What is DTX?
What is DTX?
DTX (Also known as Digital transformation Expo) is a two day expo at the Excel centre London. There are multiple talks across several stages around the subject of digital transformation as well as cybersecurity and cloud computing. Sister conference UCX (Unified Communications Expo) was just next door….here we discovered there is a ridiculous amount of video calling options out there!
Sponsors included; CISCO, Google & LastPass and their were stands from AWS, Cloudflare, Logitech, Sharp, UKFast & many more.
Why did Skull Mountain attend?
Obviously, it was the draw of the Back to The Future DeLorean DMC-12 & Hover Board, arcade machines and free beer! Oh…and as many squeezy stress ball’s as you could ever want…which are the staple of any self-respecting event stand.
Unbelievably though there actually were other reasons we attended.
After a good couple years of working remotely as a team due to Covid we decided it was time to shake things up a bit with a change of scenery and some fresh inspiration. After all, how can Skull Mountain help our clients with transformation if we don’t do it ourselves now and then?
What we experienced
As usual James our MD arrived first, just in time for Louis Theroux’s keynote talk on ‘Are you ready for dramatic change?’, followed by Kelly (our Producer) who was bemused to be in the Excel for the first time not in full cosplay for London Comic Con! Then finally, our car loving Founder and Director Lee, who was immediately distracted by the DeLorean.
We then took our seats for the Panel; ’Creating the right culture for rapid business’ Chaired by Georgie Barrat from The Gadget Show. The panel included:
- Dax Grant- Global CIO/Operations- HSBC
- Darren Hardman- VP & General Manager- AWS UK & Ireland
- David Germain- Group CTO- RSA
- Joseph Walsh- Principal Product Marketing Lead- LogMeIn
The talk included the following topics (amongst others);
- How should you build a personalised digital culture strategy for your organisation from the ground up?
- Three critical culture areas to focus on to ensure your business transforms at pace.
- Case studies: What organisations have got it right and why?
Key points for us;
- ‘A lot of companies focus on deployment and not actual use’– David Germain
- ‘The illusion of speed’ – Dax Grant
We often speak to clients that want their app or website yesterday but haven’t fully thought about how it is going to be used and by who. Knowing product market fit before you develop a product is essential.
- ‘Teams that are agnostic of their functions…’- David Germain
Being part of The Rokker Network, we work with a lot of people who are very flexible in their skill set which means we gain a lot from all the shared knowledge and skills between us. This benefits us all not just professionally but also when it comes to our clients! A great example of this is the project ‘Managing High Performing Teams’ James and Kelly worked on with Jim from Rokker which helped our client view job applicants differently.
- The idea of training internal staff up for new roles before hiring externally-David Germain
This was a fascinating insight to how well David looks after his staff and develops strong teams.
- How do we need to set ourselves up in 5 years time?-Darren Hardman
We often help our clients plot their future project goals on product roadmaps and really liked the idea of helping our clients write their ‘Where do you see the company in 5 years?’ goals so they can review them in 5 years time and measure which ones they achieved. Companies that are all aligned on company visions and missions are much more effective in time and cost than those that aren’t!
After the panel had finished, we had a well needed coffee and chat about how we could apply what we had learnt from the panel to benefit our clients at Skull Mountain and potentially across the whole Rokker network. This included a new module, a different marketing strategy and much more.
After leaving the Excel we opted for a short flight (honestly what they call it) over the river… on the emirates cable cars! We very were fortunate the sun was out as we crossed over the Thames from 300ft to the O2 arena for a quick drink and debrief.
100% recommend DTX as an event and we will be back next year… and not just for the free stress balls.
