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Past
events
Summaries of events which have taken place can be found here.
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Thursday 15th May 2008
| title : |
AGM, followed by: IT Strategy is Dead. Now What? |
| speaker : |
Chris Potts - "The world's leading thinker on IT investments" |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Developments in IT have progressively killed-off the traditional IT Strategy (the latest being Web 2.0 and the bizarrely named "shadow IT").
A major paradigm shift is well and truly under way – shifting the strategic IT focus from technologies and the people who deliver them, to investments and the people that exploit them. Depending on your viewpoint, some strange things are happening. People increasingly have their own "de facto" strategies for investing in and exploiting IT, never mind the official strategy. Some companies are abandoning the CIO role, or a corporate strategy for IT, or both. IT departments are splitting up in various ways, either by design or accident.
In this provocative session, Chris will explain how the traditional IT Strategy died, and offer a paradigm for all of us caught up in the process to make sense of what is happening. He will explore the next-generation corporate strategies for IT, and how they impact investment planning, project execution and organisation design.
Chris has just returned home to the UK from a speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand, where he has been called "the world's leading thinker on IT investments". He is the author of the groundbreaking book "FruITion – Creating the Ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology", which was published in the USA in February 2008.
Slides (1.1 Mb)
 CPD Certificate
Thursday 17th April 2008
| title : |
Science and Engineering: a collusion of cultures |
| speaker : |
Professor Sir Tony Hoare, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research, Cambridge |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London (Joint event with Kingston and Croydon Branch) |
Pure Science and practical Engineering lie at two ends of a wide cultural spectrum, diametrically opposed across many dimensions. In every branch of Engineering Science, the intellectual integrity of the discipline, as well as its practical utility, requires that these cultures must not collide. Rather, they must collude in the old etymological sense of playing fairly together. A particular example treated in this talk is the collusion of the Science of Programming with the Engineering of Software.
Tony Hoare has been working in computing since 1958. As a professor in Belfast and Oxford, his interests have included compilers, operating systems and unifying theories of programming languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Distinguished Fellow of the BCS.
Slides (64 Kb)
CPD Certificate
Wednesday 26th March 2008
| title : |
The Scientist, the Accountant, and the Boardroom |
| speaker : |
Professor Clive Holtham, Information Management, Cass Business School, City University of London |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
With the CIO at the boardroom table, have we reached the end of the journey? Or is the information scientist about to grab the Finance Director's hand in a paradigm shift in strategic management? It took the intersection of information management and information technology to move IT from service provider to business enabler. Now the intersection with accountancy and general management beckons another step change in the intelligent exploitation of IT – is this a threat or opportunity for the IT profession?
Clive is Director of the IT Centre for Excellence (Virtual Work and Commerce), City University. He is a founding member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.
CPD Certificate
Tuesday 11th March 2008
| title : |
Surfing the edge of chaos: Use of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) for delivery of complex business change and partnership projects |
| speaker : |
Dr Peter Parkes, Managing Director, Peak Performance
Dr Mark Winter, Centre for Research in the Management of Projects, Manchester Business School |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Change Projects are inherently complex. Partnerships, and particularly Public Private Partnerships, are notoriously difficult to govern. Putting the two together has led to some major failures in Benefits Realisation. Peter and Mark will talk about practical application of soft systems methods to bid and deliver these challenging projects in complex environments.
Dr Peter Parkes chairs the London Branch of the APM and sits on the committee for the cross-body working group on governance of Project Management. He is an associate Programme Director with the government agency 4Ps (Programmes for Public Private Partnership).
Dr Mark Winter is a member of the Centre for Research in the Management of Projects at Manchester Business School. A strong exponent of the need to bring academia and industry closer together in project management, he recently headed the UK government-funded research programme, Rethinking Project Management, the biggest-ever review of its kind in the UK. He is also an experienced practitioner in the use of soft systems methodology (SSM) and obtained his PhD working with Professor Peter Checkland, the godfather of Soft Systems, at Lancaster University. He has worked with many organisations across different sectors including the Home Office, the Probation Service, Royal Liver Assurance, Tesco, Warburtons, Astra Zeneca, the Health and Safety Executive and the NHS. Project magazine named Mark one of the top ten PM experts in the UK last year.
CPD Certificate
Thursday 21st February 2008
| title : |
Agile Programme Management |
| speaker : |
Jennifer Stapleton, Stapleton Business Solutions |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Jennifer will talk about how Programmes can be structured, governed and managed so that they can be as responsive to internal and external change as the business requires.
Jennifer has been cited by PMI as one of the world’s most influential women in project and Programme management for her work in the agile arena, particularly in DSDM. She was Technical Director of the DSDM Consortium for 11 years and is the author of “DSDM, Business Focused Development”.
Slides (119.1 Kb)
CPD Certificate
Thursday 24th January 2008
| title : |
Provoking Creativity: Imagine What Your Requirements Could be Like |
| speaker : |
Neil Maiden, Professor of Systems Engineering and Head of the Centre for Human-Computer Interface Design
Requirements, City University School of Informatics |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Specifying requirements is too often seen as a "stenographer's task". The requirements engineer passively listens and records while the stakeholders state their needs. However, this approach relies on stakeholders knowing what they need, and what they want. But people do not know what they want until they see it. Most useful products come not from stakeholders' imagination, but from an invention. Neil shows that requirements engineering should be a creative process and describes techniques to invent requirements based on results from current research.
Neil has directed inter-disciplinary research in requirements engineering for 15 years and is the Editor of the IEEE Software's Requirements column.
Slides (1.8 Mb)
CPD Certificate
Thursday 13th December 2007
| title : |
On Time and On Track: Technology in Formula One |
| speaker : |
David France, IT Director, Honda Racing |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
David opens the door on the world of Formula One where technology and the team supporting it are often under extreme pressure. Formula One cars are raced all year all over the world creating intense demand for communications. Testing cars generates huge amounts of data for analysis. And all this is set against a demanding timetable of car development and racing where everything must be ready on the day.
David is an experienced IT Manager with a track record for managing IT organisations, directing projects and managing the relationship with outsource service providers.
CPD Certificate
Thursday 29th November 2007
| title : |
New Heights – Branch Visit to London Eye |
| speaker : |
|
| venue : |
The London Eye |
This is an opportunity to network with members and view the London skyline at night! Full details and tickets will be available for purchase on our website from mid October.
Thursday 15th November 2007
| title : |
Career Development III – How to get your next job in IT |
| speaker : |
Ben Clark, Director FMC – Select
Ben Lamb, Independent Software Developer |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
By now you probably know all the basics of how to get to the next step on your career plan, but do you know how to stand out from the crowd? This event promises more insights into the realities of career development. With interactive sessions and networking with members, this will be one you will not want to miss!
Ben Clark has been recruiting IT people for 7 years IT and is a specialist recruiter in Enterprise Architecture for clients in England and Australia. Ben Lamb is an independent software developer specialising in Microsoft’s .NET platform and Open Source.
Slides (55.3 Kb)
CPD Certificate
Thursday 18th October 2007
| title : |
China and India: threat or opportunity? |
| speaker : |
Charles Chang, Director, Oaksmill Ltd |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
China and India: two massive Asian countries with very long histories. 200 years ago they dominated world trade, and with their current high economic growth are predicted to overtake most of the developed nations in as little as 15 years. Both countries have large, young populations, and a growing well-educated middle class with an appetite for better things. Two huge countries, two huge markets on the verge of becoming consumer economies. Charles’ talk will analyse the key factors of politics, economics, social change and technology; and for each of these draw out the implications for enterprises and for governments. If you are concerned about the future, this should be on your agenda.
Charles previously worked for Gartner and other research organisations and has been tracking India and China for many years. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Business Consultants.
Slides (99.2 Kb)
CPD Certificate
Thursday 20th September 2007
| title : |
But Doctor, I've STILL got a pain in the data flow... |
| speaker : |
Brian Derry, Director of Informatics, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Andrew Haw, Director of Information & Communications Technology, University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
The National Programme for IT promised to transform the NHS, both administratively and in terms of patient care. The promises seemed too good to be true: a magic pill in a couple of years. Now all we hear are massive slippages with little delivered against spiralling costs. But is this really the case? Where is the programme, our tax money, and some of our careers all heading? Brian Derry and Andrew Haw will give an NHS practitioners' view of the Programme in a joint presentation and debate.
Brian is Chair of ASSIST (Association for Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care), and is a member of the BCS Health Informatics Forum strategic panel.
