News

Author: Charles Sellers

• Beer with Sphere

  Thursday March 30, 2023

  Come and join us at the 'Beer with Sphere' gathering at Motel One in Newcastle from 5.30pm to 7:30pm on Thursday 30th March 2023

• The Power of Human Connection, with Di Gates

  Thursday September 8, 2022

  Di Gates is all about connecting better with humans, and the Sphere Network is all about connecting humans with ideas and initiatives that are making a real difference.
  
  Di’s latest project, the Human Connection Story, has been designed from the outset to be highly collaborative, which is just the type of project Sphere members love. It’s an action-research project that explores human connectivity in the world of work and how this has changed in the last few years.

• Manufacturing Without Borders

  Friday November 26, 2021

  Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic, digital transformation in Manufacturing had been slower than some sectors to realise full potential due to the high investment required, the lack of expertise and skills, as well as the challenges that it posed for existing technological and organisational structures. However, as the manufacturing sector was most disrupted by the pandemic on both the supply and demand sides, the barriers to the digital innovation in the sector were largely broken down

• Digital Disruption of the Professions

  Friday September 24, 2021

  Alex Craig is a Partner at Muckle LLP, a commercial law firm based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, working with regional, national and international clients. The company is increasingly dealing with technology challenges, in terms of contracts, disputes, acquisitions, sales and other legal aspects of the business. Alex has been at the centre of many discussions around data protection and international property ownership over the course of her career. To broaden our understanding of the key digital innovation milestones and challenges in law firms, Alex shared her experience of how digital disruption has affected the firm operations, what strategic meaning such impacts have had, and what the role of socio-technical and regulatory factors in digital disruption was.

• Customer Experience is the New Currency

  Friday July 16, 2021

  During the pandemic, companies have seen huge changes in customer behaviour in the way in which they see brands, interact with them and engage in transactions. To dive deeper into the role of customer experience in the new era, the July Sphere Network event welcomed the talk by Helena Hill, an Experience Strategist and Consultant at Helena Hill Consulting.

• Why Digitally-Savvy NEDs are Crucial to Successful Business Transformation

  Friday June 25, 2021

  Mis-aligned understanding about how to realise benefits from investment in IT is akin to setting a pile of cash on fire. This blog summarises the wisdom and insights of an experienced, digitally-savvy non executive director – Stuart Lynn.

• How Covid is re-Shaping the Psychology of Work

  Friday May 21, 2021

  After more than a year of an enforced lockdown, the business leaders in the UK are now preparing to (or have started to) bring their employees back to offices (BTO). Against the backdrop of the transition from working from home (WFH) to working from the office, there is a need to reflect on employees’ experiences and organisational plans and the resources that are required to implement this transition. Transferring work practices back to offices is not only the change of a physical place, it is a psychological shift, because of the disruptions of the work patterns to which employees have become accustomed during the pandemic. Although work from home entails technological, management and psychological challenges, the return to physical collaboration and other aspects of office work practices raise different concerns, which call for a closer look at their roots and implications for the future of work.

• Digital Poverty

  Tuesday April 6, 2021

  The reliance on digital technology has been intense since the beginning of the pandemic, with an acceleration in capability of technologies to ensure the continuity of public and social practices by bridging physical distance. Digital transformation has created opportunities and benefits which had not been thought of and embraced before. The application of digital technologies by public and private stakeholders enabled them to adapt to the new reality. For example, academic institutions have moved their learning, recruiting, assessment, interaction and support services to the virtual space.
  
  The accelerated expansion of digital technologies in many spheres of life has increased concerns over a widening digital gap. Recent statistics show that there are over 16 million people in the UK who are digitally excluded. Against the backdrop of the growing integration of digital technologies in our lives, the March Sphere Digital Thursday webinar was organised to discuss how digital poverty is manifested and what it means to be digitally excluded. Professor Alastair Irons from the University of Sunderland shared insights about digital poverty in the education sphere. The talk facilitated a wider discussion about the roots of unequal digital opportunities, the impacts that it has and the steps that are important in tackling digital poverty.

• Creating the Future in Education

  Thursday November 19, 2020

• Creating the Future Climate

  Friday October 23, 2020

• Creating the Future Digital Workplace

  Friday October 2, 2020

  Over seven months following the COVID-19 outbreak, when looking at the business landscape, organisations have certainly reacted fast to support workers’ health and safety and continue delivering services. Still uncertain, though, is the impact of COVID-19 on the long-term future digital and what measures will help businesses stay relevant to customers and colleagues.

• Peaks and Perils of Long Term Virtual Working

  Thursday June 18, 2020

  Digital Thursday: Peaks and Perils of Long Term Virtual Working: Leadership lessons from the front line.
  
  18th June 2020