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Breaking Into Music: Education, Industry, and the Future of Performance In this episode of Tech Talks, David Savage speaks with Nikki Camilleri, Music Industry Director at the London College of Contemporary Music (LCCM), about the challenges and opportunities facing young musicians today. From navigating an evolving industry to the importance of grassroots community-building, Nikki shares how LCCM helps students transition from education to career in an era where traditional pathways are changing. With venues closing, streaming revenues tightening, and AI disrupting creative industries, how can artists carve out sustainable careers? Nikki discusses the critical role of industry connections, live performance, and adaptability in today’s music business. Tech Talks Podcast Tech Talks is a podcast that probes the minds of tech leaders, hosted by Technology Evangelist David Savage. Each week, the show releases three episodes with new guests, covering the latest tech news, exploring new products and cultural transformations that drive the tech industry. Founded in 2015 Tech Talks has published over 650 episodes and attracts over 18,500 streams a month from a global audience. The podcast offers insights and ideas from leading technologists on culture, innovation, finance, growth, sustainability, and more, providing a platform for the c-suite, founders, and senior figures to hear from others facing similar challenges and tap into a wider community. Find out more about Tech Talkshere.

Redifining Childcare: How Bubble is changing the game for parents and caregivers. Childcare is broken. Parents struggle with accessibility, flexibility, and trust, while caregivers often face low pay and limited opportunities. Ari Last, CEO & Founder of Bubble, is on a mission to change that. In this episode of Tech Talks, Ari shares how technology can solve one of the biggest pain points for working parents, why trust and community are at the core of childcare solutions, and how Bubble is bridging the gap between parents and trusted sitters. With more people working flexibly and remotely, childcare needs a rethink. But is tech the answer? And can innovation keep up with the reality of modern parenting? Tech Talks Podcast Tech Talks is a podcast that probes the minds of tech leaders, hosted by Technology Evangelist David Savage. Each week, the show releases three episodes with new guests, covering the latest tech news, exploring new products and cultural transformations that drive the tech industry. Founded in 2015 Tech Talks has published over 650 episodes and attracts over 18,500 streams a month from a global audience. The podcast offers insights and ideas from leading technologists on culture, innovation, finance, growth, sustainability, and more, providing a platform for the c-suite, founders, and senior figures to hear from others facing similar challenges and tap into a wider community. Find out more about Tech Talkshere.

Leading in Aviation: breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry In this episode of Tech Talks, host David Savage sits down with Bonny Simi from Joby Aviation—a trailblazer with a career as diverse as it is inspiring. From her early dreams of flight and becoming an Olympian to leading cutting-edge innovations in urban air mobility, Bonny shares her unique journey and the groundbreaking technology behind Joby’s next-generation aircraft. This conversation dives deep into the design, safety, and future potential of an electric, multimodal transportation service that promises to revolutionise travel in major cities and beyond. Tech Talks Podcast Tech Talks is a podcast that probes the minds of tech leaders, hosted by Technology Evangelist David Savage. Each week, the show releases three episodes with new guests, covering the latest tech news, exploring new products and cultural transformations that drive the tech industry. Founded in 2015 Tech Talks has published over 650 episodes and attracts over 18,500 streams a month from a global audience. The podcast offers insights and ideas from leading technologists on culture, innovation, finance, growth, sustainability, and more, providing a platform for the c-suite, founders, and senior figures to hear from others facing similar challenges and tap into a wider community. Find out more about Tech Talkshere.

Breaking the Cycle: How Habitual is rethinking weight loss & type 2 diabetes In this episode of Tech Talks, Napala Pratini, CEO of Habitual, breaks down why obesity is one of the biggest global health crises and how her company is tackling it differently. Habitual isn't just about weight loss—it’s about changing behaviors to create long-term health improvements. With over one billion people living with obesity and weight-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, Napala explains why fad diets and quick fixes don’t work. Instead, she highlights how technology, behavioral science, and the right medical support can create sustainable, life-changing health outcomes. Tech Talks Podcast Tech Talks is a podcast that probes the minds of tech leaders, hosted by Technology Evangelist David Savage. Each week, the show releases three episodes with new guests, covering the latest tech news, exploring new products and cultural transformations that drive the tech industry. Founded in 2015 Tech Talks has published over 650 episodes and attracts over 18,500 streams a month from a global audience. The podcast offers insights and ideas from leading technologists on culture, innovation, finance, growth, sustainability, and more, providing a platform for the c-suite, founders, and senior figures to hear from others facing similar challenges and tap into a wider community. Find out more about Tech Talkshere.

