Wales’ week-long innovation tour is underway, showcasing a nation of innovators across London, allowing industry to network with a new ecosystem and even inspiring the next generation.
A week of Welsh Innovation in London kicked off with an interactive coding workshop at the London Welsh Centre this Saturday. It seems only right to start with our future innovators, and Welsh-speaking families joined M-SParc for a fun morning, followed by a partnership with the Ysgol Sadwrn to teach coding to Welsh speaking children all over the world!
Outreach and Community Manager, Emily Roberts, said
“We were thrilled to see three young people from Texas on the call asking questions in Welsh, and a little boy speaking Spanish in the background as his sister learned to programme Welsh idioms. A truly global event.”
A prestigious official opening event was held at the House of Lords, with speakers including Bangor University’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Edmund Burke, Professor Jas Pal Badyal FRS, Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales, and Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser of UKRI, and David TC Davies, Secretary of State for Wales. This was made possible by sponsorship from Lord Dafydd Wigley.
It really was fantastic to see people from across Wales coming together to celebrate and do something we're normally quite bad at – blowing our own trumpet! Fantastic accolades about Welsh Innovation were shared by all speakers, giving those in the room confidence in what they’re doing, but more importantly some new connections were made, and collaborations got underway.
The STEM theme continued on Monday, as M-SParc visited the London Welsh School. The small classroom size was a big opportunity as 8 students had a crash course in ‘Egni’, M-SParc’s new programme for primary schools designed to bridge the skills gap and delivery the new curriculum for Wales. From an understandably exciting talk about cow farts, to building a hydro pump outside, the day ended with the children protesting about having the lights on while the sun was shining and rebelliously turned them off to start their own actions against climate change.
It's currently half-way through the Digital Day, in the Welsh Government Offices in London.
Glyn Jones, Chief Digital Officer for Welsh Government, opened the event and said
“We know the Digital Strategy for Wales can only be achieved with partnership and collaboration, and today’s event gave us the chance to explore even more opportunities on how we can work with partners across Wales.”
With themes from Cyber Security to hot-topic AI being discussed, M-SParc and Tramshed Tech tenants set up to demonstrate what they can offer, and a room full of people chomping at the bit to share their ideas and find out how they can take their businesses further.
The week continues with a Trade and Invest day on Wednesday and an Egni (Energy) showcase on Thursday before an Investment Evening with Global Welsh on Thursday evening. If you’d like to join in there’s still time to register, as M-SParc are eager that no one miss out on this amazing opportunity. Visit: https://m-sparc.com/london/
