Blogs Archives - Page 21 of 34

I believe it would be fair to say that the majority of our working and personal lives now revolve around convenience. And the reason for that is quite simple, technology has made everything faster, easier and more accessible. Technology has changed the way businesses think, but more importantly, it has changed the way that employees think.

You can compare this change in human thinking to the consumer shopping experience. For years we have been hearing that consumers are demanding more from retailers – from in-store technology to even basic smartphone app features – and they simply couldn’t keep up.

Fast forward to today’s customer experience playground and you’ll find the pendulum of power swinging back to the brands we buy from on a daily basis. This is thanks to the power of data, analytics and AI. Brands have not only been able to listen to their customers and take action, but they have been able to improve the customer journey at every stage. A client of ours, Feefo, does this expertly for some of the world’s biggest brands, and I can see that those brands have a distinct difference in service levels than those that do not employ a similar technology.

Now, if you take the hot topic that is the future of work. You’ll find a number of similarities in how we, as employees are demanding more from our employers, and how businesses have had to catch up to retain, engage and keep talent.

The future of work is quite a simple concept and it ranges in meaning from person to person. For me, it comes back to convenience. My thinking as an employee has evolved; I now expect to have access to technology that will enable me to produce a higher quality of work, be more productive, stay engaged and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

However, the expectations a business has of you as an employee hasn’t changed. All of the above outputs are common and fair expectations. The challenge organisations now face is how they build a culture that their employees can thrive in.

This takes us back to technology. There isn’t a magic bullet technology that will solve this conundrum. But there are solutions out there that will help change business thinking. These enabling technologies are vital to creating an engaged workforce.

Take another of our clients, People First, a company dedicated to creating a better way of working. And a company whose very name should resonate with the approach boardrooms and the C-Suite should now be taking. Management teams gain access to a wide array of intelligence and analytics that can be used to provide a better working atmosphere – from improvements in talent management to more engaging social learning.

Collaboration and remote working are referred to together because, in the past, an issue with remote working is that it negatively impacts collaboration and teamwork. Slack is an example of technology that has made this argument null and void, by positively enabling smarter collaboration it is making having a fixed-working location a thing of the past. The same can be said of cloud tools that allow teams to work in real-time on the same project, like G-Suite.

Coming full circle, this comes all the way back to the way in which our thinking as humans has changed as a result of technological advancements. We are able to provide a better and more convenient working experience for our staff because of technology. Everyone (hopefully!) has an example of a great manager. Nowadays, a great manager can become an exceptional manager because of the insight and tools at their disposal to manage their staff. Likewise, a great employee can transform into a more engaged and productive member of staff with the augmentation of technology supporting them in their career.

The summer months are always a great time to take some time out and me and my fellow specialist Content Creators have definitely made the most of it this year with trips to the US, Belgium, the south coast and relaxing staycations. While the weather in the UK has certainly been unpredictable, being stuck indoors during a sudden downpour could be worse when there are so many good books and TV programmes to catch up on.

So, if like me you’re packing your bags to catch some late summer sun and are wondering what to take to keep you entertained on the flight or while lazing on the beach, worry not because here are our recommendations:

Ollie

I’m currently reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It’s an inspiring but often horrifying story of people coming together to help each other out in the face of great adversity. The fact the story is embedded in real-life events makes it an incredibly sobering read.

Parks and Recreation is my current go-to show. While I love comedy, it’s not often TV shows actually make me laugh out loud. But Parks is certainly delivering the goods. On a bleaker note, I’m eagerly anticipating the return of The Walking Dead which is due in October. The last few seasons haven’t had great reviews but I for one have really enjoyed the show’s slow evolution from all-out blood ‘n guts horror to a story of survivalism in a post-apocalyptic world.

I’m currently addicted to the soundtrack of the TV series Better Things. I’ve not seen a single episode of the series (although I’ve heard great things about it) but was recently introduced to the soundtrack by a family member and I’m discovering a lot of great artists both new and old.

