Nexus Connect Recap: Digital Innovation – Why Collaboration is Key

The latest Nexus Connect event brought together a trio of talented professionals to share insights on the power of collaboration, and why it’s such a crucial component in successful business. 

The eleventh event in the Nexus Connect programme (which forms part of the Leeds Digital Festival) was compered by Nathan Berry, Nexus’ Head of Collaboration, and featured the following speakers: 

• Hannah Roden, Strategy & Innovation Officer, Leeds City Council  

• Steve Taylor, Managing Director, Ayup Digital  

• Barnaby Davies, Product Manager, Omnivisto 

Focusing on the topic of digital innovation, the panellists discussed the benefits they’d seen through collaboration with other companies in this context, as well as the roadblocks their organisations encountered. 

“We now hold quarterly community get-togethers for all the teams and councils to share how they’re using the platform. So the whole thing is around collaboration, and that cross-pollination of need and requirement from different people really is fundamental to the platform itself.” 

“We’re extending capacity and capability by collaborating, added Barnaby Davies. “What we can achieve is fundamentally more ambitious. Inevitably, that’s going to produce more business value and result in better outcomes. It’s a core competency. It’s a core competitive differentiator. You see it in companies with diversity and inclusion. You see it in companies with culture and values.” 

Collaboration was also integral to Leeds City Council’s recent healthcare projects, as Hannah Roden explained. “For the last year, we’ve been leading on a remote health monitoring project with a company called Luscii. This technology enables people to take their vital signs at home, blood pressure readings, weighing scales, pulse oximeters, and that information then goes back to their GP practice for them to receive proactive care. 

“We’ve also been working in social care with a company called MyCare, and that’s been monitoring people’s activities of daily living at home and generating alerts if something is wrong for that individual. That’s the vision we have – we want to join up the health and care system in Leeds, using technology to allow us to do that.” 

On the subject of obstacles within digital innovation, Hannah said money continues to be a significant challenge. “We don’t have the budgets of the big players – the likes of Apple and Microsoft – I wish we did. So having to find funding opportunities and writing bids does take a huge amount of time, and it might not even be successful. Funding can also be quite restrictive, in terms of timescales or areas of focus. Sometimes you have to tweak what you’d actually like to do to fit into those timescales and remits, so it doesn’t always give you the freedom to do what you’d like to do.” 

Steve Taylor says it’s important to be brave and accept that there’ll always be something wrong with what you’re doing. He strongly recommends that you confront criticism, and let people talk freely about it, while also talking about the successful aspects. 

Hannah recommends making the most of assets that are already in place, making full use of existing partnerships with dependable and reputable organisations before going out and looking for the “new shiny thing”. What have you got that’s already in-house? 

Barnaby says you should embrace the “power of bad ideas”, as these are the ones that subsequently generate the good ideas. People are often worried about being judged in a room full of people that don’t know each other, but Barnaby notes that it’s important to let a bad idea – even one “so stupid it dare not speak its name” – into the space, as that’s how the process of successful collaboration starts. 

Keep an eye on our Eventbrite  for details of the next Nexus Connect event.