Meet Jamie Hardesty: Director of Communications at Sunderland Software City

From the very first conversations with our co-creators at Dynamo and Sunderland Software City, we knew we had to do things a little differently to ensure that accessibility, inclusivity, diversity, and sustainability were the golden threads that ran throughout the whole experience. So, the ‘Good Festival Ambition’ was born.

This ambition meant working hard to deliver a diverse events programme to make our core events truly accessible, considering those with different protected characteristics, ensuring we meet a wide range of needs, and making everyone feel as welcome as possible.

We sat down with Jamie Hardesty, director of communications at Sunderland Software City, to discuss his experiences of collaborating with the team here at BeaconHouse Events, how the festival has evolved since the inaugural year, and why the team was keen to focus on tech for purpose.

Hi Jamie! Now that the dust has settled on a second successful TechNExt festival, how has it evolved from 2023?

In that first year, we had an ambition to do something fun and inviting, and we knew that we wanted to connect what we have here in the region with the rest of the world and celebrate the work that is being developed here. That foundation remained for the second year, but we challenged ourselves to generate more value by introducing themes or golden threads that ran through the whole events programme that would resonate with our delegates.

Early in the planning process, we worked with the team at BeaconHouse Events to interrogate what that theme could be for the main stage conference. We were conscious that we didn’t want it to be something too generic or overdone, and in the end, we settled on ‘Tech for Purpose’. In the tech sector, the concept of ‘Tech for Good’ is already a well-established idea, but we wanted something that was more agnostic – a theme that cut through the noise and would really matter to people regardless of the sub-sector they are part of or the touch point they have with the tech ecosystem. I’m proud that together we developed a subject matter and curated content that resonated with the audience.

It takes a lot of content to fill a busy five-day festival programme; how did you collaborate with the team at BeaconHouse Events to bring that content to life in an accessible and engaging way?

The relationship was a natural extension and evolution from year one – the team at BeaconHouse Events is so easy to work with and is very strong at generating ideas and making things happen. No matter who you work with in the team, there is a lot of energy. Being such key members of the TechNExt development team, Sarah and Catherine espouse enthusiasm for the project, and that is modelled across the whole team. It was a real privilege for me to work with Katie McNeill for the first time on the festival this year; she is incredibly detail-orientated and diligent, which is key for a project as sprawling as TechNExt.

We would have regular biweekly and monthly touchpoints where we could look at key priorities, but we started by taking the time to look at our levels of audiences and what matters most to them. We broke down each audience and questioned what we meant by each group, what we thought would be interesting to them, and where there might be some gaps in the programme that we could creatively develop if we wanted to get these people interested and engaged. It very much boiled down to being able to have regular sessions where we could generate ideas, positively challenge each other, and have really frank conversations about what was possible. While the team at BeaconHouse is very creative, they are also experts at understanding what is realistic and achievable to specific deadlines and budgets.

There are a lot of different stakeholders involved in making TechNExt happen; logistically, how did that work?

We had a multi-channel process in place to make sure that everyone felt connected and aware of each moving part; from email chains to group chats and regular in-person meetings, there was a feeling of being one large team pushing towards a shared goal. Alongside the scheduled catch-ups, as the festival got closer, I appreciated how flexible, agile, and contactable Katie and the team were to address more time-sensitive decisions. That could be a quick WhatsApp message to iron something out or jumping on a call with a speaker to answer some last-minute questions, it made it much easier to keep the project moving forward.

Events can be stressful situations, and there are lots of moving parts, but having a transparent and honest relationship with the BeaconHouse team meant that we could problem-solve effectively. Running orders change last minute, key messages need to be communicated to delegates about new opportunities or logistics need to be tweaked, and having Catherine on-site and available on WhatsApp at the Main Stage conference meant that we could manage different parts of the room and address things in real time. The support during the week was incredibly valuable to me and the rest of the team and is a testament to the skills within the team at BeaconHouse to keep everything going smoothly in the lead-up and during the event itself.

What were your highlights from the festival?

I might be biased, but my highlight of the week was the Main Stage conference. Seeing a couple of hundred people being exposed to technology leaders who were there to share ideas, be thought-provoking, and inspire our delegates was very special.

I was delighted to see some of the feedback that we have received for the event. It really felt like we were doing something different and adding value to the region and the sector. This festival wasn’t about delving into generic topics or showcasing shiny things; we were talking about how technology can have a real-world impact on people here in the region and beyond. We talked about how tech can support people living with dementia to how digital can intervene in and prevent child labour crises – these are hard-hitting issues where yes, we are talking about innovation, but ultimately, we are talking about people and how tech can improve lives through purposeful intervention. It was a real privilege to put together.

How did you make sure that the event was open to as many people as possible and did as much good as possible?

I have expertise in the technology field, and I’m confident creating content around those themes, but where BeaconHouse really shined was curating a purposeful festival that is fit for everyone. We were passionate about reducing the carbon footprint of the entire festival, and the team at BeaconHouse led on that sustainability drive. Equally, we had speakers and delegates from a wide range of backgrounds, and BeaconHouse was strong from an audio-visual point of view making sure that everyone was able to access and engage with the content in a meaningful way. Accessibility and equity were just as key a theme as sustainability and formed a key part of the Good Festival Ambition.

The Good Festival Ambition was something that BeaconHouse developed and championed from TechNExt 2023, and we took away a lot of feedback and learnings from year one, and we were keen to put those into play this year. Those learnings meant that we were able to work together to produce an even more accessible and enjoyable festival in 2024, and we’re already starting to pick up that discussion on how the festival will look in 2025.

TechNExt is a fantastic example of how the public and private sector market focusses can collaborate and support one another to support the region and help people better understand the technology sector, how they connect to it, strengthen it, and ultimately grow it.

The team at BeaconHouse Events is very understanding of their client’s overall goals and ambitions and was incredibly supportive in collaboratively working together with us to ensure that we achieved success. Their flexibility, open communication, and critical feedback are really healthy and a key reason why they have long-lasting relationships with their clients.