Andrew is Chair of the BCS-HIF Professional Development Board and immediate past Chair of ASSIST
CPD Certificate
Tuesday 26th June 2007
| title : |
The Challenges of Innovating with IT - Joint event with PA Consulting Group |
| speaker : |
Professor Peter Cochrane, co-founder of ConceptLabs
Carsten Sorenson, Senior Lecture at the London School of Economics
David Elton, Head of IT Strategy Service at PA
Claus Nehmzow, Head of Virtual World Services at PA |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
The British Computer Society London Central Branch has joined with PA Consulting Group to hold an IT forum on Tuesday 26th June 2007, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations on the challenges of innovating with IT.
The event will begin at 6:30pm for welcome drinks with the presentations starting at 7:00pm, finishing at around 8:40pm. Food will be served throughout the evening.
This forum will explore the challenges and opportunities of innovating with IT from a number of different perspectives.
Professor Peter Cochrane, co-founder of ConceptLabs, will share his thoughts on the future of IT innovation in "Finding Not Filing and Computers That Think".
Carsten Sorenson, Senior Lecturer at the London School of Economics, and David Elton, Head of IT Strategy Service at PA, will talk about their new piece of research entitled "Collaborate and Control - the new challenge for senior executives innovating with IT".
Claus Nehmzow, Head of Virtual World Services at PA, will present an example of how a particular IT innovation - Second Life - is forcing us to adapt our methods of working for the future.
This event for BCS members and PA Consulting Group is free of charge.
Thursday 17th May 2007
| title : |
AGM, followed by: Leading Change Effectively |
| speaker : |
Nick Fewings, Director, The Colour Works |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Nick is a leading expert in change management. Three of the top reasons cited in a survey completed by the National Audit Office and Office of Government Commerce for project/change failure relate to people. In this eye-opening, interactive and thought-provoking session Nick, whose company specialises in personal and team development using a colourful model of behaviours based on Jungian psychology, will help you find out:
• How your leadership style may impact on the changes you are implementing?
• Discover whether you have got the right skills in your team to compliment yours?
• How to satisfy the needs of those affected by the change?
Thursday 19th April 2007
| title : |
How Secure is Secure enough? |
| speaker : |
Piers Wilson, Principal Consultant & Head of Technical Assurance, Insight Consulting, Siemens Enterprise Communications Limited |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Legal, regulation and statutory requirements today require organisations to show due care. How do organisations arrive at a defensible position?
Slides (894.9 Kb)
Thursday 22nd March 2007
| title : |
SCIENCE WEEK - Next Generation Web - There’s Something Happening Here That’s Bigger Than Any of Us |
| speaker : |
Euan Semple was head of KM Solutions at the BBC and is now an independent consultant, well known for his Weblog "The
Obvious?" |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
As the Web evolves from static web-sites to new ways of collaboration like blogs and wikis we are seeing a step change in the way new insights and profound levels of understanding emerge from knowledge sharing. Euan will examine the future that’s already happening and consider where it might all end up.
Thursday 15th March 2007
| title : |
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) — a Checkpoint on National Implementations and on Firms' Readiness - Joint Meeting with BCS Financial Services Specialist Group |
| speaker : |
Alan Jenkins, Bearing Point European lead for MiFID and co-Chair Cross Jurisdiction Subject Group within MiFID Joint
Working Group |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Are you prepared for MiFID? This new European regulation, scheduled to go into effect in April 2007, will significantly alter financial services market structure in Europe and is perhaps the biggest challenge for the financial sector in the near future.
Thursday 15th February 2007
| title : |
A new ITIL for the Integration Age |
| speaker : |
Aidan Lawes |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
For years a common theme for IT practitioners has been the need for business-IT alignment, without it ever seeming to be achieved. Maybe one of the reasons is because it is the wrong goal and we should be striving for integration, not alignment. As part of this refocus, more attention needs to be paid to the whole service life-cycle. This philosophy of integration and life-cycles underpins the recent overhaul of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Aidan will describe the changes and the value to organisations from adopting or adapting to the new version which is scheduled for publishing in early 2007.
Slides (728 Kb)
Thursday 18th January 2007
| title : |
Managing the IT Supplier/ Government Interface, Joint meeting with BCSWomen |
| speaker : |
Rebecca George |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Rebecca George has worked with the Public Sector for 5 years, initially managing the relationship between IBM and the Government, then taking on business development and sales management roles. She has recently been involved in business development for shared services in the Public Sector.