Breaking Barriers: AI, women in video and the future of content creation In this episode, we welcome Leila Woodington, Chief Marketing Officer at VEED, to discuss the intersection of AI, video content creation, and gender equity in technology. With VEED’s mission to make video accessible for everyone, Leila shares insights into the challenges women face in front of the camera, the pay gap in influencer marketing, and why AI adoption among women is lagging behind. She also highlights VEED’s use of AI-powered tools to simplify video creation, giving users—from solo content creators to enterprises—more control over their brand and storytelling. As AI-generated content reshapes the industry, Leila explains why businesses must embrace AI as a tool rather than a threat and why getting more women involved in AI development is critical for the future. Tech Talks Podcast Tech Talks is a podcast that probes the minds of tech leaders, hosted by Technology Evangelist David Savage. Each week, the show releases three episodes with new guests, covering the latest tech news, exploring new products and cultural transformations that drive the tech industry. Founded in 2015 Tech Talks has published over 650 episodes and attracts over 18,500 streams a month from a global audience. The podcast offers insights and ideas from leading technologists on culture, innovation, finance, growth, sustainability, and more, providing a platform for the c-suite, founders, and senior figures to hear from others facing similar challenges and tap into a wider community. Find out more about Tech Talkshere.

In today's rapidly evolving workplace, promoting neuro-inclusivity is not just a matter of compliance but a strategic imperative that fosters innovation, enhances employee well-being, and drives organisational success. Recognising the unique strengths and challenges of neurodivergent individuals, our recent webinar aimed to shed light on the importance of creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. By bringing together experts and advocates, we explored practical strategies, shared real-world examples, and discussed the critical role of leadership in championing neuro-inclusivity. This webinar was hosted to empower organisations with the knowledge and tools needed to support neurodivergent employees effectively, ensuring a diverse and dynamic workforce. Panel Our incredible panel included: Meri Williams, Chief Technology Officer, Pleo Russell Botting, Neuroinclusion Services Director (UK), Auticon Sophie Dupre-Echeverria, Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, GIB Asset Management Kate Bohn, Global Advisory Council Member, Diversity Economics Institute (DEI) Tony Fagelman, Global President, Xerox’s Enable_All ERG Georgina Lindsey, Senior Consultant, Harvey Nash (host) Key takeaways Definition and Importance of Neuro-Inclusivity Neuro-inclusivity is about true equity of experience for neurodivergent individuals, recognising their unique strengths and providing necessary support. It addresses historical misconceptions and barriers faced by neurodivergent individuals in the workplace. Challenges and Barriers Neurodivergent individuals often face significant barriers, including stigma, lack of understanding, and fear of disclosure. Creating a supportive environment where individuals feel comfortable disclosing their needs is crucial. Practical Measures and Accommodations Implementing practical measures such as clear communication, written instructions, flexible schedules, and real-world applicable tasks can significantly support neurodivergent employees. These accommodations benefit everyone, not just neurodivergent individuals. Role of Leadership and Middle Management Senior leadership buy-in is essential for fostering an inclusive culture. Middle managers play a critical role in implementing inclusive practices and need to be equipped and supported to create environments where diverse individuals can thrive. Employee Resource Groups and Peer Support Employee resource groups (ERGs) and peer support networks are valuable for providing support and fostering a sense of community among neurodivergent employees. These groups can help share challenges, accommodations, and advocate for necessary changes. Strategic and Policy Integration Embedding diversity and inclusion in organisational strategies, governance, and policies is vital. This includes measuring and reporting on inclusivity efforts, ensuring policies protect and support neurodivergent individuals, and promoting a culture of understanding and respect. Watch the full webinar About NASHability NASHability is our Nash Squared ERG (employee resource group), who strive to highlight, educate and celebrate our (unique/differing) abilities, raising awareness for all visible and invisible disabilities alike. Working to foster a culture of understanding, support and acceptance throughout the business and beyond alongside implementing impactful initiatives that will help to shape the future accessibility of our working environment.

We are delighted to share the full recording of the panel discussion hosted at Manchester Digital Skills Feast as part of their Festival. The evening event which was sponsored by Slalom, celebrated the region’s technology landscape and features a brilliant panel who explored the current state of the digital skills market. David Savage, Technology Evangelist and podcast host was joined on stage by Caroline Grant, Managing Director at Slalom Manchester, Rob Sugden, Managing Director, ECOM and Alison Ross MBE Chief People and Operations Officer at Auto Trader. You can read the full event write up here. Tech Talks Podcast Tech Talks is a podcast that probes the minds of tech leaders, hosted by Technology Evangelist David Savage. Each week, the show releases three episodes with new guests, covering the latest tech news, exploring new products and cultural transformations that drive the tech industry. Founded in 2015 Tech Talks has published over 650 episodes and attracts over 25,000 streams a month from a global audience. The podcast offers insights and ideas from leading technologists on culture, innovation, finance, growth, sustainability, and more, providing a platform for the c-suite, founders, and senior figures to hear from others facing similar challenges and tap into a wider community. Find out more about Tech Talks podcast here.

