I’m Adrian Woolard, head of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ R&D’s North Lab and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Connected Studio. I have a number of responsibilities overseeing two excellent teams of researchers, engineers, producers and innovation experts within Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ R&D and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Connected Studio (including Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Taster).
On 3 November 2015 I had the privilege of giving a presentation at the first conference to be held in Manchester, to give a whistle-stop tour of our work and approach to "getting stuff done". The conference was a which helped to further captivate an already highly-engaged audience.
The title of my talk was , in which I shared an honest and personal account of what we have achieved to date since we moved part of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ (including a large part of the Research & Development department) to Salford. These were "tales from the front line".
The main theme of the talk was to highlight the power and value of collaboration in the digital era; the realisation that to have a significant UK and global impact you need to anticipate how you will work with others from the outset. This seems particularly relevant in human-centred innovation. I gave an overview of how we look at depth, scale, agility and insight to drive our initiatives forward and I shared some examples interspersed with a few videos and demonstrations.
I made reference to some key Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ projects and initiatives below with some links if you’d like to find out more about them. There are many others that highlight the breadth of these partnerships.
- Depth – Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ R&D's network of university partners through and .
- Scale&²Τ²ϊ²υ±θ;–&²Τ²ϊ²υ±θ;°Υ³σ±π initiative and the creation of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ micro:bit project, which a number of my team have collaborated on.
- Agility – Connected Studio launched in 2012 and has become a successful initiative working collaboratively with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ teams and digital companies across UK and most recently, across .
- Insight – our public-facing innovation platform, , launched in January this year to allow the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ to collaborate with external digital agencies in pilot production, and the audience by encouraging licence fee payers to try, rate and share new digital innovations from different areas of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, as well as showcasing new talent from across the UK.
I also showcased a number of current projects that highlighted some of our work that focuses on user-centred innovation:
- A demonstration of future immersive experiences (audio and visual); putting the user as the conductor of the .
- A cardboard robot built by a couple of members of my research team in their lunch break. We will be publishing the kit and code for this when the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ micro:bit launches.
- The interactive experience on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Taster that was developed by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ with digital agency Fish in a Bottle
Finally, 15 members of the audience were asked to participate in a live trial investigating ways of capturing audience reactions, and exploring how we can use the data to inform the live audience, production teams and audiences at home.
Ready to work the 'love' button
β€” Sam Manson (@mansonsam) November 3, 2015
At Thinking Digital, audience members were given internet enabled "Love" buttons, which they pressed whenever they saw or heard something during the presentations that resounded strongly with them. The buttons save a timestamp each time they are pressed, and this data can then be synchronised via Bluetooth to a native Android app running on a paired smartphone before an analytics service collates the data. These have previously been trialled with . At end of the conference the data was shared back to the audience, and we gained some interesting feedback as to which moments through the conference triggered the most interest or enthusiasm from the audience.
The talk was timely both because of the publication of an independent review of the impact of the overall Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s move to North West that cited the innovation impact from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ to the region, and in relation to the ongoing debate about the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s future vision of its role in the next charter period.
As always I’d like to thank our partners and audience who are helping us build a more open and collaborative Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, as well as Herb and the Thinking Digital team and my colleagues within Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ R&D and Connected Studio.