NCTJ e-Portfolio [Major Story] Story 1

Tuesday night saw Lincoln host some of Lincolnshire’s biggest companies in the first Eastern Technology Conference. The conference was designed to highlight how Lincolnshire is one of the areas to watch for technological developments in the future. The event started at 4pm at The Platform; located upstairs from the Engine Shed on the University of Lincoln campus; with a meet and greet session which was attended by local businesses, and members of the public who were interested in Lincolnshire’s technology.

Rhiannon Walters the Event Manager said: “It’s aimed to advertise Lincoln as a technology city because in the next 10 years they’re going to have the innovation and science park near the think tank”

The evening also held talks from local companies that had attended the event including Anglian Water, Visual Effects Artist Dan Davidson, Virtual Reality expert Andrew Cardwell, ScholarPack and Leo Smith from Tended.

Speakers talked about how their companies were advancing technology in their sector such as ScholarPack, a company based in The Pelham Centre on Canwick Road makes programmes for schools to monitor everything from attendance and behaviour to school meals.

Rebecca Lewis, a Developer at ScholarPack said “We’re currently rewriting our system we have an MIS [Management Information System] system for use in primary schools. We have a product on the market at the moment but the technologies used to create it are a bit dated now, we’re not getting the kind of speeds that we want or the kind of experience that we want so we’re basically rewriting our entire product in eighteen months and it’s currently due for delivery next December.

Dean Bradley an Account Manager from ScholarPack said “We’re a local company based in Lincoln so we just kind of wanted to put ourselves out in Lincoln and let people know there is a variety of work in Lincoln and you can get tech jobs here in Lincoln because obviously quite a few people think they have to look further afield”.

Anglian Water, who provides water and sewage services for most of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, including Lincoln, Norwich, Cambridge and Northampton also attended the event and contributed with a talk about how Anglian Water is using technology to advance their business.

Sam Ellis from Anglian Water said: “We’re here for Anglian Water to show graduates that there are places for them you wouldn’t think it but all across the water industry there is so much we need technology for, from customer service and billing to sewage treatment which is why we’ve come here because there’s so many opportunities.”