Get Digital

Another day…. another dice conference, once again hundreds of students gathered in the Helix on the 4th of December for an afternoon on all things digital, the future of work and trust and governance. There were a wide variety of speakers from different sectors of the industry. The line up was as followed;

• Mark Kinzen (Magnet Networks)
• Siobhan O’Shea (CPL Future of work institute)
• Mark Little (Kinzen)
• Aidan Gallagher (Inishtech)
• Robert Mulhall (AIB)
• John Oliver (I-Form)
• Domhnall Carroll (Siemens)
• DR Lisa Van Der Werf (DCU)
• Paul Dwyer (Cyber risk international)
• Valerie lyons (BH consulting)

The structure of this conference was slightly different to the previous one I had attended. This time there was an equal balance between Panel discussions and solo speakers. I found this easier to follow as it felt like more of a conversation rather than a lecture. I gained a great insight into how to prepare for the future and some of the developments which would be arising soon which in my career and life as a graduate.

Mark Kelleher- Magnet Networks

Globalisation

“Get digital, go global”, a quote from Mark Kelleher, the first speaker of the afternoon. Mark who is CEO of Magnet Networks, a telecommunication company based in Coolock. His company provides a broad range of services from ultra fast broadband to cyber security for businesses. Although being a small Irish company Mark stressed the importance of going global in order to succeed in the future. His aim is to be the best B2B telecommunications company in the world. With Ireland being such a small market he informed us we must think beyond this small Island to regions such as Asia and the middle east, with their populations being much larger than Ireland’s.

“With companies growing in sync for the first time in years”(“The changing nature of careers in the 21st century | Deloitte Insights,” n.d.), it is crucial for business owners to expand to  remain competitive as many “mid-sized companies” are now expanding. With the help of digitization, globalization is more accessible and readily achieved for these companies. Due to computers employees can now undergo tasks from opposite ends of the world. Although Marks company is based in Coolock he has began new business ventures in India supplying them with the services they need to run their company. This is something all companies will face in years to come, recently there has been an increase in open office spaces such as the DCU Alpha campus.There may be one of these in every city  where you no matter where you are in the world you can plug in and complete your work. These areas will create more productivity with employees from different areas and backgrounds working together to encourage each other. There will be a decrease in offices with people working from home and on the go a lot more allowing them to pursue their careers and passions at the same time. Going digital in the workplace goes in hand with going global.

 

Smart Cities

Mark highlighted that how in today’s day and age no one is secure online and at home. With the new emergence of smart cities worldwide such as Wembley stadium our every moves are now being tracked and data constantly being collected about us and our habits. This is a daunting idea that no matter where we are whether it be in our own homes or in the supermarket we will be under constant surveillance. With this and the recent GDPR breaches there will be a surge in cyber security and governance as “cyber attacks on Irish companies more than doubles” (O’Brien, n.d.). As the future is a digital age protecting oneself and company is vital.

With these smart cities comes pros and cons, one of the positive effects of the data being collected is it is then used to create a more efficient, sustainable environment. Air quality, transport time and schooling will all be improved with tech companies investing large sums of money in to these cities. Kansas City is now classified as a smart city, they have rolled out a new algorithm whereby with the slightest detection of a pothole on the road a crew will be sent out immediately to fix it (Williams, 2019), pets can be monitored by owners whilst running errands and gunshots detected in neighborhoods. This is the future and it is fascinating to discover how the world we live in will evolve. Mark communicated his thoughts on the topic of all things digital extremely well and kept the audience engaged throughout.

 

Siobhan O’Shea- CPL Future of work Institute

Nature of the future of work

Followed by Mark was Siobhan O’Shea who spoke about her role in CPL. She informed us about how the future of work is constantly changing and how “65% of children will work in jobs which have not yet been created”, I found that statistic to be eye-opening and led me to think about the what jobs would be available to me as a graduate and the emergence of new technologies the industry faced. In the article “Future of work” (2018) it stated that 57% of jobs globally are facing automation due to “accelerating connectivity, new talent models, and cognitive tools” (“Future of Work,” n.d.). With this statistic is important that graduates learn how to adapt as jobs are redesigned and adopt the new skills in order to remain current and competitive. There is a lot of emphasis on how graduates now are now faced with a career of lifelong learning. Within the past five years the top 10 jobs listed on LinkedIn didn’t exist previously (“Top 10 Job Titles That Didn’t Exist 5 Years Ago [INFOGRAPHIC],” n.d.), which means for future graduates adaptability and upskilling will be vital for the business climate in the near future.