Rebecca is interested in the interactions between private and public sectors, through procurement and also through delivery. She has been involved in some of the projects the IT suppliers have initiated to improve the way the Public Sector perceives them, for example the Supplier Code of Best Practice and IT Professionalism. Rebecca will talk about the relationship of IT suppliers and the government - context, constraints, initiatives, and progress.
Slides (1 Mb)
Thursday 16th November 2006
| title : |
How do I know who you are? - Identity Management in the Public Sector |
| speaker : |
Simon Davies, Visiting Fellow, Information Systems Department of the LSE |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Simon Davies is Mentor to the LSE's Identity Project. Now that the Identity Cards Act 2006 has been passed and the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) formed as an Executive Agency of the Home Office, Identity Management in the UK is going to be transformed into something more powerful and more integrated. Our two speakers consider not just the challenges of implementing the biometric technologies to register and verify identity, but also the benefits to the public and their concerns.
Wednesday 8th November 2006
| title : |
Transforming IT in BT, Joint Meeting with Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) |
| speaker : |
Clive Selley, CIO, BT Wholesale |
| venue : |
IET, Savoy Place, London WC2R |
Please register in advance with the IET.
BT is breaking new ground in the telecommunications industry with its ambitious 21st Century Network (21CN) initiative. This all digital, IP-based network is at the heart of BT's strategy to transform itself from a sleepy local telephone service provider into a global leader in converged communications services. To deliver the systems, platforms and services that will make 21CN a reality, BT Exact, BT's IT operations business, has had to rethink the entire concept of IT. Clive will describe this new approach.
Thursday 19th October 2006
| title : |
Career Development II - How to get ahead in IT |
| speaker : |
Sam Gordon, Principal Consultant, Harvey Nash |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
Sam Gordon is a Principal Consultant with Harvey Nash, a Global Executive Search Firm with over 30 offices spread across Europe, US and Asia. Sam has worked within the recruitment industry for 9 years placing senior business - facing technology professionals within large Blue Chip organisations and leading consultancies.
Within this open forum, Sam will present practical tips on how best to market and communicate your skills, progression in your career and how to enter the contract market successfully.
Thursday 21st September 2006
| title : |
Game, Set and Match - Information Systems Architecture for the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Joint Meeting with the AEA (Association of Enterprise Architects) |
| speaker : |
Bill Jinks - Executive IT Architect, IBM |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street, London |
For two weeks every year, Wimbledon requires an infrastructure capable of supporting half a million spectators, half a billion TV viewers, 5 million unique visitors to its web-site and the requirements of the world's media. This unique capability is provided by IBM, who work with Wimbledon throughout the year to drive the business and IT strategy, and provide the technical infrastructure that supports the tournament. Bill Jinks, the lead technical architect, will describe how IT is used to transform the way the club and tournament operate and deliver improvements year-on-year.
Thursday 18th May 2006
| title : |
AGM And Mobile Technology Update |
| speaker : |
Arnon Meshoulam, Intel Solution Services |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
Arnon will describe how communications and networking technologies are evolving, both on convergent and conflicting paths, and the implications for mobility users, both personal and business.
Arnon is a Senior Consultant at Intel Solution Services specializing in enterprise mobility, mobile workforces and business transformation. He has been with Intel for 12 years in various roles, including IT management, engineering and services role. Intel® Solution Services is Intel Corporation's professional services organization focused on driving business transformation and competitive advantage to companies through the practical application of new technologies.
Thursday 20th April 2006
| title : |
Exploring Current Techniques In Combating E-Crime |
| speaker : |
Chris Simpson, Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit; Howard Lamb, NHTCU; Gavin Butler, University of Westminster |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
The evening will look at three areas
o Profiling e-criminals
o Combating national and transnational serious and organised hi-tech crime
o Avenues that are open in London for dealing with computer crime and internet-related crime and to provide advice to individuals and companies in handling e-crime.
Thursday 23rd March 2006
| title : |
Career Development - It's Not A Lottery |
| speaker : |
Mary Clarkson, Author "Developing IT Staff – a practical approach"
Michael Wilson, Professional Development Manager at BCS
Sam Gordon, Principal Consultant, Harvey Nash |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
Mary Clarkson’s book "Developing IT Staff – a practical approach" was published in 2001, based on seven years’ experience designing training programmes for large and small teams. She currently works for Xansa, a leading technology and consultancy company. Mary is active in the BCS, as chairman of Leicester Branch and a member of Branches Management Committee.