Susan

While most of us with a Netflix addiction have been enjoying the third series of Stranger Things (I’m a fan, don’t get me wrong), I binge-watched the entire first season of The Umbrella Academy. Fantasy, but in a different way to ST, it deals with complex (and well-written) characters, time travel, the apocalypse and family, all tinged with a bit of darkness that never quite lets the story fall into self-pity. The soundtrack is amazing as well, so for me, the show has been the gift that keeps on giving this summer, even when I’m sitting at my desk.

I’ve also been reading Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. It may sound like a new age self-help book, but it’s really a fascinating insight into our first impressions, intuition and how we make decisions in (you guessed it) the blink of an eye without quite realising how or why we do it. The books uses some great examples to get its point across and it’s well worth a look..

Richard

I’m currently reading a book by Robert Macfarlane called Landmarks. It is an ideal book to read in the summer months, when you are celebrating the chance to spend more time in the great outdoors.

Macfarlane has written a number of books on the landscape and nature generally. He writes very elegantly but also with a real energy and passion for these topics. Landmarks is my favourite so far because it celebrates the language we use to describe the natural world but also shows how that language is shrinking as our green spaces vanish. While he was researching the book, a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary was published. Macfarlane calls out that many nature terms were left out and replaced with technology terms; “Deletions included acorn, adder, pasture and willow…the natural displaced by the indoor and the virtual. For blackberry read Blackberry.”

Hannah

I’m a bit late getting round to this one, but I’m reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt ahead of the film adaptation being released next month. It’s mainly set in New York and after having visited the city for a second time this summer I’ve really enjoyed being able to picture where the action’s taking place. I’m also working my way through the second series of Mindhunter on Netflix. It’s disturbing at times, but I love the true crime genre and this series is proving to be as compelling as the first. I just have to be careful not to watch it too close to bedtime!

My favourite thing to listen to at the moment is the Off Menu podcast in which comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster talk to celebrity guests about their dream meal. It’s the perfect antidote to my boring commute and always gets me thinking about what my dream meal would be – the answer to which changes all the time!

Hugh

Currently captivated by Breaking News – The Remaking of Journalism and Why it Matters Now. This book is by The Guardian’s former editor Alan Rusbridger about how he grappled with the paper’s future, as the 200-year-old model of journalism was pulverised by the anarchy of the web. What exactly is journalism is when anyone can publish anything and the web giants take all the money? While answering that question he was orchestrating some remarkable stories (WikiLeaks etc).

I’m not naturally drawn to The Guardian, but at that time I was in a much smaller newsroom simultaneously battling and embracing the web. Nobody really knew which way to go, and the people at the very top of the organisation were pretty clueless, so Rusbridger’s agonising holds great fascination. The Guardian appeared to have a clear sense of direction. In reality, the dilemmas he chews over have not gone away.

I’m not watching anything. August is rubbish apart from the cricket highlights. This week I’m mostly listening to old acid house mixes from raves I never went to and clubs I never entered.

My summer reading is Wild Swans by Jung Chang. I did read it over twenty years ago but it’s on my book club list and my memory isn’t that good! It hasn’t lost any of its shock and awe the second time around either. The book was hugely popular in the 1990s and tells the story of three generations of daughters growing up in China. It is hugely inspirational and in stark contrast to our lives. For example, while most of the team have enjoyed at least a few days off from work this summer, in 1950s China, officials were expected to work from 8 am until 11 pm, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

I’ve also been binge-watching The Affair on Now TV. It very cleverly tells the story of several characters from different perspectives, which often leaves you wondering what actually happened. I love a good drama that makes you think so I’m hugely excited to find out that there’s a new series starting this weekend.

Image credit: Friday 5: Summer Pool Reads to Start Off the Season

As a specialist content creator, developing copy in the B2B tech PR industry, I have in the front of my mind that, although I may be focused on the latest trends in business technology, I also have to keep one eye on the latest consumer developments. Often today, it is the consumer that sets the pace in technology terms.

Look at the shift to voice interfaces for example. More and more people are shouting out commands to Alexa, Siri or Cortana, while businesses are just starting to explore the full range of capabilities that voice biometrics could bring.

