ODI Leeds Digest - July
As August will be a quiet month to allow for refurbishment, we've tried to cram as much in to July as we can!
The space is getting a brand new look!
As we have mentioned in previous posts, we were delighted to be chosen as a recipient for some of the Leeds Tech Hub Fund. Allocated just for physical improvements, we've spent many weeks seeing designs, meeting with people, and sourcing new furniture. Now the time has come to see it take shape. Throughout August, there will be some disruption to the space as improvements are made. We've got decorators, plumbers, fitters and more all lined up to work their magic, so if you want to use the space for meetings, casual coworking, etc, we would recommend getting in touch first.
On 6 July, we held a Sponsor Review - a chance for us to catch up with our sponsors and also gain valuable feedback. We are built upon collaboration and nowhere is this more important than with our sponsors, so we are always keen to know how we can help with certain projects or challenges, or how we can deliver training so that staff are more engaged and aware of data, etc. We received some very constructive feedback with plenty of ideas of how to further engage with all levels of staff at our sponsor organisations, not just the people we see on a regular basis. There were also plenty of creative ideas about future collaborations, so stay tuned ;)
It was great to see some of the sponsors using the space during July, when we had a team from the University of Leeds on 12 July, followed by WYCA on 17 July. University of Leeds had gathered folk to talk about natural flood management, and WYCA organised a meeting for their cycling campaign.
All month, we had been preparing for the SmartKlub Leeds Solar Solutions session on 26 July. It was a chance to hear from Leeds City Council about their desire to embrace more solar energy provision and work through the challenges this might present. We had lightning speakers who could talk about solar panel installation, education in and for schools about going green, community energy projects, safe investments in green energy, and much more. It was a good turnout with an engaged and communicative audience. The collaborative doc can still be seen here, where all the thoughts, ideas, suggestions were recorded for the day. If you couldn't make it to the event but are interested in being involved, then please do contribute to the collaborative document. If you want to catch the lightning talks or any of the other outputs from the session, they can all be found on this hub page.
TravelHack, held back in June, has been one of our most popular and well-attended workshops to date. So good in fact that people are already chomping at the bit for more! The aim is to be more focused for future events, taking one of the many challenge areas identified at TravelHack and working on it with more resources and time. Keep your eyes peeled for news about the next event, all about fares data.
Fringe event idea
We would like to gauge interest in hosting a 'fringe event' to coincide with the Conservative Party conference, focused on data infrastructure and travel in the North. Get in touch if you'd like to be involved.
#TravelHack - what happens next?
A month after we held TravelHack, Paul Connell has written all about what it meant for us but also what needs to happen next in order to keep momentum going.
Highways England Innovation
In a series of posts co-written between Paul Connell and Teresa Jolley, the influence and effects of #HighwaysHack are still being felt nearly a year on.
The Internet of Bats
Tom Forth, who leads the challenge team at ODI Leeds, writes about the power of IoT and asking 'what am I trying to achieve?' And bats. He also writes about bats.
Coming up...
Wuthering Bytes
Sunday 3 September & Monday 4 September
Wuthering Bytes is a yearly digital/tech festival set in the rolling hills of Hebden Bridge. Join us on September 3rd for the IoT Build and Deploy workshop - a practical hands-on day where you can walk away with a working IoT project - or September 4th for Things Happening - a showcase of IoT projects, from sublime to super to silly.
