Presentations and Speakers

Please download the agenda for exact timinings across the two days.

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Presentation

Aareon and Southdown Housing: Housing management – Creating a connected ecosystem for the future 

We know that connected and integrated technology is at the forefront of well-oiled housing management, but with so many solutions across the sector, how simple is it to achieve a connected and effective IT ecosystem? Aareon and Southdown Housing will share their insights and experience from both IT supplier and housing provider perspectives on how to implement the connected technology ecosystem of the future. 

Lee Burke

Head of Sales & Marketing, Aareon UK

Sam Sharples

Digital Solutions Programme Manager, Southdown Housing

Speaker Information

Lee Burke joined Aareon in 2020 and has more than 14 years’ experience in the housing sector. He is supporting positive changes for customers, helping to build further relationships and drive value through technology.

Sam Sharples is the digital solutions programme manager at Southdown Housing, a small housing association in Sussex with a portfolio that includes learning disability support and care homes, community mental health support and 500 properties. Having project-managed the organisation’s migration to Microsoft 365 in 2022, she now manages Southdown’s systems team and is working with the head of IT and the director of housing & business development to develop and implement Southdown’s new digital strategy.

Presentation

Active Housing: The top 5 digital self-service mistakes by housing providers 

As one of the sector's most experienced digital self-service software suppliers, Active Housing is sharing the top five mistakes and lessons learned by housing providers when implementing and maintaining resident self-service solutions. The session will also include recommendations on how to prevent or overcome potential pitfalls. Whether your housing organisation is in the process of procuring a self-service solution or you have an established solution, this session will provide valuable supplier insight. 

Stephen Hall

Managing Director, Active Housing by Hallnet

Speaker Information

Over the last 25 years, Stephen Hall has applied his expertise gained from wider digital-first sectors to lead many successful digital projects across the UK housing sector, instilling best practice for digital transformation programmes, developing and empowering resident self-service. 

Presentation

Civica & Daizy: Out with the mould, in with the new 

Give damp the cold shoulder with IoT… Civica and Daizy will warm you up to the idea of using IoT to overcome any barriers and demonstrate the RoI. 

Justin Fisher

Product Manager, Civica

Nick Gyles

Chief Product Officer, Daizy

Speaker Information

Justin Fisher has worked in social housing for 30 years, specialising in IT, asset and repairs management but has crossed sectors including highways, infrastructure and environmental services. He has worked with over 100 housing providers, including a diverse range of social landlords. He is a board member for a community-based housing association located in East London.

As chief product officer at Daizy, Nick Gyles is responsible for the company’s platform strategy around enterprise IoT. With 20 years’ experience in mobile technologies, he works with a number of housing providers, commercial landlords and solution providers on the implementation of low-power, WAN-based IoT projects. As chief product officer at Daizy, Nick Gyles is responsible for the company’s platform strategy around enterprise IoT. With 20 years’ experience in mobile technologies, he works with a number of housing providers, commercial landlords and solution providers on the implementation of low-power, WAN-based IoT projects.

Presentation

Crimson & Peabody Group: How Peabody implemented Dynamics 365 Sales & Marketing in 90 days

Crimson is joined by Peabody Group to share the housing provider’s recent rapid implementation of Dynamics 365, when Crimson implemented Sales and Marketing in just three months. Hear about the challenges they faced, the technologies used and the problems solved during the project. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask the Crimson and Peabody teams any questions and get advice for your future Dynamics 365 projects. 

Kayleigh Gordon

Senior Sales Operations Manager, Peabody Group

Ciara McMillan

Account Director, Crimson 

Speaker Information

Kayleigh Gordon has 15 years’ experience in housing and is a subject matter expert in low-cost home ownership. She has led the implementation of three CRM/sales systems to ensure effective working practices and compliance with government policies. 

Ciara McMillian has extensive experience in the social housing sector and takes pride in providing Microsoft technology that solves the top housing problems to improve the lives of tenants across the UK. 

