EXPERTS from top tech businesses in Swindon gathered virtually to discuss ways to make it through to the end of the pandemic.

Organisers of the TechSwindon summit invited a panel of speakers from the town's companies to launch the week-long conference.

The roundtable event explored how their organisations had been forced to change the way they work this year and identified opportunities and positive changes it had provided or helped along.

Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership chief executive said hat helped the county's growing cybersecurity industry – which he described as a “massive, growing sector” – as employees embraced home working.

He said: “Faced with a problem, businesses find a solution. Swindon and Wiltshire businesses are very good at that."

Nationwide Building Society embraced remote working, with 13,000 of its 17,000 employees across the UK now working from home said Tomas Foreman, marketing planning and content manager.

The building society made a pre-pandemic commitment to retaining physical branches while high street banks were closing theirs. The 600 branch network, Mr Foreman said, ensured customers who were unable to bank online could still access services.

Automated chatbots were helping customers with basic enquiries, freeing up the time of call centre staff to deal with more complex issues, he added.

Peter Allen is the general manager of pharmaceutical company Catalent, which has put Swindon at the forefront of coronavirus drug research.

He explained how remote working had allowed the firm to move some its 775 staff away from a 250,000 sq ft facility, creating more space for physical distancing for colleagues who needed to continue working in laboratory and manufacturing settings.

The firm provided workers with pop-up desks and equipment and “put an enormous amount of effort into connectivity,” he said.

And with the curtilage closed to visitors, potential customers and auditors had been given virtual tours of the facility with Google Glass.

Create Studios chief executive Shahina Johnson MBE said that new technology made it easier for young people to get creative.

She added: “Digital media is growing at three times the rate of any other sector in the country at the moment. Twenty-five years ago a film editing suite was the size of a small room. Now it’s on a laptop. Young people now have the means of production.”

Create Studios’ job now, she said, was to help them to create meaningful content and provide them with the tools and skills to find meaningful jobs in the sector.

For Ailsa Kennedy-Ballard, head of Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Future Programmes at UK Research and Innovation, remote working could have a positive impact on working parents and carers.

Employees, she said, could take their children to school and be at their desk in time for a 9.30am meeting.

There was general agreement that home working had been a positive experience for most workers, although the panellists acknowledged that some younger workers found themselves in cramped accommodation while other workers were missing the social interaction of the office.

The panellists agreed that effective communication from managers to their staff is vital and blended, flexible working and shared spaces would all be a feature of the future workplace. They predicted that augmented reality will shape the future of employee interactions.

The TechSwindon summit changed from a two-day conference at Steam to a week of interactive events with business bosses from Swindon firms and major international companies coming together to share ideas and expertise.

TechSwindon itself was launched in 2019 at an event by Switch on to Swindon, a marketing network that promotes the town, to celebrate and showcase Swindon as a good place to start and grow a tech start-up or base an existing business.

Already, 10,000 people work in tech jobs around the town, and the summit aims to showcase of the breadth of activity in Swindon.

The TechSwindon Summit is billed as a call to action to focus on innovation and how tech can support economic recovery in 2021.

TechSwindon runs regular seminars, workshops and networking events to support the town’s tech community throughout the year – virtually, and physically when restrictions allow.

The programme of events continues through to Friday. Visit www.techswindonsummit.com