Unfolding
Supporting the Digital Evolution of Places
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Unfolding

Unfolding helps places understand, adapt to and take advantage of emerging digital technologies and practices

 

Places are being changed and
re-shaped by technology

All kinds of geographies - cities, towns, regions, islands and countries - are being changed and re-shaped by digital technology. From new mobility solutions to the sensing of flows of people, air and energy, and the policy insights they can provide; from digital connectivity infrastructure like 5G and LoRaWAN, to the impacts of social media and information warfare on democratic engagement and public discourse; from the development of new industries, new ways of working and entirely new sources of economic value, to the need to skill up whole populations just to be able to fully participate in the digitally-enabled future.

Local, regional and national governments are required to chart courses through this reality - courses which seek to maximise the public good while minimising detrimental impacts; that promote the security and privacy of citizens, whilst not stifling innovation and enterprise, especially that of local industries. And this responsibility is not limited to government, but also pertains to a whole range of other institutions, businesses and collaborations.

It’s crucial for people in positions of authority in these places to understand these changes holistically, and to develop frameworks in which the broadest range of actors can participate in developing and deploying new technologies, and do so in ways that contribute positively to the whole. Such a holistic approach and open, public framework means that actors can understand how and where to contribute, and opens up more opportunities for collaboration across application areas, while allowing governance to more easily identify conflicts, inefficiencies and gaps in the local digital development ecosystem.

Unfolding’s mission is to help stakeholders understand these issues and develop such frameworks. It does this via a 3-pronged approach:

  1. Consultancy to help places develop positive, holistic approaches to digital development and policy-making, from citizen data rights to digital master-planning, from formal strategy development to stakeholder engagement, coalition-building and public outreach.

  2. Events to raise awareness of the digital technologies and trends that impact on the development of places, and increase understanding among leaders, policy-makers and the general public.

  3. Workshops to build capacity within organisations and communities around emerging digital technologies, applications, potential impacts and the wider digital policy landscape.

Get in touch with us to set up a consultation, or use the contact form at the bottom of this page to enquire whether our services are right for you.

 

Contact

➤ LOCATION

Studio 505
The Workstation
15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX

☎ CONTACT

info@unfolding.co.uk
07900 462 914

@ TWITTER

@UnfoldingUK

 

Previous & Ongoing Work

Featured
SHEFFIELD DIGITAL

2015 - present

Sheffield Digital is the association for the digital industries in Sheffield, with a mission to develop the best possible environment for setting up, working in and growing digital businesses in Sheffield and the surrounding region. It does this by connecting, promoting and representing the people and businesses of Sheffield’s digital industries.

Sheffield Digital provides a media platform to communicate to its audience as well as a jobs board, aggregated events calendar, community forum, newsletter and a range of membership services including a professional mentorship scheme, policy briefings and technology leadership networking.

Unfolding founder Chris Dymond also co-founded Sheffield Digital and has had an active role as co-director since its inception in 2015.

ISLE of WIGHT: DIGITAL ISLAND

2017 - 2018

The Digital Island Programme is the digital strand of the Isle of Wight’s regeneration strategy, looking specifically at the role of digital technologies in the Island’s economic and social development.

Unfolding led the initial engagement and strategy work on behalf of smart societies consultancy Perform Green and Isle of White Council. This work involved in-person and online stakeholder engagement workshops, both around general shape and progress of the strategy development, and on specific elements of the strategy such as connectivity, as well as interviews and network-building. Unfolding also provided content support for the Solent Digital Conference, held in Newport in September 2017.

In April 2018, this digital regeneration strategy work was awarded Smart Island of the Year at the Smart Island World Congress.

BiDiS

2015-2016

BiDiS, or “Big Data in Sheffield”, was a project to investigate the shared issues around data among the city’s five major “anchor institutions”: Sheffield City Council, the two Universities (The University of Sheffield & Sheffield Hallam University), and the two major NHS Foundation Trusts (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals & Sheffield Children’s Hospital). These challenges related to significant increases in the volume and frequency of data these organisations were producing the resulting storage, management & analysis requirement, and, crucially, whether these organisations could work together to address their common issues and find ways to share and connect data in order to bring greater benefit to the city and it’s citizens.

This process involved stakeholder engagement, the development of a framework of challenges across the organisations, and the production of an all day “Actionable Data Workshop” involving local and national stakeholders who engaged on issues surrounding health and research across the whole data lifecycle.

SMART SHEFFIELD REPORT

2014-2015

The SmartSheffield programme was commissioned by Sheffield First Partnership and the Sheffield Executive Board to explore what a local “smart city strategy” could look like. The core of this work consisted of establishing a ‘city room’ engagement space and collecting challenges along with historic, current and proposed technology projects from a broad range of city actors and organisations over a three month period.

The insight gathered during this process informed the draft exit report, which laid out a thematic framework to guide policy-making as well as a roadmap of current and future activity, and recommendations.

As a result of this work, Sheffield was listed as a “Challenger City” in the Huawei UK Smart Cities Index, 2016.

 
 
 

Let's Chat.

Use the form below to contact us. To help us best service your enquiry, we recommend that you first describe the issue you’re having before telling us what you want to achieve. You may, of course, also email or call us to make an appointment.

For job opportunities, please email us your resume. We’re always looking for new and exceptional talent to lead our firm into new fields of practice.