The ongoing success of Amazon shows the power of the ‘Want, Click, Get’ model. Consumers now have the capability to get almost instant gratification with more personalised product offerings and faster and faster delivery times, through this technology

With the advance of the Internet of Things, we are also seeing connectivity levels ramping up all the time. It is now possible to access the internet through almost any consumer device. One teenager in the US recently even used the family fridge to send out a tweet when her mother took her devices away.

Connected ovens and washing machines, tweeting kettles and toasters are all rapidly becoming the norm. We have even come across a tweeting catflap, It makes you wonder sometimes if we are living in a world out of kilter.

Is obsession with the latest connected devices blinding us to the fact that huge numbers of people around the world have no or little digital access?

As more and more of us celebrate the ability to access the Internet from anywhere at any time, others are being left behind.

According to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) as of 2018 there were still 5.3 million adults in the UK alone, or 10.0% of the adult UK population, who could be described as internet non-users. Over half of all adult internet non-users were over the age of 75 years in 2018 while in 2017, 56% of adult internet non-users were disabled, much higher than the proportion of disabled adults in the UK population as a whole.

Moreover, those who live alone are less likely to have an internet connection at home, than their peers. In 2018, according to the ONS, 9% of households with a single adult aged between 16 and 64 years did not have an internet connection, compared with only 1% of households with two adults aged between 16 and 64 years.

These numbers are sobering thoughts – especially when you consider that the people being excluded from internet access, those who remain unconnected in an increasingly connected world, are often those who could most benefit from having access to the digital links that others take for granted.

It’s clear there’s a missing step; a bridge needed between the extremes of tweeting fridges and no internet usage whatsoever. While the latest digital innovations and enhanced connectivity are something to be celebrated and bring a lot of benefits to society, the concept of digital inclusion is an important one.

So, the next time you hear about the latest connected coffee maker or smart blender, spare a thought for people in society today who are missing out on the even the most basic internet access.

Which is your preferred genre… Drama? Comedy? Action and adventure? In a world where we are now spoilt for choice, the options for what to watch on a Friday evening with a glass of ‘something’ is becoming more diverse for viewers all over the world.

In the most recent survey conducted by Ofcom, statistics show that over 13.3m (47%) households in the UK in 2019 are subscribed to the more popular streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV and DisneyLife – and that’s just the ones that are around at the moment! With new platforms such as BritBox, HBO Max and Disney+ being brought to market, how will the new streaming platforms compete against the existing big-league players? And, how will consumers feel about paying for yet another subscription service?

When Netflix started, it was the first of its kind and had its customers hooked. However, with content owners like Disney evolving into new streaming companies and removing popular content from the platform, Netflix is having to readjust its approach.

Netflix hiked its prices for the first time since 2017 to accommodate the significant investments it has made into new TV shows and films. By creating original content, such as Sex Education, Stranger Things and 13 Reasons Why, it means that not only can programmes like these not be taken off the platform when content owners want to branch out , but the likes of Netflix now has unique content that is exclusive to their channel that they can market – following in Amazon’s path of course.

However, will the new investments in original content be enough to keep customers loyal when the subscription costs for one platform alone amounts to nearly the same as a TV licence? Netflix’s £11.99 price point means a total bill for the year is £143.88 – only £10.62 less than the TV licence fee. I found this particularly interesting as the latest Ofcom report also revealed that, despite the growing number of people using and paying for these streaming subscriptions, traditional viewing still accounts for most TV time (69% – or 3 hours 12 minutes, on average, per day).

Maybe there is a solution to keep prices down and still have a wide variety of content available. In the US, Disney has revealed that they will be bundling Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ together for a fixed price, to compete against the streaming giants. This new approach to multi-brand consolidation is definitely something to keep an eye on and perhaps the increased competition will benefit us viewers.

The question remains though, in the competition for viewers and subscribers – has Netflix done enough to maintain its lead, or will the new players kick it out of first place? With the ever-growing technological advances within the broadcast industry – I’m excited to see how this industry will continue to evolve and develop as time goes by.

