26 Jul 2023

techUK Political Party Conference schedule 2023

#techtuesday at Party Conferences 2023

techUK Political Party Conference schedule 2023

#TechTuesday at Party Conferences 2023

techUK is bringing #TechTuesday back at the Conservative and Labour party conferences this year with a busy day of events at both conferences.

In partnership with a range of members, we’re exploring some of the key issues facing the UK’s tech sector and wider society with our programme of events. All of our conference events are held within the secure zone on the Tuesday of the Conservative and Labour Party Conferences.

Please note that more events may be added in the coming weeks, and that the below events may be subject to change. For any questions, please email [email protected]

Tuesday 03 October – Conservative Party Conference

All techUK events on the Tuesday of Conservative Party Conference will take place in Room Central 7

09:30-10:30am AI resilience: How the UK can lead, with BT
11:00-12:00pm Does AI offer a new global role for the UK? With Chatham House and Microsoft
14:30-15:30pm Digital and cyber skills: Unlocking UK business’ potential with DXC Technology

Monday 09 October - Labour Party Conference

14:00-15:30pm Immersive Technology drop-in, with Meta - Room ACC-18, in the secure zone

Tuesday 10 October – Labour Party Conference

All techUK events on the Tuesday of the Labour Party Conference will take place inside the secure zone in Meeting Room 23

09:15-10:15am Technology in the workplace: Threat or opportunity? With Prospect
10:30-11:30am How can Labour raise the ambition for tech in Government: delivering better public services and economic growth with data and AI, with RELX and Labour Together
12:00-13:00pm Lunch with techUK’s Public Services Board (private event – by invitation only)
15:10-16:00pm Does AI offer a new global role for Britain? With Chatham House and Microsoft
16:10-17:00pm 75 Years of the NHS: Embracing technology for what comes next, with BT
17:15-18:15pm Chat G&T: Q&A with Alex Davies-Jones MP, Shadow Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, with DXC Technology

More details:

Conservative Party Conference: 01-04 October at the Central Convention Complex in Manchester

All techUK events will take place in Room Central 7

AI resilience: How the UK can lead
Date: Tuesday 03 October
Time: 09:30-10:30am
In association with BT.

Confirmed speakers:

Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK (Chair)
Zoë Webster, Data and AI Director, BT
Baroness Stowell of Beeston, Chair of the Communications and Digital Committee
Michael Birtwistle, Associate Director (Law and Policy), Ada Lovelace Institute

The safe and responsible development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rightfully gained significant attention from politicians and industry alike. However, there is an equally important but often overlooked aspect – AI resilience. AI has huge potential to make UK businesses and public services more efficient and personal, while making work more fulfilling Yet global developments in regulation, geopolitics and commercial models show that we cannot take access to AI technologies for granted. Join us for discussion on the key ingredients needed to make the UK the most resilient AI economy and seize the benefits of AI.

The discussion will touch upon how the UK can build sovereign capabilities, what AI resilience means by design and the infrastructure investments and developments needed to support reliable AI usage in the UK.

Does AI offer a new global role for Britain?
Date: Tuesday 03 October
Time: 11:00-12:00pm
In association with Microsoft and Chatham House.

Confirmed speakers:

Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK (Chair)
Hugh Milward, Vice President – External Affairs, Microsoft

Olivia O’Sullivan, Director – UK in the World Programme, Chatham House
Alicia Kearns MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee
Dr Jess Whittlestone, Head of AI Policy, Centre for Long Term Resilience

2023 has seen huge leaps in the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s Chat-GPT. Many countries have struggled to keep pace with the rate of developments in AI and the need for regulation against risks posed by it.

Rishi Sunak has called on the UK to be a key player on AI regulation and is hosting the first ‘global summit’ on AI later this year. While the UK trails the US and China in terms of computational capacity and capital investment, it has a substantial and growing AI industry and is home to some of the world’s most advanced AI labs.

AI will also be an important topic in international diplomacy and global governance. The US and China are already competing for dominance in AI, and China’s AI industry has been hit by US export controls on some of the most advanced chips. The UK and the EU will have a role to play in contributing to global AI governance.

Britain is seeking global leadership and influence in the world, but currently its economy is lagging behind many of its peers. AI could potentially provide a lifeline for Britain’s prosperity and global ambitions, but the technology also presents risks. Can the UK play a role in the global governance of AI, and take advantage of the opportunities it offers?

Digital and cyber skills: Unlocking UK business’ potential
Date: Tuesday 03 October
Time: 14:30-15:30pm
In association with DXC Technology.

Confirmed speakers:

Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Paul Scully MP, Minister of State for Tech and the Digital Economy
James Dunn, Head of Regulatory Affairs, DXC
Helen Milner OBE, CEO of the Good Things Foundation

Ensuring UK workers are equipped with the right skills, including critical digital and cyber skills, is essential for combatting the UK’s poor productivity performance and skills shortages, as techUK’s UK Tech Plan discusses. This panel, hosted by techUK in partnership with DXC, will discuss the potential digital and cyber skills have for boosting productivity, increasing economic growth and unleashing the potential for businesses across the United Kingdom.

Digital and cyber skills are essential for securing jobs in the tech sector but are also key for improving productivity in every sphere of the economy, allowing the utilisation of new digital technologies and systems. Similarly, equipping the public sector – especially the civil service – with those skills has the potential to improve efficiency across both Government and the wider public sector. Often the discussion around digital skills focuses on the need to equip young people with digital and cyber skills to utilise emerging technologies, but this conversation will also address the need for the current workforce to be upskilled to benefit from those technologies too.

