Kent connecting with residents through hack day

Kent Connects,the public sector technology partnership for the county, is running its second innovation hack day in Tunbridge Wells on November 23 to discover and create applications for the community.

Kent Connects includes the local authorities of Kent, Medway as well as the Kent Police, Fire and Rescue Service and the Kent and Medway NHS trust. The role of Kent Connects is to join up public services through shared services.

“The day will bring together people interested in technology to develop visual and software prototypes of digital tools that tackle local challenges,” says Carol Patrick, Head of ICT Partnerships at Kent Connects.  “People can work on their own prototypes or join with others.”

The Transformed by youevent aims to develop a technology resource that will improve the communities of Kent.

Kent Connects has support for the event from Microsoft and has already received 250 ideas.

The Transformed by youevent on November 23 is calling for individuals interested in technology, digital media and gaming who wish to work on turning some of the received ideas into reality. A prize of £9000 is available for the best ideas and prototypes.

“Anyone interested in technology should take a look at the ideas on the website and submit prototypes for how they can be made to work. Then come along to the innovation day and start to develop them further,” Patrick said.

“When we ask for prototypes, what we are looking for is something that can demonstrate how the idea would work, how it would meet the need of the users, what it would look like and what you would do with the winning prize to take the idea forward,” she said.

The Innovation Day will take place in the Town Hall, Royal Tunbridge Wells on 23 November and attendees will need to pre register.

Kent and Suffolk authorities are trail blazing connecting with their constituents through technology innovation days and both regions have benefited from running these days. In the case of Suffolk it helped launched one new IT career, as recently featured in CIO UK.

For more information on The Transformed by you day, visit https://transformedbyou.eventbrite.co.uk/ or email innovation@kent.gov.uk