Event Report: Our First Year At Camp Digital
Snapshots from the day's talks: conversations on accessibility, inclusivity, lasers, and more!
Picture the scene.
In a darkened auditorium, you lean forwards in your seat. Hundreds of people are screaming at the eponymous avian in the 2013 video game sensation, Flappy Bird. You are screaming too. Everything is made of lasers.
With an agenda offering a step-by-step primer in “How to Exploit Autistic People*” immediately before an interactive laser display, it should have been clear that Nexer Digital's #CampDigital was not your typical conference.
(*Don't panic - all will become clear.)
With talks that ranged from the inspirational to provocative - plus a few that were just plain fun! – three hours at the event had me seriously considering taking up an alternative career in laser artistry. Beyond inspiring my own flights of fancy, #CampDigital invited audiences to explore approaches to technology and workplace culture that could help us to shape a more inclusive world, and work together to affect positive societal change.
Michael Gillett's talk on the intersection between AI and accessibility provided useful insights into the practical applications of AI technology enabling people from a wide range of backgrounds to access the opportunities offered by the digital world.
What if an app could allow you to read a map you otherwise were unable to see? Microsoft’s partnership with Be My Eyes, an app connecting blind and low-vision users with sighted help and AI assistance, is a tangible example of the ways in which technology is being used to enable people with disabilities to live a more independent, connected, and fulfilling lives.
Be My Eyes is just one of many innovations that could help to transform the lives of the 16 million disabled people living in the UK. Michael cited applications of AI in writing live captions; reading and summarising content; providing translations; and creating alt text as other ways AI could serve to make digital products, content, and services more accessible to a diverse range of users.
Our world increasingly demands a base level of digital literacy to connect with others, access vital services, and meaningfully participate in democracy. Where digital exclusion effectively results in marginalisation from modern society, accessibility becomes a fundamental human right.
Increasing the usability of common workplace applications also has the potential to democratise access to essential tools and reduce human workload. Consider your own job. How much time do you spend on tasks that represent an unwanted administrative burden?
With that time returned through AI automation, users could be afforded the space to focus on more meaningful aspects their roles. Videos exploring users’ positive experiences of Microsoft’s GenAI tool CoPilot posed the implicit question - what more could be achieved with technology supporting our ability to carry out the tasks that are vital to our roles, but we find mundane or monotonous?
(Strategic thinking, creative experimentation, and practical action proved more inspirational answers than enjoying a longer lunch.)
To build a more inclusive future industry, opportunities that uplift diverse talent must be championed by the businesses, organisations, and people that hold influence within our sector. Following Michael on the main stage came #CampDigital’s Lightning Talks: four quick-fire talks from first-time or up-and-coming speakers from underrepresented groups in tech.
#CampDigital embodies its commitment to change-making by offering a high-profile platform for new speakers to build their profile, share ideas, and develop their public presentation skills. An event with less conviction in its values could have relegated its less experienced speakers to a smaller stage. By positioning its four Lightning Talks adjacent to talks from key industry leaders, #CampDigital made a powerful show of support to its new talent, demonstrating a genuine, embodied belief in the importance of welcoming new stories, perspectives, and ideas to shape the future of our industry.
All good intentions aside, occupying the same stage as industry giants for your first large-scale presentation opportunity carries with it a not-insubstantial level of challenge. (Or terror, depending on your constitution for public speaking.) A huge congratulations to #CampDigital’s Lightning Talk speakers, who were more than ready to embrace the moment – taking to the stage with no sign of nerves or hesitation, despite their sizeable audience.
While Laura McKendrick offered several practical, easily implementable responses to common stakeholder challenges, sharing a range of activity suggestions for collaborative problem-solving, Galina Ostroumova and Candy Ogbebor explored questions of meaning and motivation within their roles.
Galina’s powerful talk on her pathway into IT - from a successful career in sales in the Ukraine, to developing new skills in a three-month coding bootcamp in the UK, and finally landing her first IT role as a software developer – explored the power of purpose in overcoming challenges. With Galina’s talk encouraging audiences to find their ‘why’, Candy’s posited a suggestion: empathy. Where tech is driven by genuine care for people, a desire to listen to a range of perspectives, and the need to ensure that nobody is left behind, it is more likely to impact all people’s lives positively, rather than further widening the digital divide. Aershey Khan powerfully championed this concept through sharing the practices we can incorporate into the workplace to create a culture of inclusivity – as well as giving us all a lightning lesson in Urdu along the way!