What springs to mind when you hear the phrase "career development"? Does it turn you off or are you excited by it? Do you understand what goes into career development? How do you find the next job? Mary Clarkson brings career development to life, explaining what career planning is all about and how to decide what to aim for next. She also explains how to work out your own training needs and develop your skills. She shares her thoughts on writing a compelling CV. It’s your career – invest some time in it!
Michael Wilson will show you how you can you use Career Builder to enhance your career.
Sam Gordon is with Harvey Nash, a Global Executive Search Firm with over 30 offices spread across Europe, US and Asia. Sam has worked within the recruitment industry for 9 years placing senior business-facing technology professionals within large Blue Chips organisations and leading consultancies.
This presentation will focus on practical advice and guidance to help you navigate the recruitment market. Topics covered will include:
1. How to approach your job search
2. How to present your details – including CV composition
3. The best ways to sell yourself to a job
4. Negotiation of contract
5. Building relationships with recruiters to help further your career
The presentation will offer advice that can not only be applied immediately but will also stand you in good stead throughout your career.
Slides (11.9 Kb)
Thursday 16th March 2006
| title : |
Conscious Machines? |
| speaker : |
Prof. Igor Aleksander FREng, Imperial College London |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
The lecture will review world effort in the use of computer modelling to understand what it is to be conscious. It will then concentrate on a set of 5 axioms that appear to be essential in capturing particularly the vivid experience of being conscious (qualia and phenomenology in philosophical jargon) and some implementations of this theory. Where next?
Slides (11.4 Mb)
Thursday 16th February 2006
| title : |
Operational Risk Management And Business Continuity At MORI |
| speaker : |
Ian Barker, Ipsos MORI Compliance and Information Security Officer |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
MORI is one of Britain's fastest growing market and public opinion research agencies. This presentation will include a review of MORI's business continuity provisions and a look at how these fits with normal business demands. We will also hear about MORI's work during elections and the special plans that are needed to ensure that all goes right on the night. Finally the added dimension of terrorism, how this has prompted a review of business continuity plans, and how MORI has responded.
Slides (72.9 Kb)
Thursday 19th January 2006
| title : |
IT Law Update - Joint Meeting With BCS Women's Group |
| speaker : |
Rachel Burnett, Vice President (Forums) of the BCS |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
Rachel Burnett is a solicitor with her own law practice focused on the IT industry. She is author of Outsourcing IT - the Legal Aspects, and co-author of Drafting and Negotiating Computer Contracts, recently published in its 2nd edition. She is editor of the IT Law Guides series published for the Institute of Chartered Accountants on a variety of legal topics. Rachel will give an update on current developments affecting your work as IT professionals: including copyright and database rights, e-commerce, IT contracts, privacy and data protection. She will suggest some practical ways of keeping on the right side of IT law.
Slides (49 Kb)
Thursday 17th November 2005
| title : |
How Secure Are Your Systems? Understanding Internet Threats |
| speaker : |
Russ George, International Information Security Consultant, CISSP, BS7799 Lead Auditor
Roger Cumming, Director of the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC) |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
This evening event looks to explore the current and emerging threats to business and home users alike and will look at real life attacks (including a live Demonstration), and how to best arm yourself and your organisation in protecting your information, be it your corporate image and competitive edge or your personal information; The event will help you to make the best use of Government services in this area, which have been designed to support you by arming you with the knowledge and information you need to help you in protecting your information assets.
Thursday 27th October 2005
| title : |
Computer Animation - Dr Who And The Advance Of The Software |
| speaker : |
Dave Throssell of The Mill, a world leading visual effects company based in Soho and New York. Among many award winning projects, MillTV are responsible for the Doctor Who special effects |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
Computer animation moves forward at a phenomenal pace, the creative processes enriched by continuing advances in software. Seen vividly in film and TV work, with the latest Doctor Who series contrasting so strikingly with both earlier series and programmes of just a few years ago. Our talk today will look at how some of the recent developments in software have enabled the creative advances, and the challenges in producing and supporting the software and infrastructures that make it all possible.
