The Recovery Roadmap Programme
Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport
On 23 June 2020, the UK Tech Cluster Group and TechnologyOne hosted a Roadmap to Recovery Summit. The goal was to build a dialogue and share learning, across the UK, on the role of tech, and how it can enable economic resilience in light of COVID-19.
This was not just a day for statistics, projections, or dashboards: it was a day for reflections, context setting and ideas. Since the pandemic took hold, the UK Tech Cluster Group and its regional organisations have redoubled their efforts to support the practical and commercial needs of digital and tech communities. These efforts have made us acutely aware of the needs that our local economic networks have, the support they need from local, central, and national government, and the potential they offer to get the country moving again with the right support.
Throughout the day, attendees included over 400 digital, policy and business support professionals from across the UK, including all devolved nations and regions, as well as over 100 public bodies. Eighteen workshops, three plenaries, and three panel discussions covered topics as diverse as digital inclusion, co-working spaces, the role of universities, the future of the public sector, smart technology, investment and tax credits, low-carbon technology, diversity and inclusion, collaboration across sectors and regions, and reskilling the newly unemployed.
Right now, our clear priority must be growth. Using tech to power us out of the recession, to drive productivity and create jobs in all parts of the industry, region by region, and indeed all parts of our economy.
At the conclusion of the summit, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport delivered a closing speech where he announced that Government will be publishing a new digital strategy in the autumn - one which reflects our new post-COVID-19 reality. We know that the UK’s tech and digital sector must position itself to lead not just this strategy’s role in our domestic recovery, but our future trade deals with international partners.
It is our hope that the dialogue we commenced with the Roadmap to Recovery inspires that strategy, as well as the work which must precede and follow it, to make those goals achievable.
Watch the keynote
The Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP, Secretary of State for DCMS announcing that the government will be publishing a new digital strategy in the autumn of 2020 - one which reflects our new post-COVID-19 reality.
The Recovery Roadmap Report
The full Recovery Roadmap Report, in association with TechnologyOne, is available for public viewing here.
