Wales Tech Week and the launch of Blockchain Connected

In our latest post, Dr Yingli Wang reflects on her involvement in the first-ever Wales Tech Week which took place between 13-17 July 2020.

We’re at something of a turning point in Wales when it comes to enabling and digital technology. From global technology leaders, to our growing start-up scene, there are achievements, innovation, and knowledge within Wales to celebrate.

Particularly in the industrial and service sector landscapes, these advances are no longer simply underpinning – they’re transforming and disrupting the way we live, work and play.

This has become more apparent than ever before as we’ve adapted to new ways of working, learning and communicating with our families and our friends during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technology has enabled many of these adaptations.

And so, it seemed timely that against this backdrop Wales Tech Week got underway.

Organised by Technology Connected – the leading network for technology in Wales – the interactive virtual festival showcased the breadth, strength and diversity of Wales’ technology industry.

Over five days, a comprehensive programme of webinars, workshops and digital events took place for technology businesses and supporting industries in Wales and beyond.

The week was also an opportunity to launch a group I’ve been involved with for some time now, the Blockchain Connected network.

Blockchain Connected is a new organisation within Technology Connected to represent and unite the blockchain community in Wales, to help build and promote the profile and adoption of blockchain technologies and organisations in Wales and beyond.

With the launch of Blockchain Connected, we’re looking to harness the talent that exists within Wales to create a collaborative community that will help ensure Wales places blockchain as a key part of the future of our economy.

To mark this, the festival held a range of blockchain themed interactive webinars.

Together with Professor Arnold Beckmann, from Swansea University’s School of Computer Science, I organised and chaired the Blockchain Research showcase event. We brought together academic colleagues from across Welsh Universities and researchers from industry to showcase the latest research developments on blockchain.

The showcase was made up of two digital seminars which you can watch on YouTube.

Blockchain research: digital assets and beyond

Blockchain research: real-world use cases

As part of my role on the Blockchain Connected steering committee, I also attended further sessions throughout the week as a guest panelist. Among other developments, I discussed the disruptive impact of blockchain and how organisations should go about deploying blockchain drawing on work that I did with the World Economic Forum, Dubai Future Foundation and UK Construction Smart Contract Committee.

You can catch up on the action from Wales Tech Week on the Technology Connected YouTube Channel.

Dr Yingli Wang is a Reader in Logistics and Operations Management at Cardiff Business School.

One of her research priorities is blockchain/distributed ledger technology and its integrative use with other digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things and cloud computing.