Five Minutes With Tom Fiddian
REWIND sits down with Tom Fiddian, Head of AI and Data Economy Programmes at Innovate UK.
“Five Minutes With” is a regular feature that gives you an insight into some of the greatest minds in the immersive industry, all within the time it takes to grab a cup of coffee.
Tom is Head of AI & Data Economy Programmes at Innovate UK. In this role, he manages the strategic direction of Innovate UK’s programmes in both the Digital Economy and the Creative Industries.
He was the strategic and economic lead author on the successful £33m Audience of the Future programme, and is currently exploring the next sectoral challenges which will require government support. Tom’s background is in design and he has 10 years of broad cross-sector experience, designing consumer products in the Health, Packaging, Food, and Telecoms industries. Tom is a Thought leader on technological innovation across multiple sectors. After leaving university, Tom set up his own company producing videos and creating immersive tour visuals for the music industry.
Tell us about yourself. What keeps you busy?
Despite being confined to working from home, I’m ensuring that UK companies aren’t slowed down too much by COVID and that they can keep on innovating. I’m also encouraging them to think about the opportunities that might present themselves in the post-COVID world. Businesses need to understand that the needs and behaviours of their consumers/audiences have changed — even the best and brightest companies need to reflect this in their outputs and adapt at the same speed. If they are agile enough, not only can they maintain their market share, but they can significantly grow it.
Technology is so important to Innovate UK’s mission, what are you looking forward to in 2021?
Last year I was lucky enough to fund some companies that are going to absolutely revolutionise how we consume and distribute immersive content using 5G and AI. If we think that the barrier to entry is low now, it’s nothing compared to how easy these deep-tech businesses are going to make it to produce, distribute, and consume new experiences. Content is going to be of the quality and narrative that people expect from high-end TV and Netflix, so it will be able to compete with these more traditional mediums. This will be game-changing. Just being able to watch this sector transform over the last five years has been really exciting and encouraging.
How has the pandemic impacted what you do?
My job is to give out money. Some people may think it should be a rather easy and quick process, but normally it takes about six months to develop a funding competition, get it launched, and actually start getting the money out of the door. Last spring we managed to do that within roughly three weeks when we ran a competition to help companies deal with the impact of COVID. We were offering relatively small amounts of funding—£50,000—but unlike many of our competitions, this was 100% funded, so all the risk was on our side.
The response was just phenomenal. Nearly 9,000 people applied — we had more applications for that competition than we had in the previous year. All in all, £55 million of funding was provided within this programme. More details about this competition are on Tom’s blog.
A lot of businesses had a tough year, however, for the right type of organisation, this relatively small amount of funding enables them to completely transform their business. We have also provided non-financial support in the shape of scale-up advice and networking, which is creating even more opportunities. It’s early days regarding its impact, we will see the true economic impact of this investment once the dust settles. I confidently predict, however, that the addition to GVA will be significant. I’m very grateful that my organisation could offer this support, and that I could help lead it.
What and/or who is your source of inspiration?
The companies that I visit every day. They are truly inspirational, and not just because they’re doing some really interesting stuff with technology, but also because they’re always thinking about the future.
Over the last six months, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people virtually who have been achieving absolutely fantastic feats. It’s always fascinating to see the process which starts at their application for funding, all the way to them actually being funded, and subsequently the amazing things that are produced. I’ll never tire of this.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Well, that’s a good question. I guess the obvious thing you would tell an 18-year-old is to be confident in what you’re doing, what you’re good at, and just follow your own trajectory. But, the specific advice I would give myself, is that going out of your comfort zone isn’t always fun — but it’s rewarding in the long run.
I’m dyslexic. So, when picking A levels, I literally went “right, I don’t like writing so how can I avoid writing?” I picked CDT, maths, and physics, and I did pretty well in all of them because they didn’t involve writing any essays! Now, I’m writing policy documents all the time. At the end of the day at some point in your career, you will be expected to communicate clearly in writing — I was just putting it off. I think I would have been much better off if I had embraced my weaknesses and tackled them earlier on.
I have two kids, and my eldest doesn’t like maths, which is the opposite of how I was at school. She would happily write stories and essays all day long, but trying to get her to do some maths is like pulling teeth. I’m doing my best to support her to embrace it — maths isn’t going away — it’s a very practical and valuable subject.
Just for fun!
What are you reading or listening to right now?
I’m usually a big podcast fan, but since I’m not commuting I’ve not listened to that many. I’m currently reading How to Live: A Life of Montaigne. It’s a bit out of the ordinary for me, my usual genre is pop-science books!
Montaigne was a renaissance guy who basically invented the term “essay”. He was a philosopher and based all his thoughts around his experiences. I think the reason I picked it up was because of lockdown, it’s a great opportunity to reflect on yourself. It’s been really interesting and I’m going to continue on the trajectory to learn more philosophy.
What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you?
I love having kids, I love having a family. People have different circumstances but for me, it’s fantastic. It’s changed my life. It’s very rewarding and frustrating in equal measure!
What superpower would you like to have?
I’d like to be able to teleport.
To be able to travel without a car, or train, without getting into traffic — what a joy! Current means of transport aren’t very efficient and they have such an impact on society and the environment. Wouldn’t it just be a lovely, clean way of doing it? Click. There we are.
XRLO: eXtended Reality Lowdown is brought to you by REWIND, an immersive design and innovation company. If you want to talk tech, ideas, and the future, get in touch here.
Your claps and follows help us understand what our readers like. If you liked our articles, show them some love! ❤️
We’d also love to hear from you. If you’re passionate about all things XR, you can apply to contribute to XRLO here. ✍️
