BDFI hosts BT Leaders Lab - inspiring future leaders with sociotechnical methodologies

BT Leader Lab delegates outside Wills Hall conference centre

Breakout sessions at the BT Leader Lab event

1 May 2024

We were delighted to host our valued partner, BT Group, for one of their Leader Lab events recently, bringing together academics and senior leaders to explore new and emerging digital technologies.

The aim of the two-day event was to take future BT Group leaders on a journey that started with potentially disruptive future digital technologies and challenges; considering the impact of these on BT’s services and products; to then exploring the consequences of taking different approaches to creative thinking and technology innovation.

Over 50 colleagues, representing a wide range of professional portfolios; from engineers and network experts to strategy professionals and operations managers, attended the event which was held in the University’s Wills Hall Conference Centre in Bristol. A number of senior BT Group colleagues and Directors joined on the day to support and champion the thought-provoking activities.

Academics from BDFI and Bristol’s Cyber Security Group kicked off the event with a series of lightning talks, presenting attendees with a range of potential future challenges, including generative AI, 6G, quantum and cyber security.

A carefully designed series of break out discussions, facilitated by BDFI academics and staff, followed where delegates experimented with different approaches to creative thinking and product idea generation and explored the importance of sociotechnical methodologies.

The University’s Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Civic and Global Engagement, Professor Palie Smart, was the keynote speaker at the Leader Lab’s dinner. She gave a fascinating talk on ‘harnessing difference for innovation’, based on her research across a broad range of industry sectors.

Carol Fletcher, Head of Academic and Research Partnerships at BT Group, said: “The series of focused workshop sessions left our future BT leaders informed, inspired and better equipped to think about technology co-creation, innovation and sociotechnical challenges in new ways.

"Seeing the consequences that different questions and approaches have on idea generation and decision-making play out in real time was very insightful. A take away from this was an enhanced appreciation of the importance and benefits of including sociotechnical approaches in the innovation process.

“Everyone got a lot out of the two days. BDFI’s insight and facilitation was critical in making this event such a success.”