Presentation

Esuasive: Embracing agility to accelerate business change – Lessons from the front line

or technology leaders under pressure to deliver business change quickly, Esuasive True Agile is a partnership development service delivering software solutions incrementally in sprints using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Apps. In this session Colin Weaver discusses how true collaboration makes it possible to deliver software solutions with measurable value in weeks using Esuasive’s library of pre-built, easily-configurable housing components, included in the service with no additional licence fee. 

Colin Weaver

Director, Housing Solutions, Esuasive

Presentation

FireAngel: Building the foundations for change with IoT

As the government considers the need for a standalone damp & mould standard for socially rented homes, how can the internet of things (IoT) support landlords in future-proofing properties against continuing legislative and societal changes? Discover how this advanced technology can support overstretched resources to create connected spaces that empower communities and enable the safe, secure sharing of real-time property insights for proactive, targeted interventions.

Nick Rutter

Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, FireAngel

Speaker Information

Co-founder and chief product officer of FireAngel Safety Technology, Nick Rutter worked as a product designer for Philips in Hong Kong, before returning to the UK and channelling his passion to improve safety in our communities through technological solutions.

Presentation

Home Group: Working with the business – SaaS, shadow IT, security & collaboration

Technology is increasingly available to non-technologists and the SaaS model allows easy access to solutions. How do IT departments balance the demand to exploit new solutions fast with the need to maintain secure systems at a reasonable cost? Do we keep the rest of the business out of IT, find better ways to collaborate or just give up? 

Simon Parker

Director of IS & PMO, Home Group 

Speaker Information

IT & change director with over 20 years’ experience in senior roles across multiple sectors, working in the UK and internationally. Home Group is his foray into social housing. Given the choice, he’d rather be dancing. 

Presentation

HomeLink (Aico) & Poplar HARCA: IoT integration – Delivering value at scale for tackling damp & mould, sustainability and compliance 

Poplar HARCA was a very early adopter of IoT technologies. It is now in the middle of a stock-wide rollout of environment sensors and connected alarm systems to tackle damp and mould, improve the sustainability of its housing stock, and improve the health, safety and wellbeing of its residents. This presentation provides insights into how this technology is delivering value at scale and includes Poplar HARCA’s experience of integrating data and processes. 

Chris Jones

Chief Executive Officer, HomeLink

Peter Marcus

Assistant Director for Research, Development & Transformation, Poplar HARCA

Speaker Information

Chris Jones co-founded HomeLink in 2018, with previous careers spanning technology strategy, advisory, and commercialisation.

Peter Marcus is the assistant director for research, development and transformation at Poplar HARCA. 

Presentation

Kingdom Housing: Implementing a SaaS-only strategy

Kingdom Housing uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Google Workspace, and all of its end-user devices are running Chrome OS. Methods of cloud migration and progressing to a SaaS-only strategy will align with all housing organisations. Gary Haldane will focus on practical insights, public cloud infrastructure, costs, risk, and supplier relationships as we move to a fully serverless environment and introduce a new housing system. This will include value-added products that align with computing standards and mitigate cybercrime risk. 

Gary Haldane

Digital Director, Kingdom Housing

Speaker Information

Gary Haldane graduated from Napier University in 2015 with a Master's degree in ICT Strategic Leadership. He is responsible for implementing Kingdom’s digital strategy and thrives on disruptive technologies, focusing on making everyone's jobs easier and improving customer outcomes. 

Presentation

Mobysoft and Karbon Homes: Traversing the chasm – From raw data to machine learning in social housing

Karbon Homes will discuss how it developed data and analytics partnerships to solve its vision of enabling data-informed decisions in the business. And how with Mobysoft and its new machine-learning RepairSense software, Karbon Homes addressed ‘operational waste’, specifically around repairs. 

Nathanial Ray

Assistant Director of ICT & Digital Transformation, Karbon Homes

James Davison

CTO, Mobysoft

Speaker Information

Nathanial Ray joined Karbon Homes in 2020 to lead the organisation’s ICT function and push forward its drive towards digital change. He has led transformation projects with a range of organisations, helping build better ways of working and driving improved customer engagement. 

