Speakers:
Martin McNaughton (Belfast Metropolitan College), Matt Lucas (IBM Global Blockchain Team), Chis Speed (Professor of Design Informatics University of Edinburgh)
Summary:
Most businesses have heard of Bitcoin as a blockchain technology and don’t appreciate it has wider applications. The aim of this event is to give the business community an understanding of what blockchain is and its potential uses. The event will give businesses a basic understanding of blockchain and then look at more advanced uses. There will be an opportunity for networking and Belfast Met staff and presenters will be around afterwards to discuss any potential ideas or to get a better understanding of your particular sector.
We are thrilled to have with us Matt Lucas, a member of IBMs Global Blockchain Engagement Team and Professor Chris Speed from the University of Edinburgh. Matt is an expert in his field and travels the world addressing seminars and helping clients understand and adopt blockchain technologies to solve business requirements in a range of industries such as finance, the public sector, manufacturing and retail.
Chris presents widely on the Digital Economy and has published over 120 papers.
Details of Event:
8:30 Arrival of attendees with Coffee/Tea and Breakfast
9:00 What is Blockchain and why do I care?
Martin Naughton - Smart Tech Lecturer at Belfast Met
9:25 New Transformative Blockchain Applications - Beyond Bitcoin
Matt Lucas - IBM Global Blockchain Engagement Team
Blockchain is about more than cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. There are changes coming that will blow your mind. Will they threaten the existence of many traditional businesses and be the growth engine of others? How is it providing the foundation for exciting new generation business process applications? What are those applications? Which sectors could be the winners and which the losers? If you want to gain some insights as to who and what may be the Blockchain equivalent in 10 years of recent arrivals like Amazon and eBay with multi-billion £ valuations then is this an opportunity you can’t miss.
10:00 Designing Things with Spending Power
Chris Speed - Professor of Design Informatics at Edinburgh University
What happens when we give physical things wallets containing digital currencies? How can this alter power relationships and shift social dynamics? Chris Speed will explore these questions by highlighting the use of smart contracts in design, from a coffee machine that lets you vote for your coffee bean and pays those who clean it, to a hairdryer that trades on the energy market to offer the best price for drying your hair. As objects are connected to the Internet, forming the ‘Internet of Things’, Chris asks what happens when technologies are given their own spending power, and what this implies for the human.
10:30 Closing and networking opportunities
11:00 Event closed
This event is free to attend and is funded by the Connected programme and by the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Northern Ireland Branch.
