BCS Member in the Community Stories and AGM - Digital Divide SG

BCS Committee Members

1. Freddie Quek, Chair

2. Dave Donaghy, Vice Chair

3. Fiona Dawson, Treasurer

4. Rubi Kaur, Inclusion Officer

5. Maria Shiao, Secretary

6. Charlie Houston-Brown, Membership Secretary

7. Margaret Ross, Member Groups' Liasion and Events Officer

8. Sean Sadler, Early Career Advocate and Homelessness Champion

9. James Davenport, Education Liasion Officer

10. Alastair Irons, Internal Communications Officer

11. Maureen Childs, Older People Champion

12. Aidene Quek, Social Media Officer

14:00 Opening and Welcome

14:05 BCS Member in the Community Stories

14:40 BCS Digital Divide Specialist Group AGM

15:00 End

The “BCS Member in the Community” initiative emerged from last year’s BCS-DPA Strategy Day. Every IT and digital professional has the ability to use digital technologies for work, life, and entertainment. What can we do to use this “superpower” to help others such as our family members, neighbours or members of our local communities who may be unable to do so?

This webinar will share updates on pledges made to the DPA’s National Delivery Plan, along with some inspiring stories of BCS members doing something in their communities, followed by our AGM to confirm the committee and plans for the new year. Come and join us to close the digital divide by #joiningthedots.

For information, earlier in the day from 12 to 2pm, there is a precursor event organised jointly with BCS, Digital Poverty Alliance and the Digital Divide Specialist Group on “Learnings to close the digital divide”. Please sign up for this event if interested.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Name

SG Role

Freddie Quek

Chair

Freddie Quek was formerly Chief Technology Officer at Times Higher Education. In 2021, he started the #joiningthedots initiative to address #digitalinclusion becoming a Community Board member of the Digital Poverty Alliance and Chair of the BCS Digital Divide Specialist Group.

He serves on the boards at University of Bristol, BCS Influence Board and eLife, and a member of the Technology Advisory Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He co-founded TechLinkUkraine to help displaced Ukrainian tech professionals.

Freddie is a Fellow of BCS and judge for the UK IT Industry Awards.

Dave Donaghy

Vice Chair

Dave has worked in Bristol and Bath as a software engineer for around 25 years, and is currently at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Bristol, where he works closely with Level 4 and Level 6 apprentices. He works voluntarily as a trustee of the League of Friends of the Royal United Hospitals (Bath), which manages volunteers providing additional services to patients and staff.

He recently finished a three-year term on BCS Council, and a one-year term on Trustee Board.

He is the Inclusion Officer of the Pride Specialist Group, and Chair of the Bristol & Bath branch, and is currently working on expanding the scope of the branch beyond Bristol into Bath and surrounding areas.

Fiona Dawson

Treasurer

Fiona Dawson is Director at Mayden. She is passionate about what technology can do to support healthcare and advocates for the health informatics profession, both as a BCS Fellow and FEDIP Leading Practitioner. She holds a degree in Applied Computing from the University of Bath and has a Masters in Healthcare Data at Cambridge University.

Fiona has lived in Bath all her adult life after falling in love with the city as a student. She is passionate about addressing the digital divide and is involved with bringing together groups of like-minded individuals as Director of the Bath Bridge CIC. Recent projects have supported improved digital access for refugees and digital skills for young people in the city. She is a Digital Poverty Alliance ambassador and also supports the One Healthtech Bristol Hub, promoting diversity and inclusion in the vibrant healthtech community in the local area.

Rubi Kaur

Inclusion Officer

To follow

Maria Shiao

Secretary

To follow

Charlie Houston-Brown

Membership Secretary

Charlie founded a business system consultancy having worked in corporate IT for over 30 years, operating globally to improve business processes, systems and supply chains within complex and demanding manufacturing organisations. Originally from Northern Ireland, Charlie settled in Stoke-on-Trent over 25 years ago, was warmly welcomed and has been proud to call it home ever since.

He is the current Chair of the BCS North Staffordshire Branch, bringing educators and businesses together to help shrink the digital divide within Staffordshire and beyond. Charlie was elected to BCS Council in 2022. Charlie also chairs the Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce Digital Forum and is a board member of Silicon Stoke, supporting the digital city ambitions for Stoke-on-Trent.

Margaret Ross

Member Groups' Liasion Officer

Margaret Ross, Emeritus Professor of Software Quality at Solent University, started from mathematics degrees, leading to computing, and still a PhD External Examiner. She has been on BCS Council and Trustee Board, and is a BCS Unconscious Bias trainer, and actively involved with Hampshire Branch, and 6 BCS SGs, which helps her to promote the Digital Divide SG and to hold joint activities with other BCS MGs including on dementia, autism and the elderly.

Margaret was awarded MBE, BCS Hon FBCS, BCS John Ivison Medal, and added to Computer Weekly’s Hall of Fame.

Sean Sadler

Early Career Advocate

Sean is an award winning and experienced Senior IT Leader, Advisor, Mentor and Trustee for both corporate and charitable organisations. He has been professionally recognised by becoming a Chartered IT Professional of the British Computer Society and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

Sean has worked within both the private and public sectors, where he has performed as a visionary leader building high performing teams and built business-enhancing systems and services. Sean has moved into a Director of Consulting role related to Cloud and Digital Transformation, to provide other companies with the benefit of his knowledge and experience.

From a personal perspective, Sean has a real passion for using the knowledge and experience he has gained to help address some of the issues facing society today, such as digital poverty, homelessness and the responsible use of technology to enhance sustainability initiatives. He is also keen to inspire others to think of how they could do more.

James Davenport

Education Liasion Officer

James Davenport, FIMA FBCS CMath CITP is, uniquely, a professor in both the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath. He has been a Vice-President (Academy) of the BCS and the IMA representative on the LMS’ Computer Science Committee. He is currently Treasurer of the Committee of Professors and Heads of Computing, and is working to inform teaching about the Digital Divide and its implications. He has been on the Advisory Committee for Mathematical Education, and is a National Teaching Fellow. He got his mother a modem in her nursing home in 2000.

Alastair Irons

Internal Communications Officer

To follow

Maureen Childs

Older People Champion

To follow

Aidene Quek

Social Media Officer

To follow

Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over.

BCS is a membership organisation. If you enjoy this event, please consider joining BCS. You’ll be very welcome. You’ll receive access to many exclusive career development tools, an introduction to a thriving professional community and also help us Make IT Good For Society. Join BCS today:

https://www.bcs.org/membership/events

If you are attending in person, please familiarise yourself with the Visitor Instructions for the BCS London Office.

Please note, if you have any accessibility needs, please let us know via [email protected] and we’ll work with you to make suitable arrangements.

For overseas delegates who wish to attend the event, please note that BCS does not issue invitation letters.

THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Name of Group Digital Divide

Visit https://www.bcs.org/membership-and-registrations/member-communities/digital-divide-specialist-group/

Host or Publisher BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT