Events

Digital Innovators Competition Finals

Join us to hear the innovative solutions that have been developed by the students over the course of the 2021 Digital Innovators Programme.

Date & Time

No further occurrences

Location

Digital Greenhouse

Sponsored by

First Central Group

The competition, which is powered by First Central and organised by the Digital Greenhouse, opened on 24th February and has seen teams of students developing a digital solution to the problem statement 'High street footfall is down and town is less visually appealing. How can the high street be rejuvenated to make it an attractive destination?’

Join us to see the finalist teams presenting their innovative solutions to the judging panel at the Digital Greenhouse. 

 

The judging panel

John Davison

Chief Technology Officer, First Central Group

John is Chief Information Officer of First Central Group. He joined the company as Group Chief Architect in August 2011 with responsibility for developing the business’s internal technical capabilities, particularly online. His wealth of experience has helped them digitise the traditional back-office insurance functions and build our own, more modern and flexible insurance 'suite'.
 
Prior to joining First Central, John spent many years developing innovative solutions for insurers and brokers worldwide, in both commercial and personal lines markets.

Dan Edmunds

Technical Operations Manager of First Central Group

Dan is the IT Technical Operations Manager of First Central Group. Having joined the company as a Senior Software Developer in 2014, Dan has grown with the business to become the Software Development Manager and, more recently, the IT Technical Operations Manager. His highly skilled team provides DevOps capabilities for the in-house insurance platform.

Prior to First Central, Dan has had a varied, engineering based background that has included designing commercial sonar systems to developing high volume e-commerce websites.

Steve Falla

Vice President, Committee for Economic Development

Steve Falla became a Deputy in the 2020 island-wide election. In a career spanning almost 40 years he worked in journalism and public relations. He founded Orchard PR which was the subject of a management buyout in 2017.

He has advised a very wide range of businesses on their communications, specialising in financial and corporate comms, issues management and crisis management.
He is a former president of the Young Business Group, council and executive committee member of the chamber of commerce and committee member of the IOD.
Steve is a Fellow, Chartered Practitioner and former UK board member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Steve is Vice President of the Economic Development Committee, a member of the committee for Employment and Social Security and a Director of Guernsey Finance.
He is a keen runner, writer and musician.

Sasha Kazantseva-Miller

People's Deputy of the States of Guernsey

Sasha is a People's Deputy of the States of Guernsey, member of the Committee for Economic Development and Lead on Digital, Skills and Entrepreneurship.

She worked in Google and Agoda and after moving to Guernsey in 2012, helped launch the Digital Greenhouse and Startup Guernsey. Sasha has been actively involved with different businesses and startups as an investor, consultant or Non-Executive Director.  She co-founded Afaafa, a Guernsey-based investment and advisory company and ran Island Mums, a business and marketing network.

Sasha is an advocate for sustainable development and runs a podcast called Transition Islands.

She holds an MBA from INSEAD and has lived and worked in Singapore, Bangkok, London, Moscow, Madrid, Guernsey and Ulaan Bataar.

Interested in the Digital Innovators Programmes? Find out more here

Digital Innovators 2021 Competition