Thursday 15th September 2005
| title : |
Business Process Management: The Third Wave |
| speaker : |
Howard Smith, co-chair BPMI.org, CTO Computer Sciences Corporation Europe and author of the business best sellers, Business Process Management: The Third Wave, and IT Doesn't Matter: Business Processes Do |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
While the vision of process management is not new, existing theories and systems have not been able to cope with the reality of business processes - until now. By placing business processes on centre stage, corporations can gain the capabilities they need to innovate, reenergize performance and deliver the value today’s markets demand. This talk will describe a breakthrough in process technologies that obliterates the business-IT divide, transforms today’s information systems and reduces the lag between management intent and execution.
Slides (7.2 Mb)
Thursday 19th May 2005
| title : |
AGM and The Wireless City |
| speaker : |
Simon Norbury, Head of IT, Westminster City Council |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
Wireless technology opens up many new opportunities. There are already more than 30,000 wireless access points to the internet (hotspots) worldwide and this is expected to grow to 1.5 million by 2006. Westminster City Council is using portable wireless-enabled CCTV cameras as part of a 'zero tolerance' crackdown on criminal behaviour. This forms a key part of the council's 'Wireless City' project, which plans to create hotspots across Westminster to be used by trading standards and planning departments and to offer e-learning opportunities by 17th February 2005.
Slides (4.6 Mb)
Thursday 21st April 2005
| title : |
Chemistry with Computers, not Chemicals |
| speaker : |
Dr Patricia Hunt, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
Photochemical reactions are reactions initiated by light. They are not only fundamental to many biological systems, such as photosynthesis and vision, but also form the basis of new optical technologies. Patricia will talk about the vital role that computational models play in enabling chemists to understand this exciting and rapidly developing area. These insights are crucial to developing solutions for a very broad range of problems, examples include looking at ways to block UV radiation, making new light based sensor devices and improving solar cells.
Thursday 17th March 2005
| title : |
THIS TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED OWING TO ILLNESS |
| speaker : |
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| venue : |
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Thursday 17th February 2005
| title : |
Computing on Demand in action |
| speaker : |
Phil Vaughan, Vice President, American Express
Mark Lamb, Vice President of Technology, Star |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
The idea of on demand or utility computing has spurred all large technology suppliers to action. IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard are all working to increase the automation of their products so that a collection of servers, storage and networking gear will automatically reconfigure themselves to adjust to changing workloads or equipment failure. Much of the technology is now in place but there is still work to be done to make this a viable business proposition. We will be hearing from companies who have implemented computing on demand.
Thursday 20th January 2005
| title : |
Students/Young Professionals - What do you get out of the YPG BCS London Branch. What services would you like us to provide? |
| speaker : |
Discussion forum |
| venue : |
BCS, Southampton Street |
This event is for students, young professionals and other members to network, ask questions and also provide feedback on how we can improve the services we provide for younger members. The evening will be an open forum which will include an opportunity to meet representatives from specialist groups, receive career tips and advice on how to build your career, ask questions and provide valuable feedback to the branch. Hospitality will be provided and will include food and drinks. Numbers dependent, we may continue the networking onto a bar/pub.
Thursday 18th November 2004
| title : |
RFID - Dispatch from the Front Line? |
| speaker : |
James Stafford, Head of RFID, Marks and Spencer |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
All the big retailers are in the vanguard of the quest for real time information systems as a way to manage the supply chain efficiently and reduce the amount of goods they 'lose', and Marks and Spencer is no different. Together with other rapidly developing technologies such as logistics planning and process management, they want to use Radio Frequency Identity Tags (RFID) to track objects individually from suppliers through transport, warehouses to the store and shelves. James will describe the Marks and Spencer experience as an early adopter and what they have learned.
Slides (4.3 Mb)
Thursday 28th October 2004
| title : |
Managing Programmes in the Public Eye |
| speaker : |
Chris Loughran, Technology Integration Practice Leader, Deloitte
John Wailing, Technical Director, Criminal Justice IT |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Government IT programmes are amongst the most complex and demanding. Success may pass unnoticed but failure can be all too public - remember the long queues at Passport Offices and the delayed tax credit payments? These programmes affect the lives of many UK citizens and place special demands on the IT professionals that manage them. Our speakers will draw on their experiences working on major government programmes to share lessons they have learnt that are relevant to all project managers.
