#TeamCrowd Planning For a Digital Future

Bournemouth has been reborn, and we aren’t just talking about the Football Club - Bournemouth is fast becoming the envy of the UK within the emerging digital tech space. With 2 rapidly growing Universities and a local community of digital enthusiasts, it is no wonder Bournemouth has been dubbed the ‘Silicon South’ of the UK. So, what’s our secret to engineering a duplicate of Silicon Valley and preparing for the digital future?

#TeamCrowd were honoured when we got the call up to have a stand at  Digital Wave, an annual event organised by local agency Redweb focussed on inspiring the next ‘wave’ of digital entrepreneurs. This year featured speakers from all over the world with varying backstories - as well as our very own Jamie Sergeant who delivered a talk to the 1000+ audience about the opportunities available working for a global digital marketing agency.

“A mind when stretched by new ideas never regains its original dimensions.” Anonymous

Manning the stand we got a chance to set up alongside other local agencies and businesses to collaboratively give advice to the next generation of ‘digi-whiz-kids’. Each stand brought their own little toy for the children to use, we opted for one of the Razor hoverboards, whilst Createful had a 3D printing pen and Cold Banana had an innovative banana playing keyboard… But nothing quite topped the miniature X-Wing which flew through over 20 of the visiting student's legs on stage.

What was apparent when talking to the 14-18-year-olds and listening to the on-stage speakers was that we are going through a digital evolution.  

The Internet of things, the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and a whole lot more is just around the corner. Some worry that this digitalisation will threaten jobs, but it’s important to remember that the jobs that these youngsters will be doing haven’t even been invented yet. Where there is innovation there is an opportunity; Uber, Airbnb, BlaBlaCar are all examples of companies that piggybacked innovative tech and created vast opportunities for thousands of people within the ‘sharing economy’ and we hope some of the audience will go on to do exactly the same.

So going back to ‘our secret’... In Bournemouth, the local agencies and aspiring students are not afraid of innovation, but also understand the need to help each other. Crowd are one of a number of agencies that work very closely with Bournemouth University, the Arts University of Bournemouth and local schools to develop the talent that will one day spearhead the ‘Silicon South’. Events like Digital Wave help to bring like-minded people together to discuss and educate. And that is our secret.