Keeping Tech Connected

An Interview with George Johnston, founder of Tech Connect

Hey George, let’s start with some basics… What is Tech Connect?

It’s an education platform for organisations looking to quickly learn about new technologies or to future-proof their teams’ skills, particularly in advance of the automation revolution.

So in brief you’re presenting startups and new technology to bigger organisations?

Yes!

And how did it come about?

We started off by running tours of Tech City for people who wanted to engage with the London tech scene. And from there we started to get requests for more bespoke sessions, focused on specific technologies relevant to different organisations.

The format is quite straightforward: we provide an overview of the technology and its relevance to the client, and then we bring in relevant startups to talk to them.

We still run the tours on the first Friday of every month. They’re still fun to run, and they always end with a visit to Silicon Drinkabout.

Our other focus right now is on building the technology solution to make it easier for organisations to upskill their teams in those uniquely human skills that machines cannot compete on.

Can you elaborate on that?
We know that the AI revolution is accelerating technology’s ability to take on complex tasks. So we’re responding to this by helping organisations adapt and future-proof human skills in a personalised and immersive way.

We’re building a platform that allows employees to follow a personal development plan that focuses on ‘non-automatable’ skills like creativity, using judgement and more. Alongside this will be a chatbot interface that personalises the plan for them.

And then they can engage with micro-learning modules to improve their skills in the areas identified in this plan.

Why do you think what Tech Connect does, is important? How does it help the startup community?

There’s always been a genuine sense of community in the tech scene. It’s not uncommon for people to connect people in their networks with other people, for exchanging knowledge or to realise potential business opportunities.

For us to be doing this in a structured way feels important. We’ve run over 150 Connect Sessions and have had numerous pilots and other interesting collaborations come from the connections we’ve made between various players in the ecosystem.

The startups that come in to present get to practice presenting, get to test their products with potential buyers and grow their networks.

I’d love to know more about the Tech Connect team?
Our team is switched on and just as passionate about connecting people as I am. Our core team is small but super focused on getting a lot done. In London this includes people like Ben Klink, who manage the ecosystem partners we work with, and Bhakti Gajjar, who oversee the client events we deliver.

Some other key people include Halsey Huth, who leads our New York team, and David Booth who does a mixture of things, including leading specific sessions.

The London startup community has grown and evolved a lot in the past decade — on reflection what have been positive changes and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?

The real value of this ecosystem is the connectivity and collaborative spirit. What’s been interesting is seeing how it’s responded to more corporate involvement.

As it’s become something more structured, people might think that the original spirit of “Tech City” might have been lost. But the reality is that it’s still very much there — people still want to work with and help others. Organisations like Silicon Drinkabout, Tech.London and UKTN are doing some important things to make sure that this spirit remains.

You must be really tuned into all the innovation and new market trends; can you tell us briefly about 3 startups that are really exciting at the moment?

London’s fintech expertise has been hugely prolific (and rightly so) but we’re seeing a lot of exciting things happening in the B2B technology space — think HR, security, legal etc. Three names we’re watching closely are:

Headstart — a job matching tool that uses psychometric testing and machine learning to find the perfect candidate for a job.

AVORA — a powerful business intelligence platform which accelerates the time it takes to make big business decisions.

And Action.AI — it’s building intelligent chatbots which engage with users through human-like interactions.

Finally — what’s next for Tech Connect?

Global expansion. We’re already operating in New York, a first event in Barcelona shortly and are looking to start running Tech City Intro events in other cities in Europe and Asia this year. There’s so much happening across the globe, and having our feet on the ground in other markets is key for making sure we remain in the know. I’m actually writing this from New York right now.

We’re also going to be doing some more with our learning technology. Watch this space…

Thank you so much George!

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If you would like to know more about Tech Connect visit their website.

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