Slides (1.4 Mb)
Thursday 16th September 2004
| title : |
Harnessing Open Source - "tool-kits for process improvement" |
| speaker : |
Dean Margerison, Independent IT consultant |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
The acceptance of open source within the IT community has come a long way in the last few years. Moving from a little understood developer lead movement, to the phenomenon we see today, that has the largest of companies sitting up and taking notice. In this talk we cover the basics of what Open Source is and how it can be harnessed by small and large organisations alike. We will then move to a live demonstration of some of the tools developed by the Open Source community that can provide us with a well-needed boost to our ability to manage and deliver projects.
Slides
Thursday 20th May 2004
| title : |
AGM at 6pm, followed by: A Better Shopping Experience? |
| speaker : |
John Clarke, Director of Group Technical Architecture, Tesco |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Those in IT are often best positioned to bring innovation to a business, while simultaneously ensuring technology architecture is aligned with business strategy. John explains how the challenge is met in the fast moving world of a leading supermarket chain.
Thursday 22nd April 2004
| title : |
Biometrics - Who are you and how do I know? |
| speaker : |
Mike Fairhurst, University of Kent |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Spurred by increasing action against terrorism and fraud, biometric identification technologies have matured rapidly. So why aren't you staring into the ATM to get your iris scanned or talking to your front door? As ever the need for standards, infrastructure, people and politics are proving hard to resolve. Mike will give us a quick tour of the history of biometrics, a review of their practical use and offer a view of where and when we will see their exploitation.
Thursday 18th March 2004
| title : |
Utility Computing - IT services on demand |
| speaker : |
Nigel Edwards, Security Architect, Hewlett Packard Research Laboratories |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
All the world's major IT suppliers are racing to develop compelling strategies for utility computing - IT services available on demand, pay-as-you-go, without the need to purchase and operate infrastructure that has inbuilt spare capacity. Companies like IBM and HP are forecasting fundamental changes in the way in which IT infrastructure services are delivered in the next 10 years and both organizations are making substantial investments in the technology and business model. Hear about the latest developments in utility computing.
Slides (2.5 Mb)
Thursday 12th February 2004
| title : |
Foundations of Genetic Programming |
| speaker : |
Dr. W. B. Langdon, UCL |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Genetic programming is a new form of artificial intelligence technique that uses heuristic search to evolve new programs automatically. Dr Bill Langdon will describe some applications, particularly in drug discovery, where Genetic Programming found simple models of chemical interaction for drug screening.
Slides (142.3 Kb)
Thursday 15th January 2004
| title : |
Quantum Computing Realities |
| speaker : |
Qubit, Oxford University |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
The discovery that quantum physics allows fundamentally new modes of information processing has required the existing theories of computation, information and cryptography to be superseded. With significant progress being made in the practical use of Quantum Computing for securing communications with advanced cryptography, we look at the future of this astonishing technology and the challenges to be overcome.
Thursday 27th November 2003
| title : |
Is Your Big Change Programme Going to Deliver? |
| speaker : |
Tim O'Leary, French Thornton Partnership |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Most organisations still have a poor track record of delivery of major IT-intensive change. Yet there is plenty of advice and methodology about and there has been for years. And even when we do it 'by the book', success is very far from guaranteed. Tim will offer insights into the fundamentals of programme success that you need to see in place to assure successful delivery.
Slides (165.9 Kb)
Thursday 16th October 2003
| title : |
The Impact of Offshore Outsourcing on the UK's IT Profession |
| speaker : |
Elizabeth Sparrow, Author, 'Successful IT Outsourcing' |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Offshore outsourcing is one of the few growth areas in the current economic environment. Ovum Holway has estimated that up to 25,000 jobs in the UK software and services industry will be lost over the next four years as a result of work moving offshore. The financial case is stark - companies report savings of 30% to 50% when IT operations are outsourced offshore. Service providers such as IBM, CSC and EDS are all expanding their offshore operations. What does this mean for the future of the IT profession in the UK? Join in the debate as we look at the impact of this trend.
Slides (5.2 Mb)
Thursday 18th September 2003
| title : |
Email Spam - a problem for the diplomats |
| speaker : |
Richard Clayton, University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory |
| venue : |
IEE, Savoy Place |
Many clever programmers claim to have solved the spam problem, while others look to policemen to lock up the bad guys. However, diplomats who must negotiate an international approach to a global problem will do the key work.
Slides
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