Wimbledon, The Open, Glorious Goodwood – world renowned sporting events that play an integral part of the summer months in England.

And this year English sport fans are being treated to another wonderful event – an Ashes cricket series on home soil, following a successful World Cup campaign. The 71st Ashes series – between England and Australia – began at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Thursday, with England looking to reclaim the urn they surrendered in Australia just over 18 months ago.

So why is a B2B tech PR agency publishing a blog on cricket!?

Whiteoaks recently started working with Haven Power, part of the Drax Group and one of the largest business electricity suppliers in the UK, to raise the profile of its renewable electricity and services.

At a time when environmental issues are high on the media agenda, it is great to be working with a leading innovator in the B2B energy supply industry, helping to communicate the benefits of the company’s energy solutions, which include demand-side response, storage, optimisation and risk management.

When we learnt that Haven Power had become the Official Energy Partner of Warwickshire County Cricket Club – which plays at Edgbaston, the venue for the first Ashes match – we saw a great opportunity for PR.

No sooner had the opportunity been realised than we had secured an interview with ITV Central to outline how Haven Power is helping Edgbaston Stadium in its ambition to become the most sustainable cricket venue in the UK.

The facts speak for themselves – by working with Haven Power to use renewable electricity, Edgbaston has saved the equivalent carbon of taking 90 cars a year off the road.

Haven Power is also investigating the installation of electric vehicle charging points at the stadium, as well as solar panels, all with the aim of increasing sustainability.

As a massive cricket fan, it was a treat to spend the day in Birmingham to witness the preparations for the first Ashes test and see how the Haven Power/Edgbaston partnership is transforming the stadium.

Haven Power Director, Mark Anderson interviewed by ITV

ITV interviewed Haven Power director Mark Anderson, who outlined how it is helping facilities like Edgbaston meet the growing demand for businesses to take proactive steps to invest in renewable energy source. Edgbaston Chief Operating Officer Craig Flindall provided an overview of how it has benefited from working with Haven Power.

The interviews were supplemented by filming of the ground staff preparing for the big event, including the delivery of food from local sustainable farms.

Haven Power is a great example of how the energy and built environment sectors have a unique opportunity, through technology innovations, to improve the way we all live, travel and work.

@ Work questions:

1. What’s your career background, in brief?

I originally planned on working in HR, but after a year in the industry as part of my Psychology degree I decided to pursue a more creative path. Once I’d graduated, I went off to India to work in advertising, before returning to the UK and landing my job with Whiteoaks as a Junior Account Executive. I’ve been here ever since and now work as an Account Manager in Team Aries, looking after clients across the B2B tech spectrum. It was definitely the right move for me.

2. What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

The most challenging job I ever had was selling balloons at a local theme park. Especially during the warm summer months. The uniform was not designed to withstand temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius, and my hands were full so there was no way of carrying around a water bottle. To make matters worse, everywhere I looked there were people enjoying the sun with ice creams and drinks while I melted around the park on my feet for hours on end trying not to let the balloons go (which I often would — accidentally of course). The icing on the cake was that most days I would actually make a loss on balloons but I assure you I am much better at PR than I am at balloon selling. My next student job was signing up sixth form students to UCAS cards at student fairs which was much more exciting and successful, I really enjoyed being target driven and getting to engage with groups of people as I tried to make ‘the sell’.

3. What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

Right Move and my Amazon Echo. I have developed a growing obsession with checking out properties on Right Move; I probably do it about three times a day. I like looking for inspiration (as well as checking out the many great home interior accounts on Instagram), and I’m always planning my next house move, whenever that may be. I also love my Amazon Echo, mainly for playing music at home and keeping timers when I cook, but it has so many useful features.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

‘It’s better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb, than to be at the top of one you don’t’. Obviously it speaks of the importance in being in a career that you genuinely enjoy, but I think it also applies to other aspects of life too. Do what makes you happy is essentially the take home message.

5. Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

Great coverage for the client. Nothing beats seeing a story that you’ve worked on with your client covered in a top tier publication or seeing them on a TV screen talking through the angles you’ve developed together. When your coverage also sparks conversation in the industry and amongst readers it’s really rewarding to know that the work you’ve done has actually made people think and generated debate.

6. Do you personalise your workspace?

Not particularly! At the moment there’s a cool pair of cat themed sunglasses in a pencil pot and some cat shaped highlighters (are you noticing a theme?) but that’s about it. Currently, I think it might be overkill to bring in a framed picture of my cat too.

7. What’s the first thing you do in the office in the morning?

Once the laptop is up and running I like to check any emails that might have come through since I left home in the morning, before having a chat with the team. Then we’ll talk about the priorities for the day and make sure everyone knows where their focus needs to be, followed by a scan of the day’s news, including my guilty pleasure, online celebrity news.

8. What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I’ve just finished watching Stranger Things 3 which was amazing as expected and I’ve started with Keeping Faith on the BBC which was recommended to me by my Account Director, Mary. I’ve also just read that the new season of Orange Is The New Black is on Netflix now so that’ll be binge watched over the next week, much to the delight of my boyfriend. I’m on the lookout for a new book, so if anyone has any good thriller or comedy recommendations do get in touch!

It may be a few years away, but London can celebrate – and start the hard work; the city has been selected to host the prestigious IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s (RAS) International Conference on Robotics and Automations (ICRA) in 2023.

An extensive and heavy-weight group of organisations supported the bid, led by Professor Kaspar Althoefer from Queen Mary University of London. They included The Mayor of London, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kings College London, Imperial College London, University College London, The Alan Turing Institute, Cognition X, and software companies DeepMind and Shadow Robot.

Encouragingly, as well as the usual business-related conference programme, workshops and networking, the conference organisers will be running a robot competition between schools in England for children aged 7 to 12, with the aim of raising interest in STEM subjects. The hope is that this will avoid a future skills crisis in AI, especially given that 13 universities in London offer AI, machine learning and related undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

In the B2B technology industry – and I’d argue more broadly in the overall technology space – AI and robotic process automation (RPA) is the most transformative innovation around. So much so that ethics are of top priority in the UK and US, the implications of which my colleague Tom Webb wrote about here recently.

All this attention and the wide-ranging impacts of AI and RPA on our personal and business lives means international technology providers are focused on two things: firstly, differentiating their proposition and secondly, expanding into new markets.

Firstly, the AI and RPA industry as a whole faces the challenge that cloud and digital transformation technologies did a few years ago – and that’s explaining what they can achieve in real terms, not the meaningless buzzwords and jargon which can negatively affect the B2B technology landscape. And, as AI and RPA businesses at home and abroad pile in, looking for their share of this ‘hot’ market, the big challenge for each will be why they are different from and better than the rest.

To turn to the second issue, London stands a good chance of acting as a central hub for US-based firms wanting to enter the European market. London is already the base for over 750 AI businesses, double the total of Paris and Berlin together and international investment increased by 50% in 2017 from the previous year. In the last few months a flurry of US-based companies have announced international intent, including insurance AI and machine learning (ML) operator, Lemonade and Innowatts, which specialises in AI-enabled analytics and SaaS for the energy industry. As Thomas Stone, partner at AI Seed recently said: “London has technology, finance, and government — it’s like SF/NYC/DC in one city. And within an hour by train, you have access to four world-leading research universities in addition to the Alan Turing Institute.”

The senior Marketing and PR decision-makers within software providers, which choose to spider outwards into the EU from London, will be faced with choices about their PR and communications options. Do they attempt to run everything from the US HQ, distributing news announcements down the wires and hiring local freelancers in the biggest markets? With the ability to turn on and off as commercial needs dictate, low cost and low risk, it’s easy to see the upsides – but the translation and account coordination involved can be vast.

Or do they hire a multi-country agency in the EU and brief them to execute media and PR requirements in every territory? With that comes high fees, perhaps unjustifiably high at this stage, more resource to manage the high-capability agency teams and their outputs, in turn increasing the need for bigger sales teams.

