The Digital Lighthouse

In this special episode of The Digital Lighthouse, we are thrilled to host Rajani Rao, a luminary in the tech industry and a staunch advocate for the role of women in technology. As a principal technologist at Aveva and director of Women Who Code, Rajani shares her inspiring journey and the transformative work her organization does to break barriers for women in tech. Through her story, we explore...

In this episode of "The Digital Lighthouse," Zoe Cunningham welcomes Thomas Harris from MasterCard, delving into the transformative currents of digital innovation. Thomas shares the strategic intricacies of MasterCard's journey, and the broader impact on global markets, in a conversation that lights the way through the complex landscape of digital transformation, offering invaluable insights on na...

Back in 2008, Herb Kim founded the Thinking Digital conference series. Little did he know that 15 years on, the event would still be going, having established itself as a popular fixture in the north-east tech calendar. Herb joins Zoe Cunningham to talk about the importance of events, both for networking, and as powerful and serendipitous learning and development opportunities for anyone in the se...

Using generative AI to improve CX and meet regulatory requirements in insurance Insurance is a challenging market to be operating in these days. A perfect storm of the squeeze on household budgets, rising costs when handling claims, and new regulation, mean many insurers are struggling to stay afloat and remain competitive. Rashed Younas is the insurance practice lead at The Dot Collective, which...

Georgina Owens knows a thing or two about leading successful technology functions. Having held senior leadership roles in organisations across finance, telco and utilities, she now heads up the 300-person technology function at William Hill. In her chat with Zoe Cunningham, she reflects on how you can successfully oversee teams at this scale, while instilling a culture that fosters creativity and...

If you’re not using microservices already, you’ve probably heard people raving about how amazing they are. If you’re tempted to dip your toes in the water, then this podcast with independent tech consultant, author, and former FT technical director for engineering enablement, Sarah Wells, is a must-listen. During her chat with Zoe Cunningham, she talks about what organisations need to consider bef...

In our latest episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Tom Riley, Delivery Principal at Softwire. Tom has overseen the successful delivery of numerous UK public sector digital projects, including the modernisation of the register to vote service, the cloud migration of the gender pay gap reporting service, and the replacement of the software underpinning the high-profile Feed-in-Tariff scheme. In this...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Sarah Hale, Senior Director of Engineering at Unity Technology joins Zoe Cunningham to talk gaming, career paths, and the importance of clarity when leading a team. Sarah reflects on how she’s needed to evolve as she’s worked her way up to an engineering leadership role, while still regularly drawing on the skills she learnt early in her career. This episo...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Joanna Smith, Interim CIO at University Hospitals Sussex. We dive deep into the world of healthcare technology with Joanna, a seasoned professional who has worked across various organisations. She shares her insights into the differences between the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS, shedding light on the challenges they face...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Will Dixon, Professor of Digital Epidemiology at the University of Manchester. Will discusses how digital health data sources create exciting opportunities, like using de-identified electronic health records to analyse large populations for medication safety and COVID risk factors during the pandemic. He also explores the risks...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Daniel Whitston, CTO of AutogenAI. The adoption of AI tools is on the rise, with a large number of them utilising the large-scale language model, GPT-3. While these models can solve difficult problems, they tend to be trained on a large corpus of the entire internet and may not capture an individual company’s voice or values. Da...

Zoe Cunningham is joined by Aya Stead, software developer at Softwire to talk about neurodiversity in her role. She shares the ways she developed to look after her mental health, in the hope it can help other software engineers too. View the full transcript at: https://www.softwire.com/insights/navigating-neurodiversity-how-can-software-developers-support-their-mental-health-in-the-workplace/

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Anne Currie, Community co-Chair of the Green Software Foundation. Anne shares her experience and talks about the key pressing climate issues for the tech industry right now, the best things that tech teams can do to reduce their impact on the planet, and what research is saying about how the digital age has changed. Learn more b...

In a frank conversation with Kevlin Henney, packed with interesting anecdotes and thought-provoking suggestions, we discussed topics such as: Why most developers code for the past, our moral responsibility to think about future uses of our code, as well as how technology companies can weather tough economic times. Read the highlights summary here: www.softwire.com/insights/highlights-from-kevlin-h...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Jason Souloglou, founder and CEO of SeeChange Technologies, a world-leader in real-time AI powered recognition systems, with expertise in making complex, state of the art AI technology simple to deploy and scale. Jason speaks about how their AI technology services excel within the retail sector to support loss prevention and hea...

Zoe Cunningham is joined by Sophia Lin, senior sales manager, and Sasha Burgoyne, head of academy operations at TechSwitch to talk about how people of all backgrounds can approach career changing into technology successfully. See the full transcript and more at: https://www.softwire.com/insights/what-routes-into-technology-are-available-for-female-and-diverse-career-changers

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Hywel Carver, founder of Skiller Whale. This organisation provides deep coaching for tech teams, believing that learning that is core to how an engineering team operates and should align with business priorities. In our conversation, Hywel discusses why Skiller Whale came about and how to make the most of any tech training for y...

As a CTO, how can you create your own community of peers? Even if you're working with your team leads and C-Level colleagues, you may still feel lonely at times. CTO Craft’s community brings together technology leaders from across the world and its founder, Andy Skipper, shares how it all started and how to build your own network of peers. Transcript available at: https://www.softwire.com/insights...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Jonny Britton, who is a co-founder and the CEO of LandTech. He discusses how LandTech started as a response to unclear and missing tools for property developers and self-builders to buy land. Jonny shares how the company is fulfilling its customers' needs and how technology has been the catalyst for supporting urban development....

Joe Edwards, Technical Principal, and Daniel Waters, delivery principal at Softwire, share how to use DevOps to make your developers more productive. They discuss what they mean by productivity and DevOps, and why DevOps is particularly relevant for financial services. To read the transcript, visit https://www.softwire.com/insights/how-to-use-devops-to-make-your-developers-more-productive

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Kim Nilsson and Ole Moeller-Nilsson, founders of PeripherAi. This startup is helping founders of small and medium-sized businesses to create a scalable, predictable and efficient sales function, by integrating the human knowledge and the data insights within. We take a sneak-peak behind the scenes at why this startup's mission i...

In our latest TechTalks episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Kyla Guru and Molly Graton, co-founders of GirlCon. We explore the story behing Girlcon, a Chicago-based tech conference for female/non-binary high schoolers to promote diversity in STEM fields. Recently it was help at Google Chicago, before becoming a virtual global event in 2020. Transcript available at: www.softwire.com/insights/the-s...

In our latest Digital Lighthouse episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Liv Wild, engineering director of technology reservation checkout at Expedia.  We explore her role, the innovative changes happening at Expedia, how her team works and what leadership looks like for the future. Transcript available at: https://www.softwire.com/insights/how-expedia-is-creating-great-checkout-experiences-using-tec...

In our latest Techtalks episode, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Elin Sjursen, Design Director, and Michael Trueman-Hall, Senior Service Designer at Softwire, to talk about Service Design. It's a term that is interpreted in so many ways by so many different people, and is closely linked to Design Thinking. Let's explore the full definition and understand why it's so important for companies to consider...

Digital Lighthouse Jen Dallas (Softwire) On this week's Digital Lighthouse, Zoe Cunningham is joined by Jen Dallas, Head of Digital UK and Ireland at RSA Insurance. Jen talks about the work she and her team have done to develop customer experiences across their platform. She explores the RSA's use of user testing, research and leadership to help create huge efficiency gains, and what has been valu...