An all IT Planning Day took place last week aimed at staff to encourage participation in the development of our five year strategy. This was initiated by the new Director of Information Technology, Claire Priestley in order to ensure all staff have the opportunity to contribute to the Vision and Strategy for IT. We were very fortunate to have all of the Deans and Professional Service Directors attend the event and present their five year plans over the two days.
The key objective of the sessions was to absorb as much information as possible from our stakeholders to help us shape our own vision and strategy in future planning days. This was the first time staff from all areas of IT had the opportunity to hear directly from leaders of all Schools and Professional Services about their plans, IT requirements and challenges anticipated in the next 5 years and to help us think about the implications on our services.
Both days saw presentations and a speech from Rohit Talwar – a global Futurist, Strategic Advisor, Author and Keynote Speaker. Rohit’s presentation was intended to provide us with some broader context for the day and engage, stimulate thought and provoke discussion. This was then followed by a presentation on the University’s Vision and Strategy 2026 led by Dean Stokes on Monday and Prof Richard Verrall on Tuesday.
Monday also saw presentations from:
Pam Parker, Associate Director LeaD, Prof Roger Crouch, Dean MCSE; Prof Laurence Solkin, Dean School of Arts & Social Sciences; John Unsworth, Interim Chief Financial Officer; Louise Doolan, Director of Library Services and a pre-recorded video from Prof Ken Grattan, Dean Graduate School.
On Tuesday we were joined by the following speakers:
Prof Carl Stychin, Dean City Law School; Prof Marianne Lewis, Dean Cass Business School,Mary Luckiram, Director of HR; David Street, Director Development & Alumni Relations; Karen Shaw, Director Research & Enterprise; Matt Such, COO School of Health Sciences and two pre-recorded videos from Tim Longden, Director of Marketing and Kevin Gibbons, Director of Property & Facilities.
Staff engaged in a Q&A session with all Deans and PSD’s as well as a number of activities throughout the day. Points for the activities have been counted and the winning teams are:
Monday- Yellow Team
- Penny Rosanno
- Melissa Kelly
- Kola Fashoyin
- Colin Day
- Shabz Khan
- Gurj Sheehra
- Janet Mynott
- Russell Best
- Amanda Doughty
Tuesday- Blue Team
- Chris Marshall
- Naomi Wilce
- Jo Pentecost
- Saidu Sesay
- Steve Waters
- Amanda Burges
- Donovan Izilein
- Michael Chesworth
The prizes will be given out at the next planning event at the beginning of September. The AV Team were on hand to capture the full event on video and did a sterling job during both days. They also provided excellent support throughout the planning of the event by pre-recording and editing the video presentations. The videos from both days, including shorter videos of the pre-recorded presentations, will be available to the team on the IS Admin team site within the next week.
Colleagues are now asked to watch the videos and hold discussions within their teams about potential implications on their services over the next five years.
The next event will be dedicated to reviewing implications and refreshing and renewing the overall IT Strategy. The outputs of this session will be our Vision and Strategy underpinned by 5-Year Roadmaps.
We would like to encourage all IT staff to attend the next event. Look out for the calendar invitation and the videos coming out next week.