 

Automation

Growing up automation of jobs has always been something that has been feared among the workforce but according to Partington (2018), we will actually see twice as many jobs being created rather than a decrease which many expect. This is due to the fact that many repetitive, mundane daily tasks will be taken over by robots, such as the one undertaken by the robots in the video Siobhan showed the audience. This will in turn allow workers to focus on careers in more fulfilling roles leaving them more satisfied with their careers. With the risk of new graduates, with better skills taking over career titles, it is essential to reinvent oneself to remain up to date with current skills throughout their lifetimes and acclimatize to the market surrounding them. Siobhan was an excellent speaker and provided the audience with shocking facts on the future of work and the skills required for said environment. The link she created between AI and the skills required made planning for future roles in companies easier to understand.

 

Digital Transformation Panel

The conference concluded with a panel of four led by Aidan Gallagher (Inishtech) and featured Domhnall Carroll (Siemens), John Oliver (I-form) and Robert Mulhall (AIB) on how Ireland can transform digitally and the process that must undergo to achieve these results.

Domhnall Carroll explained that Ireland is in a much better place to compete with much larger companies in software and digital transformation as the idea of digitization and smart cities is fairly new and no place “bar Silicon Valley” have a long heritage with the industry, compared to years ago where Ireland was competing with the likes of  Britain who had a multitude of experience in the manufacturing industry. This is interesting as within recent years Ireland has seen a huge spike in foreign investment and technology firms such as Google and Facebook locating here. In a post Brexit economy Ireland will be at a huge advantage of being the only native English speaking company in Europe meaning more large multinational companies will locate here.

 

Infrastructure

An area in which Ireland will struggle with digital transformation will be regarding our broadband services and connectivity. Broadband is the thing that connects us worldwide and allows us to work flexibly from our homes or wherever it be we choose to work. The future of work is set to revolve around flexibility and global expansion. as DC highlighted how that in order to take advantage of all the possibilities given to us we must update our infrastructure regarding these services and expand on making broadband more easily accessible to every home in Ireland.

With the population of Ireland being under 5 million, this makes us the ideal place to influence to make the change to go digital in comparison to competitors markets such as Asia and North America. We have good infrastructure regarding roads and transport links and a highly educated work force the future of Ireland is a highly skilled, technologically advanced one.

I found this panel discussion the most interesting of the day. It was fascinating to see an insight into where Ireland stands in the current marketplace in regards to transforming  the country into the digital age. All four speakers inputs on the topic were very informative and well researched.

 

Conclusion

The world in which we live in is constantly evolving as highlighted through the various speakers during the conference. This means it is extremely difficult to predict the jobs and skills of the future which will be needed. AI and new technologies will take over many of the roles of today’s workforce but this will lead to improvements in areas such as infrastructure. With the emergence of these new developments it will be more difficult to protect oneself online and ensure privacy. It will be a struggle to identify sources we trust . Smart cities will lead to a more efficient, sustainable environment. No one can predict the future but I look forward to witnessing the improvements in technology and ICT.

References

Future of Work. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2018, from https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/topics/future-of-work.html

O’Brien, C. (n.d.). Number of cyber attacks on Irish companies more than doubles. Retrieved January 3, 2019, from https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/number-of-cyber-attacks-on-irish-companies-more-than-doubles-1.3658637

Partington, R. (2018, September 16). Robots in workplace “could create double the jobs they destroy.” The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/17/robots-in-workplace-could-create-double-the-jobs-they-destroy

The changing nature of careers in the 21st century | Deloitte Insights. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2018, from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/deloitte-review/issue-21/changing-nature-of-careers-in-21st-century.html

Williams, T. (2019, January 2). In High-Tech Cities, No More Potholes, but What About Privacy? The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/us/kansas-city-smart-technology.html