Tech4Good Voices

Alicia interviews Paul Forster, the Incubation Manager at SetSquared Bristol. They discuss the enterprise programs at SetSquared Bristol, investing in minorities in the tech industry, purpose-driven technology, and the importance of Tech for Good.

Paul shares his passion for amplifying marginalised voices and creating tangible change. He also highlights the need for government investment in Bristol's tech ecosystem. The conversation concludes with information on how to get involved with SetSquared Bristol.

"Everybody deserves the opportunity, but we need to understand what those barriers are to optioning that opportunity for everyone."

"Tech for good is a really good way of ring fencing things that are driven by purpose."

Henry Jones, consultant for the Southwest Social Mobility Commission discusses social mobility, the South West, diversity in tech and some ideas on how to close the ever growing digital skills gap in the UK.

Read Henry’s report Tech Frontier, Shaping the Future of the Southwest Peninsula

"Work experience is one of the big things I’m looking at, specifically year 10 work experience. My report lays out eight things that we really need to do to improve the pipeline of young talent, especially those with disadvantaged backgrounds going into tech, and number one is more year 10 work experience programs within tech! When I speak about work experience programs, I don't mean just your local tech employer ringing on someone because, albeit that's good, I'm not saying that should stop. More tech employers I think should do that. But that is much more accessible to people that just have connections there, what about the others?''

"Awareness and interest in tech, as well as the availability of non-technical roles, play a crucial role in addressing the digital skills gap and driving social mobility in the tech industry.”

Jim Cranshaw, founder of Grants AI, which helps charities research and write grants way faster discusses his passion for social change and the challenges faced by the nonprofit sector.

"It's not just AI, but there's a number of technological revolutions that we're kind of really in the middle of or at the start of. And I think that's going to transform a lot about society. And I do think the sector's underprepared for that in a major way.’’ Jim Cranshaw

Takeaways

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:16 Passion for Social Change

06:23 Challenges in the Nonprofit Sector

07:12 Tech and Nonprofit Collaboration

12:31 Introduction to Grants AI

26:28 Tech for Good and the Nonprofit Sector

31:26 Desired Change in the Grants System

34:32 Closing Remarks

Episode 6 of our Founding Sponsor Mini Series talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Emma Millington, co-founder of Modular Digital.

"I see Tech for Good as bringing us all together so we can be a choir for change in the South West, be here to be strong and at the same time hopefully bring joy, improvement, impact to the people around who we influence."

“Tech for Good South West is about something for everyone so that everyone can get behind it and extract whatever element of what Tech for Good means for them and really embrace it and employ it. But also about moving forwards and taking action.”

“we need shared voices and then we can have shared action and be stronger in what we're doing.”

Episode 5 of our Founding Sponsor Mini Series talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Natalie Luckham, founder of Naturally Social, and Wiltshire Digital Drive.

"People and planet can work alongside profit. It doesn't have to be one or the other or sector by sector."

“I think tech for good is a huge. It's been gaining so much momentum recently, but you know, we are living in a digital era ultimately, and tech can offer so many answers to so many of the world's problems that we really need to look closer at how we're taking responsibility for that.”

Episode 4 of our Founding Sponsor mini series talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Ben Heasman, Product Director and Trustee Director at Torchbox.

“We're just really excited about the prospect of bringing positive change to the world through technology, through wider representation in the industry, through focus on accessibility and sustainability of the products we build. Tech for good for us is really tied in closely with doing business better."

The third of 6 episodes talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Josh Simpkins , co-founder of Future Talent Group and a bronze sponsor of Tech4Good South West.

"I think for us as recruiters, there's an opportunity, you know, one of our strengths probably is our network and the people that we work with, the businesses we work with. It feels like now is an amazing time that we can get those people involved in it."

"There's a really big opportunity to just level up industry standards in what businesses expect from their partners and what overall market standards look like in terms of taking a proactive approach to support in wider nonprofit and charity activities. "

The second of 6 episodes talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Joanna Randall, Founding Director of Purplefish and a bronze sponsor of Tech4Good South West.

"I'm really excited about with Tech for Good Southwest is that we can come together from all aspects and all areas of life."

"Whilst growth, profit -making, investment, that's all good because it does benefit economies and society as a whole, I don't think we can be naive to think that we are benefiting everybody. With all of this incredible amount of skills, talent, knowledge, research, all of this amazing work that's going on in the region, we must make sure that we're thinking about what benefits we can bring to everybody."

The first of 6 episodes talking to the founding sponsors of the Tech4Good South West relaunch, to explore their interest in tech for good and their hopes and ambitions for the TechforGood South West network.

This episode is in conversation with Nathan Baranowski, Managing Director of Digital Wonderlab and our first silver sponsor of Tech4Good South West.

"The opportunity for Tech4Good South West is to bring and bridge community, be that charity or actual communities together with business and enterprise to help to deliver real impact."

"The lovely thing about tech for good and particularly Tech4Good South West is it's perfectly a place to do pretty much anything, but it's only going to do those things if we come together."

In this episode we are in conversation with Julia Marshall-Wessendorf, founder of the WaveSix holistic health tracker app.

The WaveSix health app tracks all aspects of your lifestyle, health and wellbeing to provide insights on what’s having a positive or negative impact on your health and happiness. The app has recently launched for both Apple and Android.

Julia shares her inspiration for WaveSix, and her own lived experience of managing the impact of long term illness and how she has taken her insights forward to filling a gap in the market for health trackers.

As a female founder, Julia shares her business journey - how she has funded the business, the networks, and communities that have really supported her along the way and importantly how to prioritise your time and manage business growth sustainably.