But, there is a middle option. It will provide a sustainable, effective choice for leading PR and Communications from the UK. Curious to read more? Our CEO James Kelliher wrote about in detail here.

I was brought up to regard America as brash. US slang was banned and my parents were so traditional I had to play football in a tweed jacket (all right, I made that bit up). But when punk rock erupted, I loved it. British youth culture started expressing itself in British accents, singing (shouting actually) about what mattered here, not over in the US. The Clash summed it up: “I’m so bored with the USA.”

US tech and the force for good

Now of course, I readily acknowledge the dominant role of the US in changing everyone’s lives (mostly for the better) through technology. But the language problem remains. As a content creator in B2B technology PR you quickly learn to de-Americanize (yes -ize as recommended by the Oxford English Dictionary) copy to make it relevant to the UK audience. It is not a trivial matter. While Britons can understand most American English, any heavily North Atlantic text gives the impression of remoteness – that the company responsible for the copy doesn’t really understand the UK market or regards potential British customers as an afterthought.

Where do voice bots feature in language battles?

This is, however, not another gripe about tech jargon. What intrigues me is where developments in Natural Language Processing, virtual assistants and voice-bots will take us in the journey across world English.

According to a Zion Market Research report published earlier this year, the global intelligent virtual assistant market accounted for US$2.3 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach US$19.6 billion globally by 2025, at a CAGR of 35 per cent between 2019 and 2025.

The global sale of smart speakers in 2018 was about 98 million units and is expected to reach 164 million units this year. Growth will be further driven by the autonomous vehicles market, using artificial intelligence and smart voice assistance to make the experience more reliable. In Europe, Germany and UK are projected to be the prime revenue contributors.

What kind of English?

But what sort of language will these assistants speak and who will do the talking? While voice bots will of course be in the native language or languages outside the non-Anglophone sphere, what kind of English will be used within it?

The tech giants who deploy voice bots will doubtless employ native speakers. (A recent BBC radio programme focused on this topic, presented by Jon Briggs – the first voice employed by Apple to present of Siri in the UK) But we can expect to hear American grammar and idioms wherever we go outside the UK. Does it really matter when billions around the globe are completely steeped in US culture through streaming services from Netflix to YouTube? We all know language is a living entity and it is not the job of business preserve its purity. We just need to effective communicators.

Do we need to learn languages anymore?

Similarly, does anyone really need to learn a foreign language anymore? Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa (powered by Microsoft Translator) and Siri all emerged pretty well from complex translation tests this year. Google Assistant will soon be able to act as a real-life translator in 27 different languages as it obtains a new “interpreter mode” that can translate in real time, enabling conversations with someone who speaks a different language.

Is there any point in the hand-wringing that followed a BBC investigation which found declines of between 30 and 50 per cent since 2013 in the numbers taking language GCSEs in some areas of England? Perhaps nobody can stop these trends any more than they halt the tides, because they arise from collective appreciation of how the world is developing.

We still need to pay full attention to the nuances of language

In time, the AI family of technologies behind voice assistants and bots will be capable of picking up and using all the tics, nuances and idiosyncrasies of spoken language. But we are not there yet, and we are not even there yet with the use of NLP to produce written text. In fact, whatever the method, whether through automation or painstaking keyboard-bashing and hand-crafting, we should all concentrate on using the most effective, relevant, direct and respectful language possible when communicating – especially in tech PR.

The Pimms has been poured and the British strawberries and cream bulk bought – it can only mean one thing. Wimbledon is here!

Each year the tennis tournament partners with technology giant IBM to explore the latest in technological innovation and help differentiate Wimbledon from other tennis events around the world. Previously this has included an AI bot on the Wimbledon app so fans can get answers to all their Wimbledon related questions; and automated video highlights delivered to fans watching from the comfort of their sofa. This year is no different with a host of new AI-based systems to the Wimbledon bunker.

