Alex Mecklenburg

Tech4Good take over the business track with a panel session & workshop

Tech4Good South West is a member network focused on the intentional use of technology to drive positive outcomes for people and planet.

Tech4Good South West amplifies the positive impact of technology across the region by building a vibrant tech-for-good community. Our mission is to address how technology can support society and tackle the unintended consequences of the digital age. We focus on raising awareness, fostering collaboration, and promoting sustainable approaches to technology.

Our key focus areas include leveraging technology for societal benefit, empowering communities, promoting responsible and ethical tech, and driving regional development to address digital inclusion. Through regular events, workshops, and an active member platform, we are building a collaborative environment where people learn from one another and co-create impactful projects. Ultimately, our goal is to position the South West as a leader in the national tech-for-good movement.

Takeover Theme: Responsible Technology - beyond buzzword and towards a concrete business consideration

Responsible technology has outgrown the ‘buzzword’ stage and is becoming a concrete business consideration across sectors and industries. Research conducted by MIT and Thoughtworks in 2023 showed nearly three-quarters of survey respondents either strongly agree (30%) or somewhat agree (43%) that “responsible technology considerations will eventually come to equal business or financial considerations in importance when organisations make decisions about technology use.

The most cited hurdles to adoption of responsible technology are a lack of senior management awareness (52%), organisational resistance to change (46%), and internal competing priorities (46%).

What the research also showed was that the definition of responsible technology varies across organisations and that there is currently no consensus on which responsible practices should take priority in organisations.

Workshop

Our panelists will be joining us for a workshop as a second session.

A practical and highly interactive workshop that introduces Consequence Scanning as an agile business practice to focus on the positive aspects of a product or decision and mitigate or address potential harms or disasters before they happen. Participants will learn about the process and will have the opportunity to experience an adaptable and lightweight practice to take back into their own communities and organisations.