Shaping the Future with Data, Evidence, and Action

Matthew Bell OBE, Director of Public Policy at Frontier Economics and Non-Executive Director of the Energy Saving Trust took us through how data affects economics and how it is used to make decisions to try and improve the economy, with real-world examples such as the impact of COVID on the sectors and payrolls, the implementation of intelligent automation in organisations and healthcare in the last year. Forecasting its importance on streamlining data collection methods to increase output to all sectors and help the economy recover. In the last year, we also saw an increase in the willingness to share data thanks to improved trust in data handling, and with this increase in data, we see more innovation within the economy. As Matthew says, "Willingness to share data is at the center of most innovations."

Data, AI, and learning will be at the forefront of companies and government responding to the changing behaviours of the public, as is shown with the rising popularity of battling climate change. Electric cars become more attractive and affordable than conventional ones, traveling to a meeting or conference can be replaced with a video call, and eating a planet-friendly diet has become more affordable and easily sourced. All these changes are born from the data collected from the public over time, and effectively impact change within the economy.

Our key takeaway from this event is, access to data is growing at an incredible rate, and the real challenge is to use it to create credible insights and to inform the right actions.

Watch the live stream coverage in full below