Joining Mobysoft as CTO in 2021, James Davison has an extensive background as a CTO and has held many senior technology roles across a range of organisations. Before joining Mobysoft, he was part of the leadership team at ITV that drove a fundamental IT transformation as part of a ‘back to basics’ strategy. While at Mobysoft, he has been instrumental in developing Mobysoft into a multi-product business and has helped the firm become a Microsoft Partner. In his spare time he is a keen (if not always successful!) cook and loves exploring cities with beautiful architecture. 

Presentation

NEC and Switchee: Digging deep – Find & monitor the hidden issues affecting residents & properties using advanced analytics & IoT

Build on this using data science models and advanced tools to track, analyse and interpret unstructured data such as call notes and inspection reports to predict outcomes and identify hidden issues that have slipped through the net. Within minutes, data is analysed so you can act immediately, addressing and preventing disrepair, specifically damp & mould, and making maladministration an issue of the past., then use IoT to monitor your assets’ performance to ensure issues have been addressed.

Kay Aston

Head of Product Management, NEC Software Solutions

Steve Morgan

Data Scientist, NEC Software Solutions

Tom Robins

Chief Executive Officer, Switchee

Speaker Information

Kay Aston has spent many years working with the social housing sector. She is focused on working with NEC’s talented team to bring innovative solutions to the market and work with customers to maximise the value they get from them.

Steve Morgan has 25 years’ experience in data analytics, and for the past three years he has been working with NEC Housing, building innovative reporting platforms. He has a background in health informatics and statistical analysis of large complex databases, having helped in the publication of numerous public health indicators. He is currently involved in the development of a predictive risk model for damp and mould.

As the CEO of Switchee, Tom Robins is responsible for setting Switchee’s strategic goals and then enabling the Switchee team deliver them. He has spent his career in scale-up leadership roles and has been working in housing since 2015. He believes in the power of technology to improve the quality of residents’ lives while transforming housing providers’ operating models.

Presentation

Newark & Sherwood District Council & City of Lincoln Council: Transforming repairs – Harnessing the power of collaborative goals & user research to improve CX

Kristin McIntosh

Digital Systems Team Leader, Newark & Sherwood District Council

Wendy Banks

Business Analyst, City of Lincoln Council

Speaker Information

Kristin McIntosh and Wendy Banks are the key leads within their respective organisations for online repairs reporting, driving the product direction from user research, implementation and ongoing improvements within their organisations and the project team. 

Presentation

Keynote panel discussion: As safe as houses?

Featuring senior executives from For Housing, L&Q, Housing Providers’ WARP (Warning, Advice & Reporting Point) & Notting Hill Genesis, Housing Technology will be hosting a discussion about all aspects of cyber security in social housing. We’ll be taking questions from the audience for our panel of cyber-security experts to answer. Hosted by George Grant (CEO, Housing Technology) and Emma Birchley (Sky News Correspondent).

Danny Codling

Group Assistant Director of ICT, ForHousing

Goher Mohammad

Group Head of Information Security, L&Q

Arturo Dell

Chair, Housing Providers’ WARP (Warning, Advice & Reporting Point)

Richard Holland

Head of IT & Cyber Security, Notting Hill Genesis 

Speaker Information

Danny Codling is a highly experienced professional in the housing sector, with 20 years’ experience under his belt. He joined ForHousing in 2019 and uses his vast expertise in leadership, strategy and programme delivery to enable the organisation to deliver its goals. He is a true visionary who is passionate about using technology to transform businesses for the better. He is dedicated to ensuring that the organisation’s data and systems remain secure and always protected.

Goher Mohammad made his mark as one of the youngest IT leaders in Omnicom Group back in 2004, and has a huge passion for technology, information and cyber security, with a drive not just do things well but in an innovative and better way. At L&Q Group, he has brought information and cyber security to the forefront to meet the demands and ambitions of the group in an agile and future-proof way to deliver a world-class information security function. A keen diver and traveller, Goher also loves play retro video games and is a complete tech geek.

Arturo Dell has 20 years’ experience working with local government and housing providers. He is passionate about delivering excellent, customer-focused services and the potential for the sector to transform lives and communities through the effective use of data and technology. During his time as director of data and technology at Housemark, he was responsible for data, technology, product development, consulting and cybersecurity. While working with the London Borough of Camden, Arturo led key projects such as the digitisation of repairs, the redesign of the housing allocation system and the development of a new tool for managing service charges. Arturo chairs housing networks such as the G15 Data Forum and the Information Security Forum (HP WARP) for housing providers in partnership with NCSC.

