Speaker abstracts

Jef Haywood
Welcome – Making the case for investing in IT  

• A very brief review of the current and future roles of IT in higher and further education – learning and teaching; research; administration, and knowledge exchange/business engagement.
• Investment in IT through the eyes of the governing bodies (“Board” and SMT)
• Catching their attention – making the elevator pitch for adequate investment in your organisation’s IT

Mike Boxall
Universities through the looking glass – reinventing the business of higher education

Browne and the CSR are the latest developments in a process of dramatic climate change in the world of higher education that can be traced back to Dearing, and has much further yet to run. The impact of this change is to overturn all of our basic assumptions about the business of higher education, and the conditions for success in the new world order. These challenges will be very uncomfortable for universities reluctant to let go of the culture and dependencies of publicly funded HE. For those willing to adapt to the new environment, and to seize the opportunities already opening up within it, there is the prospect of a very different but no less valuable or rewarding future for our universities and colleges. In this session, Mike will explore the implications of the changed climate for HE for the business of universities, and will offer propositions for alternative business and operating models for the 21st century university.

Derek Watson and Clive Wilson
Numbers that drive a sustainable estate – a reflection

Building sustainability into an Estates Strategy is a complex and expensive process – or that is the percepetion of many.  Actually, it’s not rocket science or an expensive gimmic, it just takes commitment, time, planning and a financial package to drive the initives.  The University of Bradford started its journey of delivering a Sustainable Estate five years ago as part of its Ecoversity Programme into sustainable development.  Now, five years into its programme it has reflected on the original concepts and are looking to the future to see what challengies are facing us today. 

Martyn Harrow and Steve Williams
New Age CIO view

Martyn and Steve are CIO’s who are both relatively new to the sector and who are known for bringing a business like outlook and progressive  new Age approach to the challenging role of university CIO.  They will each give a short presentation highlighting key points from their own career perspectives and experience; and then jointly present some challenging common threads for discussion and as take aways from the session.

John Mahoney
Leading effective transformation: how to blend change management art and science

Change management is an essential discipline for leaders of enterprise and IT transformation but the critical challenge – how to blend the human and mechanistic aspects, the art and science – isn’t well understood.  In this presentation you’ll discover how to do that successfully.  We’ll look at these key issues:

• What makes successful change management an art and a science?
• What tools work best for art and science?
• What roadmap should I use to build an effective transformation?

Chris Bishop and Anthony Salcito
Embracing uncertainty: the new machine intelligence. Embracing uncertainty: developments from around the world

While much of the Conference will focus on the pressing challenges that higher education faces, this presentation will offer some glimpses into the future of computing from both a research perspective and, from Microsoft’s global outlook, some of the most exciting developments from around the world. User interfaces, systems that deal with uncertainty and ambiguity and how technology responds to allow us to work with exponential growth in volumes of information will dramatically alter student experience and the effectiveness of institutions in teaching, learning and research.

Paul Golding
Current and future trends in mobile

A guide to the key technological, sociological and behavioural trends shaping our mobile futures

The Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller
Leadership in challenging times

In her presentation Eliza will draw on her experience in the most demanding of environments to stress the need for leaders in any walk of life to engage in frank dialogue and invite criticism. Do not try to be something you're not, take responsibility for your team and remember that praising people takes seconds and can make an enormous difference. And remember that humour can be found even in the most awful situations.