Join us to find out how improving digital skills across the UK’s population can help solve the UK’s wider productivity problem and mobilise people for prosperity nationwide.

Labour Party Conference: 08-11 October at the ACC in Liverpool

Immersive Technology drop-in
Date: Monday 09 October
Time: 14:00-15:30pm

Location: Room ACC-18, in the secure zone.
In association with Meta

XR technology (encompassing Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality and more) holds the potential to revolutionise the UK's public services - including our health system, education and skills services, and local government. This includes through making new types of training available and by improving existing training methods.

We will be joined by several XR demonstrators working in the industry, techUK and Meta representatives. We hope to show you the potential for XR to meet the UK's most pressing challenges, especially those reflected in Labour's missions on health, street safety, and opportunity for all, and to exhibit cutting-edge work being done in the sector.

All Tuesday techUK events will take place inside the secure zone in Meeting Room 23

Technology in the workplace: Threat or opportunity?
Date: Tuesday 10 October
Time: 09:15-10:15am
In association with Prospect.

Confirmed speakers:

Lulu Freemont, Director, Taso Advisory (chair)

Andrew Pakes, Deputy General Secretary and Director of Communications and Research, Prospect
Darren Jones MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Anna Thomas, Co-founder and Director, Institute for the Future of Work
Neil Ross, Associate Director, Policy, techUK

Technology is sometimes suggested to be a threat to the workforce and the way that individuals engage with the workplace. However, the benefits that digital adoption can bring to productivity and the wider economy cannot be ignored. Similarly, technology has the power to revolutionise the ways in which people can work – opening up more opportunities for creativity and new ideas all the while taking care of complicated or monotonous tasks that workers currently operate.

Ensuring that technology helps, rather than hinders the opportunities available to the working population will require a delicate balance that requires policy and support for skills and education, digital adoption, and new approaches to management. This panel will examine how technology companies can best work to support these areas. Similarly, the conversation will focus around workers rights in a digitally inclusive workspace.

How can Labour raise the ambition for tech in Government: delivering better public services and economic growth with data and AI
Date: Tuesday 10 October
Time: 10:30-11:30am
In association with RELX and Labour Together

Confirmed speakers:

Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK (Chair)
Kirsty Innes – Labour Together
Richard Mollet, Head of European Government Affairs, RELX
Dr Cosmina Dorobantu – Co Director of the Public Policy Programme at the Alan Turning Institute
Matt Rodda MP – Shadow Minister for AI and Intellectual Property (Invited)

This panel will discuss whether the UK Government is being ambitious enough in its vision for technology’s role in our society and economy and explore how a potential Labour Government might raise that ambition with the aim of delivering better public services and more economic growth.

Bringing together speakers from Labour Together, RELX, the Alan Turning Institute and the Labour Party this panel will explore the current level of ambition for tech and what a progressive vision for the use of technology in Government could mean. During the conversation we will focus on how a Labour in Government could enhance the delivery of public services with data and AI, improve citizens relationships with and access to a digital government and Labour’s relationship with the tech sector and how we can enable UK tech to drive economic growth.

Lunch with techUK’s Public Services Board (private event – by invitation only)
Date: Tuesday 10 October
Time: 12:00-13:00pm

For inquiries, please email [email protected]

Confirmed attendees include:

Meg Hillier, MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee

Does AI offer a new global role for Britain?
Date: Tuesday 10 October
Time: 15:10-16:00pm
In association with Microsoft and Chatham House.

Confirmed speakers:

Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK (Chair)
Catherine West MP, Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)
Simon Staffell, Director- Government Affairs, Microsoft
Olivia O’Sullivan, Director – UK in the World Programme, Chatham House
Dr Jess Whittlestone, Head of AI Policy, Centre for Long Term Resilience

Dr Melanie Garson, Cyber Policy and Acting Director for Geopolitics, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

75 years of the NHS: Embracing technology for what comes next
Date: Tuesday 10 October
Time: 16:10-17:00pm
In association with BT.

Confirmed speakers:

Neil Ross, Associate Director for Policy, techUK (Chair)
Professor Sultan Mahmud, Director of Healthcare, BT
Sir Chris Bryant MP, Shadow Minister (Creative Industries and Digital)

Dr Malte Gerhold, Director of Innovation and Improvement, The Health Foundation
Rachel Power, Chief Executive, The Patients Association

Labour lists building “an NHS fit for the future” as one of its five core ambitions for government, providing a valuable opportunity for industry to talk with MPs and Peers about the role of technology in the future of the UK’s healthcare system.

As the NHS looks to celebrate its 75th anniversary, and continues its post-pandemic recovery, there is no better time to evaluate how the tech sector can support efficiencies within the healthcare system and work towards improving health outcomes and care standards for patients.

The Labour Party has committed to “reforming health and care services to speed up treatment, harnessing… technology to reduce preventable illness and cutting health inequalities”.

The session will focus on how digital technologies, and AI, within the healthcare sector can support NHS trusts in delivering for patients. At a time when politicians are under more pressure than ever to ensure that the healthcare system improves on efficiencies and value for money, policymakers will be in listening mode to decide how innovative technologies can provide solutions to those faced by the NHS.

Chat G&T: Q&A with Labour Shadow Minister Alex Davies-Jones MP (private event for techUK members only)

Date: Tuesday 10 October

Time: 17:15-18:15pm

For inquiries please email [email protected]

In Partnership with DXC Technology

Drinks reception with a Q&A session from Alex Davies-Jones MP, Shadow Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy