM webinar: Digital Trends 2024 – key messages for public service leaders
Researcher and co-author Jos Creese is talking about this year’s report with local government colleagues in New Zealand. - Wednesday 27 March
- 09:30 to 11:00 Exercise in a Box ‘Ransomware’ Session
- 13:00 to 14:00: Your future-proof blueprint to sustainable growth and digital evolution
The importance of migrating from legacy technology for operational efficiency and security. Plus, the long-term advantages of cloud hosting, including: enhanced securit, improved performance and future scalability. - 16:00 to 17:00 How AI will revolutionize accessibility
- Thursday 28 March: ISfL Annual Conference 2024 [London]
- Tuesday 2 April: LocalGovDigital Live: Do we need a GDS for local government?
- Wednesday 3 April: Microsoft Innovation and Collaboration Forum
- Monday 8 April: Cyber security: The Battle for the Golden Ticket
- Tuesday 9 April: Healthcare. A low-code strategy workshop [London]
- Tuesday 23 April: CyberXperience Summit 2024 [Manchester]
- Wednesday 24 April: Harnessing technology & procurement to power innovation
Panellists include Carol Williams (Socitm VP and Director Transformation and Digital for Walsall Council), and Phil Murkin (CDO of Swindon Borough Council) - Thursday 25 April: Public services for the digital age
A focus on using technology to support citizens and provide tailored services to those who need them most. - Wednesday 1 May: Gaining productivity and efficiency
Get help driving productivity and efficiencies, all whilst delivering significant improvements in security. - Tuesday 7 May: LocalGovDigital Live: LoRaWAN, IoT, AI
- Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 May: DigiGov Expo [London]
- Tuesday 21 May: PublicTechnology Live 2024 [London]
- Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 May: Local Government Partnership Network North [Manchester]
- Accessibility Week returns in May.
Final details of the daily sessions will be shared once they’re all confirmed.
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 8 and Thursday 9 May: DigiGov Expo [London]
Join Nadira Hussain, Mark Lumley and Sam Smith on Wednesday - Tuesday 21 May: LGPN North [Manchester]
Join President Mark Lumley for the roundtable discussion Empowering communities: technology for public good - Tuesday 21 May: PublicTechnology Live 2024 [London]
Incoming President Carol Williams is a panellist for Are times too tough for local government transformation?
President’s Conference
Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 June in Birmingham
Socitm Awards 2024 are live
Awards celebrating local and regional government success are handed out to winners at the gala dinner on the evening of the first day of President’s Conference. This year that will be on Wednesday 12 June.
Log in to your account on socitm.net to see what is included in your organisation’s membership for the annual conference.
Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far! Just one more thing…
Spotted this (from Microsoft’s Stuart Ridout) on LinkedIn. If you’re using or trialling Copilot this might come in handy. Let me know.
“If you’re struggling with sharing #Copilot and AI prompts in your organisation I have GREAT NEWS! Erik Olsson and I are pleased to release #PromptBuddy onto GitHub as sample code for Power Apps. This is a great app that is FREE, takes no time to set up and that your users can get value from immediately.
Files at https://github.com/stuartridout/promptbuddy
Demo and install video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4h-GIOqULw
Prompt Buddy allows you to share your organisation prompts and build upon the great prompts that are already available in-app in the Copilot experience or in Copilot Labs.”