London Tech Week Highlights

We’re FDM, an award-winning global business and technology consultancy. For over 30 years we’ve been powering the people behind tech and innovation. We collaborate with world-leading companies to identify the expertise they need, exactly when they need it.

We have helped successfully launch nearly 25,000 careers globally and are a trusted partner to over 300 companies worldwide.   

This month we were at the London Tech Week expo as exhibitors in the Corporate Innovation Zone, helping organisations with their AI adoption journey. As an exhibitor we wanted to engage in meaningful conversations, showcasing our expertise in technical readiness and AI transformation, helping companies understand what it takes to implement AI. Across the pond we had the same objective, exhibiting at London Tech Week’s Canadian counterpart, Collision, which took place the week after London Tech Week. In this edition of fast4ward in tech we explore the takeaways from the events.  

🥁 Here’s what to expect:  

1. Come with us to London Tech Week 2024 with Microsoft  

2. Come with us to Collision Conference 2024 with Microsoft  

3. Our survey said! Read the results of our survey on AI adoption journeys 

4. The 8 keys themes of London Tech Week discovered  

5. Our COO, Sheila Flavell attended, find out what she had to say  

6. Our AI expert consultants fill us in on the exciting projects they’re working on  

Come with us to London Tech Week 2024  

We had an incredible week showcasing our partnership with Microsoft as their trusted global workforce development partner. Our consultants and expert team were on hand to assist attendees with their AI adoption challenges, offering valuable insights into technical readiness and user enablement. Our COO, Sheila Flavell CBE, chaired the Corporate Innovation Stage, where industry leaders gathered to discuss the future of work and strategies to address challenges related to AI and skills development. 

Check out our highlights below!  

Come with us to Toronto Collision Conference 2024

Across the pond, also in partnership with Microsoft, FDM participated in Collision Toronto. This expo showcased our role as Microsoft’s trusted global workforce development partner. Our presence at the conference aimed to assist businesses in navigating the complexities of AI adoption and data readiness challenges. Our team engaged with attendees to discuss tailored solutions for prepping businesses for AI integration and optimising Microsoft 365 products tailored to their specific needs.

Check out our highlights below!

 Our survey said... 

At London Tech Week we conducted a survey around the use of AI in the tech industry. The survey revealed several interesting insights, from barriers to AI adoption to the most common use cases. AI is here and its development is advancing at incredible rates and despite our concerns there is so much potential within reach.  

64% of organisations are already using AI. So, what’s holding back others and what are the most popular use cases for AI? Uncover more of these eye-opening stats in our full report here. 

The 8 key themes of London Tech Week 

London Tech Week uncovered the latest in tech and innovation across eight key themes. We’ve done a deep dive into each theme and its potential impact on your organisation. 

1. 🦾 Artificial Intelligence: AI is undoubtedly taking the world by storm, with continual developments happening in the space. Despite this, we are still left with plenty of questions around the best use cases for AI. FDM Consultant Jonathan van Kuijk is currently on assignment and his client is considering rolling out Microsoft CoPilot for M365.  Find out how Jonathan is helping his client get ready for AI.  
2. 🛡️ The Future of Security and Data: The rapid pace of AI adoption is exacerbating the risk of cyber threats. We explore this in our blog, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cyber Security: What’s Next? 
3. 🎓 Tomorrow’s Talent: With evolving technology comes an evolving job market. Continual learning and development have become crucial to keep up with advancing technology and processes. Gen Z are our future leaders and their demand to upskill and advance in their careers needs attention. This blog explains how learning opportunities are the key to retaining Gen Z talent for the future.  
4. 👩💻 The Deep Tech Revolution: Deep tech refers to a business model that is based on high-tech innovation in engineering or scientific advancements or discoveries. One of the deep techs taking over is VR. From changing the way we play video games, to recreating the world’s most complex medical procedures, VR is now becoming a mainstay in the professional world. Read our blog about The Future of VR in the workplace.  
5. 🌱 Green Innovation: Harnessing the right technology with eco-solutions, circularity and sustainability are key to maintaining and conserving life on Earth. Read about how tech can support sustainability and environmental impact of digitalisation.  
6. 💡 Empowering Entrepreneurship: Sparking innovation and building your own business is built on being adaptive. Utilising emerging technologies like AI can enhance growth no matter the size of your business. We were exhibitors at the recent AWS Summit in London as business leaders gathered to explore the transformative potential of Generative AI. Find out more.  
7. 🩺 Healthier Futures: Radical innovation has changed the way we live and has opened the door to greater human potential. The advancement in technology and innovation is paving the way for greater efficiency and automation in healthcare. We explore the future of health and technology here. 
8. 🌎 Social Impact: Diversity and inclusion are important in creating lasting change not only in the tech industry but right across the professional landscape. The need to support the careers of individuals from all backgrounds is a key issue to promote social mobility. This blog talks about how the tech sector can improve social mobility.  

