Why Technology is no laughing matter to Comic Relief

Last week, Cardinal Place’s Showcase Classroom played host to Comic Relief and Microsoft UK for the #UpgradeYourWorld/Tech4Good Workshop. Representatives from 23 causes across the UK joined Microsoft for a day of presentations, workshops and brainstorming to explore some of the ways charities can better use technology to advance the valuable work they do.

The day kicked off with an introduction from Hugh Milward, who explained how the principle of Tech4Good aligns with Microsoft's key initiative as a means of reflecting our ambition to use technology to achieve maximum societal impact. A workshop from Microsoft Ventures Warwick Hill, followed drawing on their experience mentoring start-ups to provide valuable insight into how organisations can accelerate their use of technology. As part of this, charities
were invited to come up with their top 3 business challenges, which would be further explored during the day.

The classroom was then split into zones, allowing smaller groups to explore the subjects that interested them most. We were joined by some Social Tech specialists, including Julie Dodd creator of the New Reality, to share their connections and experience of using tech to amplify marketing narratives.

Tech Evangelist Andrew Spooner (from our Developer team, DX) closed the day with a lively session covering how app development can be used to engage more volunteers’/key stakeholders and improve charity reach and impact. He also shared insight into the future of technology with the likes of HoloLens. There was also valuable insight shared from Myriam El Ouni into how big data could be utilized by charities, including machine learning and analytics.

As the day's activities wound down, the 50 or so attendees seemed inspired by the various lessons learned and we are all excited to see how the charities continue their journeys of Digital Transformation over the course of 2016.

A huge thank you goes out to all those involved in creating the day, especially our Tech4Good team pictured below with our awesome speakers and experts!

If you are a charity and interested in attending a similar event like the above, watch this space as the Tech4Good team work on bringing us more inspiring Tech4Good days in the new year.

And don't forget to follow us at @mscharitiesuk if you are on twitter!