Richard Holland is focused on technology transformation and cybersecurity to provide smart, innovative and cost-effective solutions for both internal and external customers. He is a dedicated senior IT professional with over 20 years’ experience spanning various business sectors.

Presentation

Platform Housing: Maximising data quality

Like any housing provider, Platform Housing only wants to use the highest quality data to make decisions. It recently took the innovative step to create its own in-house data quality tool. This gives Platform Housing’s board a ‘data confidence’ score as a KPI and it’s something Platform Housing thinks the whole sector can benefit from when it comes to maximising their resources. 

Rob Fletcher

Director of Data & Applications, Platform Housing

Speaker Information

Rob Fletcher leads on evaluating and improving Platform Housing’s data quality, security and compliance. He has spent 25 years in the housing sector within digital and IT leadership. Most recently, he was with TSG, a Microsoft Gold Partner, working specifically on housing projects. 

Presentation

Raven Housing Trust: Our journey to the cloud 

Raven Housing has moved away from 60+ applications to a model of six core applications. This has affected not only its end-users’ experiences and customer service, but also the infrastructure behind its applications, the security and support models needed and the budget changes that need to be considered. Raven Housing has taken a holistic approach to managing these elements and will share its experience of that evolving journey. 

Martin Honeywood

Lead Enterprise Architect & Programme Lead, Raven Housing

Chris Pinfold

Chris Pinfold, Head of IT, Raven Housing

Emily Walshe

Emily Walshe, Business Transformation Manager, Raven Housing 

Speaker Information

Martin Honeywood is a programme director who has worked in housing and the public sector for more than 20 years, delivering transformation programs, target operating models, service improvement and IT architecture solutions across multiple platforms. 

Chris Pinfold is an IT with experience working for the BBC and British American Tobacco before moving to Raven Housing just before the pandemic. 

Emily Walshe has worked at Raven Housing for 11 years, first as a front-line housing officer and then moving into the exciting world of digital transformation. 

Presentation

Riverside: Business change – Show me the benefits… 

Delivering change is one thing; sustaining it is entirely different. All too often, we reach for the next shiny tool or application on the market, or chase the next strategic priority, while assuming that the benefits of the previous projects will automatically materialise. We want to explore how change and benefits are intrinsically linked – that we need to actualise, not just realise, benefits to provide a true RoI.

Roch Ottaway-Schollij

Continuous Improvement Manager, Riverside

Danny Nicklen

Senior Continuous Improvement Manager, Riverside

Speaker Information

Combining her experience of working in social housing, a charity and an ALMO over the past seven years, Roch Ottaway-Schollij champions best practice and delivers value-driven outcomes across continuous-improvement and change-management projects. Before this, Roch spent 15 years growing and running a successful service business in South Africa. 

Danny Nicklen has over eight years’ experience in social housing, including in M&A and integration environments. Specialising in people-centred change, Danny leverages his experience and knowledge of the sector to lead and deliver transformation projects, using and championing lean tools and techniques with a focus on driving benefits and customer value. 

Presentation

Salesforce, Broadacres Housing & Gentoo Group: Panel discussion – Salesforce in social housing

Hear from Broadacres Housing and Gentoo Group about how Salesforce, the world's #1 CRM platform, is supporting deliver tangible benefits through transforming their organisations’ ability to deliver modern and efficient resident-centric services from the contact centre through to repairs, maintenance and compliance. 

James Mullenger

IT & Transformation Director, Gentoo Group

Mark Birch

Head of ICT, Broadacres Housing

Tom Lancefield

Lead for Social Housing (UK&I), Salesforce

Speaker Information

James Mullenger is an experienced transformation director, CIO and board member with over 20 years’ experience in defining and delivering outcome-driven business and digital transformations, customer experiences, strategies and customer services solutions to both the public and private sectors.

Mark Birch is an experienced IT leader within social housing for 15 years. He is working as part of the leadership team and the board to transform Broadacres to become the best rural housing association, delivering great customer experiences to customers across North Yorkshire.

