focus on action
Blockchain
Championing blockchain innovation in the region through cross-sector collaboration, practical exploration, and open exchange of knowledge.
AI and Smart Data
Exploring the potential and pitfalls of using smart data, advanced analytics and Artifical Intelligence across the public, private, and third sectors.
Population Ageing
Bringing together agencies and innovators to harness emerging technology and meet the needs of the ageing population.
Cybersecurity
Combining academic research and cross-sector industry experience to combat ongoing threats and explore challenges and opportunities.
Universities
We help to connect digital research to industry challenges.
Public Sector
We help the public sector maximise the use of digital to better serve their community.
Charities
We give charities digital insights to improve performance and meet regulatory challenges.
Business
We help enterprises of all sizes become digital, increasing competitiveness in their markets.
Our members aim to resolve problems through digital solutions and collaboration, regardless of their industry sector.
Sphere Network events enable you to share knowledge and access new networks and opportunities with influence across the North East of England and beyond.
You'll be invited to attend different types of event in locations across the region:
What's Bubbling - informal networking with a wide group, an opportunity for serendipitous meetings and new, unexpected collaboration opportunities
Round Table - throwing open industry challenges to find new problem-solving routes
Deep Dive - focusing on the contribution of a specific existing or emerging technology that can have an impact across multiple sectors.
No corporate agenda
Revealing hidden skills
Finding solutions together
Embracing new technology
SPHERE NETWORK TEAM
Kate Baucherel
Sue Ormerod
Marianne Whitfield
Charles Sellers
Steve Blanks
Justin Barlow
Alastair Irons
Alison Shaw
How has digital collaboration helped these businesses?
News and Event Reports
Digital Skills for Tomorrow’s Workforce
Whilst companies continually look to improve productivity and drive greater efficiency, the use of new technologies continues to play an increasingly important role in shaping tomorrow’s businesses. Whilst much has been made in the media about the “high risk” of millions of jobs effectively being lost to technologies such as automation and robots by 2030, Read more about Digital Skills for Tomorrow’s Workforce[…]
Digital Transformation: a multi-headed monster
At our previous Sphere Network discussion on the topic of the Future of Work, we focused predominantly on the extent to which human redundancy, ‘any time, any place’ working and participation in the gig economy are becoming the norm. We also spent time looking at PwC’s ‘four worlds of work in 2030’. Considerations of where Read more about Digital Transformation: a multi-headed monster[…]
Blockchain and the Real World
There is a theory that any innovation follows a lifecycle that is shaped like an S-curve and goes through a number of distinct stages: ferment, takeoff, maturity, and discontinuity. There is another stage that comes between fermentation and takeoff, when the fence-sitters are still in the majority, and really aren’t that sure whether the innovation Read more about Blockchain and the Real World[…]
What’s bubbling in Augmented and Virtual Reality?
There was a full house at Newcastle Arts Centre on a sunny but cold May evening where Sphere Network members were treated to a real insight into the present-day sci fi of augmented and virtual reality. We started with a bit of jargon busting from Hedgehog Lab‘s Shaun Allen, who explained that the term ‘XR’, Read more about What’s bubbling in Augmented and Virtual Reality?[…]
Travel and transport in a connected world
When a passenger recently tweeted @My_Metro to ask abut a service delay, the operator was concerned. “Have there been no announcements?” they asked. “I don’t know,” came the response. “I’ve got my headphones on.” The expectations of consumers increasingly involve spontaneous technical solutions, not simply in communication but in all aspects of travel. Our connected Read more about Travel and transport in a connected world[…]
Internet of Things – Opportunity or Threat?
This event was the first in a series of sessions the Sphere Network will be holding to discuss the growth of IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). Facilitated by Charles Sellers, and hosted by Northumbria University, the event was a sell out and we had a full house in lecture room A110 in the Read more about Internet of Things – Opportunity or Threat?[…]
Exploring the Future of Work
With a very diverse audience with expertise in many different sectors we gathered to look at different perspectives on the future of work and to explore our own vision & preferences for our future work too. The plan was to explore four perspectives: research and evidence being collected now; how these results correlate with how Read more about Exploring the Future of Work[…]
Meeting the challenges of cybersecurity
Cybersecurity was the hot topic on a cold night in Sunderland. Sphere Network was delighted to co-host this event with BCS North East, bringing a group of Masters students together with businesses to examine the challenges and opportunities of the increasingly fraught arena of cybercrime. The cybersecurity landscape is complex, and while the threats have Read more about Meeting the challenges of cybersecurity[…]
The Opportunity of Ageing
The Opportunity of Ageing The challenges of population ageing in a digital age were debated by Sphere Network members at the November round table event, hosted by the Northern Design Centre at Baltimore House. Attendees were drawn from multiple sectors, with representatives from the National Innovation Centre for Ageing; the Institute for Ageing; the Future Read more about The Opportunity of Ageing[…]
Decoding Artificial Intelligence
What is Artificial Intelligence? Attendees at October’s Sphere Network event addressed this question, and pooled their collective knowledge of machine learning, advanced analytics, AI applications, and ethics. This blog is an attempt to distill the broad and fascinating discussion into a few hundred words from many pages of comprehensive notes. First, definitions. “Artificial intelligence is Read more about Decoding Artificial Intelligence[…]