How Cool is the South Coast’s Technology Scene?

The content of this post is solely the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Southern Policy Centre.

How Cool is the South Coast’s Technology Scene?

Technology is ubiquitous in today’s society, and the sector itself is large and growing.  But in a crowded market, it’s difficult to stand out and there is a lot of competition to be the biggest, or the best, in the UK.  It’s also a complex market, with lots of different sub-categories and capabilities, and very hard to navigate in that regard.  But is there a way of defining “Cool”, and could that apply to the South Coast technology scene?

A few years ago, myself and some colleagues decided we needed to improve the community spirit amongst the South Coast Technology sector.  With a strong digital sector (accounting for about 15-20% of the South East regional turnover), we felt more could be done to improve collaboration and “brand” for the technology companies.  There were plenty of small, niche, forums where like-minded companies discussed technical solutions, but a holistic sense of identity was missing from the technology space.  Especially when looking to the future, where the regions strengths and capabilities, if given a voice, could be more effective for the region.  “TechSolent” (www.techsolent.org) was born.

If you look at technology as a sector it is a bit like a mountain of sticking plasters.  Back in the 70’s, technology became a commercial reality with IBM and other brands creating old skool mainframes and big data centres.  In the subsequent 50 years we’ve seen the industry transform to a megalith, evolving through 3-tier supply chain structures, hardware and software industry explosions, arrival of new entrants, death of old brands, and more recently, “Cloud”.

This latter point makes for an interesting market shift.  The “cloud” amalgamates all the previous sub-categories into a single business model.  No longer are people building individual Hardware and Software solutions and putting them in their Data Centre being supported by multiple companies – its all under one service model.  The focus therefore of technology as a sector is moving away from supporting “components”, to embracing “services” – working out how a technology will provide an underlying service to a business, supporting a business process to deliver efficiency.  A lot of people in technology have struggled with this change.

So, no longer is being a deep techie geek “cool”.  The new kids on the block now talk about Data, and how you can take business information and apply it to a business problem using Artificial Intelligence.  “Cool” now means being able to automate, being able to analyse, or to be creative with technology to support a new industry.  And the South Coast is full of companies that can support this new “cool” outlook.

From a geographic perspective, the South Coast has some amazing attributes.  Two national parks, miles and miles of coastline, arguably the best sailing in the world (two tides in the Solent!), major transport hubs and ports, good links to London etc.  As an environment, it makes for a beautiful place to live and work, for those who value work / life balance.  As a result, we are a destination for people looking to live well, but work hard, and stay in touch with the broader UK.

The South Coast also has a broad coverage in terms of industry.  Clearly there is a focus on Maritime, Transport and Visitor Economy. But we also have strength in Defence, as the home of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, alongside a heritage of defence industry manufacturers and contractors in the region.   All demanding a high degree of ‘tech’ in the products they are creating here in the South.

Our education sector is also quite awesome.  We have six world-class universities, one of only 20 Institutes of Technology in the UK, and a strong sense of academic achievement.

We also have some incredible big brands on the patch such as IBM, BAE Systems, Roke Manor, as well as thousands of smaller businesses.  Within the TechSolent patch, there are about 7000 companies registered on Companies House with an IT-related SIC code, employing about 25-30,000 staff.  Armed with this capability, we have the potential to be very cool.

And if you layer the breadth of industry, the beautiful surroundings, strong educational links and this technology community, you get some amazing results.    TechSolent’s remit to try and connect these results into an accessible form, and some amazing examples of local skills driving technology innovation are:

• CCIXR – Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality (CCIXR) is the UK’s first integrated facility to support innovation in the creative and digital technologies of virtual, augmented and extended realities. Based in the University of Portsmouth.
• Ocean Infinity – create innovative robotic technology to transform operations at sea to enable people and the planet to thrive. Based in Southampton
• National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) – A pioneer of ocean technology, using decades of experience at the forefront of ocean measurement to drive innovation in ocean going platforms and sensors. Based in Southampton

TechSolent’s focus though is not just on the Tech sector for the Tech sector’s sake. We recognise that Technology has the power to transform businesses, economies, societies and the lives of countless individuals. We, therefore, want to see as strong and as vibrant a Tech sector as possible in the Solent Region, one which can act as an engine for transformation. We want to create a Technical Community which will engage with other actors in the region to deliver that transformative impact.

We recognise though that technology can be a power for good, but also a power for ill. It can enhance the human condition, or it can degrade it, if used inappropriately. In developing the Tech Community in the region, we want to develop it as a power for good.  Putting thinking around ethical tech, diversity and inclusion, sustainable development and societal well-being at the heart of it.  We know, for instance, our industry is dominated by “middle aged white guys” – that needs to be addressed systematically and quickly.

We want to connect suppliers of technological solutions with parts of our society which would benefit from these technical solutions, and we want to challenge our tech community to consider and meet the needs of parts of our society which really need their help.  These might be commercial needs, connecting non-tech businesses with tech suppliers to meet business challenges or it might be about challenging the Tech sector to help the health sector cope with the health and social challenges our society faces.  Our vision is, amongst other things, about building non-traditional partnerships to try to achieve breakthrough solutions.

Another challenge we would point to is really a twin challenge. How do we square the tightness of the labour market and the shortage of tech talent with the fact that there are many people who are excluded from the labour market or have no opportunities for progression in their current sector employment or have been brought up to believe that technical careers are not for them? What can we do to attract tech talent into the region, develop it in the region, convert talent to tech talent within the region and retain talent in the region. People are the fuel and the brake on tech growth in the region and if we do not have tech growth, we will not enjoy sustainable growth, full stop!

With regards to the original question, “Cool” is an interesting term to use.  In Technology terms, it tends to mean embracing new stuff, cutting edge, clever, and innovative.  It also defines a culture of non-corporate, small, agile.  It also (to some people) means hipster beards, beer fridges in the office and beanbags.  I’m less interested in the latter.

But if you look at the South Coast’s capabilities in Technology, I argue it is very cool – maybe even the all-round Coolest in the UK.  Yes, London is bigger – but its not got the quality of life and can be very expensive.  Oxford and Cambridge are arguably stronger in the research and development space, but they have not got the breadth of industry.  And no-one has the Solent, God’s own sailing playground.

Yet, this ‘coolness’ is under threat.   We have an ageing workforce, retiring faster than we can train new talent to match the growth in demand.   The talent we have does not have enough diversity.  We train more digitally skilled people in our great educational institutions yet also haemorrhage more talent than other regions.  Our digital infrastructure fails to get decent internet services in some of the more rural areas.

This can all be fixed if we come together and collaborate to solve these collective challenges.   To that end the mission of TechSolent’s is to Connect, Develop and Promote the technology sector in the Solent region.  And you can probably tell, we love doing it!

I hope you will appreciate that our TechSolent agenda is a radical agenda, a transformative agenda, a societal agenda and a massive challenge!! If you think challenges are cool and you share our agenda, please join us at www.techsolent.org . We are not Techie exclusive; we are open to techies and non-techies alike.

Phil Clark

November 2022