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Newsletter: The next week or so at Socitm

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With your free member events, meetings, resources, and training

It’s just over two months till President’s Conference in Brighton. We’ll be beside the seaside with a warm welcome and stick of rock, as we host our biggest and best conference.
Register your place now.

Learning | Problem solving | Networking

Regeneration, sustainability and connectivity 2023

Top 5 things we’re looking forward to for our meeting in Cardiff on Tuesday 25 April:

  1. Great venue: the Principality Stadium
  2. Guaranteed warm welcome (from the whole Socitm community)
  3. The inspiring people and projects. You are brilliant!
  4. Renewing old 😉 and making new connections.
  5. Gathering round tables and collaborating in person.

Choose a mini workshop:

  • AWS: unlocking the value of sustainability data
  • IGEL: designing IT services and modern workspaces
  • Salesforce: creating citizen-centred service experiences

The only in-person event in Wales on the 2023 calendar.

The sessions won’t be recorded. So, we’re looking forward to great conversations at the Principality Stadium.

Don’t forget that tickets are included in your membership. Register your interest and make your way to Cardiff. If you get stuck with anything, just let us know.

Free training

The Microsoft and Socitm Change Agent programme is returning in June.

It’s free for the majority of Microsoft Enterprise Agreement public sector customers.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn on this course. However, I would 100% recommend it. It has to be one of the best courses I have been on. It’s been engaging and great to communicate with other councils, and has opened my eyes to what is possible. I have learnt so many new ways in which data can be utilised to improve the lives of our residents.”

There is no charge for this training. It’s a Microsoft and Socitm programme for the public sector. Your colleagues in councils that aren’t Socitm members can join this training. Do share the programme details with everyone!

Learn more

NEW Research: recruitment and retention

Most organisations find it challenging to recruit and retain technology and digital specialists.

Your new report includes viewpoints from:

  • Matt Lewis, COO of SRS Wales and a Socitm vice president
  • London Borough of Hounslow
  • Adam Elliott, Head of Resourcing, and Andy Campbell-Critchley, HR Director at Socitm Advisory
  • Sam Hall, Director for Digital Health and Care Wales (former CDO for Welsh local government)

It concludes with a range of options for individual organisations and the sector on how to make recruitment and retention work better.

Log in to read the whole report. Register to make sure you’ve got a user account.

Read this new report

Training

This year, you register for training using points instead of places. Not sure how it works? Send any questions to Dominika Szulim-Wronek.

Your new Leadership Academy Advocate of the Month is Eleri Thomas – from the Isle of Anglesey County Council.

Share your training experience with other members – fill in the short Q&A.

Training over the next few months

Starting on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 April: Empowering Women 2 spaces now available!

Want to join the next Empowering Women cohort?! Two spaces are now available for the sessions starting in London on Thursday 27 April. This group’s final session will be in Brighton at Presidents’ Conference in June. A great opportunity to join the programme and the conference!

Interested? For all the details, email Dominika

Tuesday 2 May: Workshop: How to be an effective coach (second workshop on Monday 22 May)
Thursday 4 May: Workshop: Introduction to emotional intelligence
Monday 9 May: Workshop: Valuing diversity
Wednesday 7 June: Programme Change Agent (Manager) ( second day on Friday 16 June)
Monday 19 June: Programme Change Agent (5 days, finishing on Friday 23 June)

Once you’ve finished your training don’t forget to claim your CPD points.

Socitm Advisory

Create and join in a Design Lab at President’s Conference in June

In a recent survey the biggest service design challenge was:

Having the right resources, skills and capability in your organisation.

You are invited to join virtual design labs on:

  1. Tuesday 25 April (09.30 to 11.30) to explore this service design challenge
  2. Thursday 11-May (13.30 to 15.30) to explore the solutions

Please email their service design expert Alex Fillingham by 17:00 on Monday 17 April if you would like to take part.

Are you making full use of your membership?

As part of your membership you can receive between 2 and 12 hours of FREE consultancy advice per year. To make use of your inclusive consultancy hours, get in touch or log in to My Account.

Visit socitmadvisory.co.uk

Events from Socitm and partners

April

May

Missed a webinar? Past recordings are available to watch in the resource hub. Also, make sure to check out our regional events. There’s a mix of online and in-person meetings, so please feel free to join any that are outside your area.

Browse the events calendar

FEDIP Future Digital Leader Bursaries

Applications are now open to those in their early informatics careers.

The bursary covers a year’s membership to one of the FEDIP Professional Bodies, a place at the Digital Health Summer School and an invitation to a programme of events designed to support the next generation of health and care informatics professionals.

Applications are open until 10 May 2023.

DigiGov 2023 | 23 May | QEII Centre, London

Join the 10th annual DigiGov Conference. Hear from Socitm CEO, Nadira Hussain; CDIO at the Cabinet Office, Mike Hill; and Head of Digital and Transformation at Woking Borough Council, Adam Walther.

Register now and network with leading public sector tech professionals.

Secure your free pass

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

To coincide with the recent publication of the new report looking at recruitment and retention strategies in local government, have a listen to this:

Freakonomics: Why are there so many bad bosses?

Make sure you connect with us on LinkedIn and on Twitter to keep up-to-date with everything happening.