Tom Lancefield is an experienced technology professional, working with non-profit social housing providers to align Salesforce and its global ecosystem of customers, partners and ISVs to support the sector and address society’s biggest challenges.

Presentation

Smartline (Univ. of Exeter): Using sensor data to monitor home environments – Lessons from five years of Smartline 

This ground-breaking collaboration between Coastline Housing, University of Exeter, Volunteer Cornwall and Cornwall Council will share the lessons of five years of remote monitoring using sensors inside the home. Hear how sensors are providing real-time insights, the difference it has made for residents and maintenance teams, lessons learned and what more this technology could offer. 

Mark England

Head of Innovation, Maintenance & Group Procurement, Coastline Housing

Dr Tamaryn Menneer

Research Fellow (Smartline), University of Exeter 

Speaker Information

As head of innovation at Coastline Housing, Mark England’s passion for technology and innovation has helped drive improvements for customers. He has built partnerships to improve homes by lowering utility costs, increasing thermal capacity and lowering carbon to improve the environment. 

Dr Tamaryn Menneer leads the work developing models for extracting patterns and relationships in Smartline’s environmental and survey data. Having originally studied Cognitive Science, Tamaryn completed a PhD in Computer Science and worked as a lecturer in Psychology before joining Smartline.

Presentation

Social Telecoms, 8x8 & Logicdialog: Communications that push innovation to the next level

By using conversational AI to leverage service automation, we show how we build, train, test and launch AI-powered digital assistants on your website and apps. We will also show how the days of home visits to triage repairs are over; video interaction allows your maintenance team to offer live augmented video calls with residents. Each of these services saves the time of your teams and provides fast RoI, allowing you to maintain margins against a backdrop of rising costs. 

Rob Mottram

Senior Account Manager, Social Telecoms

Speaker Information

Rob Mottram has worked to support social housing providers for 23 years. Cloud telecoms and SaaS have opened opportunities to innovate and integrate services together. We’re here with 8x8 and We Build Bots to demonstrate the next level innovations available to you. 

Presentation

TSG: Driving efficiencies 

Discover how housing providers are leveraging Microsoft technologies to drive efficiencies in their businesses to free up resources and budgets for critical front-line services. Whether you’re streamlining the processing of landlord certificates, automating authorisations in recruitment processes or enhancing mobile working, there is a Microsoft platform that you can take advantage of – in fact, you may already be paying for it within your Microsoft 365 subscription! 

Kirsty Marsden

Head of Housing, TSG

Tony Hughes

Microsoft Housing Lead, TSG

Speaker Information

With 25+ years’ experience working in the IT sector, Kirsty Marsden has been focused on TSG’s work in social housing since 2017, ensuring engagement at various levels around technology, use cases and building valued partnership with TSG’s clients. 

Tony Hughes has worked in IT for over 25 years, primarily in data, document and content management, and building Microsoft 365 productivity solutions in social housing.

Presentation

Accent Group: Detector data and certificates – Using Agile to integrate ActiveH with CDMS and M-Files

The quest: to effectively manage gas- and electrical-servicing test data, as well as smoke and carbon monoxide detector data, to aid alignment with smoke and carbon monoxide regulations. The proposal: work with contractors to ensure certificates hold effective detector data, including location and expiry, and to get certificates and data into a housing management system. The solution: integrate Corgi CDMS with ActiveH and M-Files. How? Agile delivery best practice. Let’s chat…

Neal Somerville

Digital Development Manager, Accent Group 

Speaker Information

Neal Somerville oversees the programme management and development of digital products at Accent and is passionate about Agile delivery. He has worked in housing for 14 years and has a background in teaching. He also ran his own ICT consultancy business for 10 years. 

Presentation

CDW: Cyber security in housing – Past, present & future

The housing market has been under attack for a few years but with cybercrime on the rise, it’s important to understand the threats and how best to protect your organisation. Mark Belgrove has 30 years’ experience in cybersecurity and with the information from his charity, ‘The Cyber Helpline’ (winner of cyber charity 2021 and 2022), he will share his experiences in the context of social housing.

