Networking is key to keeping up with technology
A
Yorkshire Forward product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jul 12, 2006
A man who spends his days predicting the technologies of the future last night encouraged a audience of Yorkshire businesses and academics to "keep talking" to achieve success.
A man who spends his days predicting the technologies of the future last night encouraged a audience of Yorkshire businesses and academics to "keep talking" to achieve success.
Ian Neild, BT futurologist and co-author of the BT technology timeline, addressed an audience of over 120 regional academics and business leaders at a Yorkshire Science and Technology Network event at the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield.
The network is designed to encourage innovation in Yorkshire by connecting innovative businesses with commercially minded academic expertise.
Neild entertained and inspired his audience with his predictions for future technologies; including tiny displays which fit in the back of your hand and monitor your health and pacemakers which use RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to send messages to paramedics to inform them a patient's heart is in difficulty, before a heart attack actually occurs.
But as well as taking his audience on a whistle stop tour of the future, Neild also took a trip down memory lane, to demonstrate the amazing leaps made by technology in recent decades.
He used examples of the amazing evolutions of 'standard' technologies like mobile telephones and computers to remind his audience of the importance of looking ahead and being innovative.
Jim Farmery, Head of Innovation at Yorkshire Forward commented: "The YSTN network is about helping regional companies and research experts to come together and innovate locally in order to help them compete globally".
"Ian's presentation really brought home the speed at which the world is evolving and the importance of keeping your eye on the ball in order to stay ahead of the game".
"His example of how nobody in the 'pager' business thought SMS messaging would ever be a threat to them was a real eye opener for many YSTN members - I know I haven't used a pager in years".
Tim Ainsworth, Marketing Manager for Pharmacy, Healthcare and Baby at Boots said: "Reliance on a naive assumption that 'technology won't move that quickly in our industry' will not necessarily preclude competitors from stealing the competitive edge".
"Ian Neild's presentation was extremely interesting and clearly demonstrated the positive commercial impact that links to academic institutions in partnership can afford in this sphere".
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