5.27 — weeknotes — AI Roundtable — amazing feedback
Another week…another month…. I really must be getting old as time goes so quickly!
In the office on Monday to have a face to face chat about how we provide services to our arms length companies. Some challenges over the past few months but good to be in the room to have a conversation about moving forward. We have a plan.
We had a management team meeting on Tuesday bringing all managers from Digital together face to face, as we try and do once a month. This month was too good an opportunity to pass up, using it as part of the support services review. We had a session trying to create as many ideas as possible on things that we need to start; stop; continue or modify — also taking the opportunity to think wider than Digital, what are the opportunities across the Council. First of the sessions but will be followed by a number of further sessions to really get into the detail!
I was part of a round table discussion on AI hosted by Penna and The MJ this week. Great and challenging conversation around the current opportunities and things to think about with AI. Joined by a number of colleagues but Nadira, Paul and I spoke for about ten minutes each to set the scene and start some of the conversation. And conversation there was — could have continued all day!
AI is something that is here already but gives so many opportunities to Local Government. The conversation will be written up for the MJ in time but there were a number of themes that kept coming up and lots for us to think about. Skills — do we have the pipeline of skills for AI; Cyber — essential to ensure that the infrastructure remains secure; Information Governance — we have to protect the information that we are privileged to hold; Opportunity — there is an opportunity here to do good, to change how we do things; Society — there are massive implications for society with AI — already being used so we need to embrace it. I see it as a tool in the toolkit that we need to understand how we effectively and securely use it!
Had a conversation with my Tutor for my Level 7 course, as we enter the final stages of the course, I need to put in the hours to pull together the portfolio and final document submission. I said to him that I had done nothing! Perhaps not quite true but I really haven’t done enough — over the next month or so will really need to carve out some time and get on with it!
Had an amazing end of the week as received feedback on a member of the team who had attended an Area Forum — just an awesome way to end a week…So proud!
She was conversational, personable and natural in her presentation style. She got seemingly complex ideas/a daunting subject across clearly and confidently (and in a few bullet points) and in a tone perfect for community engagement. No death by power point! It’s a skill that does not come naturally to the vast majority of officers who give presentations at Area Forums — and its worthy of recognition.
No weeknotes for the next couple of weeks as I am away — I can hear the collective tears already! Given that this is the 161st weeknote that I have done — I think we all deserve a couple of weeks off!
Tune of the week: (classic) Vengaboys — We’re Going to Ibiza!