Mark Belgrove

CISO, CDW

Speaker Information

Mark Belgrove is a respected security professional with 30+ years’ experience in the IT security market. As the chief information security officer (CISO) for several organisations in different industries, he helped them develop their security controls and compliance.

Presentation

HACT: Housing data standards and golden threads of data 

As building safety and net-zero responsibilities increase across the sector, the need for robust and assured data governance has never been greater. HACT’s UK housing data standards provide a foundational framework that enables housing providers to better collect, use and understand asset and customer data. 

Michael McLaughlin

Digital Lead, HACT

Speaker Information

Michael McLaughlin joined HACT in 2020, having spent 16 years in various social housing roles, many of which involved developing and managing digital strategies and policies, most recently at Clydebank Housing. He has MA in Social Sciences from Glasgow University and a Diploma in Digital Inclusion Project Management. 

Presentation

Halton Housing: Data management – The first step to moving beyond hindsight, gaining insights & understanding the future 

Halton Housing will tell the story of its ongoing journey, building on its solid foundation of reporting and KPIs to becoming a data- and insight-informed organisation. This will include the introduction of new technologies, skills and the capabilities needed to ensure data becomes a valued strategic asset across all areas of the business, driving operational efficiencies and improving the customer experience. 

Paul Croston

Director of Technology, Digital & Data, Halton Housing

John Perrian

Head of Customer Insight, Halton Housing

Speaker Information

Paul Croston is an experienced IT and transformation leader with a track record of leading and sponsoring complex and high-impact projects leveraging technology to drive transformational change.

John Perrian has 27 years’ experience in data, analytics, CRM and digital in commercial and not-for-profit organisations across the retail, services and housing sectors. 

Presentation

Housing Insight and Thenue Housing: Supporting the right residents at the right time

At a time when costs are rising faster than income, housing providers are all facing challenges in identifying and resourcing the right support for their residents and helping them move out of debt. During this cost-of-living crisis, PanConnect’s income analytics module RentsConnect can produce a prioritised contact caseload list allowing officers to support those residents, enabling early interventions as well as driving income collections. 

Nas Hayat

Director, Housing Insight 

Gary Naylor

Chief Executive, Thenue Housing 

Speaker Information

With 18 years’ experience in social housing, Nas Hayat has built two successful companies by collaborating closely with customers and core system providers to deliver solutions that add value to customers’ environments. 

Gary Naylor was appointed as Thenue Housing’s chief executive in 2022. He joined Thenue Housing as head of housing community services in 2020 and has worked in the housing sector for 20 years. 

Presentation

Karbon Homes: ‘Get back 30’ – Driving a digital culture 

As part of its plans to drive digital transformation, Karbon Homes launched ‘Get back 30’, a project aiming to release 30 minutes per week on average for each its 1,000 colleagues through the adoption of good digital habits. Through ‘Get back 30’ Karbon Homes’ ICT team works with teams across the organisation to identify: what can be digitised; what can be automated; and what good digital habits can colleagues adopt. 

Nathanial Ray

Assistant Director of ICT & Digital Transformation, Karbon Homes

Speaker Information

Nathanial Ray joined Karbon Homes in 2020 to lead the organisation’s ICT function and push forward its drive towards digital change. Nathanial has led transformation projects with a range of organisations, helping build better ways of working and driving improved customer engagement. 

Presentation

Manifest Software Solutions: Effective systems integration – The key to delivering 24/7 services

The right approach to integration allows businesses to quickly and easily on-board new technologies that can revolutionise service delivery while also cutting costs. CRM systems, chatbots, self-service portals, payment solutions, IoT devices and automation all need effective integration, yet systems integration is the biggest challenge facing modern housing businesses. Find out how it’s done by the leading independent supplier of systems integration solutions in social housing.

Alan Swift

Technical Director, Manifest Software Solutions 

Speaker Information

As the technical director at Manifest Software Solutions, Alan Swift has 30+ years’ experience developing, implementing and integrating software for local authorities and housing providers, and now leads a team of housing systems integration specialists.