Sheila Flavell CBE at London Tech Week  

Our COO, Sheila Flavell CBE, chaired the Corporate Innovation Stage at London Tech Week. We caught up with her to get her insights from the event. 

"The theme of the day was the 'Future of Work,' and key topics that stood out were AI's impact on skills, hiring, and diversity. Our jobs will continually evolve, especially in tech, making adaptability the essential soft skill everyone needs. Microsoft recently reported that 71% of hiring managers prefer junior candidates with AI skills over seniors without them, highlighting the value of lifelong learning." 

Our newly rebranded Skills Lab is dedicated to continuous learning and development for our consultants. It offers experiential learning opportunities, adapts to different learning styles with various methodologies, and encourages creative problem-solving through real-life scenario simulations. This approach also ensures we can focus on skills development over specific roles to foster adaptability. 

Watch more here.

Our AI expert consultants

During London Tech Week, we had the pleasure of inviting several of our specialist AI consultants to join us at our stand. They are working on some incredible projects, find out more below.  

Laurence Bedford 

Laurence joined FDM’s IT Ops practice as an apprentice in September 2023 and has already been placed with a global insurance healthcare client. Find out more here.

Amin Manzari  

Amin Manzari is one of our business analyst consultants. He's currently working on a project that delivers AI solutions for an energy sector client. Find out more here.

Aaron Morgan  

Aaron is one of our full stack developers working on assignment with a public sector client in the AI space working on some interesting projects. Find out more here.

Chris Shaw  

Chris is one of our business analyst consultants currently on assignment with one of our energy clients in the AI Ethics, Risk and Compliance team. Find out more here.

Georgia Moulder  

Georgia is currently working in the Origination and Advisory department of a global banking client. She tells us more about what she is working on. Find it here.

Jonathan van Kuijk 

Jonathan is one of our associate architect consultants on assignment with a retail client. He attended the University of Cambridge, studying Philosophy before joining FDM’s IT Ops practice. Find out more here. 

 🔗 You might also be interested in:  

• Gen Z Report | As Gen Z looks to take the reins of the future workforce, businesses must learn to adapt to the changing desires of the next generation to retain talent. Download our whitepaper to explore further.  
• Pride Month | June is Pride month across the globe, and so we asked some of our LGBTQIA+ champions around the world about the importance of Pride Networks in the workplace.  
• Social Mobility Report | 13th June was Social Mobility Day. We created a report to showcase everything FDM have been doing to promote and support social mobility.  

🌟 What’s been happening at FDM:

🌍 EMEA: 

• FDM hit a special milestone of 100 hires from our UK university partners. Our University Partners team has been dedicated to helping launch the careers of talented graduates across the country. Read more. 
• We hosted our first ever anti-financial crime industry event in our London centre this month. Business leaders from across the risk industry gathered to share their insights. Find out what was discussed here.  

🌏 APAC:  

• Singapore stepped into nature, enjoying a scenic walk with their dogs! We want to support our consultants’ wellbeing through activities such as this. Take a look.  
• Our sales team in Hong Kong explored the Google Cloud Summit which focused on how emerging technology is shaping the future of hiring. See more.  

🌎 North America:  

• The panellists at our recent event in Toronto, Women in Tech: Breaking Barriers, shared some of their valuable insights about being female leaders in the tech industry. Check out the video.  
• Our New York team took on JP Morgan’s Corporate Challenge in Central Park once again. The largest corporate running event includes fitness, team building and other competitive challenges all in the name of fun! See the visual highlights.  

✉Interested to learn more about how you can get your business ready for AI?  

Book a discovery session by filling out this form.