The cloud and it's offering is vast, with its main aim to give organisations the ability to deliver resources and services publicly, privately or in an hybrid environment. Whether it's hosting your data, sharing resources internally with different teams, or streaming your favourite series, these clouds are maintained by a variety of technical professionals. Cloud professionals have developed their skillset over many years working in infrastructure and development, demonstrating highly technical skills and certifications. With 70% of digital leaders reporting Cloud generated the most ROI over the last 3 years, due to the ability it gives them to be more agile and responsive- more organisations are recognising the efficiencies cloud can offer, the demand for this specialised skillset will only increase. What is a public, private or hybrid cloud? Public Cloud– This can be services or resources that can be accessed by anyone in the public domain and across the internet. You use many public clouds every single day, think - Netflix, Google Mail, Amazon. In the cloud world, these public clouds are usually referred to as Cloud Service Providers, like Amazon Web Services(AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform(GCP). Private Cloud– You might already be using a private cloud in your daily work routine without even realising it. A private cloud is an environment dedicated solely to one organisation. It can be hosted either on-premises or in a data centre, it is accessible exclusively within the organisation. Unlike public clouds that are available to the general public across the internet, a private cloud gives organisations greater control and security, as well as retaining full authority over the resources and infrastructure.Examples of private cloud solutions include: Microsoft Azure Stack, VMWare vSphere, OpenStack. Hybrid Cloud– Hybrid is as it sounds – a mix of them both, but it would be easier to imagine that these clouds are like different personal storage solutions.You keep some of the services that are easy to access in the storage space you rent from a storage space company (public cloud) because of convenience, ease of access, available to a range of users. For your most sensitive data/resources, you will have these in your own storage space that you own like a safe in your wardrobe (private cloud) because it’s dedicated to you and safe, as a result, you will have more security and control over these resources. Types of jobs in cloud computing The most common roles within this space include: Cloud Engineers Site Reliability Engineers Cloud Architects Platform Engineers DevOps Engineers Infrastructure Engineers Cloud key skills and technologies Some of the technologies and key skills employers typically look for in cloud professionals: Experience with Cloud Platforms (Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform) Experience managing traditional infrastructure (Virtualisation, Servers, Networking, Firewall, Security, Storage, Databases, Identity Access Management) Configuration management tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, PowerShell) Containerisation tools (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS ECS, Google Kubernetes Engine) Container Orchestration tools (Rancher, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes) Source control management tools (Git, GitHub) Deployment tools (Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), Ansible, CodeDeploy, Helm) Infrastructure as code (Terraform, Kubernetes, CloudFormation) Continuous improvement/Continuous Deployment tools (Jenkins, Argo, GitLab, Harness) Programming languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell, YAML, Java, Javascript, C#, Ruby, Golang etc.) Cloud salary ranges Salaries within Cloud roles have fluctuated, while there has been considerable growth in professionals in this space over the last few years, there is still a shortage compared to the demand for top talent. The increase in cloud professionals was mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic giving individuals the ability to work fully-remote for organisations in higher-paying regions of the UK and internationally. However, as more businesses look to implement and take advantage of the cloud we expect a growing demand for individuals in this space, which will inevitably influence salaries. For the roles below, the ranges provided are from junior to senior level – when looking into ‘head of’ roles and management roles, the salaries tends to vary between £95k-£135k depending on scale and industry. Cloud Engineer: £50k - £85k Site Reliability Engineer: £60k - £90k Cloud Architect: £65k - £115k Platform Engineer: £50k - £100k DevOps Engineer: £65k - £100k Infrastructure Engineer: £40k - £80k Please bear in mind salaries vary considerably based on experience level and your location, we recommend speaking to one of our Cloud consultants for the latest salary information. Reach out to one of the team here. Work environment Working from home/hybrid models are very important within this specialism, these roles were usually remote and hybrid pre-pandemic and although we have seen a shift to more hybrid functions. The senior architects/engineers are more likely to want a fully remote role. This is due to the nature of the role requiring little collaboration that can otherwise be done through video call solutions, long working hours and very focused tasks. Many candidates we have spoken to see little need to be in an environment with others especially if the commute is long. There are of course exceptions, including infrastructure engineers which need to deal with physical equipment and some candidates who enjoy the more social aspects of working in an office, but most are committed to working fully remote and expect this. Clients need to be aware that exceptional talent are acclimated to working in remote environments and need to consider this within hiring requirements, from my experience the best compromise is once a month or fortnight for some senior cloud professionals. As working practices cloud professionals typically work within Scrum/Agile environments, with Cloud Architects getting involved earlier in the process to shape the project and avoid tricky hurdles in the later stages of the implementation. This is becoming an increasingly diverse field of work, with a lot of organisations pushing for more representation in the space from underrepresented groups, though this is still an area that has some way to go. We are already seeing a more diverse pool of candidates coming through at entry level but may need to be addressed for more senior roles. There is a fantastic group for Women in Cloud to help promote gender equity within this space. Here is a link to their website:https://womenincloud.com/ Benefits Most benefits offered are as standard, other benefits within this industry include: Discretionary performance based bonus (10-20%) Pension contribution (matched/non-contributory) Uncapped annual leave (Purchase/sell additional days/growing trend in big tech for unlimited holidays for senior staff) Share save/Equity Personal development/training/certifications/courses Gym membership EV Car Scheme Career Progression in Cloud roles There are multiple opportunities for career progression within the cloud discipline and really depends on what aspect you’re most interested in. A typical progression from an infrastructure route could look like this: 1st/2nd Line support 3rd Line support Infrastructure Engineer/specialist Junior Cloud Engineer/Cloud Engineer Senior Cloud Engineer Lead Cloud Engineer/Cloud Manager Head of Cloud While this is a very barebones and a typical scenario, as mentioned before there are many ways into the cloud and this is what the typical journey to the stratosphere of cloud could look like. To discuss more career progression and routes into Cloud pleasereach out to one of the team. Summary Overall, the demand for talent in the cloud market, far exceeds the available supply, particularly at a senior level. Given the intricate nature of cloud technologies, and the vast array of disciplines involved, organisations will need to continually adapt to the evolving cloud landscape to maintain efficiency and competitive advantage. Organisations will need to consider and review the expectations of candidates in this discipline, to retain and attract the talent they need to be able to implement their strategic ambitions within this business area. We’re experiencing a surge in organisations looking for expertise within this space, exploring salary, working from home policies as well as benefit packages to ensure exceptional cloud talent are attracted and retained. About the author Kyle Gauntlettis the Cloud Specialist consultant based in Harvey Nash Leeds office covering both contract and permanent roles. With an IT background in system administration and support for nearly a decade, Kyle sources leading cloud professionals of all levels. He manages vacancies across the North working with both public and private sector clients. If you’d like to speak further about the cloud and current rolesplease get in touch here.

