Technology — how do we make it a force for good?
Yesterday an audience of young professionals & entrepreneurs attended the Evening Standard’s Young Progress Makers’ event at the iconic Roundhouse theatre in the heart of Camden.
Successful professionals in a whole range of industries spoke passionately about their story and gave advice to inspire the next generation of 18–25 year olds.
During the afternoon session an expert panel expressed their thoughts and experiences about technology and more specifically “how do we make it a force for good?”
Baroness Shields started the conversation speaking about her story and drive to continually improve cybersecurity.
“Not one country, organisation or person can achieve this alone. I believe tech will continue to evolve to become more powerful and you are in charge now to make it a power of good.”
Ella Grace Denton opened up about her own experience, from dropping out of University to growing a following of 215,000 people on Instagram. She has taken on the role of a female role model for teenage girls who want to make a change in society.
“I have a big community of people online now. I care about a lot of issues: environment, animal rights, human rights, gender and racial equality, big subjects. But I want to use social media to bring change in these problems and issues.”
Alex Klein used a powerful analogy using his favourite film, The Matrix whereby he always wanted to crack the codes behind things which enable you to do anything. Alex wants to encourage people to have some basic understanding of how computer programs work as we move towards an ever growing tech based future. His own company offers communities the chance to build and code their own computer, which he compares to as making your own lego.
Grace Cassy, similar to all the panelists, wanted to emphasise how she struggled to find out what she wanted to do with her life when finishing her education. She joined the foreign office and worked on a variety of important legislation whilst the UK chaired the G20 committee back in 2009. What she learnt whilst in government was the power that the private sector has to create change. She cofounded the organisation CyLon, Europe’s first cyber-security accelerator programme. Cylon acts as a bootcamp for young entrepreneurs wanting to grow and excel their business to reach their target levels of success.
Lily Cole’s career has taken her to many different areas whether that’s modelling or acting, she is currently the founder of impossible.com. A social network that encourages users to exchange their skills and services for free to promote a peer to peer gift economy. She references the internet as “becoming more monopolised” and that we should all be mindful that the internet is a neutral tool.
The Q&A session veered its way to AI and the change that it will bring. It was at this point that Alex shared with us a report that states within 20 years it is estimated that jobs which earn less than $20 an hour will be replaced by machines. I know what you’re thinking — how scary is that? However, one way to look at it is what kind of opportunity does that bring with it, Grace predicts that there will be a growing market for personal based roles that connect people on a more personal level. Something technology cannot succeed at.
Hearing these stories and experiences from successful people fills me with great optimism moving forward. It’s great to be working on Causr where we’re using technology as an enabler to help connect people in London and further afield. Whilst we’ve already started we hope over time to transform peoples’ lives by offering them opportunities that would otherwise be missed. Using technology to bring community back to where it’s most needed.
Causr is a location-based app that introduces its users to others within the local area. It makes finding nearby professionals with similar jobs, interests and ambitions easy. Scroll through a network of users, see who’s free, meet for coffee, share business advice or simply connect. Causr plans those chances encounters, and makes missed opportunities a thing of the past.
Download the App to see who’s nearby and start connecting today. Now available on the Apple App Store.
