Array Festival May 2020 Array Festival Lancaster 2020 is an independent event designed to inspire the community to engage with digital technology. The original concept with a fully interactive Digital and Tech event all around the city. Covid-19 put a stop to that. The event will now be delivered online throughout the month of May, culminating in a number of presentations on the 19th, 20th and 21st, placing focus on the digital and tech scene of Lancaster. Sessions will take place via Zoom, with some Live Streamed on YouTube too. Array Festival aims to – Inspire through stories – Educate with Insights – Shine a light on the Digital and Tech community of Lancaster to showcase exactly what is happening 2020 is all about creating conversation in the city, and here’s how we’ll do it…
Lancaster’s Digital and Technological Story
Beneath a quiet surface flows a busy undercurrent of digital and tech activity in the city of Lancaster. Lancashire County Council’s investment in Fraser House, Health Innovation Campus, Lancaster University’s role in the GM Cyber Foundry and the City Council’s Digital Strategy showcase just some of the emergent activity.
Clusters of technology businesses in electronics, hydrogen energy, software development and data engineering ensure we have a requirement for high level skills across the city. This is supported by a high-quality network of digital and creative agencies.
Array Festival aims to bring the city together, creating streams of conversation online to showcase Lancaster’s digital prowess – #ArrayFestival.
What is planned? Whilst Covid-19 has taken our full event online we’ve still got plenty of inspiring and insightful content planned. A full list of Zoom chats and presentations will be available in due course. Content will be available throughout May, with a focus on digital, tech and innovation. All our content is designed to inspire, featuring stories from digital entrepreneurs, or inspire, with how to lessons and tech insights. If you are an organisation that wants to take part in the Array Festival please contact hello@arrayfestival.co.uk To keep up to date with the what’s going on follow #ArrayFestival
Discover the range of workshops, discussions, interviews and seminars at Array Festival 2020
Fraser House and Beyond: The Lancaster Digital Community with Dan Knowles Dan Knowles has been working as part of the Lancaster digital and business community for the last 15 years. Currently responsible for opening the new Digital and Tech Hub at Fraser House on White Cross, Dan will be sharing his vision for the building, a Lancaster Digital and Tech community and how Lancaster will continue to grow. Tues, 5th May, 10am – book now Book now
Entrepreneur Story: Ruth Wilkinson from The Consult Centre When it comes to turning an idea into a business Ruth Wilkinson knows more than most. Her Morecambe based business The Consult Centre offers Digital PR and marketing services, as well as managing the physical Consult Centre hot-desk and coworking space. Following on from a thriving career with the Daisy Group, Ruth is passionate about inspiring start-ups in and around the Bay area. Weds 6th May, 1pm – book now Book now
Entrepreneur Story: Mark Hallam, Director of Cloud Commerce Group From mail order movie subscriptions, Business Serve in the mid 90s through to 7 figures corporate sales to BT and more, Mark Hallam is a true Digital and Media entrepreneur. These days his expertise lies in eCommerce through his Cloud Commerce Pro Group. Discover what lays behind Marks success in this 1:1 interview chat. Thurs, 7th May, 8pm – book now Book now
Entrepreneur Story: Lorna Stellakis, MD of Q2Q How do you drive success in a technical world when you’re a non-technical leader? Lorna Stellakis made the move into IT infrastructure from a logistics operations background within the fashion sector. Whilst technical knowledge may not have been on her side those key leadership and people management skills in an operations capacity have been the vital in her success. Find out more in this video interview. Tues, 12th May, 8pm – book now Book now
Insight Talk: The Future of Market Research being Built in the North West How do companies ensure that they make decisions based on quality information that is quickly available to them? A insights driven platform from Lancaster enables organisations to do just that. FlexMR based just North of Lancaster is doing just that, changing market research for some of the world’s biggest organisations. Chief Marketing Officer Chris Martin joins us to discuss the future of market research as well as showcasing how savvy organisations are innovating using more effective research techniques. Thurs 14th May, 10am – book now Book now
Insight Talk: How to Maximise the Value of your Agency, with Michael Gibson Michael Gibson is undoubtedly at the forefront of the Digital industry in Lancashire. Following a successful career in advertising, Michael is perhaps best known locally for his role as Managing Director and owner of Fat Media and is currently the Managing Director of Miralis Data. Michael advises on a number of commercial and charitable boards, and plays a key role in advising and promoting the regions digital agenda, particularly in the Lancaster region. Join Michael as he discusses how to grow your digital and creative agency, the key measures for success and how the big agencies do it. Thurs, 14th May, 1pm – book now Book now