Diversity of thought is integral to building a digitally enabled future that benefits everyone. This should not only encompass people at all stages of their careers, but from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experiences.
Rachel Morgan-Trimmer's primer in “exploiting” autistic people was not only irresistibly titled, but hilarious and hard-hitting in equal measure.
While listening to a step-by-step guide on the whys and hows of “taking advantage” of autistic people initially felt like receiving instructions in supervillainy, Rachel’s talk starkly confronted the common workplace asks of autistic employees that are still routinely overlooked.
Through jokes (and punchline revelations of comically oversized props) Rachel outlined the base accommodations all workplaces could make to enable autistic colleagues to thrive within the workplace: access to a bathroom, a choice of food, a suitable working environment, largely fulfilling work, and generosity of spirit.
Rachel's convincing case for why we should be "exploiting" autistic people to increase employee efficiency, company revenue, net profit, and retention rates, is ultimately a case for treating people with a basic level of respect.
When a person’s basic needs are routinely interrogated, it becomes difficult not to turn questions inwards. Rachel’s bravery and vulnerability in sharing the impact of the debate around workplace accommodations on her own sense of worth and deservedness was brutally affecting. When the value of making the changes needed for autistic people to succeed within the workplace is still being questioned, what does the workplace of the future look like for the huge number of talented, young, autistic people currently in education?
The values of “trust, understanding, and authenticity” that Rachel champions should surely not be too much to ask. With such a huge part of our lives are spent in work, who wouldn’t want this from an employer? Who wouldn’t expect to receive it?
Everybody deserves the chance to fulfil their full potential. When adaptable and inclusive workplaces are proven to benefit company output and employee wellbeing, what a waste it would be if our workplaces deny capable, creative, talent people the working opportunities they deserve out of sheer, stubborn inflexibility.
After an afternoon of thoughtful, reflective talks, Seb Lee-Delisle’s delightfully chaotic session injected joy, fun, and a mild sense of danger into proceedings.
(But not to worry - as Seb repeatedly assured us, he has “very good insurance”.)
And so came the lasers. Seb took us on a whirlwind tour of his previous work in the field of games design – a career highlight being a fever dream of a children’s game, in which a screaming dog-like creature desperately attempts to avoid your attempts to brush its teeth.
If you’re struggling to picture this as vividly as is still ingrained in my mind, Seb revealed that the original players – having grown up and discovered the internet – have since turned this minigame into a viral meme on YouTube.
From this appropriately madcap background in programming and games design, Seb took the plunge into the field of laser artistry. This is, surprisingly, a real thing – and a job title guaranteed to make you one the most interesting people at any dinner party. From publicly controlled lasers mounted on buildings city-wide, to guerilla installations projected from a balcony during lockdown, Seb’s talk dipped into slightly surreal territory as he showcased the infinitely inventive ways that his projects have returned a childlike sense of joy, magic, and wonder to audiences.
If this wasn’t already epitomised by Seb’s showcase, the session reached its dramatic conclusion with Seb cajoling the whole auditorium into controlling the trajectory of arcade game characters through sound alone.
Cue: Screaming.
#CampDigital featured a wonderfully eclectic range of talks, spanning topics from across the many disparate corners of our digital ecosystem. While some were very serious, and others delightfully silly, the unifying thread was a passionate belief in centring people at the heart of design, accessibility, and impact.
At Manchester's Digital Strategy , we believe that everyone has the right to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital world. Whether through increasing ease of access to vital services, making the changes needed to encourage a greater diversity of voices within the world of tech, or relishing the joy of a laser show that lets you play with the lights of a city, #CampDigital was in many ways a celebration of the ways in which inclusive approaches to digital have the potential to make a profoundly positive difference to people’s lives.
Next month we’ll run our first conference event, AI for All, our call to action for developing AI systems and approaches that prioritise human ideals, needs and participation. #CampDigital offers an aspirational model for the rare event that combines playful and eccentricity with an ardent passion for affecting change, uniting a truly diverse range of voices to share ideas for the ways in which we can – and should – leverage technology for the benefit of society.
While this may have been my first year at camp, it certainly won’t be my last!
