Cloud and IOT: Making it real at the Imperial College of London
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Announcing Tech.London - a Digital Ecosystem for London built on IBM Bluemix!
Today I am proud to announce the partnership of IBM with the Mayor of London and Gust, on a new digital platform for the ecosystem called TECH.LONDON !!!!
TECH.LONDON is THE digital place for London startups, investors, influencers, and developers to collaborate on innovation and disruption. tech.london
In one place it has:
- All London Startups, VCs
- News
- Events
- Meetups
- Courses
- Jobs
- Funding
- Open spaces
And more
It’s more than just a portal - it’s a digital community creating a World Class ecosystem that will enable the collaboration and innovation necessary for reinvention of today’s world.
There are 3 reasons why IBM has invested in this London Ecosystem NOW.
First, London is a city of Developers – the new King Makers.
There are over 18M developers worldwide --- and a large cluster of them are right here in London. This developer Skill is the key to the kingdom.
Second London is a start up magnet.
- With the “startup explosion” of over 140K startups globally, London is in the Startup epicenter and was recently ranked one of the top cities in the WORLD where entrepreneurs want to meet up and #1 in Europe. Did you know 34K digital and tech companies reside in London/
And third, London startups are global – they internationalize at a much faster rate than those around the world. Over 1B pounds of investment goes into London Start-ups!
Tech.London is an essential resource to help connect and continue the strong growth of the London tech scene.
IBM’s investment in Tech.London is twofold:
First, with technology. Tech.London is powered by IBM Cloud – our Bluemix platform that is the fastest growing developer platform in the world.
IBM’s sponsorship of Tech.London goes beyond being built on IBM Bluemix.
Tech.London is powered by the People and so IBM is ensuring the local IBM teams, who just rated IBM as one of their favorite employer in Europe, help to create this community.
- With IBMers from South Bank to Level 39 and beyond, we are sharing our best employees to work Shoulder to Shoulder with the London Ecosystem. Knowhow, Kingdon, Monitise, and Push Technology are examples of IBM’s partnership locally.
Examples include:
- Hackathons – like the one just last week at Wimbledon where we had teams deliver amazing Innovative solutions around Fan Experience.
- Academics - like the partnerships at the Imperial College of London – where we are helping students use Cloud, IOT, and their imaginations to power a balloon to 30 kilometers to read information to have weather become Smarter.
- Meetups with the Future of London in diversity. Diverse workteams drive innovation – so we are hosting meetups and events around Coding to help more women and girls select tech as a viable career choice.
- Resources – like IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program that allows new companies to use up to 77K pounds free use of the IBM Cloud but more importantly Free Technical Support and GTM help.
Each of these types of activities will now be easily found by the local community by Tech.London to disrupt the WORLD!
This exciting public/private partnership between IBM, the Mayor of London, Gust and a wide range of local partners puts this powerful digital platform into the hands of the London community for the London community.
Tech.London will be a great value to innovation and disruption creating a launchpad for continued growth here in the capital.
TECH.LONDON – check it out! tech.london
Wimbledon And Bluemix! The IBM Hackathon that disrupts the Fan experience!
I am live in London for the excitement in the developer and entrepreneur communities. Monday June 15th kicks off London's Tech Week!
But we have been busy ahead of time!
For two days, IBM invited developers to rapidly build new ways to create an even more exceptional experience for fans on site at Wimbledon. The coders used IBM Bluemix,our Cloud platform that is the fastest growing developer platform in the world!
The winners were serial Box which was all about automating the ticket resale process!
Check it out!
https://storify.com/ibmevents/ibm
TGIF: Don't automate the personal touch!
Our Friday Short piece of Social Advice is Let your brand shine through!
I love this advice that came out of the Social Shakeup in Atlanta! " Never automate the personal touch, When you put out content, your personality and value comes in and you don’t want to automate that."
You can automate amplifications, but you cannot automate relationships.
How do you let your personality shine through? Identify your power users and influencers, understand who they are and build real relationships with them.
Your Secret Weapon: Video is about engagement and retention!
I love video blogs! Video is so trusted and engaging! Now I know that retention is also stronger!
Use video whenever you can !
AquaHacking?!
On May 30th, after months of preparation, the very first #AquaHacking in Canada came to a close! IBM was a large corporate sponsor of the Aquahacking event where teams submitted applications that would help improve and preserve the Ottawa River. This event involved presentations by environmental experts and government representatives, as well as a discussion by Alexandara Cousteau, granddaughter of the legendary explorer, Jacques Cousteau, on water preservation benefits from the social tech/digital connections being established.
IBM has a history of involvement in water issues in Canada and has partnered across the country to implement smarter water solutions for many years. Lila Adamec, the IBM Ecosystem Toronto City Leader, was the key leader for this event from IBM, helping to establish the sponsorship and promotion of Bluemix (http://ibm.biz/Aquahacking) as part of the event. More than a dozen teams submitted applications as part of the AquaHacking event. Those teams that chose to use IBM’s Bluemix as their platform were awarded bonus points for their solution scoring. Environmental and technical experts worked closely with the coders on their applications and submissions. The applications were then evaluated by a jury of experts ranging from environmental and technical backgrounds.
The First place award for the AquaHacking was split between the My River team, who created an app enabling citizens to easily report water issues, allowing municipalities to resolve issues quickly and the River Ranger team, who built a geospatial social network, enabling members to view and share information with others based on shared geographic regions. The Aqua Radar team, led by IBM's Nick Edgar, won the competition's Future Star award for their app that looks at hydrometric data and lets users pull data based on locations. All of these solutions were built using IBM's Bluemix platform (http://ibm.biz/Aquahacking).
The next coding competition will take place in Montreal! For more information visit: www.aquahacking.com
Twitter: @AquaHacking
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AquaHacking
For more coverage visit:
ITBusiness.ca: The Ottawa River is about to be hacked and that’s a good thing
CBC News: 'Aquahacks' design apps for Ottawa River
