5 Takeaways from Digital DNA

Chaired by BBC Business presenter Clodagh Rice (#girlboss), the panel on Digital Transformation covered the thorny issue of the future of retail in the digital age. Citing the example of their client Toys“R”Us, Andrew Fulton from Digital Product firm Dawson Andrews spoke of a happy medium to be found between reducing retail footprint, whilst optimising the online experience.

He cautioned a blanket closure of retail space, noting the strategic importance of the in-store experience for certain customers — “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”. The move from bricks to clicks and the questions surrounding the fate of the high street have led us to search for better uses of retail space, with the general trend being towards providing order-online-collect-in-store options, personal shopping experiences and café/working space set-ups. If in-store provides an enhanced experience, online becomes the crucial arena for driving profit — and this necessitates an optimal buying experience. In this instance, the DA team found a way to re categorise the 100,000s of products that TRU list on their web-store to dramatically improve the crucial path to product experience for shoppers.

This led onto a wider discussion of just how to go about getting buy-in, finance and then implementing digital transformation projects inside an organisation, be it a large multinational like TRU, down to a local SMB or a government agency. Michael O’Hara from GSMA spoke of the opportunity to harness the expertise of local companies to help in this transformation. Andrew spoke of the opportunity to engage other employees in the organisation, rather than immediately look to outsource such a transformation project. Indeed, as a self-confessed champion for Gen Z, I could immediately see the value younger employees could provide in such scenarios.

2. Building great customer experiences starts on the inside

Danske Bank is just one example of a local company grappling with the move from in-store to online. Chief Digital Officer for the bank, Søren Rode Andreasen, delivered his keynote to a packed audience of the ambitious plans he has in-hand.

First up, Danske Bank users can expect a completely re-designed mobile app later in the year (their out-of-date app was the key reason why I opened a Monzo current account a few months ago — it’ll be interesting to see if this new design can keep them in the game with design snob younger users like myself). Secondly, they’re converting part of their flagship store in Belfast into a FinTech-focused co-working space, in partnership with Catalyst Inc.

But the key message in Søren’s talk was that change starts on the inside. One of the first measures he took when he assumed the CDO role was to give every frontline employee a mobile phone. A digital transformation strategy on paper is one thing, but giving employees the tools to help them feel comfortable embracing it is another. As tech giants acquire banking licenses, this is a crucial move in a role reversal that sees Danske Bank become a software company, whilst confronting an organisational immune system that is resistant to change. This theme of cultural resistance to change was echoed throughout many talks across the two days at Digital DNA, with a need for employee empowerment and training emphasised consistently.

Søren announces the new Fintech co-working space coming soon to Belfast

3. Digital is changing everything — for better and for worse

I’ve already used the word “change” in this post too many times, but some interesting insights and discussions were shared on just what the impact of this digital-driven change might be. Michael O’Hara painted a picture of a 5G-enabled future, where the next generation of network technology will deliver x100 faster connection speed. In theory, he explained that this would allow a surgeon in Belfast to carry out an operation on a patient in Africa using VR and robotics to control his instruments with very little latency (I couldn’t decide if this was an example of tech for good or tech for straight up scary — so I’ll let you make the call on that one).

One of my favourite discussions was that hosted by the Community Foundation of NI on the question of technology and democracy. There were some brilliant examples of technology being used for good, notably the recent vote on abortion legislation in Ireland and the mobilising efforts of the Repeal campaign on social media. Even more recent than that is the reversal of Trump’s immigration policy, largely as a result of resounding condemnation across social media of children being separated from their families. But of course, there were plenty of examples of technology having a harmful impact on democracy, with the US election and Brexit referendum being prime examples of how bots and misinformation can harm the electoral process.

Some interesting reflections came from Alan Meban, Chair of FactCheckNI, and the difficulties in establishing one version of the truth, most notably in the current context of Brexit negotiations and the Irish border. My favourite quote of the whole conference came from Máirín Murray, co-founder of Tech For Good Dublin, who said “we no longer have a shared reality”. At the extreme, programmatic advertising has the power to take us into a world each of us sees a different version of an online environment, tailored to us individually. When we no longer have a shared reality, how can we have informed discussions or relatable conversations?

4. There’s a renewed focus on the next generation of leaders

If that all sounds a bit startling for you, maybe you should have faith in the next generation of digital leaders who might just bring society back from the brink. Digital DNA was quite literally packed with young people — be it teenage entrepreneurs like Adam Flanagan from Future 18, Kris Jones who is CTO (!) at Secure Broadcast, Andrew Murray who ran the technical stuff back stage, or youth delegations hosted by Catalyst Inc or the Digital DNA Futures initiative.

Conor Houston from Digital DNA sums up the importance of youth participation and exposure to an event like Digital DNA in this video here.

Hanging out with some of the Catalyst Inc youth delegation

5. We need to make changes in our education system — yesterday

If there was just one key takeaway from the whole conference — and one thing that nearly every talk concluded with — was the need for reform in our education system to ensure we are preparing the next generation of innovators for the new digital world that is being forged around us. One example was the need for university engineering programmes to teach coding languages actually being used to build digital products today, rather than languages from a decade ago.

One announcement tackled this problem head on. Attracting the biggest crowd that I witnessed across the whole conference, Diane Morrow and Michael O’Hara launched MTech Academy — a new initiative to inspire and empower students and teachers in Northern Ireland through a collaborative learning community. Concretely, this means sending 100 kids to Mobile World Congress next year, whilst mentoring head teachers across the province to help them to harness digital and share the opportunities it brings with their students.

It’s hard to see how businesses will cope with digital transformation while simultaneously facing the impending tornado of Brexit. It’s also hard to see how we can make even small changes to our education system when we still have no government at Stormont. But this conference wasn’t about focusing on the precarious political situation that Northern Ireland finds itself in — but more an opportunity to celebrate all the great things already happening here and to start imaging what a digital future might hold.

This post was originally published via Sarah McBride’s Medium account.