With the rising popularity of working in more agile ways, we’ve been taught to move away from the big old projects of yore and focus instead on smaller, actionable outcomes. But what happens when you’re trying to achieve a massive vision of large-scale, long-term change; in this case working to get an entire sector to change its relationship with digital, technology, and collaboration? Real change and transformation can be extremely difficult, take a long time, and be a rocky road to tread. 

In this case study-led talk I’ll tell the story of how I’ve been part of a team working to combat inactivity, spark innovation, and create a better online customer experience around sport and physical activity through open data. I’ll be speaking about the process of change, the balance between technology and people, lessons learned, and how these all relate to our work with the web. Using a series of practical demonstrations spanning data visualisation, neural networks, JAMstack web development, online tools like glitch.me, and Google Sheets as a data store I’ll also show how development skills can be a powerful tool within transformation projects.

You will leave armed with new practical tips and ideas, and hopefully inspired to make some positive change in the world.