Presentation

Keynote panel discussion: The IT-powered housing provider

Featuring senior executives from Halton Housing, Home Group, Platform Housing, Riverside Group & Vivid Homes, Housing Technology will be hosting a high level panel discussion on day two of the conference. Hosted by George Grant (CEO, Housing Technology) and Emma Birchley (Sky News Correspondent), our panelists will discuss the role of technology in housing providers’ internal business processes, engagement & communication with tenants, integration with third-party contractors and agencies, and regulatory compliance.

Paul Croston

Director of Technology, Digital & Data, Halton Housing

Simon Parker

Director of IS & PMO, Home Group

Jon Cocker

CIO, Platform Housing

Tony Blows

CIO, Riverside Group

Fiona Harris

Chief Information & Data Officer, Vivid Homes

Speaker Information

Paul Croston is an experienced IT and transformation leader with a track record of leading and sponsoring complex and high-impact projects leveraging technology to drive transformational change.

Simon Parker is an energetic IT & change director with over 20 years’ experience in senior roles across multiple sectors, working in the UK and internationally. Home Group is his foray into social housing. Given the choice, he’d rather be dancing.

Jon Cocker is the chief information officer for Platform Housing Group. He has 20 years’ experience in technology roles across business telecommunications, local government and contact centre operations. He has an MBA and is passionate about driving efficiency and effectiveness through digital transformation and innovation in housing.

Tony Blowes joined Riverside as CIO in 2022, soon after the merger with One Housing, where he had been CIO since 2018. He has 20 years’ experience of enabling strategy through effective business change and technology solutions; a recent example being the ‘One Future’ programme of modernisation and transformation at One Housing, a three-year programme of significant change within all business areas, supported by data management improvements and extensive technology modernisation.

Fiona Harris joined Vivid Homes in 2021 as its chief information and data officer. She has 30 years’ experience of developing and delivering technology in complex multi-national environments, working at global companies such as The Body Shop, Kingfisher and Burberry.

Presentation

Paradigm Housing: Your journey to being a data-driven housing provider – 10 mistakes to avoid

We all want to be driven by data. We also know that doing so is not easy. In this session, we’ll not only look at what has worked well, but also at the mistakes and pitfalls that should be avoided on your expedition to creating a more data-driven organisation. 

Philip Dunn

Head of Business Intelligence, Paradigm Housing

Speaker Information

Philip Dunn has led teams of data experts for 20 years, including 10 years at the consultancy behind Tesco’s Clubcard. He is presently leading Paradigm’s dynamic business intelligence Team. His university dissertations for both of his Master’s degrees focused on artificial intelligence. 

Presentation

Rooftop Housing: Data management aka data governance 

Data governance is complex and many data governance initiatives in housing have failed in the past. The principles of data governance include organisation of data management, ensuring alignment with business needs, ensuring compliance, and ensuring a common understanding of data. Stuart Hitchman will talk about Rooftop’s journey in its implementation of a data governance framework, the challenges and the lessons learned. 

Stuart Hitchman

Head of Digital & ICT, Rooftop Housing

Speaker Information

Stuart Hitchman has over 30 years’ experience in ICT, digitalisation and data management. As a senior leader at Rooftop Housing, he has led several transformation programmes delivering ICT solutions and developing a data ecosystem. 

Presentation

Socitm Advisory: Mould to metrics – Why robust data and systems are key to the future of housing

Recent high-profile events at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing have shown the need to maintain reliable systems and data. RBH will share its story, the lessons it has learned and the next steps in its journey. Alongside RBH will be Socitm Advisory, who will share its experience of how other organisations are developing effective systems and processes to ensure their data is helping them to achieve their business objectives.

Tim Cowland

Client Services Director for Housing, Socitm Advisory

Nadhia Khan

Director of Customer & Community, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

Speaker Information

Tim Cowland has 30 years’ experience of delivering strategic digital advice to public-sector organisations. He is now the client services director at Socitm Advisory, supporting social housing providers to plan and deliver their digital transformation journeys. 

Nadhia Khan started as a trainee housing assistant after leaving school. She spent some time working in transformation services before moving to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing four years ago. She also has 25 years’ experience of serving as a board and committee member. She gained her CIH membership in 1993 and an MBA in public policy from the University of Birmingham in 2003.