One of the most interesting of the new technological advances being used at the event is an AI-powered machine which uses visual recognition technology to capture players’ reactions and then instantly clips highlights for viewers to watch at the end of the game. With just under twenty courts and up to four matches per court per day, hundreds of hours of footage are produced, which would typically take editing teams a vast number of hours to compile into highlights packages.

Known for his intense and dramatic facial expressions (and of course his tennis playing abilities…), Novak Djokovic’s face is likely to provide a great opportunity for the technology to showcase its abilities. The technology can pick up a celebration from a fist pump to the crowd’s celebratory roar, examining body language, gestures and facial expressions to automatically clip that point in the game. Each clip is then ranked based on crowd excitement and player gestures, enabling the team of 180 people in Wimbledon’s AI bunker to automatically generate the best of the highlights in around two minutes.

The highlights will be posted across digital platforms including Twitter and the Wimbledon app, meaning that whether you are a fan waiting overnight in a queue for tickets; or wanting to keep up to date with the matches while you sit at your office desk – you can be in the loop with the best moments.

This year Wimbledon organisers have really focused on trying to understand what fans want from the sport and how they can enhance the viewing experience – for as broad an audience as possible. As a member of the public, it can often be difficult to grasp the real world uses and the benefits that AI and other emerging technologies can bring into our day-to-day lives, but the IBM Watson and Wimbledon partnership is a great example of how AI can be used to bring us what we want in an improved, more efficient, and effective way.

The state of our environment is increasingly dominating global headlines and we are hearing continuous reports of the many and varied impacts the human race is having on the natural world. Just this week this Summer’s first severe heatwave has arrived in most European countries. And there is evidently a growing awareness and increasing effort being made to help lessen the blow of our carbon footprint, shown in the influence of the Extinction Rebellion and countries increasingly declaring a state of climate emergency.

We are also seeing an undeniable trend and desire to move to a more sustainable, environmentally-friendly world not only in our personal lives but in businesses too. An obvious example of this is the numerous food service organisations, including the likes of McDonald’s, Nandos and Wagamama, which have banned the use of plastic straws in their restaurants and Waitrose and Marks and Spencer trialling recycling and packaging reduction initiatives. Thankfully, calls are now being made for production of single use plastics to stop, hitting the problem at the source rather than treating the symptom.

Many of these systemic movements and changes are being assisted by technology. In the office environment, technology now allows us to run virtual meetings and partake in mobile working, cutting emissions and reducing our daily carbon footprint. We can now create biodegradable products at almost mass scale, reducing waste and decreasing the number of harmful chemicals that pollute the air when producing plastic. In our homes, new technologies are tackling some of the biggest producers of emissions (electricity and heating) with eco-friendly tools and renewable energy technologies including heat source pumps, solar and wind. Additionally, smart technology is teaching us to be more efficient with our energy, and it’s the same in our offices, too.

Another way in which technology is supporting and driving environmental change is through the development of AI, satellite data, drones, remote sensing and thermal imaging. These applications are being used in environmental experiments to allow scientists to monitor and make accurate and informed decisions, in order to develop new and effective strategies to help care for the environment better.

Technology has also had a huge role to play in spreading awareness of environmental issues. TV/broadcasting and social media are incredibly powerful platforms that are allowing us to share news, reports and live footage from all over the world – including those areas most vulnerable to global warming and plastic pollution, from oceans to secluded frozen landscapes. In turn, this growth of awareness is influencing people’s choices and is prompting many to make lifestyle changes, whether this be reducing their waste, using shared public transport or sourcing more local food produce. It is also encouraging businesses to go green by banning plastic use, installing water re-fill stations in cities and implementing cycle to work schemes.

There is no doubt that we will continue to see new developments in support of the race to halt the negative effects on the planet that we’re already experiencing, so what does the future look like for green technology in our everyday lives? We are certainly likely to see more smart city solutions and transport methods evolve – as an example last month Transport for London announced some buses would be powered by hydrogen in 2020 – and it’s not too hard to picture an all-virtual business world either. While we may never reverse the effects of climate change, technology is certainly giving us a good opportunity to assist in the rescue and restoration of our planet.