On Thursday 6th July I exited North Greenwich tube station (still sweltering from the tube journey) to be greeted by glorious sunshine and the fantastic hedgehog of a landmark that is, the O2 arena.
It’s a funny old area over on that side of the water, it’s as if you’re somewhere peaceful yet in swimming distance of one of the busiest business hubs in the world, it’s almost surreal. Now, the O2 wasn’t my destination…and for once I wasn’t just lost, being that typical northerner getting all flustered by the tubes…I was going to Fujitsu World Tour, taking place at the Intercontinental Hotel. I’d been to the venue before and knew it would be well worth my time as it’s a great venue and a great event, win! win!
As a bit of history…I’ve attended Fujitsu World Tour for the past 3 years, twice as a Fujitsu’er and this year I was on the other side of the fence. Seeing it from the outside in is a TOTALLY different experience, I can assure you! From the moment you step off the tube there are clear signs as to where to go, so organisation is clearly arranged for a high capacity and it didn’t disappoint, the numbers through the door topped 1,000 this year. The Intercontinental is a bit of a tranquil hideaway with clear view of London’s bustling banking sector at Canary Wharf just on the other side of the Thames and upon arrival the venue clearly shows the scale that this event has grown to. Having gone from The Brewery, to The Westminster Hilton and now The Intercontinental there has been clear growth year on year that displays the growing importance of this event to Fujitsu and their customers.
This year the theme was one of co-creation (something we at Affari supported to build the brand for Fujitsu), with that the whole event was very much on point…everything was about interactivity and working together on technological challenges big and small across key global issues and some of the most economically important sectors.
What really stood out to me though, was the strength of the agenda. With companies like Specsavers, DHL, BBC, Department for Transport, Southern Water and NHS Digital all speaking, it shows the involvement that Fujitsu are clearly having on digital transformation journeys across a large range of sectors.
One of my favourite elements of Fujitsu World Tour is always the Technology Showcase, this is the expo part of the show…basically the bit where you get to have a play with the technology on show…and there was plenty of that! We saw interactive robots, a whole host of VR experiences, sector specific Augmented Reality solutions and digitally enabled forms of charitable donations…digitally enabled buckets and big “high-five” foam hands all there to help raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. All the tech on show is generally quite cool and looking towards the future, something everybody is trying to do at the moment. We may not have crystal balls but events like this certainly help us think outside the box in terms of what our future could look like.
In summary, this was another very well organised event by Fujitsu with key topics and discussions for everyone in attendance. My personal favourite being the retail breakout session talking through the findings of ‘The Forgotten Shopfloor’ report. Those that know me will know this is something close to my heart and raises important questions specifically, “What is the purpose of the store these days?” a highly existential question for a retailer! Essentially, the view was that the store will never disappear, it is simply becoming a different entity of a much wider engagement for customers. Behaviours will change but nothing will disrupt the human element of wanting to try out and see what we’re going to buy, the purchase may not happen in store but you can near enough guarantee the customer will still want to pop-in…after all, why would the likes of Amazon be investing in stores if they weren’t part of the future of retail?
Elements like research launches, such as ‘The Forgotten Shopfloor’ and insights always help to bolster event agendas but this whole event spoke volumes about Fujitsu’s intentions and priorities, which continue to lie in a vision of a digitally empowered human-centric society, something co-creation is a fundamental part of.
Thanks again to the Fujitsu team for playing very warm and welcoming hosts, it was great to catch up with customers and old friends!