Insight: Is now a good time to go self employed? Starting a business post Covid-19 with Jane Binnion Jane Binnion started her career in self employment almost a decade ago with Jane’s Social Media, training organisations across the north on how to integrate Social Media as part of their outreach. Over the last few years Jane has inspired many more women to start their own business through The Growing Club CIC. Join Jane as she discusses the fundamentals of starting a business and being ‘digital’ in a post Covid-19 world. Fri, 15th May, 10:30am – book now Book now
Insight Talk: Creating Digital Ambassadors, A Guide to Employee Advocacy Sarah Goodall is the Founder of Tribal Impact, specialising in helping B2B organisations achieve revenue growth through an integrated approach to Employee Advocacy, Social Selling, Content Marketing and Social Media. Sarah’s 20+ year career in marketing includes time spent with IBM, Hitachi and most recently SAP where she spent over 6 years as Head of Social Business in EMEA. During this talk Sarah will share insights on how to amplify your brands message by enabling digital ambassadors in your staff team. Tues, 19th May, 10:30am – book now Book now
Precious Plastics Lancaster Workshop Tour with Martin Paley Join Martin Paley of Precious Plastic Lancaster on a virtual tour of the workshop where they turn plastic ‘waste’ into valuable products. You’ll get to see the recycling process under one roof, some of the properties and characteristics of plastic that make it fantastic and an insight into the global picture. More information about Precious Plastics can be found at preciousplasticlancaster.co.uk Tues, 19th May, 3pm – book now Book now
Entrepreneur Story: Craig Smith, MD of Mazuma Mobile From starting out with Orange Mobile, Craig Smith identified an opportunity early on in mobile phone recycling and built SHP Limited from the ground up. Following it’s rebrand to ICT Reverse the company was brought by global mobile recycling giant Eco-Renew Group with Craig appointed UK Managing Director, in the group which includes consumer brand Mazuma Mobile. Join us to hear about Craig’s story from starting out to being part of a Global business. Tues, 19th May, 8pm – book now Book now
Insight: SEO in 2020
Ethan Giles, Operations Director of Novi Digital is conducting a review of what businesses’ SEO strategy should look like in 2020. He’ll be answering questions such as:
What changes in search behaviour can we see?
What is the impact of voice search?
How important are links?
What content should you be writing?
How do you use data to make SEO drive sales?
Entrepreneur Story: James Walkerdine, COO of Relative Insight Having moved to Lancaster University in the mid 90s to study Computer Science, James Walkerdine’s successful academic achievements prepared him for an exciting career, building and developing one of the darling companies of the Northern England digital scene, Relative Insight. Relative Insight’s software and consultancy provides language insights for some of the world’s biggest brands, but when the company first started, as a University spin out, the positioning was completely different. Tune in to listen to this unique story. Weds 20th May, 1pm – book now Book now
PyData Lancaster MeetUp Since the beginning of April, the NHS have been publishing Excel spreadsheets showing recorded hospital deaths from COVID-19. It might take several days before we know the real figures for a particular day. This data is interesting because it highlights the time it often takes for a death to be officially recorded. While it’s useful data, the format isn’t easy for data analysts and software developers to work with. A local group of coders created an API which allows you to query the actual Covid-19 death totals rather than the reported ones. Members of the team will be explaining how they approached the problem and the solution they came up with by using their skills. PyData Lancaster is the local chapter of an international community. It provides a forum for the users and developers of data analysis tools to share ideas and learn from each other. PyData approach data science using many languages, including (but not limited to) Python Matlab, and R. Weds 20th May, 7pm – book now Book now
Think Like an Influencer in your Marketing with Rory Southworth After pivoting during lockdown from being an outdoor enthusiast to the UK’s “leading” Home Athlete. Rory Southworth, who has over 12k followers on Instagram has gone on to lead a groups to climb Everest in their own homes and goes for the weekly wild swim in his bin, landing himself on the international news for his antics. Normally found after work running up mountains and swimming in tarns as an ambassador for Salomon, Polar, We Are Sungod, Oshea Surf and Ordnance Survey. In his day job as a Business Development Officer within Lancashire Forum Creative at UCLan, he helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow through sharing experiences, new processes, and development methodologies. He will bring his experiences and mindset as an influencer and how to apply it to marketing your business. Thurs 21st May 3pm – book now Book now
Entrepreneur Story: Rich Dyer, Co-Founder of Skiddle and Highest Point Festival Back in 2001 Rich Dyer and co-founder Ben Sebborn started an online what’s-on guide born out of the frustration of not being able to find great gigs and events. Fast forward almost 20 years and Skiddle has now become one of the most trusted ticketing platforms in the UK. During that time, they have also had found time to start A-Wing events and the much loved Highest Point Festival. We’ll be chatting with Rich to find out more about running such a high profile business and what’s next for Highest Point. Thurs 21st May 8pm – book now Book now