Presentation

Sophos: Cybersecurity delivered – Getting more from the tools you already have

It’s hard to know what’s more complex these days – the threats or the plethora of tools we use to contain them. What if the solution doesn’t involve buying any more cybersecurity products, but instead making better use of what you already have? 

Kosta Kustas

Senior Infrastructure Engineer & Security Consultant, Sophos

Speaker Information

Kosta Kustas has 20 years’ experience in a variety of technical IT and security roles and has a passion for anything tech-related. For the past four years at Sophos, he has worked closely with organisations of all sizes to help ensure the right cybersecurity solutions and services are in place to help them sleep better at night. Kosta appreciates that keeping up with the latest trends and buzzwords in cybersecurity can be tough; with the belief that the better educated we are, the better protected we can be, Kosta often hosts cybersecurity webinars and roundtables.

Presentation

Sovini Group: Driving value – How small steps in the right direction beat huge leaps into the unknown

Although housing provider at its core, Sovini Group has a unique structure – commercial entities in trade supplies, construction, waste, scaffolding and asbestos removal as well as a charitable arm – but what does that mean for our IT systems and services? This is how we’re approaching our evolution from legacy to cloud, from untapped data to data-driven decisions, to working in partnership with our business, embracing change and driving value in everything we do.

Ian Pritchard

Head of Infrastructure & Cloud, Sovini Group

Speaker Information

During a 20-year, multi-sector IT career, Ian Pritchard has spent 17 of them in housing. With a passion to deliver high-quality, business-integrated IT services, he is currently leading the infrastructure, security and service delivery teams within Sovini Group. 

Presentation

Stockport Homes: Robotic process automation, PowerApps & PowerAutomate – Creating efficiencies & better resource allocation

How to use RPA and other technologies to automate your low-value, high-volume, repetitive tasks. Like other housing providers, Stockport Homes operates in an ever-changing financial, regulatory and customer expectation landscape. While this brings challenges, it also presents opportunities to exploit digital and technological advances to enhance the experience for customers and colleagues by creating efficiencies and financial opportunities. 

Monica Quintero 

Digital Transformation Manager, Stockport Homes

Paul Howes

Assistant Director for Business Growth & Transformation, Stockport Homes

Speaker Information

Monica Quintero has been involved in digital transformation for over 10 years, with a combination of in- and out-sector experience. She has supported a variety of housing customers, all at different stages of their digital journeys with varying degrees of digital ambitions and teams.

Paul Howes has worked in business development in the not-for-profit sector for over 10 years, leading service growth across a range of themes, from employability to the environment. 

Presentation

TechLabs London (iProperty Cloud): ‘Power App’ your business plan – Digitising and automating asset management

TechLabs London will talk about the challenges faced by many housing providers in their asset management departments. From disparate and unreliable asset data, manual data manipulation and poor visibility of contractors’ progress through to an over-reliance on Excel. Join the team to hear how your business planning and asset management functions could get the ‘power app’ they need. 

Matthew Hedges

Products Director, TechLabs London

Speaker Information

As products director at TechLabs London, Matthew Hedges has 15+ years’ experience working in the housing sector. From leading front-line teams to digital transformation, he brings a wealth of housing knowledge to the continuous enhancement and implementations of iProperty Cloud. 

Presentation

Vivid: Business transformation at Vivid Homes 

Digital transformation has the power to completely reshape social housing, improve customer experience, streamline processes and change how our sector provides its services. Vivid Homes is on this journey and will make significant investments in technology over the next three years in order to achieve this. Fiona Harris and Oliver Locke will share Vivid Homes’ journey so far, highlighting the opportunities, challenges and lesson learned, and how new ways of working, process changes and investments in technology can make a difference. 

Fiona Harris

Chief Information & Data Officer, Vivid Homes

Oliver Locke

Business Architect (Consultant), Vivid Homes

Speaker Information

Fiona Harris joined Vivid Homes in 2021 as its chief information and data officer. She has 30 years’ experience of developing and delivering technology in complex multi-national environments, working at global companies such as The Body Shop, Kingfisher and Burberry.

Oliver Locke has run business transformation and IT delivery programmes for over 15 years. Specialising in Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform, he has worked across multiple sectors to enable improved business outcomes.