Last night, Harvey Nash were delighted to attend the Digital Skills Feast as part of Manchester Digital's Festival, which was sponsored and co-hosted by Slalom. The evening event hosted at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester city centre, invited tech leaders, key decision makers and education partners to celebrate and discuss the region's tech landscape. Katie Gallagher OBE, Managing Director of Manchester Digital welcomed everyone and reflected on the Manchester Digital Festival as a whole. This was then followed by Councillor Nick Peel, leader of Bolton Council and portfolio holder for digital and tech for GMCA. He gave a speech celebrating the region's success and focus on digital innovation and education highlighting AI growth and high graduate retention for those studying computer science. Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, the Parliamentary Undersecretary for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, shared a video message for the event. The speech emphasised Manchester's role as a tech hub and the government's commitment to fostering tech ecosystems across the UK. It highlighted the importance of digital skills, the creation of Skills England, and reforms to apprenticeship programs to support the tech sector. Tech leader panel David Savage, Technology Evangelist and host of our podcast Tech Talks then hosted a panel discussion. The panel included; Caroline Grant, Managing Director at Slalom Manchester; Rob Sugden, Managing Director, ECOM, our Sector Insights Partner and Alison Ross, Chief People and Operations Officer at Auto Trader. The panel discussed some of the key challenges facing digital leaders currently including: economic uncertainty; regulatory hurdles; funding constraints; infrastructure limitations and talent shortage. We recorded this brilliant discussion as a Tech Talks podcast episode which you can listen to here. David Savage, who hosted the panel commented, "Manchester is a vibrant hub for business and technology, with strong, passionate local leadership. One message was clear from our panel; we are living through a period of instability that makes business challenging. With that in mind, it is clear that Manchester can be a model for regional growth across the UK to ensure fragile confidence does not evaporate." Overall, we were thrilled to be part of Manchester Digital Skills Feast which concluded an excellent week of events as part of the festival. We'd like to thank Manchester Digital for organising the festival week and Slalom for sponsoring this specific event. Panel L-R: David Savage, Caroline Grant, Alison Ross MBE and Rob Sugden. Manchester Digital Manchester Digital is the driving force behind Greater Manchester's thriving tech and digital sector. As a dynamic membership organisation, we unite a powerful community of over 400 members - including large corporations, innovative SMEs, cutting-edge startups, freelancers and leading agencies across all tech verticals. Find more about Manchester Digital here.